In 1993, a group of queer Sydney filmmakers, students, and supporters approached Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to establish an independent organization whose focus would be queer film and screen culture. This organization was Queer Screen. (One of those pioneer filmmakers was Stephen Cummins who died in 1994, and now is … Continue reading
“The Forty-Year-Old- Version“ is a highly entertaining film written, directed by, and starring Radha Blank. The title, a play on words (remember “The 40-Year-Old-Virgin?”), signals that despite its heavy subtext of the sexism, racism, and ageism in the theater world, the tone and delivery are not without humor and a bit of spoofing, The … Continue reading
African queer films are very much a rarity essentially because so much of that Continent have laws that criminalise homsosexuality and also so much of the population traditionally cannot morally accept it. In fact this charming tale of first love between two teenage Kenyan girls that has been critically acclaimed globally is still banned … Continue reading
Elizabeth Bishop was something of a self-absorbed cold fish. When she finishes her tenure as US Poet Laureate in 1950, she was 40 years old, alone in N.Y., and suffering with ‘writers block’. At the suggestion of her friend and fellow poet Robert Lowell she decides to go to South America for a long vacation. … Continue reading
The writer/philosopher/political activist/filmmaker Susan Sontag gained both a reputation and a notoriety for her controversial work very early on in her career which stuck with her until her untimely death just aged 71. This new HBO documentary by Nancy Kates seems to deliberately set out to be a tribute to someone the director is clearly … Continue reading