Out Takes

This week on Out Takes, we waved goodbye to this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival by reviewing some of our favorite picks from the program: think MOFFIE and SWEETHEART.

We also spoke with Derek Ho, the director of the heartfelt and deeply moving award winning short documentary ‘FORGIVENESS DAY’, which recieved awards for best short film and best documentary at the Festival this year.

Forgiveness Day is available to stream now on the New York Times’s Op-Docs platform.

 

Happy 6th anniversary to US! 

For the last six years, over more than 250 episodes, we’ve brought the filmic landscape on the other side of the rainbow to JOY. So for this very special Out Takes, we looked back at some of our favorite moments on the air over the past six years – including interviews with Academy Award winners like Barry Jenkins and Emile Shermann, local legends like Anna Kokkinos and Joel Edgerton, and icons of queer cinema, like John Waters, Luca Gaudagnino, Rose Troche and John Cameron Mitchell.

We also spoke with David Harris, the newly appointed CEO of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, about the Festival (which is on from Nov 18 – 29 2021), their vision for the festival and the ongoing importance of queer cinema.

This week on Out Takes, we continued our celebration of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival by diving head first into this year’s exciting new program of films.

We reviewed a number of hotly anticipated new queer films that are premiering in Australia as part of the Festival: think Firebird, Nico, Jump Darling and Being Bebe.

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival kicked off Thursday November 18 and runs in cinemas and online until 29 November 2021. For more information about this year’s Festival, head to mqff.com.au

This year, cinemas have been pretty much closed in Melbourne and film festivals either were put on hold or went completely online. While we all appreciated the effort that went into getting these films online and on to our small screens in the safety of our homes, it is exciting that we are taking tentative steps back into cinemas and welcoming back many film festivals, albeit at a different time of the year than usual, including one of our favourites, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival a.k.a. MQFF.

 

The 31st Melbourne Queer Film Festival program was officially launched online on October 27, revealing another great lineup including feature films, shorts, and documentaries. MQFF31 is screening in cinemas and online from November 18 – 29 at Cinema Nova, Village Cinemas Jam Factory and ACMI with the MQFF streaming on-demand collection available to book from November 5.

As always on Out Takes, we love to take a deep dive in to the MQFF program and in what is becoming an annual tradition we were delighted to welcome back MQFF Program Director Spiro Economopoulos to discuss the stellar line up for the 31st Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

We’re no stranger to a bit of controversy on Out Takes so this week we’re taking on one of the biggest controversies in the global film industry: casting.

Since its early days, Hollywood has been plagued by casting controversies: whitewashing, cultural appropriation, and since the days of new queer cinema, the charge that straight actors are taking gay roles, or that cis actors shouldn’t play trans, or that, well, there just aren’t any bi roles for straight actors to take.

So this week on Out Takes, we’re unpacking the question of who should play what and why the question of why casting has become just so controversial. Are there some roles that some actors shouldn’t play or is this just another case of the squeaky wheel?

Here on Out Takes, we enjoy discussing films and television each week but we also love a good story.

Jacqueline Bublitz is the author of ‘Before You Knew My Name’, her debut novel that came out in May of this year and has since gained critical acclaim and commercial success across the globe. She’s a proud kiwi feminist who calls Melbourne home and who’s love of New York City helps to shape this beautiful and captivating story of two women, Ruby and Alice, and their trauma, connection and our cultural obsession with dead girls. But, this is not just another novel about a dead girl. Giving a voice to the voiceless, ‘Before You Knew My Name’ doesn’t ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful, hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind?

For this program, we talked about how this passionate story teller became a published author, we looked at her creative process, explore the themes and characters in the book as well as the influences and experiences that inspire her and in turn made their way into this incredibly powerful and immersive tale.

This week on Out Takes, we looked at PRAY AWAY, the new documentary from producer Ryan Murphy and Director Kristine Stolakis about faith based conversion ‘therapy’ practices in the US and the incredible damage that they cause.

We also looked at a broader cannon of queer cinema that chronicles the harmful effects of conversion therapy: think BOY ERASED and THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST.

These are films that we’ve covered on Out Takes before, but they’re films that form an important weapon in our arsenal against conversion and suppression practices. So we revisited our exclusive interviews with Joel Edgerton, the director and star of BOY ERASED, and Desiree Akhavan, the director of THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, as we explored the ways in which modern queer cinema denounces conversion practices that target the LGBTIQ community.

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the much anticipated release of EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, the heartfelt new coming of age musical from director Jonathan Butterell. Based on the eponymous stage musical, EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE tells the story of sixteen year old Jamie New, a high school student from Sheffield, England, who wants to be a drag queen.

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE is a film with glitter and heart, in equal measure, that takes us back to school to teach us a thing or two about self love and authenticity. But it’s also a film that neatly positions itself in a cannon of coming of age musicals that despite their message of embracing diversity, beat to the same drum. So this week, as we deep dived into EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, we also took stock of the broader cannon of coming of age musicals that take us back to school to teach us something about ourselves: think BILLY ELLIOT, THE PROM and BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE.

Since 2013, the Queer Screen Film Fest has become a major event that delivers the latest LGBTIQ movies to Sydney’s screens in the month of September. This year’s Queer Screen Film Fest has extended their reach with a fully virtual festival in 2021 and was in full swing for this show. With a spate of fresh new and encore films on offer there was a lot to talk about. So this week on Out Takes, as the Festival hit homes around the country, we reviewed some of the most anticipated films screening as part of this year’s festival. 

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the return of the Queer Screen Film Fest, which commenced from September 16 online for 10 days. Our guests were festival director Lisa Rose, and Alex Liu, whose new documentary A SEXPLANATION screens as part of the festival. A SEXPLANATION follows director Alex Liu on a personal journey of self discovery, as he turns his pursuit of shame-free pleasure into a call for comprehensive sex education.

In addition to spotlighting the Queer Screen Film Fest, we spoke to Festival Director Benson Wu about the Taiwan Film Festival in Australia. Now in it’s fourth year, the Festival features the latest in Taiwanese film making – including some great new queer fare. The Taiwan Film Festival of Australia also kicked off on 16 September.