image+nation. LGBTQueer Montreal is an annual eleven-day film festival, which takes place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Held in November each year, the festival is dedicated to sharing the stories and experiences of the whole spectrum of the LGBTQ community and is the first festival of its kind in Canada.
The festival’s name was selected to work bilingually in both English and French; the words “image” and “nation” have the same spelling and meaning in both languages, and when combined into one name with the plus sign, representing “and” in English or “et” in French, the pronunciation remains homophonous in both languages with imagination.
This year is the 37th Edition of the Fest and it continues its mission is to represent, protect and prepare the present and future generations of queer storytellers and media makers while building empathy through sharing stories with audiences in Canada and throughout the world.
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As usual we set our team of QUEERGURU reviewers to scour through the very exciting and diverse program to come up with
OUR TOP PICKS OF MUST SEE MOVIE
Just as you think there can’t possibly be many more high-profile queer figures from the past for film makers to profile, up pops another compelling documentary. This time the spotlight shines on pioneering 1960s Black trans soul musician/performer Jackie Shane. Any Other Way – The Jackie Shane Story details the extraordinary journey of Shane whose star shone brightly in the 1960s before she abruptly disappeared in the 1970s, remaining a recluse for fifty years until a brief comeback before her death in 2019.
“Can a vagina be masculine?” This, and many more thought-provoking questions, are posed by interviewer/director Jules Rosskam, in his innovative new documentary Desire Lines, which examines the lives of trans men who also became gay men after transitioning. Rosskam’s film, which premiered at Sundance, combines drama with documentary.
Some 18 months ago Italian/American queer filmmaker Marco Calvani unexpectedly found himself staying in Provincetown for 6 months in the off season. This is the time of year when this gay mecca at the tip of Cape Cod, is completely empty of all the summer tourists and has a full time population of just 3000 souls. Its when Calvani fell in love …… with the town that is …. and the result is that he ended up writing/directing High Tide his debut feature film.
I’m not sure how Calvani pulled it off but for a small budget feature (shot in just 14 days) it also has a remarkable first class cast of supporting actors that included Marisi Tomei, Bill Irwin, Todd Flaherty and Tangerine’s Mya Taylor. But even so despite their performances , and an exceptional one from the remarkably talented Pigossi, (the actual real-life BF of Calvani) the real star is Provincetown.
PS You may like to check out QUEERGURU’s interview with the filmmaker HERE)
In an alignment of the stars, director Luca Guadagnino Bond actor Daniel Craig have come together with Queer, the film adaptation of William Burroughs’ 1985 semi-autobiographical classic, Queer. Burroughs is widely considered one of the primary figures of the Beat Generation and a major author and cultural influencer of his time. It’s immediately clear that Craig relishes playing the role of the hard-drinking, heroin-using, gun-toting, man-fucking Lee, a writer, as he wastes his days in the gay-frequented bars of early 1950s Mexico City.
Guadagnino has shone a spotlight on the life of drug and alcohol addicted middle-aged men without a social or familial support system, a group who largely fall under the radar of society. The solitude, the longing, the aches and cravings, all are brilliantly portrayed by Craig, who gives a faultless account of the needy, horny Lee, searching for a connection.
SABBATH QUEEN is an extraordinary feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows the charismatic Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. We fell in love with both the film ….and the rabbi.
SEBASTIAN : Aspiring twenty-five-year-old Scottish writer Max, (the handsome Ruaridh Mollica), is living in London and working on his first novel, a story about a sex-worker, Sebastian. He’s good-looking and ambitious, energetically forging his career and soul. To improve the authenticity of his work he creates an online escort profile and starts seeing clients himself, as his alter-ego Sebastian, and writes about each gig afterward. His potential publisher is impressed with his work, which he credits to interviews with sex workers. Sebastian is the latest film by Finnish writer/director Mikko Måkelå, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. (where it was nominated for
THE ASTRONAUT LOVERS :In this romantic comedy from Argentinian Teddy Award Winner Marco Berger (one of Queerguru’s very favorite queer filmmakers) Javier Orán and Lautaro Bettoni are Pedro and Maxi, friends from childhood reunited years later at a beach house with a group of friends, during a weekend. Well chosen locations, camera angles that provide intimacy and the appeal of the two male leads are the hooks in this talky picture that strongly, refers to Marco Berger´s early films where tension is latent but nothing erupts. There is an additional ingredient in Astronauts´ story, Pedro and Maxi agree on playing a game: to tell their friends they are interested on each other as a couple.
A stunning debut film by Fawzia Mirza The Queen of My Dreams whose human insights are entertainingly luminous. For a film that is set around the death of a father and husband and the funeral that follows it, The Queen of My Dreams is so fresh, and super saturated in color that its vim, sparkle, and humor cannot help but shine through. The conflict between a mother and a daughter is shown, but rather than trudge predictably towards reconciliation the more interesting story of the parallels between their lives is shown.
What A Feeling: when Andrew Hebden reviewed this for Queerguru he described it a Jolly Germanic Lesbian Romcom. And added “It’s not often we get to put those three words together in a sentence that doesn’t include ‘Never have I ever’
Marie Theres known as Resi (Caroline Peters) is a German doctor living and working in Austria with her wealthy husband Alexander (Heikko Deutschmann). It is their anniversary dinner with friends and he has just come back from his first tree hugging men’s retreat. While there not only has Alexander rediscovered himself but he has also discovered he no longer wishes to be married to Resi. Alexander announces it to Resi and all her friends over the schnitzel. In a devastated drunken delirium Resi staggers towards home on her own but decides to stop off at a bar she has never noticed before – the Pussycat Club. There she recognizes Fa (Proschat Madani) who had almost ran her over in her van the morning prior. Fa is beautiful, studly and charismatic. An Iranian immigrant who is a carpenter by day, with a coterie of married female customers who can’t get enough of her handyperson skills, and an open mic night slam poetry rapper in the evening.
YOUNG HEARTS is a tender story of young queer love that premiered at Berlinale. Fourteen-year-old Elias (Lou Goossens) is growing up in a nice European family and has the loving care of his grandfather who owns a farm somewhere in the Netherlands. One day, he is aware they have new neighbors, afterwards at school he meets Alexander (Marius De Saeger) and his whole world changes. When it all later meets with the disproval of his family, its Elias’s grandfather that rescues him and saves the day for these two young hearts,
starts 11/20 and will end on 11/30. To see the whole program and book tickets. https://image-nation.org/festival-2024/fr/
for full reviews of over 2000 queer films check out www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there be sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants on queer cinema …best of all its FREE
