Out Takes

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated MQFF eXtra, which kicked off at Cinema Nova in October. The inaugural MQFF eXtra showcased a spate of new queer films, including festival darlings like PAIN AND GLORY and PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE.

Our guest were Spiro Economopoulos, the Program Director of MQFF eXtra, and Keith Behrman, the director of GIANT LITTLE ONES, which screened at this years Festival.

GIANT LITTLE ONES is a fresh coming of age film that charts the friendship between two popular teen boys, who discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected sexual encounter.

The Queer Screen Film Festival (QSFF) celebrates sexual and gender diversity through queer storytelling on the big screen.

This week on Out Takes, we turned the spotlight on QSFF by speaking with the Director of QSFF, Lisa Rose, about this year’s exciting lineup of fresh new queer films.

We also spoke with Nikki Si’ulepa, the director of Same But Different: A True New Zealand Love Story, which screens at QSFF this year. Same But Different chronicles a romance based on the director’s own love story with Rachel Aneta Wills, who co-produced the film.

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the release of Sophie Hyde’s ANIMALS by looking at the representation of female friendship in queer leaning cinema: think films like STEEL MAGNOLIAS, CLUELESS and Ridley Scott’s now-canonical THELMA AND LOUISE.

Our guest was Sophie Hyde herself, who joined us to talk about her bold new film, ANIMALS, and the broader canon of queer leaning cinema that celebrates female friendship. ANIMALS is now screening in cinemas around the country.

This week on Out Takes we celebrated the iconic cinematic legacy of John Waters.

Waters is a queer cinema auteur and film making icon responsible for cult classics like Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Serial Mom and Hairspray. He’s also known fondly as the ‘Pope of Trash’ and describes himself as a Filth Elder and it’s fair to say he’s been there and done that!

Our guest was John Waters himself, who joins us ahead of his one man show at Hamer Hall in Melbourne this October. We spoke with Waters about his remarkable filmic career, his iconic work with Divine andwhat punters can expect from his upcoming live tour of Australia.

This week on Out Takes, we plunged into the world of Hollywood remakes, in particular we looked at the ways in which Hollywood remakes mirror the sexual politics of their times, and represent sex, gender and sexuality.

Our guest was writer, academic and senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Dr Lauren Rosewarne (pictured), whose new book “Sex and Sexuality in Modern Screen Remakes” examines how sexiness, sexuality and revisited sexual politics are used to modernize film and TV remakes.

This week on Out Takes we waved goodbye to the MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL by reviewing some of our favorite Festival films: think PAIN & GLORY, 5B, THE QUEEN, THE FAREWELL and MATTHIAS & MAXIME.

We also spoke with SEQUIN IN A BLUE ROOM director Samuel Van Grinsven about his film, which screened at the Festival. SEQUIN IN A BLUE ROOM is a fresh new Australian coming of age film set in the modern Grindr era. Congratulations to the MIFF team on a fantastic festival, we look forward to seeing what comes next in 2020!

This week on Out Takes, we plunged into the world of Indian cinema to celebrate the 10th annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

This year’s program features 60 films spanning 21 languages, and focuses on the themes of diversity and courage. Says Festival Director Mitu Bhowmick Lange: “Diversity and inclusivity is at the heart of this year’s programming”.

We kicked off our coverage of the Festival by speaking with Lange herself about this years spate of bold offerings, including its notable queer line up.

We also spoke with Mayur Katariya, the director of Ek Asha, which explores the struggles and prejudice that people of trans experience continue to encounter across India.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is back for 2019, taking over our lives and the entire city from August 1 – 18. Celebrating its 68th year, MIFF will feature 259 feature films, 123 shorts and 16 virtual reality experiences, including 31 world premieres screenings.

This week on Out Takes, we joined cinephiles everywhere to celebrate MIFF, the largest film festival in the Southern Hemisphere!

To help us celebrate, we were joined by MIFF Artistic Director Al Cossar who spoke about this year’s formidable line up, including its diverse line up of queer treats.

We also talked with Anoop Lukkur, the director of ‘Long Distance’, which screens as part of the Accelorator line up at this year’s Festival. ‘Long Distance’ interrogates the tension between sexual and cultural identities against the backdrop of modern day Australia.

This week on Out Takes we explored modern documentaries that continue the tradition of Frank Simon’s ground-breaking and now canonical 1968 documentary ‘The Queen’.

Our first guest was Mark Saxenmeyer, the director & producer of ‘The Queens’ which screened at this year’s Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. ‘The Queens’ explores the transgender subculture of competitive female impersonation within the chaotic atmosphere and excitement of the Miss Continental pageant which has been running for the past 39 years.

Our next guests were Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess, the directors and producers of ‘Morgana’, a fascinating new Australian documentary which chronicles the journey of Morgana Muses who went from being an unhappy housewife in Albury in her mid 40’s to a feminist pornography icon by 50. We spoke to Peppard & Hess about their relationship with the dynamic and enigmatic Morgana, the process of making this extensive project and more. ‘Morgana’ screens this August at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

This week on Out Takes we explored the diverse landscape of queer, modern Asian cinema. These are big questions, so we welcomed a diverse panel of guests into the Out Takes studio to deep dive this growing genre within LGBTIQ cinema.

Our first guest was Raymond Phang, the director of the Shanghai Pride Film Festival. We talked to Raymond about the state of Modern queer Chinese cinema and the restrictions that impede access to queer films in China. We also spoke with Chris Luscri about his short film SAMMY THE SALMON, which recently screened at the Festival.

Finally, we’re speaking with Benson Wu, director of the Taiwan Film Festival, about the state of modern, queer Taiwanese cinema. The Taiwan Film Festival ran from 25 to 28 July in Sydney.