[rating=4]
630 pages • Queer Lisboa • September 13, 2014
A brilliantly informative compendium of catalogue essays, interviews, plot summaries and images, as well as new material from Queer Lisboa.

“Queer Lisboa is not only a lens, it is a prism that allows for a detailed examination and enquiry into the nature of queer cinema, its influences and experiments and the conversations and controversies it sparks.”

Find Your Weird.

James Broughton was a pioneer of experimental film as well as poetry. The wonderful documentary Big Joy celebrates the legacy of this true revolutionary.

“Like Armistead Maupin says in the film, Broughton knew how to get to the serious through the silly. I think that’s an amazing talent that only an idealist can have.”

Queer Words.

Age of Consent tells the story of London sex club The Hoist. Director Charles Lum talks about how the it grew into a wide-ranging piece of queer social history.

“I have to say that if you’re gonna talk on and on about history it gets a little dry, so you have to add a little spice to that to grease the hard facts with a little liquid enjoyment!”

The Latest Travis Mathews Film.

Michael Langan talks to Alex Karotsch, the Fringe! Film Fest producer, who is performing in Travis Mathews’ film In Their Room London.

“In a film like that you can’t really hold back. And I didn’t want to hold back, because that’s the whole point of it. So I tried to be as honest as possible, but it’s very different from talking to your friends.”

For the Queer Community.

Alex Karotsch and Muffin Hix talk about the hip queer film festival Fringe! and why it is by the community and for the community.

“A festival doesn’t have to be about big shiny premieres. We don’t have an industry section to our festival. It’s for the public that want to come out and see films.”

[rating=5]
Cert:18 • US: 60 min • RabbitBandini Productions • January 19, 2013

Interior. Leather Bar. This playful film is a fascinating look at queer desire, and the extent to which we are actors in our own lives.

“The narrative sets up questions around freedom of expression, individual and societal homophobia, and anxieties about depicting sex generally, so that the sex itself, when it happens, becomes an embodiment of those issues.”

[rating=5]
Cert: NR • USA: 109 min • Public Square Films • 2012

How To Survive A Plague is a first-rate, suspenseful documentary that looks at how activists from ACT UP and TAG made AIDS research possible.

“Shot through archive interviews, newsreels and camcorder footage, it’s a truly inspirational story of how a community can come together and fight for real social change. Essential Viewing.”

Pick of the Day: 25 March.

Pick of BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 25 March. Domestic Revolutions, a series of shorts. Hit So Hard, a documentary about Hole’s drummer Patty Schemel.

Pick of the Day: 24 March.

Pick of BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 24 March. Love Free or Die, a documentary about Bishop Gene Robinson. Vito, a documentary about activist and film historian Vito Russo.

LLGFF 2012.

The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, 23 March 23 – April 1, 2012, is one of the most important events in the LGBT arts and culture calendar.

“As part of the LLGFF, the BFI is screening four key films from The Celluloid Closet: Queen Christina (1933), Morocco (1930), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), and Spartacus (1960). This is a great chance to see these classic films as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen.”