It was on a backstreet in Tel Aviv while filming her last film, M — which would go on to win a César Award for best documentary — that the French documentarian Yolande Zauberman found the subject for her latest, La Belle de Gaza (The Beauty of Gaza).
Zauberman was filming three young Arab trans women, one who told her filmmaking partner in Arabic that she walked from Gaza to Tel Aviv. “I thought it was such a nearly impossible path,” recalls Zauberman. “First, to be a man, becoming a woman, coming from Gaza to Tel Aviv, and being a Muslim in Tel Aviv. I really wanted to find this woman and to see how she was seeing the world.” After losing contact with the woman, Zauberman began searching for her. That journey would become the impetus for — and title of — her latest doc, La Belle de Gaza.
The finished film, which...
Zauberman was filming three young Arab trans women, one who told her filmmaking partner in Arabic that she walked from Gaza to Tel Aviv. “I thought it was such a nearly impossible path,” recalls Zauberman. “First, to be a man, becoming a woman, coming from Gaza to Tel Aviv, and being a Muslim in Tel Aviv. I really wanted to find this woman and to see how she was seeing the world.” After losing contact with the woman, Zauberman began searching for her. That journey would become the impetus for — and title of — her latest doc, La Belle de Gaza.
The finished film, which...
- 5/17/2024
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning has won the top prize for best film at the Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s top film honors.
The feature, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section this year, follows three sisters who left to their own devices by their absent mother, live a life of anarchic freedom. But when social services come calling, the oldest has to find someone to impersonate their mum to avoid being shipped off to foster care. It was picked as the best Swedish film of the past year at the Guldbagge Awards ceremony in Stockholm on Monday night. Paris is Burning also scooped the Guldbagge for best set design for Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth.
But the night’s big winner was Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land. The neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers picked up 7 Guldbagge awards, including for best director and best actor for lead Joel Spira,...
The feature, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section this year, follows three sisters who left to their own devices by their absent mother, live a life of anarchic freedom. But when social services come calling, the oldest has to find someone to impersonate their mum to avoid being shipped off to foster care. It was picked as the best Swedish film of the past year at the Guldbagge Awards ceremony in Stockholm on Monday night. Paris is Burning also scooped the Guldbagge for best set design for Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth.
But the night’s big winner was Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land. The neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers picked up 7 Guldbagge awards, including for best director and best actor for lead Joel Spira,...
- 1/16/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
January is one of the biggest months of the year for independent film, with hundreds of film critics descending upon the Sundance Film Festival to discover the works of up-and-coming directors. But for those of us who can’t make the trek to Park City, Utah, there are plenty of independent movies to enjoy from the comfort of our homes.
This month, there’s a particularly big selection of independent classics to choose from on streaming, particularly if you’re subscribed to the Criterion Channel. In celebration of the approaching festival, Criterion is hosting a massive selection of past Sundance favorites, including the 1968 experimental documentary “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.” Other favorites in the selection include “Blood Simple,” “Stranger Than Paradise,” “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Desert Hearts,” “Working Girls,” “Paris Is Burning,” “Mississippi Masala,” “Slacker,” “Hoop Dreams,” and “The Doom Generation.” Other major indie favorites on the streamer this January include...
This month, there’s a particularly big selection of independent classics to choose from on streaming, particularly if you’re subscribed to the Criterion Channel. In celebration of the approaching festival, Criterion is hosting a massive selection of past Sundance favorites, including the 1968 experimental documentary “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.” Other favorites in the selection include “Blood Simple,” “Stranger Than Paradise,” “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Desert Hearts,” “Working Girls,” “Paris Is Burning,” “Mississippi Masala,” “Slacker,” “Hoop Dreams,” and “The Doom Generation.” Other major indie favorites on the streamer this January include...
- 1/6/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
In 2023, I wanted to laugh. Perhaps more than I realized, because when I finally calculated my top-rated films that came out this year, a great portion of my selections turned out to be either straight-up comedies or gripping comedy-dramas. 2023 was the year I embraced funny and moving movie coming-of-age stories probably more than any other, but to me, that genre isn’t only limited to what happens when 11-year-old girls experience their period for the first time or when Elvis Presley decides to take a child bride. For example, Paul Giamatti’s acidic classics teacher experiences something like a middle-aged puberty when he’s forced to care for an abandoned prep school kid during Christmas break in The Holdovers. In Beau is Afraid, we watch a stunted...
In 2023, I wanted to laugh. Perhaps more than I realized, because when I finally calculated my top-rated films that came out this year, a great portion of my selections turned out to be either straight-up comedies or gripping comedy-dramas. 2023 was the year I embraced funny and moving movie coming-of-age stories probably more than any other, but to me, that genre isn’t only limited to what happens when 11-year-old girls experience their period for the first time or when Elvis Presley decides to take a child bride. For example, Paul Giamatti’s acidic classics teacher experiences something like a middle-aged puberty when he’s forced to care for an abandoned prep school kid during Christmas break in The Holdovers. In Beau is Afraid, we watch a stunted...
- 1/1/2024
- by Robyn Bahr
- The Film Stage
The Swedish Film Institute on Wednesday announced the nominations for the Guldbagge (Golden Bug) awards, Sweden’s top film prize, with politics taking center stage among the feature contenders.
Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land, a neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers who fled Sweden for refuge in Malta, lead the pack with 9 Guldbagge nominations. But it was snubbed in the best film category. Per Fly’s cold war thriller Hammarskjöld, starring Mikael Persbrandt as the titular Swedish diplomat, and former Un Secretary-General, who died in a mysterious plane crash, received seven nominations, including best film, tying with Opponent, Milad Alami’s drama about a family who flee Iran for Northern Sweden.
Alongside Hammarskjöld and Opponent, best film nominees include Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning, the relationship drama 100 Seasons from director Giovanni Bucchieri, and The Gullspång Miracle, a documentary from director Maria Fredriksson about...
Axel Petersén’s Shame on Dry Land, a neo-noir set in the world of online gamblers who fled Sweden for refuge in Malta, lead the pack with 9 Guldbagge nominations. But it was snubbed in the best film category. Per Fly’s cold war thriller Hammarskjöld, starring Mikael Persbrandt as the titular Swedish diplomat, and former Un Secretary-General, who died in a mysterious plane crash, received seven nominations, including best film, tying with Opponent, Milad Alami’s drama about a family who flee Iran for Northern Sweden.
Alongside Hammarskjöld and Opponent, best film nominees include Mika Gustafson’s social drama Paris Is Burning, the relationship drama 100 Seasons from director Giovanni Bucchieri, and The Gullspång Miracle, a documentary from director Maria Fredriksson about...
- 12/13/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Palm Springs International Film Festival programmers have set this year’s lineup.
The desert festival, which runs Jan. 4 to 15, will open with the U.S. premiere of Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters on Jan. 5. Based on a 1920s English scandal, the film follows neighbors Edith Swan and Rose Gooding in the seaside town of Littlehampton. One day, a series of obscene letters begin to target Edith and others as suspicions fall on Rose. As the situation escalates, Rose risks losing her freedom and custody of her daughter. Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby, Eileen Atkins and Timothy Spall star in the film.
Though the opening screening happens on Jan. 5, the festival really kicks off the night before with the Film Awards, a starry ceremony that will shine a spotlight on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things star Emma Stone, Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy,...
The desert festival, which runs Jan. 4 to 15, will open with the U.S. premiere of Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters on Jan. 5. Based on a 1920s English scandal, the film follows neighbors Edith Swan and Rose Gooding in the seaside town of Littlehampton. One day, a series of obscene letters begin to target Edith and others as suspicions fall on Rose. As the situation escalates, Rose risks losing her freedom and custody of her daughter. Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby, Eileen Atkins and Timothy Spall star in the film.
Though the opening screening happens on Jan. 5, the festival really kicks off the night before with the Film Awards, a starry ceremony that will shine a spotlight on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things star Emma Stone, Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy,...
- 12/5/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A well-told story ends when the credits roll, but not so documentaries. There, in most cases, the lives of the people depicted on-screen continue on, transformed by the fact of being filmed — and even more by whatever attention the project ignites in the culture at large. That’s why, in the hundreds of post-screening Q&As I’ve seen for docs over the years, the same questions come up virtually without fail: What’s happened since? How are the movie’s subjects doing now?
In “Subject,” co-directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall catch up with the people at the center of several major documentaries — from “Hoop Dreams” and “The Wolfpack” to “Capturing the Friedmans” and “The Staircase” — to see how their involvement in such projects changed their lives. That may be the hook that lures in audiences, though the film is far more than just a years-later epilogue to those high-profile docs.
In “Subject,” co-directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall catch up with the people at the center of several major documentaries — from “Hoop Dreams” and “The Wolfpack” to “Capturing the Friedmans” and “The Staircase” — to see how their involvement in such projects changed their lives. That may be the hook that lures in audiences, though the film is far more than just a years-later epilogue to those high-profile docs.
- 11/6/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
NewFest has announced its opening night, closing night and New York Centerpiece selections for its 35th anniversary edition.
The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film Festival will open with the Colman Domingo-led biopic Rustin, directed by DGA award and five-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe, and close with Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.
The festival’s executive director David Hatkoff and director of programming Nick McCarthy have also announced that the world premiere of the Billy Porter-narrated doc Queen of New York, from Emmy award-nominated director Emma Fidel, will serve as this year’s New York Centerpiece screening.
The 2023 festival will run from Oct. 12-22, with virtual encores through Oct. 24 on NewFest’s on-demand platform. This year’s lineup will also return to Manhattan and Brooklyn for in-person premieres at Manhattan’s Sva Theatre and The LGBT Community Center,...
The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film Festival will open with the Colman Domingo-led biopic Rustin, directed by DGA award and five-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe, and close with Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.
The festival’s executive director David Hatkoff and director of programming Nick McCarthy have also announced that the world premiere of the Billy Porter-narrated doc Queen of New York, from Emmy award-nominated director Emma Fidel, will serve as this year’s New York Centerpiece screening.
The 2023 festival will run from Oct. 12-22, with virtual encores through Oct. 24 on NewFest’s on-demand platform. This year’s lineup will also return to Manhattan and Brooklyn for in-person premieres at Manhattan’s Sva Theatre and The LGBT Community Center,...
- 9/7/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Queer movies and TV shows are all well and good, but arguably even more important is the existence of great LGBTQ documentaries. Fiction can help provide great representation and tell moving queer stories, but documentary does something else entirely: it preserves entire communities’ stories as snapshots in humanity’s kaleidoscopic history.
Documentary filmmaking has (almost) always been a relative safe haven for LGBTQ cinema, particularly smaller, experimental docs created by independent filmmakers. For years, mainstream films largely sanitized and ignored the LGBTQ community — but the documentary format allowed queer people to capture the truths of their lives that went otherwise undepicted. Great LGBTQ documentaries stretch back as far as 1967, with “Portrait of Jason”: a fascinating profile of a gay nightclub performer. Other early greats provided the first mainstream depictions of vibrant gay subcultures, like 1991 ballroom doc “Paris Is Burning” or 1967’s drag film “The Queen.” And still others provided...
Documentary filmmaking has (almost) always been a relative safe haven for LGBTQ cinema, particularly smaller, experimental docs created by independent filmmakers. For years, mainstream films largely sanitized and ignored the LGBTQ community — but the documentary format allowed queer people to capture the truths of their lives that went otherwise undepicted. Great LGBTQ documentaries stretch back as far as 1967, with “Portrait of Jason”: a fascinating profile of a gay nightclub performer. Other early greats provided the first mainstream depictions of vibrant gay subcultures, like 1991 ballroom doc “Paris Is Burning” or 1967’s drag film “The Queen.” And still others provided...
- 7/27/2023
- by Wilson Chapman and Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Once a Grammy-nominated producer, D Smith was shunned by the music business when she came out as trans. A disastrous stint on reality TV followed – and now she has reinvented herself as a film-maker
Kokomo City, the debut feature by musician-turned-film-maker D Smith, sits in a clear lineage of classic documentaries about the LGBTQ+ community. Consisting of unadorned, verite-style interviews with four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta and New York – as well as a handful of trans-attracted men – it takes its cues from vivid, straight-talking films such as Paris Is Burning and Word Is Out.
But Smith also drew influence from a film rarely mentioned in the same breath as staples of the queer canon: Todd Phillips’s pulpy, controversial 2019 superhero flick Joker. “Not to compare trans women to the Joker, but when I saw that film, it was mind-blowing – it stripped him down, all of the makeup and stuff,...
Kokomo City, the debut feature by musician-turned-film-maker D Smith, sits in a clear lineage of classic documentaries about the LGBTQ+ community. Consisting of unadorned, verite-style interviews with four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta and New York – as well as a handful of trans-attracted men – it takes its cues from vivid, straight-talking films such as Paris Is Burning and Word Is Out.
But Smith also drew influence from a film rarely mentioned in the same breath as staples of the queer canon: Todd Phillips’s pulpy, controversial 2019 superhero flick Joker. “Not to compare trans women to the Joker, but when I saw that film, it was mind-blowing – it stripped him down, all of the makeup and stuff,...
- 7/19/2023
- by Shaad D'Souza
- The Guardian - Film News
Many of the most important queer films in cinema history share a birthplace: the Sundance Film Festival. Organized by the Sundance Institute, the legendary annual fest in Park City, Utah, has boasted international and U.S. premiere titles as varied as the groundbreaking New York ballroom documentary Paris Is Burning in 1991, Donna Deitch’s 1985 lesbian road drama Desert Hearts or even recent masterworks like Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 adaptation of Call Me by Your Name.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Kim Yutani, director of programming at Sundance, about some of the most important Lgbtqia+ films to debut there.
“Seeing the films that Sundance has programmed over the years, especially around the early 1990s with the New Queer Wave, that was what attracted me to Sundance,” says Yutani, who’s been working with the festival for 17 years, and has also worked in various positions within the film industry, like as Gregg Araki...
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Kim Yutani, director of programming at Sundance, about some of the most important Lgbtqia+ films to debut there.
“Seeing the films that Sundance has programmed over the years, especially around the early 1990s with the New Queer Wave, that was what attracted me to Sundance,” says Yutani, who’s been working with the festival for 17 years, and has also worked in various positions within the film industry, like as Gregg Araki...
- 6/26/2023
- by Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Metrograph
Lars von Trier’s The Idiots begins playing in a new 4K restoration.
Film Forum
A celebration of Ozu’s 120th birthday brings a massive series; a retrospective on New York movies continues with Carpenter, Friedkin, Pakula, and more; I Was Born, But… plays on 35mm this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of the great, underseen Marco Ferreri continues with a series of imported 35mm prints; Love & Basketball plays for free Friday night at Governors Island.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of In the Cut and The Rocky Horror Picture Show screen; Party Girl and Paris Is Burning also play.
Museum of the Moving Image
Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beat Street play on 35mm in a summer movie series; a print of Mulholland Dr. plays in a queer cinema series.
IFC Center
The David Lynch retrospective...
Metrograph
Lars von Trier’s The Idiots begins playing in a new 4K restoration.
Film Forum
A celebration of Ozu’s 120th birthday brings a massive series; a retrospective on New York movies continues with Carpenter, Friedkin, Pakula, and more; I Was Born, But… plays on 35mm this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of the great, underseen Marco Ferreri continues with a series of imported 35mm prints; Love & Basketball plays for free Friday night at Governors Island.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of In the Cut and The Rocky Horror Picture Show screen; Party Girl and Paris Is Burning also play.
Museum of the Moving Image
Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beat Street play on 35mm in a summer movie series; a print of Mulholland Dr. plays in a queer cinema series.
IFC Center
The David Lynch retrospective...
- 6/16/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Seven years ago this month, in the aftermath of the attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, one call to action rose above the din: “Say their names.” New Yorkers chanted it steps from the Stonewall Inn. The mother of a child gunned down at Sandy Hook penned it in an open letter. The Orlando Sentinel printed the names. Anderson Cooper recited them. A gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in the wee hours of that awful Sunday, massacring LGBTQ people of color and their allies in the middle of Pride Month, and the commemoration of the dead demanded knowing who they were. “These,” as MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell urged his viewers, “are the names to remember.”
The titles on our list of the best LGBTQ movies of all time are a globe-spanning, multigenerational testament to our existence in a world where our erasure is no abstraction. From...
The titles on our list of the best LGBTQ movies of all time are a globe-spanning, multigenerational testament to our existence in a world where our erasure is no abstraction. From...
- 6/12/2023
- by Slant Staff
- Slant Magazine
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
- 6/2/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Our latest roundup of new books related to the world of cinema is full of indelible imagery––the pale face of Lost Highway’s Mystery Man, John Ford’s craggy visage, and, of course, the Neverland sets from Hook.
Lost Highway: The Fist of Love by Scott Ryan (Tucker DS Press)
Last year, Scott Ryan covered David Lynch’s Twin Peaks prequel in Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared. (We featured it here.) In 2023, Ryan studies what he calls “the lowest-grossing, most forgotten film of [Lynch’s] career.” Ryan’s Lost Highway: The Fist of Love is every bit as enthralling and insightful as Your Laura Disappeared. The author zeroes in on the elements of Lost Highway that turned off most (but not all) audiences in 1997 but are titillating new (and revisiting) viewers today. Ryan should know; he was one of those who looked away in the nineties: “The first time I saw it,...
Lost Highway: The Fist of Love by Scott Ryan (Tucker DS Press)
Last year, Scott Ryan covered David Lynch’s Twin Peaks prequel in Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared. (We featured it here.) In 2023, Ryan studies what he calls “the lowest-grossing, most forgotten film of [Lynch’s] career.” Ryan’s Lost Highway: The Fist of Love is every bit as enthralling and insightful as Your Laura Disappeared. The author zeroes in on the elements of Lost Highway that turned off most (but not all) audiences in 1997 but are titillating new (and revisiting) viewers today. Ryan should know; he was one of those who looked away in the nineties: “The first time I saw it,...
- 5/30/2023
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
In a way, “Succession” will never end. The Roy family’s wealth is too immense to be squelched in a single episode — even a finale that’s as long as a film. That kind of money isn’t even money anymore; it’s capital, power, and, as Kendall put it in his eulogy to Logan, “the lifeblood […] of this wonderful civilization we have built from the mud.” Whomever succeeds the Waystar Royco business titan will grab the reigns of an ecosystem that may not be too big to fail, but certainly protects its own. Barring an asteroid smashing into the planet or a significant time-jump into the post-apocalypse, “Succession’s” ending isn’t likely to halt the Roys’ destructive rampage across this planet. There will be survivors. There will be enterprise. There will be wealth.
But we won’t get to see any of it because “Succession” is still ending.
But we won’t get to see any of it because “Succession” is still ending.
- 5/28/2023
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
From trans lives to celebrations of drag, queer film pulled no punches as it hit screens in the 90s with a DIY bravura that transformed the movie industry
Queer film exploded like a glitter cannon in the 1990s, sending sparkling product raining down in every direction. Trans lives hit the screen in Orlando and Boys Don’t Cry, alongside dynamic bulletins from the Black queer experience. We had jubilant celebrations of drag with Paris Is Burning and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, provocations from New Queer Cinema in the shape of Poison, Swoon and Edward II; there were auteurist masterpieces and timeless coming-out stories. The Wachowski sisters, Lisa Cholodenko, François Ozon and Bruce Labruce all made their debuts; Pedro Almodóvar and Gus Van Sant went stratospheric. Benefiting from a surge in the fortunes of independent cinema, and a defined focus for anger brought about by Aids activism, queer...
Queer film exploded like a glitter cannon in the 1990s, sending sparkling product raining down in every direction. Trans lives hit the screen in Orlando and Boys Don’t Cry, alongside dynamic bulletins from the Black queer experience. We had jubilant celebrations of drag with Paris Is Burning and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, provocations from New Queer Cinema in the shape of Poison, Swoon and Edward II; there were auteurist masterpieces and timeless coming-out stories. The Wachowski sisters, Lisa Cholodenko, François Ozon and Bruce Labruce all made their debuts; Pedro Almodóvar and Gus Van Sant went stratospheric. Benefiting from a surge in the fortunes of independent cinema, and a defined focus for anger brought about by Aids activism, queer...
- 5/26/2023
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
We are looking at some of the movies playing Canada's beloved HotDocs festival. First up is buzzy Sundance hit, The Stroll.
The conversation around Jennie Livingston's iconic 1990 documentary Paris is Burning has been happening for many years now. The conversation that its white cis director profited financially and professionally from the lives of its black and latinx trans subjects who got very little out of its production. Whatever one thinks of it, it's hard to deny that as much as a film like The Stroll is needed today, it was also needed back then, too. Co-directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker—two women directors who identify as transgender—The Stroll is the continued reclamation of trans stories on screen by those who have lived and breathed the life that it documents.
As you might expect, with this comes a lot of emotions to unpack.
We are looking at some of the movies playing Canada's beloved HotDocs festival. First up is buzzy Sundance hit, The Stroll.
The conversation around Jennie Livingston's iconic 1990 documentary Paris is Burning has been happening for many years now. The conversation that its white cis director profited financially and professionally from the lives of its black and latinx trans subjects who got very little out of its production. Whatever one thinks of it, it's hard to deny that as much as a film like The Stroll is needed today, it was also needed back then, too. Co-directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker—two women directors who identify as transgender—The Stroll is the continued reclamation of trans stories on screen by those who have lived and breathed the life that it documents.
As you might expect, with this comes a lot of emotions to unpack.
- 4/27/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Though his life and accomplishments were largely erased under Napoleon, the extraordinary figure at the center of Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier” really did exist. Born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the son of a white plantation owner and his Black slave, Joseph Bologne went on to excel in spheres rarely accessible to people of color in 18th-century French society. Here was a champion swordsman and celebrated musician invited to play his violin at Versailles, where Marie Antoinette reportedly accompanied him on the harpsichord.
So why has it taken so long for his story to be told?
The time certainly seems right to rediscover the Chevalier — an honorary title that reveals how high Bologne rose under France’s overtly racist Code Noir, as well as a fitting name for the film. A compelling example of Black excellence dating back even before the French Revolution, the English-language “Chevalier” doesn’t feel nearly...
So why has it taken so long for his story to be told?
The time certainly seems right to rediscover the Chevalier — an honorary title that reveals how high Bologne rose under France’s overtly racist Code Noir, as well as a fitting name for the film. A compelling example of Black excellence dating back even before the French Revolution, the English-language “Chevalier” doesn’t feel nearly...
- 4/5/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Punchy delivery styles, shimmering personalities and kaleidoscopic perspectives make up the soul of D. Smith’s gutsy documentary Kokomo City, which chronicles the experiences of four Black trans women sex workers living in New York and Atlanta. The principal participants — Daniella Carter, Dominique Silver, Koko Da Doll and Liyah Mitchell — are an electric bunch, and the diversity of their testimonies propels this worthwhile project into refreshing, uninhibited territory.
From its opening moments, Kokomo City distinguishes itself from other documentaries — including its antecedent and most obvious point of comparison, Paris Is Burning. Instead of an expository voiceover or an establishing montage, we get Mitchell — sitting in her bedroom, hair wrapped in a silk scarf — telling us about a near-fatal encounter with a client. The story begins on a sober note and gains more levity as Mitchell burrows into the details of each scene: the client walking into her apartment, her split-second decision to steal his gun,...
From its opening moments, Kokomo City distinguishes itself from other documentaries — including its antecedent and most obvious point of comparison, Paris Is Burning. Instead of an expository voiceover or an establishing montage, we get Mitchell — sitting in her bedroom, hair wrapped in a silk scarf — telling us about a near-fatal encounter with a client. The story begins on a sober note and gains more levity as Mitchell burrows into the details of each scene: the client walking into her apartment, her split-second decision to steal his gun,...
- 2/17/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance 2023: ‘Invisible Beauty’ Directed by Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng
Premieres
How to write and how to make a film about one’s life is an ongoing discussion between Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng as Bethann’s life reveals itself. She is new to writing and filmmaking but she has the confidence to go forward without putting obstacles in front of herself. Her procrastination or preparation for writing takes a role in the film as well. This immediately allies me to her. Don’t we all procrastinate about the most important things in our lives?
Raised by her mother and grandmother in the South til the age of 12, she then moved in with her father in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Her mother was very social; her father was very intellectual. He was an Iman at the local mosque and was a mentor to Malcolm X himself. He made her aware of things poltically and socially as well as directing her reading about the Moslem religion and the Koran. Raising consciousness was most important to her father. When she turned 18 she yearned for teen freedom and her father returned her to her mother and grandmother. Subsequently she attended NYU.
Bethann Hardison
Over the five decades of her career, from working in New York City’s Garment District, modeling and founding her eponymous modeling agency, she has become an advocate, mentor and muse. To hear her honest and forthwright assessment of the state of her own life is inspirational.
She was a fashion revolutionary, but to her, fashion was merely the vehicle for her revolutionary ideas which changed the fashion industry’s diversity of models to include people of all colors. Her main concern was changing the world. “I always know — because I have lived life long enough — you can change things.”
From walking runway shows alongside Iman to discovering supermodels like Tyson Beckford (that gorgeous black model for Ralph Lauren) and mentoring icons like Naomi Campbell, Hardison has been at the epicenter of major representational shifts in fashion. Catalyzing change requires continuous championing, and as the next generation takes the reins, Hardison reflects on her personal journey and the cost of being a pioneer.
She has received many awards in recognition of her decades of advocacy work .See Naomi Campbell present Bethann with the Founders Award at 2014 Cfda Fashion Awards award and her acceptance speech.
In tandem with Frédéric Tcheng (Halston, Dior and I), the co-directors trace Hardison’s impact on fashion from runway shows in New York and Paris in the ’70s to roundtables about lack of racial diversity in the early 2000s. Hardison’s audaciousness and candor are inspiring and inviting. Interviews with industry speak to the state of fashion, while friends and family attest to Hardison’s rebellious and ambitious spirit. The film is an absorbing record of Hardison’s accomplishments and a rare contemplation on the life of a radical thinker.
The arc of Bethann’s life was easily illustrated through archival and commentary, but the great depth of the film is created by Bethann herself. The film centers on Bethann writing her memoir as much as it does the events of her life. She’s filled with adages and life lessons, “Bethann-isms” as her crew called them. The process of Bethann writing her memoir gives the opportunity to better inject her personality and humor into the film, both through traditional voiceover and with an incredible cache of recorded phone calls between Fred and Bethann. Many of these conversations are the two co-directors discussing how best to tell such an expansive story. They give a genuine sense of an artist in process. Putting together such disparate elements to make a unified whole is not an easy process. For successfully integrating the scenes of reflection and introspection, the feeling of Bethann’s inner thought processes, credit goes to the editing by Chris McNabb. Read his enlightening interview in Filmmaker Magazine.
McNabb in turn also give much credit to the music in the film. His own great muse is music. States he, “I’d say one of my biggest influences is actually music. I grew up playing percussion and carry a lot of that experience with me in the edit room when locating the internal rhythm of footage. I think it helps me build scenes that can affect a viewer on a corporeal level rather than just an intellectual one. In terms of film influences, Paris Is Burning, despite its thorny ethical history, was a formative film for me on a personal and creative level.” About the Invisible Beauty: “And music! Music was very important, and composer Marc Anthony Thompson did a great job capturing the vibe we wanted.”
Frédéric Tcheng is a French-born filmmaker based in Brooklyn. His specialty is fashion. He co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, and his award-winning directorial debut, Dior and I, premiered at Tribeca in 2014. Halston, with CNN Films and Amazon Studios as executive producers, premiered at Sundance in 2019.
The producer of Invisible Beauty, Lisa Cortés directed another Sundance 2023 film, Little Richard: I Am Everything. After its critical success there, being nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in U.S. Documentary Competition (Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni won) and being picked up by Magnolia for U.S. and international distribution, Cortés entered into a first-look development agreement with the Museum of the City of New York, where she will hone documentary IP based on the museum’s exhibitions. She plans for projects on food, social justice, music, and more. The first being made under the deal is a docuseries based on Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off, an exhibition inviting bakers from every borough to design New York City-inspired gingerbread creations.
Invisible Beauty invites comparison with Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project as both are autobiographical docs about notably important Black women. Bethann is an activist forever aiming to reach objectives and Niki is a poet, looking inward, exposing herself and making changes in the awareness around her. Bethann on the other hand, as she states it, always held her hand close to her chest and rarely let her emotional have free rein.
They make a good pairing though if I were to have to choose one, I would choose Invisible Beauty. The film ranges broadly from the outer world of fashion itself to Bethann’s part in it and to her inner reflections whereas the Nikki Giovanni doc mostly shows her speaking to others. Moreover, and on a strictly personal level, I would rather be in Bethann’s company. Bethann is a positive, strong nurturing woman. Nikki’s inner pain and anger often seem to vent in the doc and I think I would feel uncomfortable in her company. In fact I don’t think she would like me much either. Bethann’s fortitude sets the tone of Invisible Beauty and it is fortitude and love that will propel us forever forward.
FashionMoviesDocumentaryBlack WomenFilm Festivals...
Premieres
How to write and how to make a film about one’s life is an ongoing discussion between Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng as Bethann’s life reveals itself. She is new to writing and filmmaking but she has the confidence to go forward without putting obstacles in front of herself. Her procrastination or preparation for writing takes a role in the film as well. This immediately allies me to her. Don’t we all procrastinate about the most important things in our lives?
Raised by her mother and grandmother in the South til the age of 12, she then moved in with her father in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Her mother was very social; her father was very intellectual. He was an Iman at the local mosque and was a mentor to Malcolm X himself. He made her aware of things poltically and socially as well as directing her reading about the Moslem religion and the Koran. Raising consciousness was most important to her father. When she turned 18 she yearned for teen freedom and her father returned her to her mother and grandmother. Subsequently she attended NYU.
Bethann Hardison
Over the five decades of her career, from working in New York City’s Garment District, modeling and founding her eponymous modeling agency, she has become an advocate, mentor and muse. To hear her honest and forthwright assessment of the state of her own life is inspirational.
She was a fashion revolutionary, but to her, fashion was merely the vehicle for her revolutionary ideas which changed the fashion industry’s diversity of models to include people of all colors. Her main concern was changing the world. “I always know — because I have lived life long enough — you can change things.”
From walking runway shows alongside Iman to discovering supermodels like Tyson Beckford (that gorgeous black model for Ralph Lauren) and mentoring icons like Naomi Campbell, Hardison has been at the epicenter of major representational shifts in fashion. Catalyzing change requires continuous championing, and as the next generation takes the reins, Hardison reflects on her personal journey and the cost of being a pioneer.
She has received many awards in recognition of her decades of advocacy work .See Naomi Campbell present Bethann with the Founders Award at 2014 Cfda Fashion Awards award and her acceptance speech.
In tandem with Frédéric Tcheng (Halston, Dior and I), the co-directors trace Hardison’s impact on fashion from runway shows in New York and Paris in the ’70s to roundtables about lack of racial diversity in the early 2000s. Hardison’s audaciousness and candor are inspiring and inviting. Interviews with industry speak to the state of fashion, while friends and family attest to Hardison’s rebellious and ambitious spirit. The film is an absorbing record of Hardison’s accomplishments and a rare contemplation on the life of a radical thinker.
The arc of Bethann’s life was easily illustrated through archival and commentary, but the great depth of the film is created by Bethann herself. The film centers on Bethann writing her memoir as much as it does the events of her life. She’s filled with adages and life lessons, “Bethann-isms” as her crew called them. The process of Bethann writing her memoir gives the opportunity to better inject her personality and humor into the film, both through traditional voiceover and with an incredible cache of recorded phone calls between Fred and Bethann. Many of these conversations are the two co-directors discussing how best to tell such an expansive story. They give a genuine sense of an artist in process. Putting together such disparate elements to make a unified whole is not an easy process. For successfully integrating the scenes of reflection and introspection, the feeling of Bethann’s inner thought processes, credit goes to the editing by Chris McNabb. Read his enlightening interview in Filmmaker Magazine.
McNabb in turn also give much credit to the music in the film. His own great muse is music. States he, “I’d say one of my biggest influences is actually music. I grew up playing percussion and carry a lot of that experience with me in the edit room when locating the internal rhythm of footage. I think it helps me build scenes that can affect a viewer on a corporeal level rather than just an intellectual one. In terms of film influences, Paris Is Burning, despite its thorny ethical history, was a formative film for me on a personal and creative level.” About the Invisible Beauty: “And music! Music was very important, and composer Marc Anthony Thompson did a great job capturing the vibe we wanted.”
Frédéric Tcheng is a French-born filmmaker based in Brooklyn. His specialty is fashion. He co-directed Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, and his award-winning directorial debut, Dior and I, premiered at Tribeca in 2014. Halston, with CNN Films and Amazon Studios as executive producers, premiered at Sundance in 2019.
The producer of Invisible Beauty, Lisa Cortés directed another Sundance 2023 film, Little Richard: I Am Everything. After its critical success there, being nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in U.S. Documentary Competition (Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni won) and being picked up by Magnolia for U.S. and international distribution, Cortés entered into a first-look development agreement with the Museum of the City of New York, where she will hone documentary IP based on the museum’s exhibitions. She plans for projects on food, social justice, music, and more. The first being made under the deal is a docuseries based on Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off, an exhibition inviting bakers from every borough to design New York City-inspired gingerbread creations.
Invisible Beauty invites comparison with Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project as both are autobiographical docs about notably important Black women. Bethann is an activist forever aiming to reach objectives and Niki is a poet, looking inward, exposing herself and making changes in the awareness around her. Bethann on the other hand, as she states it, always held her hand close to her chest and rarely let her emotional have free rein.
They make a good pairing though if I were to have to choose one, I would choose Invisible Beauty. The film ranges broadly from the outer world of fashion itself to Bethann’s part in it and to her inner reflections whereas the Nikki Giovanni doc mostly shows her speaking to others. Moreover, and on a strictly personal level, I would rather be in Bethann’s company. Bethann is a positive, strong nurturing woman. Nikki’s inner pain and anger often seem to vent in the doc and I think I would feel uncomfortable in her company. In fact I don’t think she would like me much either. Bethann’s fortitude sets the tone of Invisible Beauty and it is fortitude and love that will propel us forever forward.
FashionMoviesDocumentaryBlack WomenFilm Festivals...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
At its best, Sundance is really about Cinderella stories — the starving artists who come to Utah hoping to captivate audiences comprised of the industry and the public, effectively crashing the gates of Hollywood.
The most compelling pair of glass slippers at the festival this year belonged to D. Smith, whose directorial debut “Kokomo City” claimed two big awards in the Next section: the coveted audience award and Adobe’s Innovator prize. The film follows four Black trans sex workers in America and is unflinching in its depiction of sex, identity politics and (gasp) levity.
“Kokomo City” is a rare entry in the queer nonfiction genre, in that it does not focus solely on the trauma of marginalized people. The film is so dynamic that the lone juror handing out awards in the Next section, Madeleine Olnek, called it “the funniest movie that has ever played Sundance.”
Following her big win,...
The most compelling pair of glass slippers at the festival this year belonged to D. Smith, whose directorial debut “Kokomo City” claimed two big awards in the Next section: the coveted audience award and Adobe’s Innovator prize. The film follows four Black trans sex workers in America and is unflinching in its depiction of sex, identity politics and (gasp) levity.
“Kokomo City” is a rare entry in the queer nonfiction genre, in that it does not focus solely on the trauma of marginalized people. The film is so dynamic that the lone juror handing out awards in the Next section, Madeleine Olnek, called it “the funniest movie that has ever played Sundance.”
Following her big win,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Kokomo City is not a real place. It’s more like a state of mind, invented by director D. Smith, who is Black and trans, to describe the space that her sisters occupy in the world. Theirs is an identity that is barely understood by the public and frequently misrepresented by the media, but is here defined by a handful of tell-it-like-it-is trans sex workers who offer snappy, whip-smart insights into their lives, dreams and the down-low dudes who adore them. In Smith’s short, salty micro-budget doc, the t-girls spill the tea, totally reframing the conversation.
A singer-songwriter who produced for the likes of Lil Wayne and Katy Perry, only to see her livelihood dry up when she transitioned, Smith still thinks in terms of music. During the course of shooting this film, the self-taught director stumbled across a nearly 90-year-old recording called “Sissy Man Blues” from all-but-forgotten Black crooner Kokomo Arnold.
A singer-songwriter who produced for the likes of Lil Wayne and Katy Perry, only to see her livelihood dry up when she transitioned, Smith still thinks in terms of music. During the course of shooting this film, the self-taught director stumbled across a nearly 90-year-old recording called “Sissy Man Blues” from all-but-forgotten Black crooner Kokomo Arnold.
- 1/27/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“If we got rid of every gay man in the military, there would be no military,” a sympathetic officer tells Marine recruit Ellis French in “The Inspection.” That’s an exceptionally open-minded take on the United States’ “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, seeing as how pretty much everyone else French encounters at boot camp is openly hostile to there being a gay man among them. But writer-director Elegance Bratton made it through the system — like the character, he’d been lost and homeless for a decade before enlisting — and this deeply personal narrative debut is one gay Black man’s way of showing how he not only survived the experience, but was strengthened by it. “The few, the proud,” as they say.
To play himself — er, French — Bratton tapped Emmy nominee Jeremy Pope (“Hollywood”), soon to be seen as Basquiat on Broadway in “The Collaboration.” Pope gives a...
To play himself — er, French — Bratton tapped Emmy nominee Jeremy Pope (“Hollywood”), soon to be seen as Basquiat on Broadway in “The Collaboration.” Pope gives a...
- 9/9/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“This Must Be how the white gays felt when Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor came out,” I direct-messaged my best friend in the wee hours of July 29, 2022. “Finally, an album for us.”
It was the third consecutive time I had listened to Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, after it debuted at midnight. As a Black queer millennial who grew up anticipating the global superstar’s stylishly curated releases, this felt remarkably personal. Beyoncé has never been a stranger to giving a nod to LGBTQ themes and artists...
It was the third consecutive time I had listened to Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, after it debuted at midnight. As a Black queer millennial who grew up anticipating the global superstar’s stylishly curated releases, this felt remarkably personal. Beyoncé has never been a stranger to giving a nod to LGBTQ themes and artists...
- 9/5/2022
- by Ernest Owens
- Rollingstone.com
Coined by the film historian and critic B. Ruby Rich in 1992 to give voice to the explosion in queer film she was witnessing on the burgeoning film festival circuit, the New Queer Cinema’s influence on independent film cannot be overstated. The ‘80s saw films like Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” explode the idea of what film could be, in turn inspiring a new generation of radical queer filmmakers to pick up the camera and crack the whole thing wide open.
As Hollywood churned out blockbusters like “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park,” anyone paying attention could see that the real fun was being had way below budget. Sundance was still a new little gathering in Park City, where someone fresh out of film school could show a film and meet likeminded artists. Throughout the decade, Sundance gradually established itself as the...
As Hollywood churned out blockbusters like “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park,” anyone paying attention could see that the real fun was being had way below budget. Sundance was still a new little gathering in Park City, where someone fresh out of film school could show a film and meet likeminded artists. Throughout the decade, Sundance gradually established itself as the...
- 8/17/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
In the opening minutes of “We Met in Virtual Reality,” a bunch of avatars resembling animals and anime characters enter an open world based on “Jurassic Park,” hop into vehicles, and speed around the landscape with glee as a handheld camera tracks their moves. Later, that same camera visits house parties, dance classes, and a marriage ceremony.
Anyone who hasn’t strapped on a VR headset might think they were watching a low-budget animated movie with glitchy effects, but “We Met in Virtual Reality” is actually a groundbreaking documentary shot exclusively in VRchat, the popular VR social platform. The feature-length debut of UK-based filmmaker Joe Hunting stems from his experiences roaming VRchat over the course of three years, during which time he befriended many of the communities within. Hunting, who supports himself in part by working as a VR event photographer, has provided the most robust opportunity to experience the...
Anyone who hasn’t strapped on a VR headset might think they were watching a low-budget animated movie with glitchy effects, but “We Met in Virtual Reality” is actually a groundbreaking documentary shot exclusively in VRchat, the popular VR social platform. The feature-length debut of UK-based filmmaker Joe Hunting stems from his experiences roaming VRchat over the course of three years, during which time he befriended many of the communities within. Hunting, who supports himself in part by working as a VR event photographer, has provided the most robust opportunity to experience the...
- 7/29/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Billy Porter (Pose) and Luke Evans (Nine Perfect Strangers) have signed on to star in the drama Our Son, from director Bill Oliver (Jonathan).
The film written by Oliver and Peter Nickowitz will follow a divorcing couple fighting for custody of their 8-year-old son. Fernando Loureiro (Frances Ha) and Guilherme Coelho (Oprhans of Eldorado) will produce via their company, Tigresa, along with Eric Binns (Lansky).
Porter is an actor, singer, director composer and playwright best known for his Emmy-winning turn as Ball scene emcee Pray Tell on FX’s Pose. The actor also recently appeared in Amazon’s live-action remake of Cinderella, CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone and American Horror Story: Apocalypse, also narrating HBO Max’s docuseries, Equal. His theatre credits include the role of Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which he originated in 2013—landing Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as...
The film written by Oliver and Peter Nickowitz will follow a divorcing couple fighting for custody of their 8-year-old son. Fernando Loureiro (Frances Ha) and Guilherme Coelho (Oprhans of Eldorado) will produce via their company, Tigresa, along with Eric Binns (Lansky).
Porter is an actor, singer, director composer and playwright best known for his Emmy-winning turn as Ball scene emcee Pray Tell on FX’s Pose. The actor also recently appeared in Amazon’s live-action remake of Cinderella, CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone and American Horror Story: Apocalypse, also narrating HBO Max’s docuseries, Equal. His theatre credits include the role of Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, which he originated in 2013—landing Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as...
- 6/2/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Luke Evans and Billy Porter will portray husbands in the upcoming drama “Our Son,” a feature film about spouses going through a divorce and fighting over the custody of their 8-year-old son.
Bill Oliver is directing the movie from a script he co-wrote with Peter Nickowitz. Additional cast members, including the actor who will play their child, have not been announced. “Our Son” is currently in the process of setting a distributor.
Fernando Loureiro and Guilherme Coelho are producing via their company, Tigresa, along with producer Eric Binns.
Porter, an Emmy winner for “Pose,” most recently appeared alongside Camila Cabello in director Kay Cannon’s “Cinderella” remake. On television, he acted on “The Twilight Zone” for CBS All Access, “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” and narrated HBO Max’s “Equal.” Porter is set to make his directorial debut with the high school coming-of-age film “Anything’s Possible” written by Alvaro García Lecuona.
Bill Oliver is directing the movie from a script he co-wrote with Peter Nickowitz. Additional cast members, including the actor who will play their child, have not been announced. “Our Son” is currently in the process of setting a distributor.
Fernando Loureiro and Guilherme Coelho are producing via their company, Tigresa, along with producer Eric Binns.
Porter, an Emmy winner for “Pose,” most recently appeared alongside Camila Cabello in director Kay Cannon’s “Cinderella” remake. On television, he acted on “The Twilight Zone” for CBS All Access, “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” and narrated HBO Max’s “Equal.” Porter is set to make his directorial debut with the high school coming-of-age film “Anything’s Possible” written by Alvaro García Lecuona.
- 6/2/2022
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
This June on HBO and HBO Max will play host to a new season of “Westworld,” a new adaptation of “Father of the Bride” and much more.
The big new Warner Bros. release on HBO and HBO Max this month is “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which actually debuted on the HBO Max streaming service on May 30. The third film in the Wizarding World prequel franchise first hit theaters in April, and is now available to stream in 4K.
There’s also the updated version of “Father of the Bride” premiering on June 16, while a pair of noteworthy documentaries are coming on the early side this month: “The Janes” premieres June 8 and follows unlikely outlaws in pre-Roe v. Wade America who defied state legislation that banned abortion, while “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” debuts on June 9.
As for original series, the fourth season of “Westworld” premieres on June...
The big new Warner Bros. release on HBO and HBO Max this month is “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which actually debuted on the HBO Max streaming service on May 30. The third film in the Wizarding World prequel franchise first hit theaters in April, and is now available to stream in 4K.
There’s also the updated version of “Father of the Bride” premiering on June 16, while a pair of noteworthy documentaries are coming on the early side this month: “The Janes” premieres June 8 and follows unlikely outlaws in pre-Roe v. Wade America who defied state legislation that banned abortion, while “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” debuts on June 9.
As for original series, the fourth season of “Westworld” premieres on June...
- 6/1/2022
- by Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
With its list of new releases for June 2022, HBO Max is joining in what should be a TV summer to remember.
Not content to let Netflix’s Stranger Things or Prime Video’s The Boys to dominate the summer TV landscape, HBO is coming through with a new season of one of its big hits. Westworld season 4 is set to premiere June 26 on both HBO and HBO Max. What will this season of the increasingly confusing sci-fi drama be about? Per HBO’s synopsis it will be “A dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth.” So you know, only that.
Irma Vep is the only other Max Original of note this month. Based on a 1996 cult classic of the same name, this limited series stars Alicia Vikander as a disillusioned movie star looking to remake the early 20th century French silent film serial Les Vampires.
It’s...
Not content to let Netflix’s Stranger Things or Prime Video’s The Boys to dominate the summer TV landscape, HBO is coming through with a new season of one of its big hits. Westworld season 4 is set to premiere June 26 on both HBO and HBO Max. What will this season of the increasingly confusing sci-fi drama be about? Per HBO’s synopsis it will be “A dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth.” So you know, only that.
Irma Vep is the only other Max Original of note this month. Based on a 1996 cult classic of the same name, this limited series stars Alicia Vikander as a disillusioned movie star looking to remake the early 20th century French silent film serial Les Vampires.
It’s...
- 6/1/2022
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
There is no shortage of documentaries to enjoy on television these days and the Emmy races for non-fiction categories are poised to reflect that. The creative forces behind four of those documentaries and series joined our recent Meet the Experts panel that covered subjects that included chronicling survivors of sexual abuse, celebrities reading letters from people whose lives were changed by them, the career of America’s top infectious disease doctor and a multi-level marketing company that specialized in women’s leggings.
In our roundtable conversation, we hear what the directors and producers behind these projects got them interested in making non-fiction material and the documentaries that leave them feeling good. Gold Derby recently discussed this and more with Aly Raisman (“Ally Raisman: Darkness to Light”), Donny Jackson (“Dear…”), John Hoffman and Janet Tobias (“Fauci”) and Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason (“LuLaRich”).
You can watch the television documentary group...
In our roundtable conversation, we hear what the directors and producers behind these projects got them interested in making non-fiction material and the documentaries that leave them feeling good. Gold Derby recently discussed this and more with Aly Raisman (“Ally Raisman: Darkness to Light”), Donny Jackson (“Dear…”), John Hoffman and Janet Tobias (“Fauci”) and Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason (“LuLaRich”).
You can watch the television documentary group...
- 5/20/2022
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
The U.K.’s Vertigo Films and Germany’s SquareOne Productions are teaming on Young Adult focused supernatural drag drama “Vamping.”
Billed as a mix of “Pose” and “The Vampire Diaries,” the eight-part series is set against the backdrop of Berlin’s hedonistic, nocturnal LGBTQ+ club culture. It follows young British drag queen, Everett who, after a triumphant performance at Berlin’s hottest drag club, finds that he has unwittingly been turned into a vampire. He sets off to uncover the truth and finds himself the protagonist in an impending culture war between vampire tribes.
“Vamping” was created by the U.K.’s Matthew Jacobs Morgan (“The Rig”) and German-American multi-disciplinary artist and screenwriter Sophie-Yukiko Hasters. As a central figure of the Qtpoc (queer and trans people of colour) community in Berlin, on the series Sophie-Yukiko Hasters brings her experience of German Ballroom Culture; where she oversees the German faction...
Billed as a mix of “Pose” and “The Vampire Diaries,” the eight-part series is set against the backdrop of Berlin’s hedonistic, nocturnal LGBTQ+ club culture. It follows young British drag queen, Everett who, after a triumphant performance at Berlin’s hottest drag club, finds that he has unwittingly been turned into a vampire. He sets off to uncover the truth and finds himself the protagonist in an impending culture war between vampire tribes.
“Vamping” was created by the U.K.’s Matthew Jacobs Morgan (“The Rig”) and German-American multi-disciplinary artist and screenwriter Sophie-Yukiko Hasters. As a central figure of the Qtpoc (queer and trans people of colour) community in Berlin, on the series Sophie-Yukiko Hasters brings her experience of German Ballroom Culture; where she oversees the German faction...
- 4/20/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Billy Porter will direct an episode of Fox’s upcoming anthology drama series “Accused.” The episode will tell the story of a drag queen’s “whirlwind affair that leads to devastating consequences,” per Sony Pictures Television.
Based on the BBC series of the same name, “Accused” begins in a courtroom, with viewers having no knowledge of what the defendant is accused of or why they are there. Each episode will feature a different cast, exploring each defendant’s point of view through flashbacks as viewers learn how they ended up on trial.
Porter is an award-winning actor, singer, director and writer. He won an Emmy for his leading role as Pray Tell on the FX series “Pose,” and won a Tony for his starring role as the drag queen Lola in the 2013 Broadway musical “Kinky Boots.” He was most recently seen in Amazon’s “Cinderella” alongside Camila Cabello and Idina Menzel.
Based on the BBC series of the same name, “Accused” begins in a courtroom, with viewers having no knowledge of what the defendant is accused of or why they are there. Each episode will feature a different cast, exploring each defendant’s point of view through flashbacks as viewers learn how they ended up on trial.
Porter is an award-winning actor, singer, director and writer. He won an Emmy for his leading role as Pray Tell on the FX series “Pose,” and won a Tony for his starring role as the drag queen Lola in the 2013 Broadway musical “Kinky Boots.” He was most recently seen in Amazon’s “Cinderella” alongside Camila Cabello and Idina Menzel.
- 3/31/2022
- by Sasha Urban
- Variety Film + TV
Elegance Bratton’s documentary about the gay and transgender haven of Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers shows a community under attack from all sides
Made between 2011 and 2016, Elegance Bratton’s film is an unforgettable documentary about queer Black lives on the fringe that will undoubtedly invite comparisons to Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, from 1990. Here though, we see everything through the lens of a queer Black film-maker who imbues every frame with startling frankness and radical empathy.
Pier Kids follows homeless gay and transgender youth of colour who have found their own community in Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, highlighting the daily struggles of Crystal Labeija, Casper and Desean. What emerges is a deeply intimate portrait of an organic collective under attack from all sides: brutal policing, urban gentrification and financial precariousness. Stories involving shocking discrimination and violence are filmed with a conspiratorial understanding, as if the camera is lending a friendly ear.
Made between 2011 and 2016, Elegance Bratton’s film is an unforgettable documentary about queer Black lives on the fringe that will undoubtedly invite comparisons to Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, from 1990. Here though, we see everything through the lens of a queer Black film-maker who imbues every frame with startling frankness and radical empathy.
Pier Kids follows homeless gay and transgender youth of colour who have found their own community in Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, highlighting the daily struggles of Crystal Labeija, Casper and Desean. What emerges is a deeply intimate portrait of an organic collective under attack from all sides: brutal policing, urban gentrification and financial precariousness. Stories involving shocking discrimination and violence are filmed with a conspiratorial understanding, as if the camera is lending a friendly ear.
- 10/4/2021
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
China Lost and Found: Eight Films by Jia Zhangke
One of the greatest directors to emerge in this young century, Jia Zhangke has captured his native country like few others. The Criterion Channel is now spotlighting his stellar body of work, including the new restoration of his debut Xiao Wu (1997), along with Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008), A Touch of Sin (2013), and Mountains May Depart (2015). Also playing is the documentary Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang from 2014.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
In the quarter-century since its debut, Olivier Assayas’ hilarious, mischievous, altogether unclassifiable Irma Vep stands merrily uninterested in many things contemporary movies are meant to be interested in—not ultra-sophisticated narrative gimmickry...
China Lost and Found: Eight Films by Jia Zhangke
One of the greatest directors to emerge in this young century, Jia Zhangke has captured his native country like few others. The Criterion Channel is now spotlighting his stellar body of work, including the new restoration of his debut Xiao Wu (1997), along with Platform (2000), Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), Still Life (2006), 24 City (2008), A Touch of Sin (2013), and Mountains May Depart (2015). Also playing is the documentary Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang from 2014.
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
In the quarter-century since its debut, Olivier Assayas’ hilarious, mischievous, altogether unclassifiable Irma Vep stands merrily uninterested in many things contemporary movies are meant to be interested in—not ultra-sophisticated narrative gimmickry...
- 9/3/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Star of stage and screen Billy Porter is stepping behind the camera for an exciting teen comedy from Amazon Studios. Currently in development, To Be Real is made in collaboration with Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another production. According to Variety, this upcoming coming-of-age story puts queer lives front and center, following three queer friends who […]
The post Billy Porter Directing LGBTQ+ Teen Comedy for Amazon Studios appeared first on /Film.
The post Billy Porter Directing LGBTQ+ Teen Comedy for Amazon Studios appeared first on /Film.
- 8/23/2021
- by Shania Russell
- Slash Film
Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions has made a deal with Amazon Studios for a queer teen comedy tentatively titled To Be Real, Deadline has confirmed. Emmy/Tony/Grammy-winner Billy Porter is on board to direct. Ryan Shiraki wrote the script.
To Be Real is described as an LGBTQ Superbad crossed with Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart. , according to its logline, “an edgy, laugh out loud comedy about three queer high school seniors who go on the ultimate quest to attend their first New York Pride parade.”
I’ll Have Another Productions will produce To Be Real. I’ll Have Another’s Kian Gass, Porter and Shiraki will be EPs.
I’ll Have Another Productions and Katie and Mauricio Mota’s Wise Entertainment recently optioned Tamara Winfrey-Harris’ award-winning book The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women In America to develop as a 30-minute dramedy for television.
To Be Real is described as an LGBTQ Superbad crossed with Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart. , according to its logline, “an edgy, laugh out loud comedy about three queer high school seniors who go on the ultimate quest to attend their first New York Pride parade.”
I’ll Have Another Productions will produce To Be Real. I’ll Have Another’s Kian Gass, Porter and Shiraki will be EPs.
I’ll Have Another Productions and Katie and Mauricio Mota’s Wise Entertainment recently optioned Tamara Winfrey-Harris’ award-winning book The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women In America to develop as a 30-minute dramedy for television.
- 8/20/2021
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
After a competitive bidding war that received multiple offers, Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions has sold a queer teen comedy feature, with the working title “To Be Real,” to Amazon Studios. Tony winner, current Emmy nominee and recent Emmy winner Billy Porter — who’s been shooting his feature directorial debut “What If?” for Orion Pictures this summer — is attached to direct an original script by Ryan Shiraki, as sold from a pitch. Shiraki, a prolific TV director (“On My Block”) is also an executive producer on the upcoming HBO Max animated series “Santa Inc.,” starring and executive produced by Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman, and created by Alexandra Rushfield.
Described as an LGBTQ “Superbad” crossed with “Booksmart,” according to its logline, “‘To Be Real’ follows three queer friends who escape their hometown for Pride Weekend in New York City where they discover that life over the rainbow is an insane,...
Described as an LGBTQ “Superbad” crossed with “Booksmart,” according to its logline, “‘To Be Real’ follows three queer friends who escape their hometown for Pride Weekend in New York City where they discover that life over the rainbow is an insane,...
- 8/20/2021
- by Kate Aurthur
- Variety Film + TV
“I love the Emmy love,” says hairstylist Jerilynn Stephens, who earned two nominations this year for her work on HBO Max’s “Legendary” and NBC’s “The Voice.” “It’s just so nice to be recognized. Hard work pays off. I found out online because I’m usually the one who lets everybody know because I’m up early and usually on top of it. I’m the group texter of congratulations.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
This marks Stephens’ ninth nomination for “The Voice,” where she started as an additional hairstylist on Season 1 and worked her way up to hair department head on Season 9. “I just got a notification that we have our 500th episode coming out,” she remarks. “It’s crazy to be a part of a show for 10 years. Who would have thought?”
SEEAudrey Morrissey interview: ‘The Voice’ executive producer
“That show is well-oiled,” she continues.
This marks Stephens’ ninth nomination for “The Voice,” where she started as an additional hairstylist on Season 1 and worked her way up to hair department head on Season 9. “I just got a notification that we have our 500th episode coming out,” she remarks. “It’s crazy to be a part of a show for 10 years. Who would have thought?”
SEEAudrey Morrissey interview: ‘The Voice’ executive producer
“That show is well-oiled,” she continues.
- 8/16/2021
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The pandemic couldn’t stop these artists’ creativity but required extra resourcefulness.
“Black-ish”(ABC)
Nominated For Contemporary Hairstyling For Season 7, Episode 6, “Our Wedding Dre”
The hairstyles for the seventh season episode of “Black-ish,” entitled “Our Wedding Dre,” were highly detailed. Hair department head Nena Ross Davis went all out with “a multitude of styles that were all nice and intricate.”
Ross Davis notes an increase in women wanting to wear natural and heat-protective styles, as well as braiding. She brought this into the episode through Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), whose look was “her natural hair styled in loose twists down and had a couple of cute buns at the bottom,” she recalls. “We did her hair with her braids going back in a nice little bun so she looked sleek in her suit.”
Since the episode was produced amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the cast had to constantly take masks and...
“Black-ish”(ABC)
Nominated For Contemporary Hairstyling For Season 7, Episode 6, “Our Wedding Dre”
The hairstyles for the seventh season episode of “Black-ish,” entitled “Our Wedding Dre,” were highly detailed. Hair department head Nena Ross Davis went all out with “a multitude of styles that were all nice and intricate.”
Ross Davis notes an increase in women wanting to wear natural and heat-protective styles, as well as braiding. She brought this into the episode through Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), whose look was “her natural hair styled in loose twists down and had a couple of cute buns at the bottom,” she recalls. “We did her hair with her braids going back in a nice little bun so she looked sleek in her suit.”
Since the episode was produced amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the cast had to constantly take masks and...
- 8/4/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
If you’ve ever seen the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning or even encountered the phrase “The category is …” or “Tens, tens, tens across the board!” — you’re familiar with the artistry of Junior Labeija. And that’s just the beginning. “Shake the dice and steal the rice!” “O-p-u-l-e-n-c-e! Opulence. You own everything!” “It do take nerve.”
All sprung from the oratorically gifted Labeija. Had circumstances been different, he might have ended up an influential rapper or stand-up comic. As luck would have it, he grew up Black, gay and living in Harlem....
All sprung from the oratorically gifted Labeija. Had circumstances been different, he might have ended up an influential rapper or stand-up comic. As luck would have it, he grew up Black, gay and living in Harlem....
- 6/11/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
If you’ve ever seen the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning or even encountered the phrase “The category is …” or “Tens, tens, tens across the board!” — you’re familiar with the artistry of Junior Labeija. And that’s just the beginning. “Shake the dice and steal the rice!” “O-p-u-l-e-n-c-e! Opulence. You own everything!” “It do take nerve.”
All sprung from the oratorically gifted Labeija. Had circumstances been different, he might have ended up an influential rapper or stand-up comic. As luck would have it, he grew up Black, gay and living in Harlem....
All sprung from the oratorically gifted Labeija. Had circumstances been different, he might have ended up an influential rapper or stand-up comic. As luck would have it, he grew up Black, gay and living in Harlem....
- 6/11/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Synopsis: The streets of N.Y. might be temporarily silent, but in downtown Manhattan in the early 90’s, they were the site of a dynamic collision between two vibrant subcultures: skateboarding and hip hop. Jeremy Elkin’s documentary, All The Streets Are Silent, narrated by Eli Morgan Gesner, brings to life the magic of this time period and the convergence that created an urban style and visual language that would have an outsized and lasting cultural effect. If Paris Is Burning and Kids had a baby, you’d have this documentary love letter to New York—examining race, society, fashion and street culture—and full of archival footage featuring legendary characters and figures from the downtown scene. Featuring Rosario Dawson, Harold Hunter, Justin Pierce, Keith Hufnagel, Darryl McDaniels (Run-d.M.C.), Jefferson Pang, Bobbito Garcia, Stretch Armstrong, Kool Keith, Leo Fitzpatrick, Mike Hernandez, DJ Clark Kent, Kid Capri, Mike Carroll,...
- 6/8/2021
- by HollywoodNews.com
- Hollywoodnews.com
Category is The Realness: Lessovitz Isn’t Strictly Ballroom in Star Crossed Romance
To acknowledge the formidable, everlasting impact of Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, itself a successor to the recently restored 1968 doc The Queen, part of the conversation must include acknowledgement of appropriation. The privilege of the cultural gatekeeper, as in who gets to convey what stories, etc., has defined our understanding of others through cinematic representation. Obviously, this includes our established, well-hewn conditioning of whiteness and (hetero) normative vs. everything else under the sun. The legacy of the ballroom scene has been, until the last decade or so, completely encapsulated by Livingston’s indie doc, where lingo and references have been so copiously repeated (a la “Ru Paul’s Drag Race”) it’s easy to lose track of their origins, while a throwback homage such as “Pose” devolved across three seasons into spurious soap opera.…
Continue reading.
To acknowledge the formidable, everlasting impact of Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, itself a successor to the recently restored 1968 doc The Queen, part of the conversation must include acknowledgement of appropriation. The privilege of the cultural gatekeeper, as in who gets to convey what stories, etc., has defined our understanding of others through cinematic representation. Obviously, this includes our established, well-hewn conditioning of whiteness and (hetero) normative vs. everything else under the sun. The legacy of the ballroom scene has been, until the last decade or so, completely encapsulated by Livingston’s indie doc, where lingo and references have been so copiously repeated (a la “Ru Paul’s Drag Race”) it’s easy to lose track of their origins, while a throwback homage such as “Pose” devolved across three seasons into spurious soap opera.…
Continue reading.
- 6/7/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
[Editor’s Note: The following contains minor spoilers for “Pose” Season 3.]
Anyone who’s been watching “Pose” over its history-making FX run won’t be surprised to learn the colorful show about New York’s ball culture definitely goes out with a bang. No expense was spared on the third and final season of Ryan Murphy’s most influential period melodrama — and the makeup and costumes are just as indulgent as the sentimental storytelling. With all of the pain and heartache trans people of color face in the real world, “Pose” laughs in face of reality by throwing something much more celebratory onscreen. Throughout all three seasons, “Pose” remains the fiercest advocate for itself — and for the power of living your truth.
Not that “Pose” ignores the ravages of the AIDS crisis, discrimination, and violence faced by the most marginalized (and most fabulous) among us. This season pulls no punches with the tragic realities of life for LGBTQ people...
Anyone who’s been watching “Pose” over its history-making FX run won’t be surprised to learn the colorful show about New York’s ball culture definitely goes out with a bang. No expense was spared on the third and final season of Ryan Murphy’s most influential period melodrama — and the makeup and costumes are just as indulgent as the sentimental storytelling. With all of the pain and heartache trans people of color face in the real world, “Pose” laughs in face of reality by throwing something much more celebratory onscreen. Throughout all three seasons, “Pose” remains the fiercest advocate for itself — and for the power of living your truth.
Not that “Pose” ignores the ravages of the AIDS crisis, discrimination, and violence faced by the most marginalized (and most fabulous) among us. This season pulls no punches with the tragic realities of life for LGBTQ people...
- 5/2/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Exclusive: All the Streets Are Silent, a documentary portrait of the skateboarding and hip-hop scenes in New York in the late 1980s and early ’90s, has been acquired by Greenwich Entertainment.
The U.S. rights deal precedes the film’s world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The film will be released in theaters on July 23.
Jeremy Elkin is making his feature directing debut with All the Streets Are Silent, which is described as “a love letter to New York” blending elements of Paris Is Burning and Larry Clark’s Kids.
Between the city’s rebound from near-ruin in the 1970s and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Lower Manhattan was home to the thriving subcultures of skateboarding and hip-hop. Their convergence would give rise to modern street style. Eli Gesner, founder of skateboard gear and fashion brand Zoo York, will narrate the film. Hip-hop producer Large Professor, known...
The U.S. rights deal precedes the film’s world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. The film will be released in theaters on July 23.
Jeremy Elkin is making his feature directing debut with All the Streets Are Silent, which is described as “a love letter to New York” blending elements of Paris Is Burning and Larry Clark’s Kids.
Between the city’s rebound from near-ruin in the 1970s and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Lower Manhattan was home to the thriving subcultures of skateboarding and hip-hop. Their convergence would give rise to modern street style. Eli Gesner, founder of skateboard gear and fashion brand Zoo York, will narrate the film. Hip-hop producer Large Professor, known...
- 4/29/2021
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
In last weeks episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK, we saw the elimination of Tia Kofi who was known for her camp outfits but also shows how Bimini is excelling in both the completion and in real life.
The mini-challenge this week was the classic ‘Reading Challenge’ where the queens compete in an insult based, comedy challenge inspired by the cult classic film Paris is Burning. I have to admit that this whole trope of queens walking up saying “Oh no… No never, I’m too kind” and then switching to be an intense and aggressive character normally with something along the lines of “Let’s Go” has because somewhat overused throughout the Drag Race franchise. All the seasons of Drag Race (including the UK version) have this reading challenge and so many queens do this same performance to start the challenge which has become somewhat tiresome. This season...
The mini-challenge this week was the classic ‘Reading Challenge’ where the queens compete in an insult based, comedy challenge inspired by the cult classic film Paris is Burning. I have to admit that this whole trope of queens walking up saying “Oh no… No never, I’m too kind” and then switching to be an intense and aggressive character normally with something along the lines of “Let’s Go” has because somewhat overused throughout the Drag Race franchise. All the seasons of Drag Race (including the UK version) have this reading challenge and so many queens do this same performance to start the challenge which has become somewhat tiresome. This season...
- 2/26/2021
- by Rhys Payne
- Nerdly
Los Angeles will have a new drive-in option this weekend.
Women Under the Influence (Wuti) and Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Prods. are teaming on the Wuti Drive-In, headquartered at Exposition Park, 500 Exposition Park Drive. The first weekend — Feb. 19-21 — is being billed as a celebration of Black love and sisterhood with such titles as Waiting to Exhale, Cinderella, Sylvie’s Love, Girlhood and The Watermelon Woman. Waithe is expected to attend on opening weekend and introduce the Forest Whitaker-directed Exhale.
The second weekend — Feb. 26-28 — will focus on unique visions of the Black experience in America with ...
Women Under the Influence (Wuti) and Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Prods. are teaming on the Wuti Drive-In, headquartered at Exposition Park, 500 Exposition Park Drive. The first weekend — Feb. 19-21 — is being billed as a celebration of Black love and sisterhood with such titles as Waiting to Exhale, Cinderella, Sylvie’s Love, Girlhood and The Watermelon Woman. Waithe is expected to attend on opening weekend and introduce the Forest Whitaker-directed Exhale.
The second weekend — Feb. 26-28 — will focus on unique visions of the Black experience in America with ...
- 2/17/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
New Indie
Michael Almereyda has tackled science (as a topic of either biopics or dramas) in a fascinating way in “Experimenter” and “Marjorie Prime,” and now he’s bringing that same energy to the inventor-biopic with “Tesla” (Shout Factory/IFC), a bold and audacious look at the life of Nikola Tesla. Ethan Hawke, in the title role, is evenly matched by Eve Hewson’s Anne Morgan, and they both nail Almereyda’s unique tone, which throws in anachronisms and green-screens to tell the story of someone who stretched the notions of what his peers imagined could be possible.
Also available: Madison Iseman plays a young girl with mental-health issues who can’t convince anyone she’s witnessed a crime in “Fear of Rain” (Lionsgate); 2012 indie “Watching TV with the Red Chinese” (Mvd Visual), co-starring Constance Wu and Gillian Jacobs, makes its U.S. DVD debut; Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
Michael Almereyda has tackled science (as a topic of either biopics or dramas) in a fascinating way in “Experimenter” and “Marjorie Prime,” and now he’s bringing that same energy to the inventor-biopic with “Tesla” (Shout Factory/IFC), a bold and audacious look at the life of Nikola Tesla. Ethan Hawke, in the title role, is evenly matched by Eve Hewson’s Anne Morgan, and they both nail Almereyda’s unique tone, which throws in anachronisms and green-screens to tell the story of someone who stretched the notions of what his peers imagined could be possible.
Also available: Madison Iseman plays a young girl with mental-health issues who can’t convince anyone she’s witnessed a crime in “Fear of Rain” (Lionsgate); 2012 indie “Watching TV with the Red Chinese” (Mvd Visual), co-starring Constance Wu and Gillian Jacobs, makes its U.S. DVD debut; Sienna Miller and Diego Luna...
- 2/17/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
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