This week sees the kick-off of the 18th Edition of WAY OUT WEST (formerly the Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival). it has packed schedule of queer cinematic delights starting with Israeli filmmaker Eyton Fox’s first movie in English the delightful rom-com SUBLET.
The Fest produced by CLOSET CINEMA an Albuquerque based nonprofit organization, will be VIRTUAL ONLINE this year as what now is the new norm. That’s really good news for the LGBTQ community in New Mexico as they will we able to access the whole 10 days of films from the comfort of their own home
As usual the Queerguru team have poured through the entire program ……… several of the films have become our favorites on the Festival circuit ….. and we have compiled our TOP PICKS OF UNMISSABLE MOVIES
Here are they are in alphabetical order :
BREAKING FAST : Writer/director MIKE MOSALLAM’S debut feature, has been extremely popular on the Film Fest circuit this year. It is part queer romantic comedy and part tutorial on the ups and downs of being a gay Arab Muslim living in West Hollywood. Somehow the two are a good fit, so it makes us feel good that love (eventually) conquers all and we’ve learnt something new too.The filmmaker said that his intention was to tell a story that speaks to the nuances of daily life and treats identity: religious, sexual, gender and otherwise, as harmonious lenses by which individuals interact with the world. He did that, and make them fall in love too.
MATT FIFER wrote, co-directed and starred in his debut feature film CICADA which has such a solid ring of authenticity that it must be based on his life story. He plays twenty-something- year-old Ben who needs to find himself. It is an very enjoyable impressive first film and not just because he seems to have more sex in the first eight minutes of this film, then some people have in a whole lifetime! BTW the soundtrack is totally fab too.
From Brazilian filmmaker DANIEL NOLASCO who previously directed Mr Leather comes DRY WIND: Sandro is an ordinary middle aged bear with extra pounds on his belly and extra hairs on his back. Pretty average for a bear who knows the summer heat of youth is gone and winter is coming. Though engaged in a passionate affair with co-worker Ricardo, he has an obsessive unfulfilled fantasy for Maicon Unable to commit, Sandro fatefully drives Ricardo into the arms of Maicon
‘Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) is a delightfully funny Australian coming-out-movie where Ellie just cannot find the right words to ask out her fellow classmate, and the apple-of-her-eye Abbie to the School Prom (called a Formal down under). This is just one of a new breed of lesbian based comedies that really hitting the mark.
LUZ : Portland based filmmaker JON GARCIA has followed up his highly successful FALLS TRILOGY of movies with yet another exceptional queer love story . This time however he has moved on from Mormons to Mexican Mafia. It’s the story of Ruben ERNESTO REYES)has a job driving for his Mafiosa cousin Julio (REGA LUPO) taking his girls back and forth to ‘work’. However Ruben falls for one of them and gets so drunk with her that he crashes the car killing her outright. It lands him in Correction Center and reluctantly having to share a cell with a very threatening Carlos (JESSE TAYEH). Being the new kid on the block Ruben is given a rough time by all the other inmates, but slowly Carlos lightens up and becomes his prison mentor. Not long after that their new friendship develops and they actually end up as lovers.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Parvis with his bleached blonde hair has never acclimated to the small northern German city Hildesheim like his middle-class supermarket-owning parents. He still yearns for the life he left behind in Tehran, which is surprising as a gay man, life couldn’t have been a bed of roses. When he gets arrested for shoplifting and given 120 hours of community service in a refugees camp, it all turns into a beautiful queer story or race, belonging and love
Musician LINDSEY DEATON came up with the idea of setting up a Chorus made up of transgender and gender nonconforming people. Deaton is under no illusion that this will be an easy task as many of the potential members had little or no singing experience They were however, like us, totally swept up by Deaton’s infectious energy and real enthusiasm. OutLoud is a glorious film of celebration and happiness which was a sheer joy to watch. It not only show trans people existing on their own terms, but doing what makes them happy without the weight of explaining themselves every minute.
For her debut feature film EMMA SELIGMAN adapted her only brilliant funny short SHIVA BABY so successfully that she picked up the BEST SCREENPLAY AWARD AT OUTFEST this year. Its queer Jewish story that cleverly milks every laugh out of the misfortune of the highly anxious bisexual Danielle who ends up face to face with her ex-girlfriend and her current married sugar daddy.
EYTAN FOX the ‘father’ of Israeli queer cinema that helmed such classic dramas as ‘YOSSI & JAEGER‘ and ‘THE BUBBLE’ seems to be mellowing with age, with this heart-touching romance SUBLET. This is Fox’s first film in English and stars JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY as Michael a 55 year old New York Times travel writer visiting Tel Aviv to research his latest article. When he arrives at his AirBnB he discovers that the 25 year owner (NIV NISSIM)) is still in residence and both men surprise themselves with what comes next.
THE GODDESS OF FORTUNE: Ferzan Özpetek is probably Queerguru’s favorite queer Italian filmmaker, and has established a real panache for his multi-layered queer stories that often center around some melodrama and/or tragedy but always contains another twists that always surprise us. This is as very bit as entertaining as all his previous movies, and as usual he also treats us to some rather spectacular locations at the same time too.
For the Full Schedule, Tickets, and Information
https://www.wayoutwestfilmfest.com/For the full reviews of all these movies and over 1200 other LGBTQ films
www.queerguru.com
Labels: 2020, film festival, Top Picks, Way Out West
