There has always been an eclectic approach to the programming of the prestigious Miami Film Festival to account for the very diverse community that now calls the city home these days. As well being a major showcase for important new Latino movies, it has also been a welcome home for innovative queer cinema.
This year (The Festival’s 35th Edition) the queer content is smaller than usual, but at least the LGBTQ films they have chosen to screen are significant ones that we are happy to add to our ‘must see’ list.
The jewel in their crown is their screening of LOVE SIMON a week before this highly anticipated coming-of-age movie is in movie theaters nationwide. 17-year-old Simon (Jurassic World’s Nick Robinson) is gay, but he has yet to share that news with his friends and his family. That, however, might change when he falls in love with an anonymous classmate and speeds the need to leave the closet at last. Its a rather wonderful feel-good movie helmed by openly gay filmmaker Greg Berlanti which although it may never win awards is already being talked about as becoming one of the hottest LGBT movies of the year.
When The Beat Drops which is having its World Premiere at MFF is all about the growing culture of ‘bucking’ which is a dance form derived from old African American folk dancing that referred to a specific step performed by solo dancers. The new interpretation of it, however, is completely electrifying.
It is based in Atlanta which has recently become an LGBTQ haven, but when Anthony was growing up there as a heavy-set, gay black kid with a love of dance, the Gate City was a harsh place. Nevertheless, talent and tenacity prevailed, and Anthony spearheaded a buck sensation, launching flash buck performances in clubs. Anthony’s crew, comprised largely of other gay African-American men, grew into a family and, eventually, a national movement incorporating fierce competitions and becoming a force of education and affirmation.
This compelling documentary by world-class director-choreographer Jamal Sims is one of those uplifting tales or triumph over adversity that you will not want to miss.
Straight from its premiere at Sundance Film Festival, Don Argott’s Believer is a documentary about Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of the band Imagine Dragons, who had a major hit with the song of the same name. Reynolds is a Mormon and when he married singer Aja Volkman, who wasn’t raised Mormon, he suddenly became aware of some of the stances that the church took if you dared to buck their rules.
His feelings got even more aroused when Volkman’s close friends, a lesbian couple, voiced their dismay over Mormons campaigning against the legalization of gay marriage. The situation made the ‘straight’ Reynolds far more self-questioning than most people, let alone rock stars, and this compelling documentary follows him as his own beliefs are tested and he takes a public stand for LGBTQ rights.
The fourth and final film is a 12 minute short from the Dominican Republic that is being screened as part of FIGHT LIKE A GIRL & MORE SHORT FILMS program. Directed by Rodney Llaverias, HOLY HILL is the story of nuns caring for a group of boys in a small northern village in the country. In the peak of summer, a young nun’s curiosity collides with the sexual awakening of one of the boys, taking them both on a tense and unexpected path.
For details of these screenings, and of the entire schedule check out https://2018.miamifilmfestival.com/
