Longtime Companion

In this episode we talk about what Hong Kong film Happy Together by director Wong Kar-wai. Released in 1997, Happy Together is hailed as a seminal gay classic. A tale of a tumultuous coupling between gay couple Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai whose relationship appears to be continually in the throes of crisis, seemingly before but mostly after they migrate from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires in a bid to visit the Iguazu Falls.

Its a latter entry in the 90s New Queer Cinema, and one of Kar-wai’s most lauded films. Perhaps for its unabashed portrayal of these queer lives, unvarnished and true to life, as well as a multitude of moments of stunning beauty that one is accustomed to with the director’s films.

For this episode I had the pleasure to have once again have with film programmer and critic Alex Davidson, whose knowledge and insight on the film and Wong Kar-wai’s body of work is truly impressive.

I hope you enjoy listening….

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/happytogetherfilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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30 years to the date since the release of director Sally Potter’s film Orlando, a film that it is seen retrospectively as genderqueer. A period fantasy drama loosely based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography. The androgynous Orlando is played by Tilda Swinton, traversing through time ageless and immortal.

Orlando’s transition from man to woman has been heralded by some as a trans story. On this episode we speak with film critic James Luxford about the genderqueer/ trans themes Orlando put's forward.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/orlandofilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

It is now exactly 30 years since the release of director Sally Potter’s film Orlando, a film that it is seen retrospectively as genderqueer. A period fantasy drama loosely based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography.

The androgynous Orlando is played by Tilda Swinton, traversing through time ageless and immortal.

Orlando’s transition from man to woman has been heralded by some as a trans story. But is it as simple as declaring the film and its source book as that, at a time when the word transexual didn’t exist? However both artistic forms do question the social-political comparisons of being a man and woman and we do witness the transition from one to the other.

On this episode we speak with film critic James Luxford about the genderqueer/ trans themes Orlando put's forward.

LINKS:

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

In this episode we will be talking about the Egyptian film Bashataalak Sa’at, its English title ‘Shall I Compare You To A Summer’s Day’ by director Mohammad Shawky Hassan.

Loosely based on the Arabian folktale 'One Thousand And One NIghts' it also includes a plethora of other Egyptian, Arabic and western cultural influences.

With a interchanging protagonists incorporating various experimentations of mixed media, we see the existential contemplations of queer life, threesomes, Grindr hook-ups, love and loss.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/bashtaalaksaat

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

In this episode we talk about Brazilian film, the tongue twisting titled Três Tigres Tristes directed by Gustavo Vinagre. The film won the coveted Teddy Award at this year's Berlin film festival.

Set in a dystopian Sao Paolo one which is similarly pandemic ridden. We follow three young queer protagonists as they traverse through the city making astute contemplations about the society they live and what the future holds for them, in a Sao Paolo that is bled dry by a memory-easing virus and rampant capitalism.

For this episode we chat to Vinagre, to tell us all about his film.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/LTTresTigresTristes

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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Directed by Chase Joynt and written by Joynt and Morgan P. Page, Framing Agnes uncovers the real-life stories of six trans individuals, including that of trans trailblazer Agnes Torres, divulged from the archives of the UCLA Gender Clinic in the 1950s under a research study lead by sociologist Harold Garfinkle.

Joynt and Page break the fourth wall throughout the documentary with personal interviews with the actors as well as giving us behind-the-scenes access to the re-enactment scenes taking us on their journey of their directorial decision-making process.

We had the pleasure to speak to Joynt to tell us about the experience of making Framing Agnes.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/LTframingagnes

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

For this episode we will be talking about Queer East, an LGBTQ+ film festival that showcases rarely seen queer cinema from East and Southeast Asia and seeks to amplify the voices of Asian communities in the UK. Now in its third edition, the festival will run from the 18th -29th May 2022 at venues throughout London.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/QueerEast

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

For this episode we will talk with film programmer and critic Alex Davidson about British director Terence Davies latest film, Benediction.

This is Davies second filmic ode to a poet, following 2016 A Quiet Passion about Emily Dickinson. Davies's beautiful interpretation of Siegfried Sassoon uncovers a colourful if melancholic life tinged with unhappiness. We discuss in depth Sassoon’s sexuality, his gay relationships, his subsequent marriage to a woman and conversion to Catholicism.

Further looking at the director's past work, putting into context his own public struggles with his sexuality.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/mv3kmnxz

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

It is now over 50 years since the release of German director Rosa Von Praunheim's ground-breaking gay classic ‘It Is Not the Homosexual who is Perverse but the Society he Lives in’. Part sociological essay/ part gay manifesto, the film is said to have pronounced the rebirth of the Berlin gay scene in the 1970s from its heyday under the Weimar Republic of the 20s.

For this episode we talk with film critic Călin Boto about the film and its brilliant director.

LINKS - https://tinyurl.com/y4u8f3z5

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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We dedicate this episode to this year’s BFI Flare, the British Film Institute’s (BFI) annual LGBTQIA+ film festival, currently running from the 16th to 27th March 2022. Full details of the programme can be found here: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online/default.asp

We had the privilege to speak to one of the longtime film programmers Brian Robinson to tell us about this year’s programme of films but also about his own incredible vast experience of programming the festival over four decades. We recorded the episode in an open corner at the BFI, so you may hear some of the hustle and bustle around us.

I would also like to express my apologies, as during our conversation we mention a couple of films which in the moment we were unable to remember their titles. I have since located the names of the films and I have included links to them below.

LINKS - tinyurl.com/272dura7

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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