Dangerous Writing.

Tom Spanbauer talks about how he uses confessional writing and graphic sex scenes on his search for truth.

“If my father could have owned slaves he would. He was a brutal man who beat me, you know? There’s still some part of me who’s trying to get that little boy out of that space of doom and fear and bring him back up to the light.”

[rating=4]
Cert: n/a • France: 58 min • Epicentre films • June 19, 2013

A somewhat old fashioned but thoroughly engaging documentary leaves you wanting more.

“She was, and still is, extraordinarily beautiful. Pruvot acknowledges with classic French insouciance that Bambi and her fellow performers were seen by many in the audience as ‘circus freaks.’”

Diverse Identities.

The term T-girls celebrates a range of trans identities. Darius Amini’s exhibition, Gender Outlaws, celebrates the diversity of identity.

What Darius would really like people to take away from the exhibition is an increased awareness of the diversity within the T-Girl community, and to be surprised by that.

At Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios

Deep Desires & Broken Dreams is a week-long season of gay film, including premieres, previews, Q&As.

A Boy’s Own Story, Part II.

Edmund White talks to Michael Langan about the thirtieth anniversary of A Boy’s Own Story, and how men and women have to learn to be gay. Part II of II.

“I once had a very good gay psychiatrist say to me that the cliché is that straight fathers tend to reject the gay son but, actually, the opposite is true – that the gay son rejects the straight father because the straight father doesn’t know how to love him in the way he wants to be loved.”

A Boy’s Own Story, Part I.

Edmund White talks to Michael Langan about the thirtieth anniversary of A Boy’s Own Story, and how men and women have to learn to be gay. Part I of II.

“I felt, like most other gay people at the time, that we became gay not because some attractive older person showed us the way but in spite of all the horrible examples of gay lives that we encountered as children. Despite all that you still have a drive to become gay and it might be painful experience but people aren’t put off.”

For The Roses.

On Joni Mitchell’s 70th birthday, Michael Langan takes a look at what it is about Joni that makes her one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time.

“Like the greatest art, her music evolves and changes as you yourself evolve and change. I’ve filled myself with it in ways that sustain in every way – feeding, lifting, teaching supporting, holding.”

Tate Modern, Bankside, London – SE1 9TG • October 16 – March 9, 2014

The Tate Modern’s Paul Klee: Making Visible is a surprising and comprehensive exhibition.

“The exhibition’s title is taken from a statement Klee published in 1920, his ‘Creative Confession.’ In it, he says that “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes the visible.” In his work, Klee was a definite visionary.”

[rating=4]
Cert: U • US: 90 min • Amnesia Productions • April 18 2013

A deft insight into the life and work of one of the twentieth century’s great public intellectuals.

“The film works to remind us what a remarkable figure Gore Vidal was and vividly illustrates how rare such liberal voices are, not only in American politics but anywhere.”

An Interview with João Ferreira.

João Ferreira, Queer Lisboa’s Festival Director, talks about how queer cinema is changing and how it remains a culture founded on desire.

“The idea was to have a very diverse programme that doesn’t look at gay or queer cinema in a narrow way but finds narratives and aesthetics that could also be called queer. We try to forget the labels and look for queerness in all kinds of films.”