Queer Cinema(s)

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Non-normative texts concern themselves with subject matter that is marginalized, or not widely accepted as “normal.” Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho – an ode to the abandoned, and the isolated – is an example. It’s an exercise in brilliant directorial innovation, and cinematic ingenuity – required viewing for the capsized, fissure-ridden heart.

The film offers up a discourse on the fragility, and the emotional and intellectual convolution, of children who are left with the burden of trying to understand why their parents have abandoned them. This search becomes obdurate and lost, in the cases of Mike Waters (a physical and emotional narcoleptic, played to perfection by River Phoenix), and Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves); Mike is subverted by an idyllic yearning for the past, while Scott is consumed by familial regret and rebellion.Read More »

Sienna Farall and Summer Bishil, star in this hilarious short film about a miserable Hollywood assistant who finds romance when her sexy New York counterpart arrives in town. A funny, fresh take on growing up – and getting laid!Read More »

The story of the on / off relationship of high school lovers Carmen and Jen. Sometimes surreal but always sexy, this short film places the spotlight on relationship blues in a palette of dayglo pink and blood red.Read More »

SYNOPSIS:

German filmmaker Vincent Dieutre is accompanied by a close friend’s teenage son on a trip to Berlin and in the process reminisces about his life as a gay man in his 2003 autobiographical documentary entitled Mon Voyage d’Hiver (My Voyage in Winter). Dieutre and his traveling companion, Itvan, visit numerous friends and landmarks, all holding special meaning to the 40-year-old filmmaker as they make their way to the German capital. As the pair grows closer as friends, Dieutre also takes on a paternalistic relationship with the boy as he details his own journey of self discovery — partially to assist Itvan with his own adult transformation, but also as a means for Dieutre’s own legacy to endure. My Voyage in Winter was selected for inclusion into the Forum Program of the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.
~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie GuideRead More »

I warned you once. You didn’t
listen. Now you’re through.– Through with what?
– The casino. You’re fired.

You are mistaken. I will be here
after you are gone, Mr. Peasant.

Plot Synopsis
In Argentina, Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) wins money at dice and is held up; but Ballin Mundson (George Macready) rescues him with a sword-cane and recommends a gambling club. Johnny goes there and wins at blackjack. Ballin is the owner and tells him to leave, but Johnny hits back at his thug Casey (Joe Sawyer) and asks for a job. People celebrate the end of the war, and Ballin puts Johnny in charge while he is away…Read More »

Quote:
Set in 1936 in Poland. Zygfryd, a handsome, orphaned young circus acrobat with an introspective temperament, is under the protection of circus owner, Waldo, and his wife. A rich intellectual recluse, patron of the arts (and of young artists) stumbles into Zygfryd’s heart- stopping act and offers him his friendship. He also opens up his cultural horizons and teaches him to consciously reflect on life. It all ends in tragedy, when the boy finds that the circus life is no longer enough and falls during his act. Written by Polish Cinema DatabaseRead More »

Quote:
From Travis Mathews the acclaimed director of I WANT YOUR LOVE and INTERIOR.LEATHER BAR. comes this eerie and powerful psychological thriller that offers a disturbing insight into the dark heart of Trump’s America.

Filmmaker and recluse Alex lives in a van. He sets up his camera in rural areas in the US, in the no-man’s land near highways. During a rare visit to his distant mother, she reveals a dark truth hidden since his childhood that threatens to unravel him. Confused and unstable, Alex sets out to confront the looming shadow he has been running from all his life. But as he delves deeper in search of answers, Alex’s grip on reality becomes increasingly more tenuous and before long he finds himself unable to determine right from wrong.Read More »

Quote:
An artist spends his or her existence examining life through their art, so why is it often so hard to use art to examine the artist’s life in turn? We’ve all seen biopics that merely scratch the surface of a creative existence, either spending too much time focusing on the travails of the individual and leaving their creations by the wayside, or flat studies of the work alone that seemingly forget that there was a person behind the words or images.

Isaac Julien’s new documentary Derek tries to have the best of everything in its portrait of painter and visionary filmmaker Derek Jarman, and for the most part, it succeeds. As a tribute to the man, Julien and his collaborators, producer Colin MacCabe and actress Tilda Swinton, let the viewer behind the curtain to see who Jarman was and what fueled his inspired works; at the same time, we see pieces of that work, and we learn what it meant to him as a person and to the culture at large.Read More »

Packaging Copy:
” One wonders what Kenneth Anger thought of this cheapjack (and by the looks of it, wholly unauthorized) bastardization of his famous tome, if indeed he’s even aware that it exists. Hollywood Babylon follows the path of Anger’s book almost to the letter, with each “chapter” taking the form of a staged vignette, and tied together by tinted newsreel footage and old silent film clips.

The first scandal on our tour of Sin City is that of Olive Thomas, popular silent star who, in 1920, swallowed a fatal dose of mercury granules in her Paris hotel room. The reason for her suicide: inability to score heroin for her addict husband, Jack Pickford, brother of Mary! In the staged footage, we get to see one of Pickford’s debauched parties, where guests smoke opium and get their gear off for an orgy with the likes of LYNN HARRIS, ANNETTE MICHAEL, EVE ORLON, JANE SENTAS, and SUSAN WESTCOTT.Read More »