To be absolutely truthful the Queerguru Team do not need much of an excuse to hop on to American Airlines flight from Miami to (one of) our very favorite queer places in the World : SAN FRANCISCO. But this week its the best reason of all as we are heading to the City On The Bay for FRAMELINE, San Francisco’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival which is the longest-running, largest, and most widely recognized LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world.
Its 11 days of sheer queer cinematic joy, and it takes on even more importance this year now that LA’s Outfest is on a hiatus. Its a packed and very innovative diverse program that reaches to every part of our LGBTQA+ community.
Here then are QUEERGURU’s TOP PICKS OF MUST SEE MOVIES
“All Shall Be Well “is a new lesbian drama from Hong Kong director Ray Yeung that is moving and beautifully made. It opens with a scene from the everyday life of two women, shopping at street markets and then unloading the food at home. We intuit that they might be lovers, especially as they prepare a meal together wordlessly in synch, with the familiarity of a very long-term couple.
But before much more occurs, Pat passes away in her sleep, leaving Angie shocked and grieving. Ray Yeung has cleverly used the family drama genre to uncover the truth behind the “acceptance” of queer people.”
“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.
An excellent new documentary, A House Is Not A Disco, directed by Brian J. Smith, takes a deep dive into the Fire Island Pines community of today. Smith details one six-month season on the island, from its opening up in April, the build-up to the annual Pines Party on the beach fundraiser, through to the closing Halloween party at the end of October. We follow a bunch of residents, both long-term and new, as well as business owners, house-sharers, drag performers and the organisers of the Pines Party. The resulting documentary is an interesting, eye-opening profile of one of the most iconic queer places on the planet.
PS You may also like to check out Queerguru’s interview with filmmaker Brian J Smith HERE
Barnaby Thompson‘s compelling and affectionate portrait of one of the greatest quintessential English man of the first half of the last century is such a sheer joy to view. Noel Coward, later to be Sir Noel, and universally known as The Master was famous as a playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, and one of the wittiest flamboyant men of his generation.
Coward had been closeted publicly and even in the 1960s refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, “There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don’t know.” Despite this reticence, he encouraged his secretary Cole Lesley to write a frank biography once he was safely dead. But now there is this joyous tribute detailing an extraordinary life of a extraordinary men which needs to be viewed more than once.
Stephen Soucy’s new documentary MERCHANT IVORY is one of those rare films that actually surpasses all the hype and the anticipation that preceded it. This affectionate profile on the legendary queer film pioneers makes for such joyous viewing. Especially if you are of a certain age (!) and grew up on the splendor of such films as Room With a View. Even more so if you are a gay history buff, as you will want to pay respect to this fearless couple and their impact on gay cinema.
In 2005 Merchant suddenly died aged just 66, but the story doesnt end there. In 2017, Ivory wrote and co-produced the film adaptation of Call Me by Your Name, a 2007 coming-of-age novel directed by Luca Guadagnino At the age of 89, Ivory became the oldest-ever Academy Award winner in any category. Sourcy uses Ivory, the sole survivor, as both a guide and narrator throughout the documentary : theirs was a life that so needed to be shared
P.S. You may also want to catch QUEERGURU’s interview with filmmaker Stephen Soucy HERE
Written and directed by Benjamin Howard, Riley is a beautiful coming-of-age tale set in contemporary, suburban Southern California.
Life appears good for middle-class high-school football athlete Dakota Riley (Jake Holley). Under the watchful eye of his ambitious, ex-league player, coach/father, Carson (Rib Hillis), he’s successful, has a large group of friends, a close family, and a girlfriend, and is doing well in his senior year at high school. He’s in control of all areas of his life except one, his sexuality. He’s gay but tries his best to deny it to himself. He maintains a façade with his girlfriend and his friends, and teammates in the locker room, but his youthful raging hormones get in the way, especially when surrounded by his ripped team-mates wearing very little. We follow Riley as he navigates his way through the turmoil to try and live authentically and find peace with himself
PS You may also want to check out QUEERGURU’s interview with filmmaker Benjamin Howard HERE
SEBASTIAN. Writers are always advised to ‘Write about what you know.’ 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. This third feature from Finnish Mikko Måkelå, confirms him as one of the most exciting queer filmmakers today
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.
The Summer With Carmen : two friends on a beach plan a movie about their lives. Bright and sunny Greece, summertime and Demosthenes, a good-looking man that captures the eye from beginning to end of the film, an educational one (instructions included) on how to write a script, develop characters, and write about fiction based on facts. A comedy that embraces us, viewers into a platonic friendship.
We follow the hero (Yorgos Tsiantoulas) and the hero´s friend Nikitas (Andreas Labopoulos) with a distinctive hairstyle, while they take sun baths and relax at a rocky gay beach by the sea, and talk about “Sissies” an audiovisual project that may refer to their experiences two summers ago, the screenplay will be Nikitas´ feature debut”
We have to admit to part in-trepidation and part excitement when it came to watching Greyson Horst‘s debut THROUPLE .A throuple, or menage a trois as the French call it, is defined in the dictionary as “a relationship between three people characterized as balanced, committed, and non-hierarchical. “Three” + “couple” = “throuple” — and that’s called queer math. It however should not be confused with a threesome which is only about sex.
Horst’s captivating tale starts with Michael (screenwriter Michael Doshier) a gay 30-something-year-old business admin assistant who actually dreams of making music all day instead. However he has a chance encounter at a club one night with a gay couple (Tommy Heleringer and Stanton Plummer-Cambridge) who have an ‘open marriage’ and this is about to change everything
FRAMELINE, San Francisco's International LGBTQ+ Film Festival will begin on 6/19 and end on 6/29. To see the whole program and book tickets check out https://www.frameline.org/
for full reviews on 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
