Out Takes

This July 23 marks 53 years since Hollywood icon Montgomery Clift passed away so for this special program the Out Takes team celebrated his remarkable filmic legacy: think queer classics like SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER and Oscar winners like FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.

Our guests were MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT directors Robert Anderson Clift and Hillary Demmon. MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT deconstructs the pop psychology that reduced Clift’s life and his extraordinary career to a Freudian cliche. We spoke with Clift and Demmon about how their documentary pieces together a heretofore unexplored life, and the remarkable queer legacy of one of Hollywood’s finest actors.

This week on Out Takes we dived head first into the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFF) and turned the spotlight on to some of it’s great queer offerings.

Joining us on the program were local film makers Sam McGowan and Logan Mucha, who both have films screening at the Festival.

Sam McGowan is the director of Prom Night, a new documentary that looks at youth, queerness and non binary gender identity in modern Australia. Logan Mucha is the director of We’re All In This Together, a fresh new documentary that explores queer experience and intergenerational connectedness.

The 2019 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival runs from July 19 – 30.

To acknowledge her recent 70th birthday, the Out Takes team took this time to dedicate a program to arguably the most celebrated, beloved and successful actress in this modern era, Meryl Streep (or just Meryl as she is worthy of one name only recognition at this point).

We looked at her Oscar winning roles in Kramer vs Kramer, Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady and dived into her rich filmography for a closer look at some of our favourites including The Hours, Death Becomes Her, Julia & Julia, Doubt and of course The Devil Wears Prada plus so many more.

We also celebrated her philanthropic efforts and her activism for women, civil rights and her overall fabulousness so enjoy this lovefest to the one and only Meryl Streep!

Let us know your favourite Meryl moment too, drop us a line via Facebook and Twitter.

This week on Out Takes, we turned our attention to the question of female representation in Western cinema. We’ve noticed a spate of recent films that have put the lives of women front and center: think indie flicks like THE WIFE and GLORIA BELL or box office hits like CAPTAIN MARVEL.

But despite our observations, the statistics paint a disappointing picture. Women are still dramatically underrepresented on the big screen. But why?

To help us explore this vexed question, we welcomed film maker and academic Lisa French back to the Out Takes studio. Lisa French is the author of ‘Shining a Light: 50 Years of the Australian Film Institute’ and a member of the Gender Matters task force with Screen Australia. We spoke with Lisa about the lack of gender parity in the Australian Film Industry and the issues affecting the rich representation of women in Western cinema.

We also talked to film maker and WIFT board member Andrea Buck. Andrea has worked as a film producer, writer and development executive in Australia, Hollywood and South Africa.

For this week on Out Takes, we explored how loneliness and companionship take shape in queer cinema: think new queer cinema classics like MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, literary masterpieces like A SINGLE MAN, and John Butler’s PAPI CHULO.

PAPI CHULO centres around Sean (Matt Bomer), a newly-single TV weatherman who is put on leave following an on-air meltdown, so he directs his energy into home improvement and hires a middle-aged Latino day laborer named Ernesto (Alejandro Patiño) to help. Despite a language barrier and having nothing in common, the two men develop an unexpected but profound friendship.

Our guest was PAPI CHULO director John Butler, who joined us last year when his charming take on friendship, HANDSOME DEVIL, first hit cinemas. We spoke with Butler about how his films mediate the queer experience of lonliness and friendship, and where PAPI CHULO sits in the queer canon.

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the 66th Sydney Film Festival, which kicked off on June 6. For 12 thrilling days, the Sydney Film Festival will play home to over 250 films from across the globe, as well as a diverse collection of queer and LGBT leaning films.

We looked at some of the great queer flicks that you can catch at this year’s Festival with special guests Samuel Van Grinsven, the director of Sequin in a Blue Room, and Em Baker, the director of I Am No Bird.

Sequin in a Blue Room tells the story of high schooler Sequin and his search for meaning in the cold world of anonymous online dating apps. I am No Bird documents the weddings of four different couples from four corners of the globe to unpack what marriage really means to women in the modern age.

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the theatrical release of ROCKETMAN, Dexter Fletcher’s trippy new homage to Elton John, by taking stock of queer musical biopics: think panegyric musicals like BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, theatrical fantasies like HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, and stage adaptations like DREAMGIRLS.

ROCKETMAN is an epic musical fantasy about Elton John’s breakthrough years. The film follows the fantastical journey oftransformation from shy piano prodigy Reginald Dwight into international superstar Elton John.

ROCKETMAN premiered to rave reviews at Cannes earlier this month, but will it become a box office behemoth like BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY? Or a canonical fixture like HEDWIG? We put the full spotlight on Fletcher’s flamboyant new musicalROCKETMAN to if it has what it takes to become the next watershed queer musical biopic!

We also had a fantastic Rocketman prize pack to giveaway on air courtesy of our friends at Paramount Pictures Australia. Rocketman is in cinmeas from May 30

For this special Out Takes, we celebrated JOY’s Radiothon, the annual drive to promote JOY and it’s fabulous family of members and volunteers. This year’s Radiothon theme was LOVE, JOY so we took this as an opportunity to let the world know how much we love CINEMA, and how much we love QUEER CINEMA, and how much we love QUEER LOVE CINEMA.

Our first guest was Bali Padda, Diversity Advisor and Industry Development Executive at Screen Australia. We spoke with Padda about how important our local film industry is and why diversity on screen matters.

We also spoke with Marcelo Martinessi, the director of The Heiresses, which is an endearing look at love, relationships, class, age and the coming of (middle) age. It was the perfect companion piece to the love films that discussed as we looked at our favorite queer love films ♥

This week on Out Takes we turned our attention to modern coming out and coming of age cinema: think queer indie flicks like CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and 1985 and commercial hits like LOVE SIMON.

Our guest was , the director of GIANT LITTLE ONES, which sold out when it screened at this year’s Mardi Gras Film Festival and screens later this month at the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival. GIANT LITTLE ONES tells the story of two best friends who discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected sexual encounter on the night of a 17th birthday party. We spoke with Behrman about his joyous new film, and how new queer coming of age films are reflecting a modern sexual sensibility.

This week on Out Takes, we celebrated the 30th GLAAD Media Awards, which recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTIQ communities and the issues affecting their lives. In particular, we looked at the suite of films nominated for their nuanced portrayals of LGBTIQ life.

Our guest was Megan Townsend, the Director of Entertainment Research and Analysis at GLAAD/ We spoke with Townsend about the importance of the Awards and some of the other fantastic work that GLAAD does.

We also revisited our conversations with the directors of 1985, Disobedience, The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Boy Erased, which all recieved nominations at this year’s Awards: Yen Tan, Sebastian Lelio, Desiree Akhavan and Joel Edgerton.

Pictured: Beyonce & Jay Z, joint recepients of the Vanguard Award at the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards.