This biopic from filmmaker Vicente Alves do Ó is a fictionalized and highly dramatic account of a traumatic period in the life of the gay Portuguese Poet Alberto Raposo Pidwell Tavares who was universally known simply as Al Berto. It’s set in the mid-1970’s when a very young Al Berto (Ricardo Teixeira) has just returned home to … Continue reading
Swedish/Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin’s third film a heartbreaking coming-out-story is probably the first ever LGBT drama ever made in ultra-conservative Georgia. It quite rightly won over international audiences at the Cannes Film Festival early this year where it was nominated for a Queer Palm. This is the story of Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) a student … Continue reading
It’s refreshing to find that filmmakers still have new LGBT coming-out stories that are fresh and throw a different perspective on what is inevitably a difficult rite-of-passage for most gay youth. For her sophomore feature writer/director Eliza Hittman sets her story in Brooklyn where 19 year-old Frankie (Harris Dickinson) is struggling hard to find his own identity, sexual … Continue reading
Veteran French filmmaker André Téchiné may be the wrong side of 70 now but he shows in his latest movie that he still has a very firm grasp of the sensibilities of teenage boys coming of age. He is perfectly assisted by his co-writer Céline Sciamma the writer/director of quintessential adolescent gay movies such as Tomboy and Girlhood. This is the … Continue reading
Films about closeted gay swimmers seem to be cropping up all over the place. and although BEYTO may not be the best of the bunch, it will certainly appeal to hardcore queer moviegoers. It’s a contemporary melodrama that highlights the problems of young LGBTQ immigrants who find themselves stuck between the liberal culture of … Continue reading