The Canadian auteur Bruce LaBruce is one of the very best queer filmmakers: part queercore, part queer punk, part pornographer …… (who actually hates labels…..), and who is always pushing the envelope with his work. He combines more conventional narrative and filmmaking techniques with his appetite interest for extreme topics, and many have explicit sexual content at a time when other filmmakers are no longer prepared to challenge the norm. LaBruce is a fearless creative and his influence and contribution to queer cinema is substantial and one of the reasons the Provincetown Film Festival honored him with their Filmmaker On The Edge Award
And why Queerguru jumped at the chance to sit down and talk with him: it’s not every day you get a chance to meet a queer icon ……
This whole extraordinary masterpiece was filmed by Academy Award winners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman who had the near-impossible task to edit the recording down to under 2 hours, and their combined efforts is now playing the film festival circuit before HBO screens it at the end of June.
At the Provincetown Film Festival, Epstein and Friedman talked to Querguru about Mac’s most powerful performance pieces that we think we have ever witnessed and surpass his very distinguished body of work to date. One of the (many) awards he has gathered over the years is a MacArthur Genius Grant……its the description of genius that makes him so well qualified for this.
SUMMER SOLSTICE: is a story of non-binary unrequited love Written and directed by queer, non-binary film-maker Noah Schamus, it’s based on their own experiences of the shifting dynamics of friendships post-coming out. It’s also an interesting analysis of unrequited love and how college friendships mature once we are in our late twenties. This film is both refreshing and mature in that the queer trans narrative threads throughout the film, but doesn’t dominate. The likable characters have the right balance of confidence and self-doubt true to most twenty-somethings. Strong casting means all the performances are great – in particular a very funny bad sex scene.
When the film had its World Premiere at Provincetown Film Festival Schanus and their partner/producer Arno Makros and co-producer Jesse Miller sat down and talked about the film with QUEERGURU
There Are Things To Do: a Celebration of the Life of URVASHI VAID ….. an extraordinary human being and a queer icon: a short film made by Ptown filmmakers Mike Syers and Fermin Rojas IT not only celebrates her life but also makes us very aware of how much she actually achieved to benefit the LGBTQ community globally. The documentary simply doesn’t have the time to list the many steps of her highly successful career or e\qually mind-blowing are the 13 very prestigious Awards that she was deservedly honored with. What does particularly shine through from the very first frame, is Vaid’s extraordinary sheer unselfishness …… and her joyous relationship with her wife and partner Kate Clinton.
The word icon is greatly overused in the LGBTQ+ community ……. and I believe Urvashi Vaid would hate being called one ….. but she is undoubtedly one. This is a must-see film for anyone who loves PTown and Urvashi Vaid
P.S. You may also like to check out Queerguru’s full review of the film HERE
Agniia Gladanova & Igor Myakotin talk to Queerguru about their new documentary QUEENDOM which is the story of Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism – and put her life in danger.
Author queerguruPosted on Categories queerguru.tv
