With less than one week away from NEWFEST the 36th Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival here are QUEERGURU’s Top Picks of Must See. Movies. It was tougher than usual this year with 140+ (rather fabulous) new queer films that are screening in-person, and streaming throughout the US.
A NICE INDIAN BOY : The ironic thing about this new cute and funny queer rom-com crowd-pleaser of a movie is that is based all on a chance meeting between two gay men ‘like the good old days‘. Whereas the reality of what is claimed is based on a real-life story has been created by a gay couple who met online. It was not by one of the more ‘infamous’ gay ‘dating’ sites such as GRINDR and Scruff, but on a 10 year old app called RAYA. This is how the films director Roshan Sethi ‘came out’ and met one of the movie’s leading men Karan Soni six years ago to begin their happy-ever-after life together and subsequently make this film together.
HIGH TIDE 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)
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 like to check out QUEERGURU’s interview with the filmmaker HERE)
When Queerguru interviewed out and proud queer Iraqi drag queen/activist/writer/actor/journalist Amrou Al-Kahdi in 2017 it was obvious to us that our paths would cross again. Based in London at the time they were known as Glamrou and the founder and star of Denim the drag superstar group, and managed to make short films as well.
Now they have written + directed their debut feature-length movie, an uplifting and edgy queer love story called LAYLA which created quite a buzz when it premiered in Sundance. Layla is the tale of a non-binary Muslim drag queen (an award-worthy performance by Bilal Hasna) who lives in a small cluttered apartment in London’s Soho with a coterie of very colorful drag friends. It’s a vivacious sight and is part of the uplifting energy that Al-Khadi has imbued with throughout the whole film.
Lesvia, a new documentary currently in the festival circuit, is a Sapphic confection. Cinematographer/director/producer Tzeli Hadjidimitriou who refers to herself as “a double lesbian… a woman who grew up on Lesbos and is also a lesbian.”
Hadjidimitriou has put her heart, soul and vision into this production for decades. In 2012 she published “A Girl’s Guide to Lesbos.” For the next decade she filmed, shot interviews, and collected archival photos of the local lesbian community for this film. She still spends half of each year living on the island.
.OUT : Two small town boys in love in a conservative European society plan to live their relationship openly when they move to Amsterdam while studying movie making and enjoying what the big city may bring. In Amsterdam there are new experiences for the boys individually and for both.Through a group of friends closer to Ajani they go partying and are introduce to the night life, its fun and its risks. This fictional queer drama shot in black and white with an interesting use of shadows that are a projection of what is being portrayed, shows how the protagonists adapt to the situations they live and how their bond may or may not keep them together, while finding their places to fit in.
THIS IS BALLROOM : This feature length documentary is both a live record of a small staged Ball held in 2022 in Niteroi, just outside Rio de Janeiro, and a history of the Ballroom movement in Brazil, including interviews with the main personalities in some of the Brazilian Houses. Murder on the Dancefloor? Half way into the movie a fight erupts and we are reminded that not all is peace and love in the Ballroom movemen.There is a huge element of competition between the Houses but there is also no love lost between the Femme Queens, who seem to run the scene, and the other trans and non binary members. Gender is still a stumbling block for those who wish to embrace both or neither genders.
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.
I have to admit to part intrepidation 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 movie delightfully surprises us with the journey the story takes and keeps us totally invested to the final scene (which you will not want to miss).
Some great performances all round from a very talented cast, who actually started to convince a very sceptic me, that maybe throuples could possible work after all. Just dont tell my husband.
This fabulous documentary, directed by Alexis Manya Spraic, about the fabulously prolific and fascinating Allee Willis. She started writing songs at 22, performing and recording some of them, until she understood that she didn’t enjoy that. Instead, she wrote and produced music, did production design and art direction, created visual art, and was a pioneer in the early days of the World Wide Web, creating video as a multimedia artist. Allee recorded so much of her life and work, and collected with almost a hoarder-like zest, leaving a ton of materials for the filmmaker to work with.
WHAT A FEELING : Let me introduce a new favorite, the Jolly Germanic Lesbian Romcom. It’s not often we get to put those three words together in a sentence that doesn’t include ‘Never have I ever’. While the film touches on the plight of women and gay people in Iran and the struggles of immigrants in the West it is not heavy handed. Written and directed by Kat Rohrer it stays on a mission to charm and delight. Proschat Madani plays Fa as an irresistible force of nature while Caroline Peters makes Resi’s flowering from icy edelweiss to passionate peony endearing. With some fun minor characters to round out the story the movie delivers against all the expectations for the broader romcom genre.
YOUNG HEARTS : Fourteen-year-old Eli as (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 learns he and his immediate family come from Brussels. Alexander and Elias enjoy each other’s company, they bike in beautiful surroundings and eat wild cherries by the river. Alexander reveals he is into boys and Elias’s certainties begin to crumble.
NEWFEST The 36th Annual NY LGBTQ+ Film Festival begins on 10/10 and will end on 10/22 To see the whole program and book tickets https://newfest.org/
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
Labels: 2024, Must See Movies, New York Film Fest, NEWFEST, Queerguru's Top pIcks
