Like so many other queer film festivals these days aGLIFF (All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival) in Austin. Texas is the city’s oldest film festival. And who said we would never! With its latest edition PRISM 34 it continues with its mission to create positive and visible film programs relevant to the lives of LGBTQIA+ identified people.
In these uncertain times, the two weekends of aGLIFF from August 26 – September 6, 2021 will be a hybrid event mixing in-person screenings and online viewing opportunities. That’s especially good news for those of us who cannot be physically in Austin at this time.
We’ve had the Queerguru team of reviewers scour the entire eclectic and exciting program that includes so many entertaining and groundbreaking films to end up with our list of Must-Sees Movies. Not easy to whittle them down to 10 + as there are so many more we loved viewing but we believe these are ones you will so hate missing.
Here they are in alphabetical order:
BLITZED This one is very personal to us as we were there. Well not exactly inside this small club in London called The Blitz, but like so many (young people) at the time we were so aware how these club-goers would reshape the 1980’s for all of us. This was a generation of outrageous teenagers, working-class and art school kids, gay and straight alike, who worshiped at the altar of Bowie and who would define the look, the sound, the style, and the attitude of the ’80s and beyond. Oh, Happy Days.
BOULEVARD: A HOLLYWOOD STORY. In 1950 DICKSON HUGHES and RICHARD STAPLEY, two young songwriters and romantic partners approached GLORIA SWANSON with a new Musical they had written just for her. The 50+-year-old star still glowing in the reception of SUNSET BOULEVARD FILM, had been champing at the bitt as offers of film roles had simply dried up. So she persuaded the couple to change their plans and write a musical based on Sunset Boulevard for her to recreate Norma Desmond. This previously untold story, the latest fascinating doc from Emmy Award Winner JEFFREY SCHWARZ is what happened to that musical and also the men’s love affair
Everybody will really be talking about Jaime the moment they see this feel-good queer coming-of-age movie that is such an excellent adaption of the hit WEST END MUSICAL. It’s an exuberant gay fairy tale of a 16-year-old teenager from a blue-collar northern British town who overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies, and steps out of the darkness to become a drag queen.
It introduces the world to a new star in MAX HARWOOD who we cannot wait to see more of. His Jaime is to drag what Billy Elliot was to dance Director Jonathan Butterell and choreographer KATIE PRINCE have also so succinctly shown how much better a movie the very disappointing THE PROM should/could have been in they had helmed it.
FIREBIRD is an enormously satisfying and complete film. It tells a full tale of life, and love, and loss from its beginning right up to an end that could never need or want a sequel. PEETER REBANE‘S story of two Soviet military recruits, a pilot officer and a private, falling in love on a military base during the 70s cold war, is based on a true story. Skeptical as we are about stories ‘based on’ truth, people’s ages and weights on dating profiles might make that same claim, there is an undeniably human element to this story that grips the heart and mind with a sense of both individuality and history
Despite all the problems in the world, 2021 has seen a remarkable crop of such excellent queer debut feature films from first-time directors/writers. Forgotten Roads from Chilean filmmaker NICOL RUIZ BENAVIDES is right up there amongst them. Kudos for both his script and his visual interpretation but especially for the sublimely nuanced performance from his lead actress ROSA RAMÍREZ RÍOS in her very first movie. She plays 70-year-old Claudina and her journey of self-discovery is a sheer joy to watch, and will no doubt be a real inspiration to others.
GEMMEL AND TIM: This very timely and extremely well-measured doc from filmmaker MICHIEL THOMAS will probably leave most people angry. It’s about the lives and widely publicized deaths of GEMMEL “JUELZ” MOORE and Timothy “Tim” Dean two gay Black men who died of a meth overdose at the Laurel Street apartment of Democratic donor, ED BUCK. The story that the media presented was hatefully homophobic and racist and went to great lengths to defend the fake reputation of Buck who is finally locked up behind bars. We all need to watch this one.
T.J. PARSELL’S fascinating new feature-length documentary INVISIBLE shares the tales of how a group of queer women are still dealing with such a persistent and pernicious form of homophobia that hardly anyone outside the world of country music are ever aware of. He manages to interview a whole roster of female singer/songwriters and although they include a couple of household names such as LINDA RONSTADT and EMMY LOU-HARRIS most of them are unknown talents to us outside of the industry. One after another they share similar tales, that whilst the chances of women breaking into this heavy machismo business were very slim, but if they were lesbian too, they were non-existent.
LITTLE GIRL : we have been avid fans of French filmmaker Sebastien Lifshitz ever since we caught sight of his Teddy Award-winning doc BAMBI ; which we still rank as one of favs ever. Now with his latest film, Lifshitz tells another gender identity story: this time of seven-year-old Sasha who loves ballet classes, dolls, dresses and her family. She was born male but since the age of 4 has known she is really a girl. Once again Lifshitz proves how well he tells trans-positive stories.
PS Burn This Letter Please. In 2014, a trove of letters was discovered in the storage locker of Los Angeles DJ and talent agent Reno Martin chronicling the joys, squabbles, and everyday lives of New York City drag queens during the 1950s and 60s. In the hands of filmmakers JENNIFER TIEXIERA and MICHAEL SELIGMAN this story is gorgeously told through vintage home movies, photos, and interviews with the queens themselves, this fascinating look at Pre-Stonewall gay culture rewrites what we know about the clandestine, transcontinental networks that sustained queer people when female impersonation and homosexuality were criminal offenses.
QUEENDOM ; the Covid pandemic has turned so many people’s lives upside down. This totally charming film from French filmmakers Marco Novoa & Simon Vivier follows three iconic Parisian drag queens Le Filip, Shigo LaDurée, and Cookie Kunty as they rise to new challenges. Their touching stories beautifully filmed have you routing for all of them struggling to follow their dreams.
A new film from the Canadian queer auteur BRUCE LA BRUCE is always an event. . LaBruce is one of the leaders of the QUEERCORE MOVEMENT which is. noted for the avant-garde and unapologetic gay answer to the punk movement. That is self-evident even in movies like Saint Narcisse that although is as mainstream as La Bruce will ever go, still bears all the usual signature hallmarks of his more fringe work. E.G. there is plenty of nudity, incest, an obsession with religious themes, and with Saint Sebastian who is often recognized by the queer community as ‘one of us’.
YES I AM : THE RIC WEILAND STORY. We all need heroes and role models. Especially in the LGBTQ community. Most of the ones we have are very colorful and loud. However, there are some like RIK WEILAND who are far from that. Yet this very quiet private man, who sadly took his own life in 2006, is probably the most important queer activist and philanthropist of his generation. Thanks to AARON BEAR’S new film we hope Weiland’s name and memory will be recognized for who he truly was.
AUGUST 26TH - SEPT. 6TH For the full program and how to view films online https://www.agliff.org/
PS. To read the full reviews of these and over 1200 other LGBTQ+ Films check out www.queerguru.com
