The 10th Edition of Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest in London’s East End kicks off today November 10th with one of its most eclectic and edgy programs to date. It’s like a finger up to PM Boris Johnson who has forced everyone at home in Lockdown, by giving the online queer community this connection with the outside with such creative choices.
As the Fringe! family continues to grow, some things stay the same: a lot of the screenings and events are free or affordable, and they remain open to new voices and ideas, which will always be queer: celebratory but critical as hell.
From the diverse program Queerguru have selected a few Must See Films and Events : ALICE JUNIOR : This tale of a vibrant trans teenager who refuses to be bowed down by any transphobia is like a breath of fresh air. Alice Junior is a successful YouTuber in a busy Brazilian city until one day the father comes home they will be moving down South temporarily.
It’s not just to a remote country town, but the school is fiercely conservative Catholic Academy. The Principal insists on misgendering Alice, calling her by her birth name, and making her wear a boys uniform. We know that life will have to get worse before it gets better, and it does..
MICHELLE HANDELMAN’S video BLOODSISTERS is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a screening at OUTFEST LOS ANGELES VIRTUAL FILM FESTIVAl right now. It’s probably her most well known project from a whole body of controversial work that explores the sublime in its various forms of excess and nothingness.The film is not merely an in depth guide of San Francisco’s leatherdyke scene during the mid-nineties, but a very spirited defence of their practices which have, and still are, a confusing mystery to most of us.
From Brazilian filmmaker DANIEL NOLASCO who previously directed Mr Leather comes DRY WIND: Sandro is an ordinary middle aged bear with extra pounds on his belly and extra hairs on his back. Pretty average for a bear who knows the summer heat of youth is gone and winter is coming. Though engaged in a passionate affair with co-worker Ricardo, he has an obsessive unfulfilled fantasy for Maicon Unable to commit, Sandro fatefully drives Ricardo into the arms of Maicon
IF IT WERE LOVE: Queer Austrian filmmaker PATRIC CHIHA s last film was BROTHERS OF THE NIGHT a gritty fascinating documentary about a small group of young Bulgarian Roma men who barter with sex for a better life in Vienna. Now he is back with his new film ‘If It Were Love’ which also had its premiere af BERLINALE but this time picking up the prestigious TEDDY AWARD FOR BEST LGBT DOCUMENTARY.
The film is a record of an avant-garde queer dance piece called Crowd created by Franco/Austrian choreographer and visual artist GISÈLE VIENNE. In it she creates a mesmeric night of intrigue at a 90’s rave that is completely hypnotic. Chiha intimately films the company of 20 different dancers as they move from theater to theater recreating the piece which is never ever the same.
NO HARD FEELINGS Parvis with his bleached blonde hair has never acclimated to the small northern German city Hildesheim like his middle-class supermarket-owning parents. He still yearns for the life he left behind in Tehran, which is surprising as a gay man, life couldn’t have been a bed of roses. When he gets arrested for shoplifting and given 120 hours of community service in a refugees camp, NO HARD FEELINGS turns into a queer story or race, belonging and love
We are big fans of queer shorts, and as usual Fringe! have curated several intriguing programs of them. We are opting for Mapping Kink because it may take us out of comfort zone. As the program notes “Kink is political, kink is grizzly, kink is healing, kink is revealing, kink is universal. Breathe into a plethora of alternative fetishisations: from shame to pain, piss to trees, bring an open mind.” Here’s a preview of one :
When it comes to Events at the Fest, we would never dare miss Ask Shaz . We met East London sensation Dr. Sharon Husbands when our camera crew was last in London a couple of years ago. Not only is she the Founder of Naked Boys Reading but she is also the agony aunt of your dreams/nightmares/anything in between.
Plus most nights there are Drag Bedtime Stories courtesy of the London’s finest Baby Lame, Holestar, Georgeous Michael. ShayShay and Wesley Dykes.
For the Full Program & details of how to view (and you must live in the UK) go to https://www.fringefilmfest.com/Plus for full review of these movies and over 1200 other global LGBTQ films go to https:// queerguru.com
