The Italian film, Il Cumpleano, in English called David's Birthday was today's stunning hit at the festival. Musically rich, dramatically layered and nuanced relationships played like a symphony with each motif reflecting with a jewel like intensity the central passionate relationship of the film.
The plot in short: two straight couples rent a house at the shore together. After a time, the 18 year old son of one couple arrives from his studies in the U.S. The other man hasn't seen the boy since he was 18. They see each other again and the first thing David, the young man says is "You used to hold me in your arms." And looking at Tyago Alves, the actor, well, anyone would want to do that now. But forget his beauty — because while stunning, beauty alone does not make a great film. This movie has everything. And runs across the full ranges of emotions.
It will repeat again Sunday due to popular demand: at NewFest Sunday June 6th at 3pm. Go see it. You'll be glad you did.
Last
night the New York LGBT Film Festival opened with Contracorriente, a
beautifully made Peruvian film that captured the struggle for love and
integrity faced by a fisherman in a small village when he is caught between the
wife he loves and the man he loves (and won’t admit he loves).
It
was a good film to open with, since it was high quality in every way — which is
why it won the Audience Award at Sundance. It clearly moved the audience at the
SVA Theater last night, since the sniffles were audible towards the film’s end.
There was a hushed feeling afterwards: it wasn’t a downer, it was the quiet of
respect for a film that could move everyone in a way that didn’t feel
manipulative, but a reflection of the real complicated and messy issues people
deal with in love.
The
director was there to answer questions, and he was as charming as the film was.
Afterwards, there was an opening night party at the Chelsea Art Museum that was
fueled by Belvedere Vodka. I didn’t leave till 1am, and would have stayed later
but for a client briefing this morning at 9:30.
Tonight?
Beautiful Darling and Leo’s Room. See you there.
The
LGBT Film Festival in New York has a program of shorts under the theme Singing,
Dancing, Waiting. Who loves short shorts? I certainly do. Especially if there’s
a film about cute go-go boys.
Okay,
so this fun little film is about the heavy subjects of body image, body fascism
and fantasy
in the gay male community. Except that it’s sweet, funny and filled
with self knowledge and compassion. Not to mention hot go go dancing boys: See the trailer below.
Another
film on the program is one I wrote about last year: EZ Heeb, from Ali Coterill,
star and director of Fagette, which I loved when it screened at NewFest a
couple of years back. It's pure queer Jewish fun. Buddhist I don't know. But queer Jewish? Yup.
There
aren’t a lot of places you can see films like this with an appreciative
audience, and a chance to meet the filmmakers, who are often there. Ali Coterill will be that's for sure.
The Singing, Dancing, Waiting program plays on Sunday June 5th
at 2:30pm. You can buy your tickets at the LGBT Community Center on 13th
Street, at the SVA Theater on 23rd Street, or online at NewFest.org.
A picturesque Peruvian fishing village.Turquoise waters and white beaches. Sexy
men. And one of them, a local married fisherman, Miguel, has been having a
secret affair with a wealthy gay photographer and artist, Santiago, who lives
in a vacation beach house ostracized by the working class conservative community.
It’s hard to keep a secret in a small town like
this, where prying eyes and gossip are help keep people in line with the local
traditions.
Then there is an accident, and the Santiago is
caught in an undertow and drowns. No one knows what has happened, since he was
on his own at the
time. But he comes to Miguel, his married lover as a ghost
only Miguel can see.
Finally Miguel can openly love Santiago, because
no one can see him. He can walk down the street holding the hand of his wife —
and the ghost of the man he loved.
However, Santiago has a final request to make of
Miguel that will touch the lives of everyone in the village. And Miguel must
face the truth, and the choice that true love places before everyone.
This is a mysteriously eerie yet beautifully
realized film, filled with transcendently joyous love scenes on the beach and
the claustrophobic fear and narrowness of small town life.It’s about a love that lasts beyond
death. It is a beautiful elegy that restores the living with a full sense of
the preciousness of love.
Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Award, The
Undertow will be the opening film at NewFest on Thursday, June 3rd
at 8pm at the SVA theater on West 23rd Street in Chelsea. Admission
includes the opening night after party.
Remember Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life?
Well, director Casper Andreas did, and gave her a part that she goes to town
with in Violet Tendencies.
Cohn plays, to use the language of the film, “the
oldest living fag hag.” Which means she has sacrificed her own love life to
live through the loves and lives of her younger gay friends. She doesn’t seem
to mind until she finds herself as the last fag hag standing when another
female friend of the friends of Dorothy gets married.
What happens next? Well amidst the swirl of
Chelsea boys who haven’t grown up and don’t seem like they will ever reach
emotional maturity, Cohn’s character Violet starts seriously looking for love
in other places. Problem is, she has so much fun with the gay boys that the
straight men pale in comparison.
Sounds serious huh? All I can tell you is I sat
with a group of gay men watching this film and we all literally screamed with
laughter. And occasional horror at how politically incorrect it truly is —
think South Park meets Chelsea.
There will be moments that make you cringe with
embarrassment that you are actually laughing at this, but laugh you will. Out
loud. The dialog is sharp and the cast is pure pro. You’ll recognize soap stars
Marcus Patrick and Samuel Whitten among others. Mindy Cohn gets to be center
stage and matches comic timing and delivery without holding back on the central
emotional isolation she feels. She may be neurotic, but she is a fully
developed character: I wish I could say the same for any of the gay men in this
film. They are horrifically shallow. But if I think about the film as a live
action cartoon in the mold of Family Guy, well then, it’s brilliant.
Out
of Annapolis gives the LGBT alumni of the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, the
chance to tell their stories after serving their country in silence as Navy and
Marine Corps officers.
These
brave citizens speak candidly about difficult circumstances that some service
people have found more stressful than battle.
As
DADT lumbers slowly towards repeal, you might think this film will be just
another bit of history — documenting the past. However, what makes this film a
moving portrait of LGBT Americans is how it captures the strong bond they feel
towards the Naval Academy. And how it shows the many positive ways the Naval
Academy shaped their character.
It
will be shown with Silent Partners, documenting how DADT affects the lives of
the partners of 3deployed service
members and the screening is sponsored the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
The Topp Twins were interviewed this week in the Toronto Star, where their brand of sketch comedy was compared to Carol Burnett's comedy. Well, if Carol Burnett were channeling Murray Hill and Lily Tomlin perhaps.
I loved learning that they are not only out and proud lesbian, but they are very politically involved at home:
...the movie... shows how the Topp Twins have been agents of political
change in their homeland, campaigning against nuclear power and for
Maori land rights, gay and lesbian rights and demanding the 1981 tour of
New Zealand by the South African football club the Springboks, be
halted
....“It’s so subversive when you think about it,” says singer Billy Bragg in
the film of the twins’ cross-cultural appeal. “Of all the forms, to
choose county and western (music) is the most redneck, the most
gender-specific of all popular culture. To use that as a way of pushing
forward gay rights, it’s so subversive.”
NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival has hooked up with
the Faigele Film Festival, New York’s Jewish LGBTQ Film Festival: presenting
Gay Days and The So-Called Movie.
A Movie About A Gay Hip Hop Cowboy Klezmer DJ Video Artist.
Say Nu?
The NewFest program describes Josh Dolgin, the subject of
the documentary "The So-Called Movie" as the love child of Woody Allen and Lil Wayne. Uh huh. Okay.
Well, What I can say is that Dolgin is one very interesting character whose
passion for music of all kinds is infectious, and whose beats just make me
happy. Makes me want to get up and dance.
Along with Gay Days, a documentary about the lgbt movement
in Israel, this NewFest trek uptown represents a move to recognize the fact
that the lgbt community is made up of many communities around the city. So on
June 8th, NewFest will be at the Jewish Community Center on the
Upper West Side.
The night before, on June 7th,
NewFest will be at Harlem Stages showing Children of God, a high-tension romance
that takes places in the midst of a homophobic crackdown in the Bahamas. Complete
with a right-wing preacher on the down-low, this film captures the
claustrophobia of life in a society where shame, secrecy and the threat of
violence are always present.
Gleeks Have Plenty to see at the LGBT Film Festival,
Starting With After The Storm
After The Storm: What happens to a real community when
natural disaster strikes and the local high school students are separated from
families? Not to sound glib, but they put on a show. In this stunning
documentary, After the Storm, the playwright and director of the Broadway
production of Once On This Island, went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
and helped the rebuild a community center and young lived by staging a local
production of the show with the teens. This is Glee for real.
Tickets are on sale now for members, and will go on sale for non-members on Monday, May 24th. You can get your tickets at NewFest.org And you can see trailers for many of the films at the NewFest YouTube channel.
Broadway Show Queen Alert: Put Gypsy in a blender with
Hairspray and you’ve got Leading Ladies.
Leading Ladies: An over the top backstage mother pushes her
daughter to be a star — on the ballroom dancing circuit. Her sister fades into
the background. The gay boy dance partner brings the “ugly duckling” sister to
a gay bar where he dances up a storm with his boyfriend and she discovers she’s
a lesbian. With a stage mom straight out of John Waters territory and hot dance
numbers, this is one fun movie. The boy is played by last year’s So You Think
You Can Dance winner, Benji Schwimmer. Cute, very cute. So this is a lesbian
love story with a gay male sidekick and is a movie that both lesbians and gay
men will enjoy.
Fruit Fly: From the people who made the indie hit, Colma,
Fruit Fly has 19 original songs in a story that follows Bethesda, a young Filipina woman, who like Rachel in Glee, is searching for her birth mother — in San Francisco while living with a house full of gay men. The opening number is also the title of
the film, about how she gets dubbed a fag hag and what it means for her.
Singing, Dancing, Waiting: There’s a shorts program that are
all musicals! I always love the shorts programs.
Prima Donna: A documentary about Rufus Wainwright putting on his opera. If you’re a fan, this is a must see.
The Topp Twins – Untouchable Girls: This is THE LESBIAN FILM EVERY GAY MAN WANTS TO SEE! Imagine if Dolly Parton had children with Lily
Tomlin, and those children would be the lesbian twin singing sister act from
New Zealand, the Topp Twins. They do drag king character sketch comedy. Country
singing. And yodeling. Yep, yodeling that you just have to hear. Trust me on
this. Oh, and after the film, the Topp Twins will be there in live performance.
This is an event. And you won’t want to miss it.
NewFest 2010, the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in New York (or more accurately New York’s LGBT Film Festival) has just posted their movie schedule.
There’s a great line up of gay movies with cute boys and hot men. Not to mention sizzling stories, provocative documentaries and men in sexy shorts (short films that is).
So with so many movies to choose from, how can you know what to see? My taste is entirely subjective, but here’s part 1 of my quick overview of the must-see movies for gay men (more will follow tomorrow).
I wanted to share my top picks with you now, since tickets go on sale exclusively to members on Monday, May 17th. If you want to buy your NewFest tickets this next week, you’ve got to be a member. And there are some really hot films this year, so if you can join rather than wait, I say go for it.
Must-see movies for gay men:
David’s Birthday: A hot Italian story about a jaw-droppingly sexy 18 year old boy whose hormones awaken suppressed desires on a family beach vacation — I you liked Call Me By Your Name, think of this as a similar story from the adult’s point of view.
I Killed My Mother: Lets start with the shallow — lead actor 20 year old Xavier Dolan is such a sexy boy with pouty lips it’s stunning to discover he is also the writer and director of this award winning film debut. Award winning? Over 30 awards internationally, including 3 at Cannes last year. It’s a great movie about the tension between a young man coming into his sexuality and the tension it creates in his close relationship with his mother. Intense. Funny. Moving. Go.
Is It Just Me? Cyrano de Bergerac for the modern online age, with gay men. Need I say more? Cute guys, sweet romantic story, go-go boys, muscles and true love. Go and feel good falling in love.
Release: What kind of release are we talking about here? Well, this is a prison movie. And for those of you who miss your Oz fantasies, this movie tackles a relationship between a prison guard and a jailed priest that other inmates suspect was guilty for molesting boys. A film both violent and spiritual, it’s going to be an intense experience.
Boys Will Be Boys: If you like cute boys in shorts, you’ll see them. But lets be serious for a moment. Some of these shorts explore important stories that don’t often get told, which is why I love NewFest and support lgbt film. One film, Billy and Aaron is about the African American jazz composer Billy Strayhorn and the consequences in his life of living openly as a gay man the 1940s. That’s a lot of drama to pack into ten minutes. And that’s why I love short film. When done right, it’s powerful. Powerfully moving, or funny, or provocative. And the shorts in this program run the full range. You can be sure I’ll be in the audience for these films.
By the way, you can see trailers for many of the films at the NewFest 2010 YouTube channel.
And check back here tomorrow for part 2 of my cheat sheet of top picks for gay men.
