This week we see the opening of the 28th Edition of SEATTLE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL with the theme QUEER JOY IS CINEMATIC with screenings and events exploring what ‘queer joy’ means to members of the LGBTQ+ community. As we have come to expect from this Fest, the diverse slate of queer cinema hails from across the globe and includes narrative features, documentaries, and short films totaling 53 programs comprised of 119 films.
The in-person screenings …. Oct 12 -22…. will be followed by a week of select films streaming online from October 22-29
Our team of reviewers has scoured the whole program in detail and here are
QUEERGURU’S TOP PICKS OF MUST-SEE FILMS
“1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture” or how the Bible got it wrong about Homosexuality….. is a quest for bible truth
About six verses in the Bible contain the word homosexual, since 1946 when it appeared for the first time in the Revised Standard Version (RSV), due to the work and duty of a team of 22 men translators. The RSV was not modified for 25 years and the texts were printed there in millions of copies of the Bible containing the word homosexual as a stigma against LGTB people. The misconception spread between readers, pastors, and religious fanatics. As the film said , “if you mistranslate something, there is a power behind what you are putting out to other people”. Why does being a homosexual exclude anybody from the kingdom of God? The film states that it is because of an error, a wrong translation in the Bible.
‘All Of Us Strangers‘ is the latest film from the award-winning Brit filmmaker Andrew Haigh. The film is set in contemporary London when one night in his near-empty tower block, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
Openly gay Scott has enjoyed a very successful career on stage, film, and TV and is known by many as the ‘hot priest’ in Fleabag. Mescal, also Irish like his co-star, came on everyone’s radar when he received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Aftersun
It’s not surprising to learn that BIG BOYS, a charming coming-of-age dramedy and the debut feature film of Corey Sherman, is based on an incident in his own life, as it has such a convincing authenticity to it. In fact, the premise of his heartwarming tale of a confused teen coming to terms with his burgeoning sexuality is something that most of us gay men can relate to on a personal level. Kudos to Sherman for the sensitive way he handled the young man’s sexual awakening with such a fine balance that gave such a sense of normality to both Jamie and his predicament. He was helped to no end by the absolutely pitch-perfect performance by Krasner who made Jamie so extremely relatable. And also with the beautifully measured response from Johnson …. who looked and acted like a charming gay bear… that we would have all wanted to have received back when we were ‘Jamie’.
P.S. You may also like to check out Queerguru’s interview with Corey Sherman HERE
Birder . Kristian (Michael Emery) was born in Texas, he is a handsome, rich, and unencumbered birdwatcher photographer visiting Lotus Cove, a nude queer campground by a lake in New Hampshire where clothing is optional. The camp was established by the Polk family as a trust to their late son who died in the AIDS holocaust and right at the beginning of the film, we learn a hiker is missing.
The drama/erotic thriller directed by Nate Dushku has homophobic remarks, nudity, and explicit sex, it may remind some viewers of the French production Stranger by the Lake (2013).
CHASING CHASING AMY is an interesting documentary that takes a deep dive into the complex legacy of Kevin Smith’s 1997 indie film Chasing Amy, its effect on queer people, and its life-saving impact on director Sav Rodgers.
The original film is a romantic comedy starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Lee. The film is about a male comic artist (Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian/sexually fluid woman (Adams), to the displeasure of his best friend (Lee). The film was originally inspired by a brief scene in the cult 90s lesbian film Go Fish. In Guinevere Turner’s Go Fish, one of the lesbian characters imagines her friends passing judgment on her for selling out by sleeping with a man. Rodgers’ film is a love letter to film-making, his wife, and to Chasing Amy. His charismatic energy is infectious. Keep an eye on him.
FAIRYLAND. Although it’s over 30 years since the AIDS pandemic decimated the queer community it’s still a very raw memory for so many of us. In the new millennium, we were inundated with fictional movies on the subject, and the majority of them were appalling. Sensationalized, morbid, alarmist, and even excuses to promote rampant homophobia.
Once in a while, we get to review a movie that gets it pitch-perfect. Andrew Durham’s excellent FAIRYLAND is such one case. True it did reduce us to tears in part, but part of its authenticity was to show how we did come through in the end. Well, some of us.
Durham, the writer-director and co-producer (alongside co-producer Sofia Coppola) based the film on Alysia Abbott’s “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father. So we see much of the story unfold which will tell how both her and her father’s journeys as they struggle to find their own identities and be true to themselves
PS You may also like to check out Queerguru’s interview with ANDREW DURHAM when he talks about his totally unmissable film HERE
Hilma of Klint is a mystery that director Lasse Hallström spent several years trying to understand. She was a Swedish artist that posthumously revolutionized the art world as the pioneer of abstract artists, and lived in times of denial for women’s capacities and abilities in society.
The motifs in paint were limited to portraits and flowers, and abstraction was inconceivable, but time has allowed us to acknowledge her creativity due to her extremely high sensibility, her motivation and to appreciate her body of work and see her as “the mother” of Modernism. the movie allows us to discover an important artist in the history of the art of the XX Century. In 2019, more than 70 years after her death, Hilma af Klint received well-deserved recognition, a solo show at the Guggenheim Museum,.
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski, whose previous film ‘Of An Age ‘ is a firm favorite of ours, gives us this wonderful melodrama that sees Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a reluctant and harried ‘mum-in-law’, suddenly forced to bring up her girlfriend’s two unmanageable daughters: cheeky upstart Mia and troubled Vanesa, a teenager going on 40!). A battle of wills ensues as the three continue at loggerheads with this unlikely family fighting to stay together through force of circumstance rather than compatibility and desire.
Lie WIth Me, based on the novel by Philippe Besson, has a wistful charm that sits with you long after the film is over. It’s a tale about nostalgia, love and heartbreaking loss that begs you to feel nothing but kindness to all its characters.
Despite the tragedy at its heart, the film rejects mawkishness. In parts, it is even very funny. The character’s pain reveals their humanity in all its absurd messiness. Guillaume de Tonquedec portrays the writer Stephane as equally capable of saying the toe-curlingly wrong thing as he is of achieving sublime prose. This adds to the idea at the heart of the movie that life can be brought back into balance. In the case of director Olivier Peyon’s charming Lie With Me the balance is achieved by finally being able to see life through someone else’s eyes.
The Lost Boys . Falling in love can happen anyway and in this debut movie from Belgian filmmaker, Zeno Graton and it takes place almost entirely inside a youth correctional facility. An Arab Boy Joe, is on the verge of securing a release when tattoo artist William is admitted to the facility, and when they fall in love they have to deal with the reality when Joe is freed. Sexy, passionate and intense. Unmissable.
Who I Am Not is a fascinating documentary chronicling the lives of two engaging, very different, black intersex people; South African ex-beauty queen Sharon-Rose, and unemployed fellow South African, Dimakatso, both of whom live in Johannesburg.
Director Tunde Skovran has created a gentle, informative, thought-provoking piece of work that educates and entertains in equal measure. We follow the intimate minutiae of both people’s daily lives as they navigate love, work, friendships, family, and their current health and intersex status in today’s South Africa.
SEATTLE OUEER FILM FESTIVAL begins on 10/12 and will end on 10/29 To see the whole program and book tickets https://threedollarbillcinema.org/sqff2023
for full reviews of over 1800 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
