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40th Edition of the Miami Film Festival is about to kick open its doors: as is the norm these days the program is divided into in-person screenings and a whole online schedule of movies too. The Fest is known for its world-class platform for International and Ibero-American films which are aimed at the very diverse cosmopolitan community of Miami. That naturally includes the large queer community and so here’s
Queerguru’s take on the LGBTQA+ films that made the cut this year :
BLUE JEAN is a brilliant new lesbian drama set in Thatcher’s Britain. It’s the story PE teacher Jean (Rosy McEwen) who navigates life as a queer teacher in a northeastern secondary school during bleak late 1980s Thatcher-era England in the shadow of controversial new anti-gay legislation, clause 28 of the Local Authorities Act. Writer and Director Georgina Oakley has created a future British classic with her thought-provoking debut Blue Jean. It’s very hard to authentically recreate the 1980s in film but the attention to detail in the production, set design, costumes, and script here is flawless.
A queer film from Pakistan is a rarity as the country’s law prescribes criminal penalties for same-sex sexual acts and JOYLAND is no ordinary one as it won both the Queer Palm and Un Certain Regard at Cannes. It was even Pakistan’s official submission for an Academy Award.
The youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque, and he quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show. This excellent debut film from Saim Sadiq is an intense analysis of the crippling effect ‘traditional family values’ on gender and sexuality can have on individuals in 21st Century families, not just in Pakistan, but in conservative households across the world..
Monica by US-based Italian writer/director Andrea Pallora is an intimate portrait of a trans woman who returns home to care for her dying mother. Its delicate and nuanced story of a fractured family, the story explores universal themes of abandonment, aging, acceptance, and redemption. In the title role is trans actress Trac Lysette (from TV’s Transparent) and her co-stars are Patricia Clarkson and Emily Browning
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a coming-of-age romantic film written and directed by Aitch Alberto in her feature directorial debut. It is an adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. It follows two Mexican American teenagers who find an instant connection that forges a life-changing bond in late-’80s Texas.
“Kokomo City,” a Sundance award-winning documentary, is a depiction of the lives of four black trans sex workers as they confront the dichotomy between the black community and themselves. The women Liyah Mitchell, Dominque Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Daniella Carters articulate about their experiences trans filmmaker D. Smith empowers them throughout, giving them space in the edit and with each extreme close-up of a weaponized body part, sometimes in slow motion.
Plus there is a small selection of LGBTQIA Short Films in the Program too :
And Then I Was Here: 13min dir Alex Stergiou
A genderqueer person in northern California is about to be a first-time parent. Intimate, intense, and visually austere vérité scenes capture slices of their life in the weeks leading up to and including a high-risk birth. These moments unveil the beautiful, funny, and uneasy evolution of their identity as an individual and lover.
And I Promised You : 12 min dir Samuel Vargas
Salman Toor’s Emerald Green; 8m
Adam Golfer‘s documentary is the tale of Salman Toor a talented Pakistani-born New York artist distinguished by his use of emerald green reflects on what it is to be an artist as he prepares for an art show.
Sound To Sea : 26 mins
Ryan Craver is a New York-based filmmaker originally from Mooresville, North Carolina. Sound to Sea is about the lives of a closeted middle schooler and his closeted teacher intersect in a poetic rendering of an overnight ecology field trip on the coast of North Carolina.
Open Dialogues: Black Voices Black Stories 24 min. dir Freddy Rodriguez
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood’s documentary short film Open Dialogues: Black Voices | Black Stories focuses on what social justice looks and feels like for Black Americans, as told through the narratives and performances of eight community leaders in Broward County.
Miami Film Fest will begin on 3/3 and end on 3/12. To see the whole program and book tickets check out https://miamifilmfestival2023
for full reviews on over 1500 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
