NEW QUEER VISIONS: WE, THEY, SHE, HE

Venue: Miranda, Ace Hotel

Bespoke festival ‘bolt-on’ New Queer Visions returns, this time with an exciting residence at the East End Film Festival at the Miranda. A feast of LGBTQ films from across the globe, celebrating characters coming in from the edge—to challenge perceptions, excite senses and invert the discourse. Come and be a part of the action.Miranda

PEACOCK
Dir: Ondrej Hudecek

UP ON THE ROOF
Dir: Damiá Serra Cauchetiez

MADDY
Dir: Devon Kirkpatrick

DINNER CONFESSION
Dir: Chih-Jen Lin

THE GAY BOMBAY TALENT SHOW
Dir: Ashish Sawhny

11 LIFE LESSONS FROM AN AWESOME OLD DYKE
Dir: Allison Khoury

BALCONY
Dir: Toby Fell-Holden

DAWN
Dir: Jake Graf

DESIRE (WORK IN PROGRESS SCREENING)
Dir: Campbell X

Followed by Q&A with directors.
BUY TICKETSA percentage of ticket sales will be donated to The Gay Bombay Group.

Strike a Pose

When seven young male dancers were plucked from the New York drag-ball scene to appear in Madonna’s Vogue music video, they never could have envisaged what life had in store for them. Embarking on the 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour, they would become global icons for the gay community, making vogueing a global phenomenon and forming a kind of surrogate family with the Queen of Pop, as seen in the movie In Bed With Madonna (1991). Revisiting their stories 25 years on, Strike a Pose is open, emotional retelling of the highs of fame and stardom, and the hardships of dealing with the fall once it’s all over.

Followed by Q&A with the filmmaker Ester Gould and original Madonna dancer Kevin Stea. Introduced by the delectable voguers House of Shabazz. 

Tickets available from the Rio Cinema website here.

After party at VFD, for more information click here.

 

Transit Havana

Odette, Juani and Malú are awaiting gender realignment, courtesy of Europe’s best surgeons. They are the beneficiaries of a programme established by Fidel Castro’s daughter Mariela, who is being credited with leading a sexual revolution under the auspices of the socialist state. Marking a sea change in the lives of Cuban trans people, they nevertheless face the difficulties of bigotry, poverty and prostitution, all themes that are sensitively explored in this truly touching documentary.

Tickets available from the Rio Cinema website here.

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Uncle Howard

Filmmaker Aaron Brookner delves into the fascinating and tragic story of his uncle Howard, a filmmaker and major player in the 70s and 80s cultural revolution that defined New York’s Lower East Side. Rediscovering Howard’s life and influence through interviews with family and friends such as Jim Jarmusch, much of the film focuses on Howard Brookner’s relationship with William Burroughs, with the former’s unfinished film project languishing inside a locked apartment building, unseen. Loaded with electrifying archive footage, this is unparalleled insight into a vibrant period of queer and NYC history, with a moving personal dimension.

Followed by a Q&A. Tickets available from the Rio Cinema website here.

Little Men (2nd Screening)

American master Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Love is Strange) returns with one of the best films of the year. Jake and Tony are two 13 year olds who form a deep friendship in the aftermath of the death of Jake’s grandfather. But the family bereavement also brings the shop run by Tony’s mother into the hands of Jake’s parents (Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle), whose plan to raise the rent leads to an increasingly bitter feud, and threatens the boys’ friendship. A perfectly drawn, achingly sympathetic character drama with subtle insights into the true nature of gentrification, those not driven to tears by Sachs’ latest opus may well be made of stone.

Tickets available on the Electric website here.

 

Little Men

American master Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Love is Strange) returns with one of the best films of the year. Jake and Tony are two 13 year olds who form a deep friendship in the aftermath of the death of Jake’s grandfather. But the family bereavement also brings the shop run by Tony’s mother into the hands of Jake’s parents (Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle), whose plan to raise the rent leads to an increasingly bitter feud, and threatens the boys’ friendship. A perfectly drawn, achingly sympathetic character drama with subtle insights into the true nature of gentrification, those not driven to tears by Sachs’ latest opus may well be made of stone.

Tickets available from the Picturehouse website here

Desire Will Set You Free

A richly funny, touching and meandering walk through Berlin’s queer scene, the debut feature from Yony Leyser (William Burroughs: A Man Within) is based on his own life as an American living in the city. Following Ezra (Leyser) on an odyssey through Berlin’s subcultural life, his journey takes in the clubs, drugs, and creativity of the scene, where is joined by his Nazi-paraphernalia obsessed best friend Catharine, and new crush Sasha, whose relationship with his own sexuality and gender is more mysterious than it first appears. A convincing delve into the neon gloam of Berlin and both expatriate and refugee life, also featuring luminaries of the scene Nina Hagen, Blood Orange, Rummelsnuff, Sookee, Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and Peaches.

 

Followed by a Q&A. Tickets available from the Rio Cinema website here.

After party at Dalston Superstore, for more information click here.

 

Author: The JT Leroy Story

One of the greatest scandals ever to envelop the literary world, the unmasking of “it boy” author Jeremiah ‘Terminator’ Leroy by New York magazine in 2005 is the type of stranger than fiction story tailor-made for the movies. Hailed as a literary sensation for his tough prose and having overcome an abusive, drug addled childhood, LeRoy was revealed not to be the transgender child of a truck stop prostitute, but the invention of 40-year-old San Francisco phone-sex operator Laura Albert. And having drawn the devotion of the likes of Tom Waits, Gus Van Sant, Madonna and Winona Ryder, many of whom appear in the film on tape, there would be hell to pay when the truth came out. A fantastic account of the tallest of tales.opencity-logo
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Tickets available from the Picturehouses website here.

Screening in partnership with Open City.