Film

  Seventeen major Hollywood movies may have included characters that identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) last year, but there’s still work to be done in terms of representing the community fairly and equally, a new report has found. With many of those 17 films limiting LGBT characters to minor roles or cameos, GLAAD’s 2014 Studio Responsibility Index also found that many of these portrayals were “outright defamatory” representations, pointing to movies like “Pain And Gain” and “Riddick,” officials said. The 17 films represented 16.7 percent out of 102 major Hollywood films released over the course of 2013. […]

The theft of a pair of headphones are the start of an unusual and extremely volatile relationship for a refined conservatory student and an animalistic street thug in Winter Journey (Zimney put), the directorial debut of Russian actors Sergei Taramajev and Liubov Lvova. The controversial title, which has attracted attention because of its inclusion of gay characters in a time when gay “propaganda” is forbidden in Russia, has only been screened at a few smaller festivals at home (it was turned down by the major Russian film events), has now started to screen abroad and has reportedly finally been cleared […]

  The first Venezuelan film to win the Goya Award for Best Latin American Film in 2013 hit screens for the first time on November 27, 2012. Since then, Ferrari’s directorial debut has won over audiences and critics alike for its unique and diverse portrayal of the Venezuelan middle class. “My Straight Son” follows young and successful Caracas based photographer Diego (played by Guillermo García), whose same-sex partner Fabrizio falls into a coma following a homophobic attack. To make matters worse, while Diego struggles to come to terms with the situation, he must take care of his estranged and bitter […]

  In today’s conservative, predominantly Catholic Poland, an open homosexual relationship is more likely to trigger gay bashing than gay pride; so it is in Tomasz Wasilewski’s sophomore feature, the feel-bad coming-out drama “Floating Skyscrapers.” Although the lead character is something of a lout as well as an emotional and intellectual cipher, this artfully shot, sexually provocative feature nabbed the Karlovy Vary fest’s East of the West competish kudo and is making the festival rounds. Buff, macho, bantam-sized, twentysomething Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk) has been training as an elite swimmer for the past 15 years. He spends most of his time […]

  Argentinian director’s Rodrigo Guerrero’s second feature is an insightful and charming tale about a one night stand that may change a young man’s outlook on life and love.   We first see 22 year old near-naked Fede at his laptop on a chatline talking to Franco  The conversation soon gets very intimate and graphic  and in case we don’t get where this is leading too, Guerrero has inserted some very short clips of gay porn films.  Franco is in his early 40’s and partnered and when all three men agree they like the look of how this hook-up is […]

  The lazy summer is over and Leo and his best friend Giovana are back in High School for the new term when curly headed new boy Gabriel joins the class for the first time.  Suddenly the cosy closeness of the two old friends is threatened when Giovana discovers that the newcomer will not be her longed-for first romance, and that in fact he will usurp her major role in Leo’s life.  Leo has been blind from birth and lives with his overprotective parents in their very comfortable middle-class home in suburb of Rio, and Giovana has played the part […]

An attention-grabbing, potentially profile-elevating performance by up-and-comer Hunter Page-Lochard is the major selling point of “Around the Block,” an Aussie variation of the oft-spun scenario about an at-risk high-schooler who gets a shot at redemption through a transformative extracurricular activity. Christina Ricci claims top billing — and provides some modest marquee allure — as a transplanted American teacher determined to uplift her Sydney students by introducing them to Shakespeare. But Page-Lochard is the one more likely to earn the critical plaudits in this well-intended film. Improbably engaged to the Down Under version of a good ol’ boy, U.S.-born Dino Chalmers […]

An Ecuadorian coming-out film is something of a rarity in world or even gay cinema. Director Araujo’s work has much in common with previous coming-of-age films about ephebic youths on the road to self-discovery and acceptance only it happens in a country not often seen on film. Holiday is bookended by a nice visual conceit involving upside-down cityscapes and Araujo manages to include several other intriguing elements, such as the world of underground Ecuadorian metal bands or the 1999 banking crisis that’s affecting the protagonist’s family,that enhances the main storline. The film’s set in 1999, when dreamy teenager Juan Pablo, […]

Young Moroccan scribe Abdellah Taia moves into the director’s seat with the screen version of his autobiographical novel “Salvatio. ” The film delivers a straightforward, beautifully told story of a gay man negotiating family, desire and the sexual power play behind Arab-European intimacy. Thestrong pint-of-view narrative  allows access to the protaganist’s head, despite the character’s understandable distancing coldness. While positive gay Arab protags are something of a cinematic novelty, “Salvation Army” isn’t the first to center around such a character, contrary to recent reports (Maher Sabry’s “All My Life” and Samer Daboul’s “Out Loud” are but two earlier examples). Taia’s […]