Le ragazze non piangono (Girls Don’t Cry)

Le ragazze non piangono (Girls Don’t Cry), dir. Andrea Zuliani, 2022, Italy, 105 min., in Italian with English subtitles 😐

Saturday, June 17, 1:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Girls Don’t Cry

Ele is 19, living in southern Italy, still reeling from the loss of her father and determined to fix up the family’s broken-down camper van. Mia buttonholes a friend to help Ele get the camper van working, but then suddenly needs to get home to Romania as quickly as possible, with Ele her only hope. Thus begins a spur-of-the-moment road trip, with plenty of new people and wild adventures along the way, but also plenty of secrets threatening to crash the party. Both young women seem to be incapable or unwilling to put any real thought into the practical realities of a 2,000+ kilometer journey in a gas-guzzling camper van that is well past its prime, to say the very least.

I didn’t find the main characters very relatable, and several bits of the plot felt contrived or heavy handed. It’s not a terrible way to spend a couple of hours, but the best I can give it is “meh.”

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Coming Around

Coming Around, dir. Sandra Itäinen, 2023, USA, 75 min., in English and Arabic with English subtitles, closed captioned [see note] 👏

Thursday, June 22, 1:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Coming Around

“We are here. We are queer. We are Muslim. We are both, relentlessly without contradiction and without apology.” Coming Around follows Eman, an out and proud activist in New York who becomes much more subdued when she goes home to Missouri to visit her traditional Muslim mother. She even starts dating a cisgender man, giving her mother hope that she can get right with God, but will it last? The mother is portrayed in a compassionate and balanced way, devout but not rigid, loving her daughter unconditionally, genuinely and respectfully seeking to understand the issues surrounding her life. It’s a story you haven’t seen before with this level of complexity and nuance. Well worth seeing, highly recommended.

Note regarding subtitles and closed captions: The portions of the dialogue in Arabic, and a few portions of the English dialogue, are subtitled (open captions). There are also English closed captions, but they sometimes conflict. For example, in the Arabic portions, the subtitles give the translation but the closed captions only say “[speaking foreign language],” with the two captions overlapping visually.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Facebook: @ComingAroundFilm •

Venuseffekten (Venus Effect)

Venuseffekten (Venus Effect), dir. Anna Emma Haudal, 2021, Denmark, 105 min., in Danish with English subtitles 👏

Saturday, June 17, 8:00 pm, New Parkway in Oakland + streaming encore

Venuseffekten

Twentysomething Liv (Johanne Milland, pictured right) has grown up on her family’s farm outside Copenhagen. She’s comfortable in her routine, tending her greenhouse. But then Andrea (Josephine Park, left) shows up, frantically trying to get to the city for a bachelorette party (for which she is dressed as a pussy). Liv is immediately drawn to Andrea and finds herself moving ever closer, even as her familiar circumstances shift almost before her eyes: her parents’ marriage is falling apart, as is her own relationship with her boyfriend Sebastian. It’s an engaging story, with Liv’s lesbian awakening only one piece of her coming into fully independent adulthood. Highly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Amazon link for the Blu-Ray [imported from Denmark] • Apple TV (DK) • Danish Film Institute •

Casa Izabel (House of Izabel)

Casa Izabel (House of Izabel), dir. Gil Baroni, 2022, Brazil, 84 min., in Portuguese with full English subtitles 😐

Monday, June 19, 5:45 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

🌎 North American première

Casa Izabel

First, two bits of useful backstory not in the film itself: One, Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, and two, this fictional story is loosely inspired by the true story of Casa Susanna as depicted in a documentary in this festival.

Casa Izabel is set in 1970, somewhere in the Brazilian countryside. A group of men gather to dress up and take on the personae of glamorous women, with the solemn promise to leave the outside world (and their outside identities) at the door. The founder of the retreat, Izabel, is a semi-invalid, holed up in her quarters watching home movies of previous years’ get-togethers. But some melodrama is afoot, with suspicions rising even faster than the missing persons list. Is there an infiltrator among the guests? What happened to the cook’s (other) son?

There are some fun parts of this movie, but on the whole “pulpy period melodrama” really isn’t my schtick, and I wasn’t terribly impressed by the mystery angle in the story. Still, if you like that kind of thing, you may enjoy Casa Izabel, but I can’t really recommend it for general audiences. I give it a “meh.”

• IMDb page • Official website [http] • trailer •

Out of Uganda

Out of Uganda, dir. Rolando Colla & Josef Burri, 2023, Switzerland, 65 min., in English and in French and German with English subtitles throughout 💖 •

🌎 North American première

Tuesday, June 20, 2:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Out of Uganda

In Uganda, a homophobic press, homophobic religious groups (with active encouragement from U.S. groups), and homophobic politicians have come together to create an LGBTQ+ hellscape of almost unimaginable breadth and depth, advocating and ultimately legislating the death penalty for homosexuality.

It’s not easy to watch a story this gruesome, but it is important that we not turn our backs. Definitely a MUST SEE. Even long after these ghastly laws are repealed, we must bear witness that these human beings faced such inhumane treatment.

• IMDb page [Colla] [Burri] • Official website • trailer •

How to Tell a Secret

How to Tell a Secret, dir. Anna Rodgers & Shaun Dunne, 2022, Ireland, 99 min., fully closed captioned 💖

Sunday, June 18, 1:30 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

How to Tell a Secret

Shaun Dunne wrote and produced a play about his own process of disclosing his HIV+ status. Six years later, he inter­weaves rehearsals for the play with a story­tell­ing work­shop and a public presenta­tion for World AIDS Day, talking about the per­sis­tent stigma in Irish culture and the cor­res­pond­ing per­sis­tence of high rates of HIV trans­mis­sion. It’s a powerful story, and not just because I love an Irish accent. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Hidden Master: the Legacy of George Platt Lynes

Hidden Master: the Legacy of George Platt Lynes, dir. Sam Shahid, 2023, USA, 96 min. 💖

Saturday, June 24, 3:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

George Platt Lynes

George Platt Lynes was born in 1907. An aspiring writer, he traveled to Paris when he was 18, becoming a close asso­ci­ate of Gertrude Stein, Glenway Wescott, and Monroe Wheeler. He gradually realized that his talents lay more in the area of photography than writing, and he became a fash­ion photographer, also doing quite a few celebrity portraits, but the work that inspired his greatest passion was his male nudes. Of course, in the early to mid 20th century, there was no commercial outlet for male nude photog­ra­phy; indeed, merely possessing male nudes was a dangerous business, and sending them through the U.S. mail could be considered a federal crime.

This documentary dives into the life, career, and legacy of an artist who was almost forgotten by history, exploring the network of gay artists and cultural figures among whom George Platt Lynes was very much in his element. The photographs are stunningly beautiful, and the story behind them is compelling, elevating his memory and his legacy for future generations. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer (n/a) •

老ナルキソス (Ro narukisosu • Old Narcissus) 🔞

老ナルキソス (Ro narukisosu • Old Narcissus), dir. 東海林 毅 Tsuyoshi Shōji, 3034, Japan, 110 min., in Japanese with English subtitles 👍

Sunday, June 18, 6:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Old Narcissus

Yamazaki is a septua­ge­nar­ian (which he explains to Leo means he is in his 70s) author of children’s books. He hires Leo, a sex worker, for a little BDSM play. Over the ensuing weeks and months, Yamazaki and Leo become closer as they find commonalities in their lives, even across two generations. In the back­ground is the compli­cated reality of LGBTQ life in Japan, where, for example, hetero­sexual marriage is recog­nized nationally, but same-sex domestic partner­ships are granted by local auth­ori­ties and thus only valid while the couple live in that region. The two go on a road trip, chasing someone from Yamazaki’s past.

This film contains vio­lence and sexual acti­vity, but my main hesi­ta­tion in recom­mend­ing it is that I often felt like I was missing important cultural references. There were also a few points where a plot thread just dropped away without my being able to understand how it was resolved. Interesting and recommended for mature audi­ences.

• IMDb page • Official website [in Japanese] • trailer 🔞 • Twitter: @rounaro_0520 •

Norwegian Dream

Norwegian Dream, dir. Leiv Igor Devold, 2023, Norway/‌Poland/‌Germany, 97 min., in English, Norwegian, and Polish with full closed captions throughout 👍

Sunday, June 18, 4:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore (California only)

Norwegian Dream

Robert (Hubert Milkowski, pictured right) is a Polish immi­grant working in a fish-processing factory in Norway. Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland, left) is the adopted son of the owner of the plant, but wants to take a very different path in life. The two are drawn to one another, but complications arise from both men’s families, plus the fact that the workers are organizing a strike against the factory owner.

I really wanted to love this film, but I kept finding myself drawn out of the story, partly because it is often bleak and gray, like the surrounding landscape, but mostly because I never felt like I was seeing beyond the surface of the characters’ lives. I’ll give it a “recommended” rating, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

Note: the dialogue is in Norwegian and Polish with English subtitles and in English without subtitles, but it is fully closed-captioned in English.

• IMDb page • Official website [in Norwegian] • other official website [en/no] • trailer • Facebook: @NorwegianDream.Film •

Before I Change My Mind

Before I Change My Mind, dir. Trevor Anderson, 2022, Canada, 89 min. 💖
Saturday, June 17, 3:30 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Before I Change My Mind

In 1987, Robin (Vaughan Murrae, pictured) has just moved with their single father from Spokane to a small town in Alberta, Canada. On their first day in a new school, they walk into the Sex Education class, with the boys sitting on one side of the gym and the girls on the other side; they walk through and sit exactly on the center line. The other kids aren’t sure what to make of them, but gradually Robin con­nects with a couple of their class­mates, though not always in a healthy way. We follow them and their father as they try to find their niche in a new place.

Before I Change My Mind is remarkable on multiple counts. First of all, filmmaker Trevor Anderson has had several shorts at Frameline (Rock Pockets, Frameline31 “Best Mates”; The Man That Got Away, Frameline37 “Something Real”; Docking, Frameline43 “Animation Shorts”; plus The Little Deputy, 2015, Frameline39, “Fun in Boys Shorts”) — but this is their first feature length film. The shorts were all pretty good, but this feature is excellent, befitting a far more experienced filmmaker. But more than that, Before I Change My Mind is a confident entry in the relatively sparse category of non-binary coming-of-age films. We’ve seen coming-of-age films with main characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and even intersex, but very few non-binary coming-of-age films. I won’t spoil the plot, but I can tell you that we get to the end of the story without knowing for sure whether Robin was assigned male or female at birth, or whether their gender iden­tity leans at all to one polarity or the other. At times, Robin comes across as a gay boy, a straight boy, a straight girl, and even a lesbian.

Like their classmates in the film, I found myself initially trying to figure out how to pigeon­hole them, but I made a con­scious deci­sion to let go of that specu­la­tion and go with the ambi­gu­ity, and I recom­mend that you, the viewer, do the same. After all, the one thing we can say for cer­tain is that Robin is not a pigeon. Again, no spoilers, but there’s a plot twist at the very end that puts the matter in an unex­pec­ted new light.

I definitely put this film into the MUST SEE category, and will be keeping an eye out for future works from this virtuoso filmmaker.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Instagram: @Trevor_eh •

Fun in Shorts: The Joker Tarot

“Fun in Shorts: The Joker Tarot” (shorts program)

Sunday, June 18, 11:00 am, Castro + streaming encore

AC Unit, dir. Grace Godvin, 2023, USA, 13 min. 🫤 • 🌐 World premiere

Agents of Change – Project: Polymer, dir. Jett Garrison, 2023, USA, 15 min. 🫤

Cock ’n Bull 3, dir. Nathan Adloff, 2022, USA, 24 min. 👎

Daddy Issues, dir. Matt Campanella & Stephanie Chloé Hepner, 2023, USA, 5 min. 👏

Dilating for Maximum Results, dir. Nyala Moon, 2023, USA, 14 min. 💖

Diomysus, dir. Emily Morus-Jones, 2022, UK, 5 min. 👏

A History of Sitting in Waiting Rooms (or Whatever Longer Title You Prefer), dir. Lorena Russi, 2023, USA, 9 min. 👏

Troy, dir. Mike Donahue, 2022, USA, 16 min. 👏

QWOCMAP and Frameline Streaming

The QWOCMAP Queer Women of Color International Film Festival is streaming online, now through June 30, FREE, available worldwide. There is one feature-length narrative film, Ginger & Honey Milk (虹色の朝が来るまで, Nijiiro no Asa ga Kuru made), directed by Mika Imai, a deaf and non-binary Japanese filmmaker, about a complicated love quadrilateral. (The feature-length documentary Unseen (official website) is unfortu­nate­ly not available via streaming.) The closing program, “Mycelial Care,” is a pair of documentaries about indigenous Americans: Historias de Cultura: Oaxaca en Santa Cruz (Comida), dir. Megan Martinez Goltz, and Powerlands, dir. Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso (official website). In addition, there are three programs of short films, all of which were quite good and some of which were truly excellent.

The Frameline47 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is streaming online, now through July 2, either by a streaming pass or by individual tickets, available on the Frameline website. I have written up the ones I saw in the theater, and will add to the list as I stream more titles.

FL47 Streaming Guide

Frameline47 has wrapped up its theatrical presentation, but we still have a week to stream most of the films. I will be adding reviews of films as I stream them, but to start you off on your streaming adventure, here is a summary of the films I saw in theaters that you can now stream at Frameline.org. The links below take you to my reviews, which contain links to Frameline, the trailer, IMDb, and, where available, the film’s official website.

Chasing Chasing Amy

Chasing Chasing Amy, dir. Sav Rodgers, 2023, USA, 85 min. 👏

Friday, June 23, 1:15 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Joey, Sav, Kevin
(photo: Brad Garrison)

Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob, etc.) also made the film Chasing Amy, in which Ben Affleck pursues Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian comic book artist. The film has always been controversial, primarily because it is a story about a lesbian as told by a straight white cis-male, but in its time it was groundbreaking, and there are to this day many people whose lives were influenced by it, including documentarian Sav Rodgers.

Rodgers got to do extensive interviews with Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, and others, examining both why the film had such an impact on many people and why it remains so controversial. Through the midst of all this, Rodgers gets engaged and also begins transi­tion­ing as a transman. The resulting documen­tary weaves the per­son­al events with the underly­ing focus in a compelling story of a complex interplay of attachment to a film with some problematic aspects to it. It’s thoughtful and thought-provoking. Definitely a must see for fans of Chasing Amy or its stars, and highly recommended for all audiences.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious, dir. Jason Karman, 2022, Canada, 120 min. 💖

Monday, June 19, 8:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Golden Delicious
photo credit: Syd Won

Jake Wong (Cardi Wong, pictured foreground) is a senior in high school in Vancouver, B.C. His long-time girlfriend Veronica, who posts them on “Robogram” as “J-Pop and Vee,” wants to take their relationship to a new level of phys­i­cality. Meanwhile, his father is pressuring him to carry out his own unfulfilled dreams of basketball glory, and a new neighbor, Aleks, moves in across the alleyway — com­plete with basketball skills and an openly queer Robo­gram profile. Jake struggles to figure out what he wants to do with his life while caught in the conflicting expectations of family, friends, and girl­friend, all under the glaring spotlight of social media, with the entire school knowing every morsel of gossip in the blink of an eye.

It’s a beautifully done portrait of a complicated moment in Jake’s life, portrayed with understanding and humor. It was clearly influenced by the John Hughes movies of the 1980s, but finds its own clear, confident voice as Jake strives to find his. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • Instagram/Facebook: @GoldenDeliciousFilm • trailer •

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screening with Golden Delicious (in theater; in the streaming encore in the “Shorts: The World Tarot” program) is the short film Fish Boy (魚仔), dir. Christopher Yip (葉穎輝), 2023, Canada, 11 min., in English and Cantonese with English subtitles 👏

Fish Boy

Patrick (Ian Chen of Fresh Off the Boat, pictured) is a 16-year-old Asian Canadian boy, an avid swimmer, struggling with his love for God and the messages he often hears from church and society. As he explores questions of faith, love, and poly­am­o­ry, something changes in his skin.

It’s a well-made short, definitely highly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Twitter/‌Instagram/‌LinkedIn: @ChristopherSYip •

Big Boys

Big Boys, dir. Corey Sherman, 2023, USA, 88 min. 💖

Saturday, June 17, 3:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Honorable Mention: best first feature (Frameline47 jury award)

Big Boys

14-year-old Jamie is going on a camping trip with his older brother Will and their cousin Allie, but Allie surprises them by bringing along her boyfriend Dan. Jamie then has to wrestle (and at one point arm wrestle) with having a crush on Dan, leading to all sorts of awkward situations and complicated feelings. The story is told with grace and compassion, with excellent performances from all the actors. It’s not a laugh riot, but more of a gentle comedy. Highly recommended, a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

The Mattachine Family

The Mattachine Family, dir. Andy Valentine, 2023, USA, 99 min. 👎

Thursday, June 15, 6:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Two gay men, one a pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­pher and the other a former child star whose career took a nose­dive when he was outed in the tab­loid press, are wrestling with the question of, Should we have kids? There are many options, from foster kids to adop­tion to surrogacy, each with its own pros and cons. Mean­while, some of their friends are wading into parent­hood as well.

It’s a premise rich with poten­tial for a dramedy, with some strong acting per­for­mances and a few recog­niz­able faces. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the main char­ac­ter (Thomas, the afore­men­tioned pho­tog­ra­pher, played by Nico Tortorella, pic­tured second from right) is long on pouting and whining, and short on genuine moments of relatability. Why do so many film­makers think audiences want to watch a bunch of whiny characters bickering?? By about a third of the way through the film, I had lost all sense of con­nec­tion to Thomas, and I never regained it. You can cer­tain­ly find worse ways to spend two hours, but you can also find better. Not rec­om­mended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn, dir. Timothy Harris, USA, 95 min. 👏

Thursday, June 15, 3:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

In 2018, Malcolm Kenyatta, an openly gay black man, won election to the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives, representing North Philadelphia, one of the poorest districts in the state. In 2022, with his fiancé at his side, he announced that he was running for the United States Senate. It was mostly a three-person race against John Fetterman (spoiler alert: he won the primary and is now a Senator) and Conor Lamb, plus an also-ran who appeared late in the race. Fetterman are both from the Pittsburgh area, so there was a little geographic rivalry involved, too.

The question of “electability” loomed large, mostly thinly veiled doubts about a gay Black man getting votes, especially in conservative rural parts of Pennsylvania, but there was also the problem that people wouldn’t donate to the campaign because not many people were donating to the campaign — indeed, one of the campaign workers shows off socks emblazoned with “🐔 ? 🥚 ?” — but Kenyatta did get some significant endorsements from labor groups and even the mayor of Fetterman’s home town. Kenyatta’s run raised his visibility, so the next time he runs for higher office, he will be a force to be reckoned with. This film is an excellent introduction to a politician you will want to know more about. Highly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Restorations & Revivals: The Ace of Swords

“Restorations & Revivals: The Ace of Swords”

Wednesday, June 14, 5:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Before the official opening night film, Frameline presented two recently restored films.

Audre Lorde: Greetings
from Washington, D.C.

Greetings from Washington, D.C., dir. Lucy Winer, 1989, USA, 28 min. 👏

chronicles the first National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights on Sunday, October 14, 1979. It’s a well-made documentary, beautifully restored. This time capsule of the early days of national organizing for LGBTQ+ rights is well worth preserving and well worth seeing. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • trailer •

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Resonance (1991)

Resonance, dir. Stephen Cummins, 1991, Australia, 11 min. 👍

A gay man gets bashed in the back streets of Sydney, but a good samaritan comes to his rescue. The two men, plus the basher and his girlfriend, interplay dance (including choreographed fight scenes) and gesture as they come to grips with what happened. Recommended, with a content warning. This film has been available through Frameline Distribution for some time, but has now been restored to look like new.

• IMDb • Frameline Distribution • trailer •