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It’s a new year which means a whole new round of some of the very best QUEER FILM FESTIVALS around the Globe. The first out of the block as usual is Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia. For their 29th Edition, they are inviting audiences to explore the Queer Frontier to meet emerging and established filmmakers and explore new stories, styles and genres together – online, in the cinema, or both.
Running from 17 February to 3 March the festival includes screenings in Sydney Movie theaters, plus the program will be available streaming online throughout the whole of Australia. Then comes another real ‘wish-we-were-there when the Fest will tour to the stunning Blue Mountains in New South Wales on 11–13 March before ending up in Canberra on 18–21 March.
The Festival, one of Queerguru’s real favorite has a stunning program that offers 119 films in total, including 32 narrative features, 15 documentaries, 4 episodics, a retrospective and 9 programs of shorts – from 37 different countries.
So here then are QUEERGURU'S TOP PICKS which may not always include every one of the
most popular movies but they are what our team has team have reviewed and fallen in love with. Here they are,
and as usual in alphabetical order :
A Distant Place, the debut feature film from Korean filmmaker Kuo-Young Park, and is a remarkable finely nuanced tale that evolved into such an exquisite film as beautiful as the stunning rural setting. It is the first Korean queer film that I have ever seen and I have to confess although I was unsure what to expect ….. this was certainly not it A Distant Place is the story of Jin-Woo (Kang Gil-woo) who lives and works as a farmhand in a remote sheep ranch in the highlands of South Korea very near the border with North Korea. Park who also wrote the script feeds us details sparingly, so it takes us time to work out the setup at Mr. Kim’s ranch.
Benedetta is the latest masterpiece from acclaimed movie director Paul Verhoeven . Set in plague-ridden Renaissance Italy during the 17th Century, Benedetta is based on the true-life story of a lesbian nun, first captured in Judith Brown’s 1986 biography of Sister Benedetta Carlini., and we follow the nuns’ dramatic adventures in the Tuscan city of Pescia. Benedetta’s miracles get challenged by another nun and their sapphic love affair gets discovered, leading to a chain of events.
BEYTO: Talented swimmer, motivated apprentice, cool buddy: Beyto is in the midst of life. But when the only son of a Turkish migrant family falls in love with his coach Mike, an ideal world falls to pieces. His parents only see one way out: They lure him to their home village and plan his wedding with Seher, his childhood friend. Suddenly, Beyto finds himself in a disruptive love triangle. This multicultural story about love and emancipation by Gitta Gsell is a rare LGBTQ film from Switzerland.
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
P.S. Queerguru talks with Emmy Award-Winning filmmaker JEFFREY SCHWARZ talks about BOULEVARD.
FIREBIRD is an enormously satisfying and complete film, and it has been playing at every single queer film fest we have covered this year. 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
P.S. Queerguru talks with Peteer Rebane + Tom Prior talk about their FIREBIRD
Great Freedom, an incisive and excellent film that is part prison drama and part love story from Austrian filmmaker Sebastian Meise tells the tale of one gay man’s incarceration that on and off lasted for several decades. Based on real events, we see Hans (Franz Rogowski) in 1945 after the end of WW2 being transferred from a Concentration Camp to a civilian prison after having been caught having sex with a man in a public toilet. It’s a habit that he will have trouble breaking even in the future, which will result in him serving almost continual prison sentences.
Miese’s film really does a great service to the LGBTQ+ community by bringing our attention to this part of our queer history that most of us know so little about. It contributes to our understanding of how our past so helped shape our present and future, and for this alone it so needs to reach the audience it deserves. Winner of 19 Awards, including Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, it is Austria’s Official Submission for Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture …… and has already made the shortlist …… we have all our digits crossed
HATING PETER TATCHELL The infamous Brit LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is no Saint, but he is unquestionably one of the biggest heroes our community has ever had. For the past 54 plus years, this highly driven man has been the biggest irritant to governments, politicians, large corporations, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury with his voracious appetite for fighting for people’s rights, especially queer ones. Interestingly enough in this new documentary on Tatchell the Archbishop, now reflecting on his very public run-ins with the activist, happily concedes that Tatchell was actually always on the side of right. In fact, he starts to compare Tatchell’s unpopularity with that of Jesus, but that is possibly going a tad too far. Its a very definite must-see film
MASCARPONE : The opening scenes of this delectable new Italian queer dramedy is set to send shivers down the backs of quite a few gay men in long-term relationships. A rather oblivious Antonio is abruptly told by his long-time husband Lorenzo that their marriage is over as he has fallen in love with someone else. Kudos to the co-directors for their intelligent take on urban queer love and life. Also for ensembling such a talented (and very handsome) cast to live it out so authentically, and proving that we all need some drama in our lives.
POTATO DREAMS OF AMERICA: This excellent award-winning autobiographical tale of his journey from Russia as a young gay immigrant by Seattle filmmaker Wes Hurley is a sheer joy. Maybe a tad patchy in parts but it’s a joyous wee film with some wonderful surprises like an adorable Jonathan Bennett as Jesus and an almost unrecognizable Lea Delaria giving a scene-stealing performance.
(PS Queerguru talks with filmmaker WES HURLEY about Potato Dreams)
The Perfect David (El perfecto David) is a tense yet poetic modern-day coming of age story. It accurately reflects an 18-year old’s transition into manhood, trying to fit into his new adult world when life goals, sexuality, and relationships are usually still a bit vague and sometimes temporarily heading in the wrong direction. Premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Argentinian writer and director Felipe Gomez Aparicio, along with co-writer Leandro Custo, have drawn on personal experiences to tell a tale of a young man’s pursuit of the perfect body, drawing on themes of perfection, control and co-dependency – issues affecting many of today’s young men.
For the full program and how to book tickets check https://queerscreen.org.au/
