Film

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Was Patty Duke a Gay Icon?

It seems that the celebrity death rate has started climbing of late. But really, it’s just that the famous people and pop idols of my generation are starting their natural return to the cosmic unknown. So they loom larger in my consciousness and the loss of them feels more profound. My generation is the first television generation. We were the first kids who stayed home sick from school and watched soaps with mom, watched Captain Kangaroo in the morning before catching the bus, and then caught frisky game shows and heartwarming sitcoms with the family at night. Straight people control […]

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Filmmaker Kevin Rios on Coming to Terms with Being Queer and Cuban

A last-minute competition submission landed Kevin Rios at Sundance presenting Made of Sugar, a documentary short about his experience growing up in a Cuban family, wrestling with his sexual identity, and moving to New York City. Shot in moody-romantic black and white and boasting old footage from his family’s personal archives, Rios has become a filmmaker to watch, one whose story is relatable to many LGBTs hungering for inner-understanding, but also fiercely original and illuminating. Out: Tell us about Made of Sugar. How did you get it to Sundance? Kevin Rios: Made of Sugar is a personal film that I made in […]

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Film Review: ‘Peter De Rome : Grandfather of Gay Porn’

Peter de Rome was one of the very first gay pornographer filmmakers who made small intimate and highly erotic movies in the early 1960’s when it was still illegal to be gay let alone partake in homosexual acts in public. He was an Englishmen who emigrated to New York in the 1950’s lured by the prospect of working in the movie industry as a publicist, but when his first job was delayed he ended up working as a Salesman in Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue where Audrey Hepburn had Breakfast! De Rome took himself from selling expensive jeweled baubles in Manhattan to quitting […]

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Film Review: ‘Loev’

  This rather touching and gentle gay drama which is a very impressive debut from newbie filmmaker Sudanashu Saria, takes on an even greater than usual resonance by the mere fact that it is set in India where homosexuality is still illegal. However in fact the movie, evidently shot very much on the down-low, showcases how these gay men in contemporary Indian society seem totally at ease with their sexuality and the story that unfolds focuses intently on their own relationships with each other. It all starts with Sahil a young music producer attempting to pack his rucksack for his upcoming weekend […]

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Film Review: “Kiki”

To us non-residents of Harlem the fact that 25 years after  Jenni Livingston’s seminal documentary Paris Is Burning, ‘voguing’ is very much alive in the dance clubs and community spaces in this corner of New York is quite a shock.  In fact it’s been re-shaped and re-invented to bring it more in line with the needs and dreams of it’s present day exponents who, we learn from this new movie, are mainly at-risk LGBTQ youth. There may be much more of a political edge to the stories of the young people who feature in Kiki than in Livingston’s earlier film, but the […]

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Film Review: “Mexican Men”

The openly gay Mexican filmmaker Julián Hernández has won the prestigious Teddy Award for Best LGBT Feature Movie from the Berlinale twice, which is an exceptional achievement that has only been matched by the late British auteur Derek Jarman. Hernández’s last feature film (for which he won his 2nd Teddy) and which was probably his best too, was  ‘I Am Happiness on Earth’  and it was typical of his raison d’etre with its sparse dialogue and it’s emphasis on the aesthetics of some handsome Latino men, and very little attempt to include a conventional plot. Now he has extended this forward in […]

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‘Matrix’ Filmmaker Lilly Wachowski Comes Out As Transgender

  Lilly Wachowski of the famed filmmaking sibling duo has come out as transgender. In an exclusive published Tuesday by the Windy City Times, Wachowski wrote her coming out was the culmination of a year-long saga of media outlets threatening to publish stories on her transition, including a recent incident when a Daily Mail reporter appeared on her doorstep. Throughout the powerful statement, she writes she made the choice to come out on her own terms in an effort to counter “demonized and vilified” portrayals of trans people in the media. “Being transgender is not easy,” she wrote. “We live […]

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Film Review: ‘Uncle Howard’

Filmmaker Aaron Brookner set out to find the lost negatives of ‘Burroughs : The Movie’ a critically acclaimed film made by his uncle Howard Brookner who had died of AIDS in 1989 aged just 34 years old. Before his untimely demise Howard had made just two feature documentaries …..the other one was on Robert Wilson the avant garde Theater Director …..and he had also just shot his first narrative film ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’ which was in post-production at the time of his death. The 1983 movie on the celebrated queer writer and Beat Generation poet   William S Burroughs got Howard […]

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“Little Joe” Dallesandro On Giving Back To Gay Fans, Working With Warhol And Saying Goodbye To Holly Woodlawn

  If, by chance, you’re unfamiliar with the name Joe Dallesandro, you likely know his image, which has been ubiquitous in pop culture for more than four decades. His muscular physique, chiseled features and flowing tawny locks made him a popular photographic model, while his uninhibited and often fully-nude turns in a trilogy of films (1968’s Flesh, 1970’s Trash and 1972’s Heat) produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey established “Little Joe” as an instant and enduring iconic sex symbol to gay men around the world. His sensual film work inspired Lou Reed to devote a verse in his anthem “Walk […]

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Here Are Some Queer Films (And Others) You Need To Add To Your Radar

  If you’ve been observing the 2016 Sundance Film Festival from afar, you’ve surely heard about two films that are receiving the lion’s share of attention for distinctly different reasons. The first is The Birth of a Nation (above), an often-compelling real-life tale about Nat Turner, the heroic black preacher who led a slave revolt in 1831 Virginia, which shares a title with D.W. Griffiths’ 1915 blockbuster that is today viewed as an ugly homage to racism. The drama, which marks an impressive directorial debut for charismatic actor Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights, The Secret Life of Bees), made headlines for its record-shattering […]

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