Out Takes

For this Out Takes program, we celebrated the 12th annual Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (HRAFF), which kicked off in Melbourne on May 9. HRAFF is a not-for-profit Festival that explores diverse and inspiring human stories through film and the arts, and uses film as a vehicle to engage audiences in social justice and human rights cause s.

Our guests are HRAFF Program Manager Alice McShane and ‘Being Impossible’ director Patricia Ortega. ‘Being Impossible’ is a somber exploration of gender and identity, and a rare look at intersex life in Colombia. It screens as part of HRAFF this May.

For this Out Takes Easter special, we continued our chocolate binge by looking at films that are (perhaps) better than chocolate: think camp guilty pleasures like Another Gay Movie and Eating Out, kitsch nineties odes to school yard bitchery like Never Been Kissed and Clueless, and weepies like Beaches and Steel Magnolias!

We also looked at some of our favorite, sickly sweet and chocolate packed films that are perfect for this time of year. In fact, we even pitted Mel Stuart’s 1971 take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory against Tim Burton’s 2005 hit to definitely determine which take on Roald Dhal’s classic is the best.

To celebrate the theatrical release of Yen Tan’s 1985, we’re turning our attention to modern AIDS cinema and looking at the ways in which it recalls and recollects the early AIDS crisis.

Our guest was Yen Tan, whose moving new film 1985 has been called “richly hypnotic” and “deeply emotional”.

Set in Texas in 1985, the film charts the journey of Adrian Lester, a closeted gay man, who returns home to tell his family that he is dying of AIDS. Shot on black and white super 16mm film, 1985 takes a unique look at a pivotal moment in American history through the prism of empathy, love and family.

1985 is also just one of a spate of recent films that have sought to re-envisage and recreate the tragedy of the early AIDS crisis.

There have been so many highly acclaimed and loved adaptations of queer books to the big screen that the Out Takes team thought it was time to take a closer look at some of our favourites and also look at a few titles that we thought would make the next great queer film adaptation. We also were inspired by the recent Oscar nominated and highly acclaimed film ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ which began as a confessional autobiography by Lee Israel (and turned into a magnificent performance by Melissa McCarthy) who went from a legitimate and celebrated career as an author of biographies to forging letters in the voices of literary greats.

We looked at some recent standouts (Love Simon, Call Me By Your Name, Disobedience), some old favourites (Brokeback Mountain, Head On, The Color Purple) and a few books that we thought deserved the big screen treatment next.

 

To celebrate the theatrical release of Tim Burton’s live action DUMBO reimagining, the Out Takes team took on the task of queering Burton’s fantastical filmography.

Fom early Burton classics like BEETLEJUICE and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, to new Burton fare like MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, Tim Burton’s cinema has consistently glorified the queer, empowered the vulnerable, and reimagined the banal. And we think that’s worth celebrating!

As we waved goodbye to the 29th Melbourne Queer Film Festival, the Out Takes team took some time out to reflect and look back at some of our Festival highlights and reviewed some of our favourite Festival films.

We also spoke with director Li Cheng about his Guatemalan gay drama, JOSE, which screened as part of the Festival. JOSE is a gentle, coming of age romance and the first film from Central America to be presented in the Venice Film Festival. It was also awarded the Queer Lion in 2018.

As we spent the past few weeks wading deep into the wonderful world of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, we also took a look at the way that queer cinema informs and shapes health practices and behavior in the LGBTIQ+ communities.

We know that cinema has the power to influence the ways that we think about and view the world, and our experiences of it, but does what we see on the big screen shape our health practices? And if so, is queer cinema complicit in perpetuating unhealthy behaviors in the LGBTIQ+ communities?

These are just some of the questions that SMOKESCREEN, a panel initiative hosted by the Melbourne Queer Film Festival in conjunction with Quit Victoria, seeked to address. SMOKE SCREEN was held on 20th March 2019 and explored the links between queer art, film and culture, and our health and human rights. So to coincide with SMOKESCREEN and to help us interrogate health messaging in Queer Cinema, the Out Takes team were joined by SMOKESCREEN moderator Benjamin Law, who has built a reputation for himself as one of Australia’s foremost authors and social commentators alongside Quit Victoria Director Dr Sarah White.

This week on Out Takes, we dived head first into this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) program. In 2019, Melbourne Queer Film Festival heads into its 29th year to showcase the finest, contemporary queer cinema from Australia and beyond in the largest queer film festival in the Southern Hemisphere.

Our guests were MQFF Program Director Spiro Economopoulos and BLACK DIVAZ director Adrian Russell Wills.  Spiro gave his picks of the festival and a few hidden gems not to be missed plus we spoke with Wills about his fabulous documentary BLACK DIVAZ which chronicles the journey of six aboriginal drag queens at the inaugural Miss First Nation Pageant and screens as part of the Festival’s Queer First Nations Shorts.

We also revisited our chat with A KID LIKE JAKE screenwriter Daniel Pearle. A KID LIKE JAKE explores what it’s like to raise a gender non conforming child in modern day New York and screens as part of the Festival’s formidable line up of international films.

This week on Out Takes, we headed to the land of croissants, chardonnay and le cinéma as we celebrated the Alliance Française French Film Festival, which has a remarkably queer line up for 2019.

Our guest was Michel Richard, the Director of the Alliance Française in Melbourne. We’re speaking with Michel about French cinema and his favourite Festival Picks.

We also reviewed a slew of films screening at the Festival, including Philippe Lasage’s ‘Genesis’, Christophe Honore’s ‘Sorry Angel’ and Lukas Dhont’s ‘Girl’.

This week on Out Takes, we waved goodbye to Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival with a guest studded line up.

Our first guest was director Jordan Bryon discussing ‘Birds of the Borderlands’, a powerful look at the lives of queer Arab refugees.

Our second guest was director Marco Berger speaking to us about ‘The Blond One’, a slow burn Argentinian drama that celebrates the gay male gaze.

We also recapped the 2019 Academy Awards and took a closer look at the diverse range of winners and the few surprises that took home an Oscar.