Poppy Liu on Their Curious Character in the Very Queer 'Dead Ringers'

"When you watch her, you’re kind of like What drives you?” actor and artist Poppy Liu says of their character Greta, the sartorially gifted assistant/housekeeper to Rachel Weisz’s brilliant and codependent Mantle twins in the new Dead Ringers series. The wild and often unhinged Elliot and her more reserved sister Beverly play out games of codependency in their sterile Manhattan flat while Greta lingers almost out of frame continually observing their rarified world. It’s not clear until several episodes into the Prime Video series what Greta’s motives are, but even as she’s at the margins of many of the scenes, it’s impossible not to notice her front-row voyeurism. And that act of looking is part of Greta’s contribution to the series that is queer to the core.

“For her, I think it’s art, it’s observation. It’s like performance. One thing that feels really queer about this show is this performative element of it,” says Liu. “Even just aesthetically, how every day she remakes herself. Her hair is different every single time you see her. She looks like a different person.”

“That’s deeply queer to be like, every day, I can remake myself. And every day, I’m a different version of myself. Life is a performance. How I show up to it as a performance,” adds the Hacks and iCarly star.

“There are no fixed rules. I’m really fluid. And you really see that in this character, just how she shows up in the world,” says Liu, who is nonbinary and queer.

Courtesy Prime Video

Created by playwright Alice Birch, Dead Ringers is loosely based on David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychosexual thriller of the same name that starred Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists who share everything including a medical practice and lovers. With Weisz — who wowed audiences (queer women in particular) with back-to-back queer roles in Disobedience (2017) and The Favourite (2018) — in the central role, the series was bound to have plenty of LGBTQ+ appeal. But there’s no shortage of women-loving-women characters, including Beverly, who falls in love with Britne Oldford’s Genevieve, an actress and a patient of theirs that Elliot procures for her sister. If that weren’t enough, Jennifer Ehle plays Rebecca, a wealthy benefactor and lesbian in the vein of Kathe Sackler, whose pharmaceutical family is responsible for the opioid epidemic. Beyond the show’s overtly LGBTQ+ characters, queerness is baked into every frame.

“The description for Greta, actually, is that she’s asexual,” Liu says. “It’s not explicitly there, but it was a big touchstone for me to hold on to, which makes a lot of sense for her.”

Dead Ringers’ prescient story follows Beverly and Elliot as they seek funding for — and with a financial assist from Rebecca — launch high-tech birthing centers that offer wealthy people who can become pregnant newfangled options for experiencing birth. At the same time, Beverly attempts a normal loving relationship with Genevieve while Elliot, on her own for the first time, spins out with jealousy. All the while, Greta watches and later begins to collect detritus, tissue samples, and more from the Mantle home for reasons revealed near the close of the series. In viewing the series, Greta is a completely new kind of character — a Gucci-clad housekeeper with a mysterious agenda. But Liu initially passed on the part.

“When I first read just the description, because the character was written [as] an Asian kind-of home caretaker role — being a diasporic Chinese person, I feel wary of being an immigrant person of color playing a service role.”

Eventually, Liu was convinced that Greta was a new kind of character and became fascinated with her presence in the Mantle twins’ lives. Greta’s wardrobe became key to that difference. And Liu worked with costume designer Keri Langerman on setting Greta apart by dressing her to the nines even as she’s invisible to the Mantles on occasions like Beverly’s latest miscarriage (part of the twins birthing experiments) or the morning after Genevieve’s first sleepover.

“She’s using her own superpower of being an immigrant person in a service role to be like, ‘I am invisible in this very elitist world of the Mantle twins,” Liu says. “Me, their housekeeper, I can just go by unnoticed. I run their daily lives. She turned the invisibility of that service rule into a superpower.”

Of course, the series that centers on birth is also rife with mothers — new mothers, would-be mothers like Beverly, absent mothers, and more. And the whole mother piece of the show is part of what makes Dead Ringers stand out as a queer series, Liu explains.

“I think it’s deeply queer to have so many unresolved mommy issues. That’s one of the driving themes is deep mommy issues,” says Liu, who gave birth in 2022. They note that the subject of mommy issues is a frequent topic with friends.

“We’re never not processing our our inherited traumas. We’re never not processing our relationship to our parents. We’re never not processing intergenerational stuff,” Liu says.

And speaking of mommies, Weisz’s queer roles cemented her status as a “mommy” for many queer women on social media, especially following her role as a plotting duchess who sported leather riding gear or corseted cleavage in The Favourite. Liu concurs that Weisz’s dual roles in Dead Ringers help make the show unequivocally queer.

“Rachel Weisz is a queer icon. She’s very capital ‘M’ mother in many ways,” Liu says, noting the show’s potential appeal to the mommy issues crowd. “I feel like the queer community has never not been a Rachel Weisz stan. It’s exciting to see the [online] response of ‘It’s Rachel Weisz, times two — mommies!’

Keep reading...

The political situation for LGBTQ+ Americans in the U.S. feels perilous as of late, with book bans, “grooming” smears, and an unhinged political party happy to use queer people as scapegoats. Still, for many LGBTQ+ people around the world, life in America and other Western nations is still preferable to the homophobic and transphobic terror they face in their countries. As pointed out by Asylum, the new photo book shot by Italian fashion lenser and director Umberto Nicola Nicoletti, more than 40 percent of the world’s nations still impose prison sentences or the death penalty just for being LGBTQ+.

Asylum tells the stories and shows the faces — that display fear, hope, determination — of individuals desperately trying to escape their circumstances and make their way to better lives. But a step up is never guaranteed; many LGBTQ+ refugees face double discrimination in their destinations, for being both queer and foreign. Double that prejudice when LGBTQ+ refugees find themselves surviving in refugee camps, where many are subjected to assaults by other migrants. Nicoletti hopes Asylum — which features an introduction from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi — humanizes these émigrés to those who may view them as dangerous or simply nuisances. “The aim of this project is to give these individuals the identity they are often deprived of when they are reduced to an indistinct mass — and to show the world their true beauty,” Nicoletti states.

Asylum is available May 16 from Rizzoli on amazon.com and other booksellers.

Keep reading...

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, has called for a boycott of the Los Angeles Dodgers’s Pride Night after the team rescinded a community award to a nonprofit LGBTQ+ group.

In a statement posted on social media on Wednesday, the Dodgers said that while they are proud to celebrate their 10th Pride Night on June 16, they would be removing the group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from the honorees.

Garcia, who previously served as the mayor of Long Beach, Calif., near L.A., called out the decision.

“At a time when the Dodgers should be embracing the strength of our diversity, they are instead trying to divide our LGBTQ+ community,” the out lawmaker said in a statement provided to The Advocate. “Los Angeles is better than this cowardice and deserves better from the Dodgers. Our community should boycott this ‘pride night’ and protest this decision. We’ll see if they choose to be on the right side of history.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which features drag performers in saintly or nun-like attire, began in 1979 in San Francisco and centers on philanthropy and community service. They also promote "human rights, respect for diversity, and spiritual enlightenment. We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency, and guilt that chain the human spirit."

Conservatives, including Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, had criticized the inclusion of the sisters at Pride Night before the Dodgers made the announcement.

Rubio called the sisters an “anti-Catholic group of activist drag queen performers” and “who mock the faith with the motto ‘Go forth and sin some more!’

In a statement, the group said they were disappointed in the Dodgers’ decision and said the team bowed to pressure from outside of California.

"We are both silly and serious. We use our flamboyance in service to our charity work and our message, which is, 'There is room in our world for each person to be who they are, as they are, free from shame or guilt, and alive in joy and love for their own self,'" the sisters wrote. "While we may no longer appear on Dodgers Pride Night we will be out on the streets of Los Angeles continuing to serve and uplift our community."

They added, "If being true to oneself with love, joy, and pride is a sin, then we, having been canceled by the New York Post, and now the Dodgers, will do what we always do. We will out and sin some more."

Keep reading...

At a time when drag performances are under attack in conservative states, San Francisco has named the nation’s first drag laureate.

The honor goes to D’Arcy Drollinger, a popular drag performer and owner of the Oasis nightclub, the Associated Press reports. During last year’s Pride season, Mayor London Breed announced the position would be created, and candidates began applying in the fall. The pick of Drollinger was revealed Thursday. Drollinger will hold the title for 18 months and receive a $55,000 stipend from the city.

“My goals are to make San Francisco sparkle,” Drollinger, a cisgender man who uses female pronouns when in the drag persona, told the AP. “I think drag performers bring a lot of sparkle and humor and glamor and silliness to the world. I think that is part of why drag is so successful.”

“Her duties will span from producing and participating in drag events to serving as a spokesperson for San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ community to helping officials to ensuring the city’s drag history is ‘shared, honored and preserved,’” the news service reports. Drollinger said she expects “to be in drag pretty much 24/7 for the next 18 months.”

To San Francisco TV station KGO, Drollinger added, “I feel so honored to get to be the first. It felt a little like it was tailor-made for me ... it really did track with what I’ve been doing for the past 10 years in San Francisco.”

Her accomplishments include running Oasis’s “Meals on Heels” program during the pandemic shutdown, when drag queens delivered food and drink to customers’ homes and offered lip-synched performances from a safe distance.

Breed told the AP that Drollinger is a “bright star in San Francisco,″ noting, “Whether it’s through a tragedy or to celebrate an occasion, she really has been a leader in this community and supporter of so many others.” Creating the position demonstrates the city’s support of drag culture, the mayor said.

West Hollywood plans to appoint a drag laureate soon, while an effort to do so in New York City has stalled, the AP reports.

The attacks on drag in the past year include right-wing protests of drag queen story hours and other events, even including at least one in the Bay Area. GLAAD and Equality Texas tracked 141 protests and threats against drag events in 2022, with the largest number coming in Texas. And this year Tennessee enacted the nation’s first state law restricting drag performances; it is temporarily blocked by court action while a lawsuit proceeds.

“I know that there are a lot of anti-drag folks out there, and they are very loud, right?” Drollinger told the AP. “But I also don’t want to live my life under the shadow of fear. I don’t want to have intimidation stop me from growing. So, yes, I am a little nervous. But I got a lot of fabulous people and fabulousness behind me.”

Keep reading...

Frameline, the world's longest running LGBTQ+ film festival, has announced the lineup for its 47th edition — dubbed Frameline47.

The 11-day event in San Francisco will feature nearly 90 film screenings, including 24 world and U.S. premieres.

Frameline has also announced the festival's three marquis presentations: the Opening Night film, Andrew Durham’s Fairyland, which centers on the AIDs crisis in San Francisco; the Oakland Centerpiece, Hannah Pearl Utt’s Cora Bora, starring Megan Stalter of Hacks; and the Pride Kickoff film, Jordan Danger’s God Save the Queens, featuring drag icon Alaska.

The opening night screening of Fairyland will be attended in person by Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides director Sofia Coppola, who is a producer on the film.

In a statement, executive director of Frameline James Woolley said, "There is nothing like seeing a great film at the cinema — sharing an experience in the same moment as friends and strangers alike. Despite the challenges that have reshaped moviegoing, we are proud to present Northern California’s largest film festival this year. It says so much about the power and resiliency of queer art and community as well as the urgent need for it.”

Frameline47 aims to put on a spotlight on queer and trans histories through films like Stephen Kijak's Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed and D. Smith's Kokomo City. “These bold efforts not only move the craft of cinema forward but underscore the pandemic of hateful violence devastating our communities today,” said Allegra Madsen, director of programming at Frameline.

Also on the extensive program is a pairing of cult classic Chasing Amy with Sav Rodgers' directorial debut, Chasing Chasing Amy, which explores the complicated legacy of the 1997 film from a queer perspective.

“Frameline47 is meant to be eclectic. In the same way there’s no single queer or trans narrative, there’s no one way LGBTQ+ cinema should look,” Madsen noted. “Instead, we have a multitude of stories that we’re so thrilled to share in June.”

Frameline47 runs from June 14 to June 24 in San Francisco. Tickets and passes are available at frameline.org.

This year’s lineup is below:

Frameline47: Features + Shorts Blocks

20,000 Species of Bees

Estibalitz Urresola Solaguren (Spain)

Gathering at their bee-keeping relatives, a Spanish family grapples with their eight-year-old’s increasing distress over gender—rejecting birth name Aitor and nickname Cocó, along with all the family’s assumptions.

About Us But Not About Us

Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)

North American Premiere

A conversation over brunch between a Filipino literature professor and his former student becomes a cat-and-mouse game: power dynamics shift, secret relationships are revealed, and at times we wonder, who is schooling whom?

All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White

Babatunde Apalowo (Nigeria)

In this year's Out in the Silence Award recipient tells the story of two young men who form a powerful connection with one another in Nigeria—where homosexuality is illegal. Winner of the Teddy Award at the Berlinale.

Anhell69

Theo Montoya (Colombia/Romania/France/Germany)

With jaw-dropping visuals, this docu-fiction hybrid weaves a dazzling tapestry of young queer life in the city of Medellín alongside the ever-present phantoms that haunt the streets of Colombia's infamous city.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aitch Alberto (USA)

Adapted from the beloved YA novel, this joyful story of boys on the cusp of manhood follows the blossoming friendship between Aristotle and Dante, two Mexican American teenagers growing up in late-’80s Texas.

Ask Any Buddy

Elizabeth Purchell (USA)

Using footage from over 125 gay adult films, Ask Any Buddy is a kaleidoscopic snapshot of gay life from the 1960s to the early ’80s. Directed by queer film historian Elizabeth Purchell, based on her successful podcast of the same name.

Before I Change My Mind

Trevor Anderson (Canada)

Robin is trying to fit in at a new school (even if the other kids can’t figure out if they are “a boy or a girl”). When Robin befriends a stand-offish bully, they begin to discover the pitfalls of conformity.

Big Boys

Corey Sherman (USA)

An unexpected crush turns a camping trip into a weekend of self-discovery for awkward 14-year-old Jamie, in this heart-warming story of a bear cub in training.

birth/rebirth

Laura Moss (USA)

In this modern riff on the classic Frankenstein story, a nurse and a morgue pathologist develop a complex and terrifying relationship when one discovers that the other has developed a way to reanimate dead tissue.

Blue ID

Vuslat Karan (Turkey)

US Premiere

Blue ID is a story about privacy versus isolation and being an out transgender public figure in Turkey, which holds extremely strict distinctions between male and female… and deadly consequences for those who defy.

Bottoms

Emma Seligman (USA)

Co-written by director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Frameline44), Bottoms follows two unpopular girls—PJ (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri)—in their senior year who start a fight club to try to hook up with cheerleaders.

Casa Susanna

Sébastien Lifshitz (France/USA)

In the '50s, trans women found refuge in Casa Susanna, a remote house in the New York Catskills where they were able to express their authentic selves. This riveting doc reunites many of Casa Susanna's former guests.

Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith (1997, USA)

Is Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy—where Ben Affleck falls for out queer Joey Lauren Adams—a straight man’s lesbian fantasy run amok, or does it actually depict the nuances of pan- and bisexuality better than many films made today?

Chasing Chasing Amy

Sav Rodgers (USA)

Offering a vital survey of Kevin Smith’s divisive 1997 boy-meets-lesbian rom-com Chasing Amy, a young director charts the complicated legacy of the first queer film he ever saw and how it saved his life.

Chestnut

Jac Cron (USA)

World Premiere

A recent college graduate (Natalia Dyer) falls into a seductive social life and a triangle of attraction with two new friends, party girl Tyler (Rachel Keller) and the more reserved, thoughtful Danny (Danny Ramirez).

Chocolate Babies

Stephen Winter (1996, USA)

World Premiere

An underground band of radical Black queer HIV+ activists take to the streets of NYC to combat conservative politicians and government apathy towards AIDS. Frameline proudly presents the world premiere of this pristine 4K restoration.

Clashing Differences

Merle Grimme (Germany)

World Premiere (Shared with Filmfest Müchen)

When an all-white women's organization tries to solve their diversity problem by assembling the perfect mix of marginalized people for an all-inclusive manifesto, this leads to breakups, breakdowns, and a near-break-in, in this comedy.

Coming Around

Sandra Itäinen (USA)

US Premiere

Eman is an all-around badass, fully active in her queer Muslim community. That is... except when she goes home to visit her traditional mother, who has no idea that she’s queer.

Commitment to Life

Jeffrey Schwarz (USA)

A fascinating, emotional history lesson from director Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito; I Am Divine), Commitment to Life dives deep into the true, twisty story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.

Cora Bora

Hannah Pearl Utt (USA)

After chasing her dreams of becoming a musician all the way to LA with limited success, chaotic poly bisexual Cora (an amazing Megan Stalter) makes a surprise trip back to Portland to try to win back her girlfriend.

Debi Sundahl Double Feature

Come celebrate lesbian erotica created by and for lesbians with a pair of films from filmmaker and renowned sex educator Debi Sundahl and Fatale Media. Presented by PinkLabel.TV and hosted by Shine Louise Houston!

Desert Hearts

Donna Deitch (1985, USA)

Not only one of cinema's great lesbian films but also one of the essential book-to-screen adaptations, Desert Hearts brings Jane Rule's 1964 novel to life against the stunning backdrop of the American desert.

Drifter

Hannes Hirsch (Germany)

After getting dumped by the boyfriend he moved to Berlin to be with only a few weeks prior, 22-year-old Moritz reimagines his life (and his appearance) as a single gay man in the hedonistic queer party capital of Europe.

Egghead & Twinkie

Sarah Kambe Holland (USA)

Desperate to meet the undeniable love of her life who lives over 500 miles away, newly-out Twinkie convinces her best friend Egghead to put his unrequited love for her aside to embark on a road trip to Texas.

Egoist

Daishi Matsunaga (Japan)

An affluent fashion editor hires himself a cash-strapped personal trainer, but as their bond deepens, so do the contrasting themes of love and money, selfishness and vulnerability, autonomy and dependency.

Elemental

Peter Sohn (USA)

Bring your friends and family of all ages to Frameline's free Family Matinee screening of Pixar's brand-new feature Elemental. The PixPride team will be on hand with limited free giveaways for children.

Every Body

Julie Cohen (USA)

The intersex subjects of this documentary by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen speak out and enthusiastically celebrate their authenticity against the traditions of sensationalism, silence, and shame.

Fairyland

Andrew Durham (USA/France)

Produced by Sofia Coppola, this adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s memoir depicts the early days of gay liberation in bohemian San Francisco through the eyes of an 8-year-old and her poet father.

Girlfriends & Girlfriends

Zaida Carmona (Spain)

North American Premiere

Zaida is diving back into Barcelona’s lesbian dating scene after getting dumped, navigating a crowded sea of current and future ex-girlfriends, late night connections, and doomed crushes on happily coupled women.

Girls Don’t Cry

Andrea Zuliani (Italy)

With a vibrant teen romance at its center, Girls Don’t Cry is a gritty but sweet coming-of-age road flick set along the back roads of the Italian countryside, as Elm and Mia escape on a transformative journey.

Glitter & Doom

Tom Gustafson (USA/Mexico)

Filled with Indigo Girls hits, this glittery musical follows a budding romance between a young musician and a spirited circus kid, surrounded by Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Kate Pierson, Peppermint, and Ming-Na Wen.

God Save the Queens

Jordan Danger (USA)

Four Los Angeles queens land in a desert retreat (not exactly by choice) to help get their careers back on track after PR disasters. Starring Alaska, Laganja Estranga, and Michelle Visage.

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster (USA)

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Going to Mars is a celebration of Blackness and Afrofuturism as shown through iconic poet Nikki Giovanni. Join us for Frameline's annual Juneteenth screening and celebration.

Golden Delicious

Jason Karman (Canada)

Cheerful and romantic, this exceptional coming-of-age film finds high school student Jake bewildered by the arrival of Aleks, a handsome new neighbor, leading him to try out for the basketball team to get closer to him.

Heartbeast

Aino Suni (France/Finland/Germany)

An erotic thriller for a new generation, Heartbeast follows young aspiring rapper Elina and her new stepsister Sofia, whose bond quickly turns into a dark obsession for both women, with shocking consequences.

Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes

Sam Shahid (USA)

This wide-ranging (and fabulously gossipy) doc brings to life the passion and true life of photographer George Platt Lynes, who wielded good looks, talent, and ambition in pursuit of artistic creation and sexual pleasure.

House of Izabel

Gil Baroni (Brazil)

North American Premiere

In 1970, at an isolated country estate, a group of individuals become the glamorous women they long to be. But their carefree feminine fantasy is interrupted by the threat of their secrets being exposed.

How to Tell a Secret

Anna Rodgers & Shaun Dunne (Ireland)

This inspiring hybrid doc focuses on a group of people driven to tell the world what it’s like to live with HIV in present day Ireland. Features first-person confessions of young activists living with the disease.

In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction

Lisa Marie Evans & Marianne K. Martin (USA)

Featuring interviews with Jewelle Gomez, Dorothy Allison, and Sarah Waters, In Her Words lovingly documents the evolution and expansion of sapphic literature through the lens of American history in the 20th century.

It's Only Life After All

Alexandria Bombach (USA)

From their early days as one of the few openly queer musical acts to their response to the current political era, Grammy-winning musical duo the Indigo Girls come center stage in this definitive documentary portrait.

Jess Plus None

Mandy Fabian (USA)

North American Premiere

Perpetually horny bisexual Jess is the maid of honor at her best friend’s off-the-grid wedding, but complications arise with the ex-girlfriend she can’t stop fantasizing about also on the expected guest list.

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn

Timothy Harris (USA)

Following a pathbreaking young candidate’s first foray into national politics, this film captures the obstacles, hopes, and dreams wrapped up in Malcolm Kenyatta’s 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Kokomo City

D. Smith (USA)

With unabashed confessional interviews and a dynamic visual style, Kokomo City is an electric portrait of the inner lives of four Black trans sex workers in America. An Audience Award winner at Sundance and Berlin.

Labor

Tove Pils (Sweden)

Leaving her girlfriend behind, a young Swedish woman relocates to San Francisco. Looking to explore her sexuality, she meets a professional dominatrix and a trans rent boy, who help fulfill her fantasy of becoming a sex worker.

Le beau mec

Wallace Potts (France)

We’re thrilled to present a pair of newly restored masterworks of the golden age of X-rated cinema: Wallace Potts’ Le beau mec and San Francisco iconoclast Curt McDowell’s Loads.

Lie with Me

Olivier Peyon (France)

In this adaptation of Philippe Besson’s award-winning novel, a celebrated author returns to his hometown in rural France and reluctantly confronts his past, as a young tour guide conjures his memories of first love (and lust).

Local Legends Program

This double bill of portraits of queer Bay Area activists highlights trailblazing lesbian writer Jewelle Gomez and Anjali Rimi, a trans immigrant who followed her passion for social justice from India to San Francisco.

The Lost Boys

Zeno Graton (Belgium/France)

North American Premiere

In a Belgian youth correctional facility, pensive teen Joe is getting ready to regain his freedom, but the arrival of live-wire William into the adjacent cell sends shockwaves through his system.

M Is for Mothers

Lívia Perez (Brazil)

World Premiere

Brazilian couple Melanie and Marcela are having twins. Their journey to motherhood is captured in this doc, which gets down to the nitty-gritty of pregnancy as Marcela begins taking hormones so she too can nurse their babies.

The Mattachine Family

Andy Vallentine (USA)

This nuanced, gentle dramedy explores the notion of connection through the experiences of a loving gay couple (Nico Totorella and Juan Pablo Di Pace) who discover they have differing ideas about what makes a family.

Mutt

Vuk Lungulov-Klotz (USA)

Over the course of 24 hours, Feña is reunited with three people he has not seen since transitioning: his father who lives in Chile, a younger sister unaware of his transition, and a former lover who hasn’t fully moved on.

My Sole Desire

Lucie Borleteau (France)

North American Premiere

When aimless Manon (Louise Chevillotte) begins work at an unconventional strip club, she falls hard for her fellow stripper Mia (Zita Hanrot), forcing her to question her priorities as she explores her newfound erotic life.

Norwegian Dream

Leiv Igor Devold (Norway/Poland/Germany)

US Premiere

On the frozen coast of Scandinavia, the friendship between a hard-edged Polish immigrant laborer working at a salmon-processing factory and the adopted Black son of his new boss slowly develops into something more.

Old Narcissus

Tsuyoshi Shôji (Japan)

In this intergenerational tale of gay life in Japan, an elderly children’s book author and a perpetually bored twentysomething sex worker end up accompanying each other on a surprising journey of emotional and physical discovery.

Opponent

Milad Alami (Sweden)

Fleeing Iran on human rights grounds, Iman and his family find themselves in Sweden awaiting asylum. When he starts to train with a wrestling team against his wife’s wishes, the real reason for their flight begins to emerge.

Ordinary Failures

Cristina Grosan (Czech Republic/Italy/Hungary/Slovakia)

A misfit teenager, an anxious mother, and a recent widow see their day interrupted by a mysterious natural phenomenon. As their world descends into chaos, the three women struggle to find their place in life.

The Origin of Evil

Sébastien Marnier (France/Canada)

In this diabolical Hitchcockian thriller, a desperate working-class woman connects with the billionaire father she’s never met, inserting herself into a mysterious world of the French upper crust.

Our Son

Bill Oliver (USA)

With an all-star cast that includes Billy Porter, Luke Evans, and Robin Weigert, Our Son offers an absorbing take on familiar themes of parenthood and family through the eyes of a gay married couple on the brink of divorce.

Out of Uganda

Rolanda Colla & Josef Burri (Switzerland)

North American Premiere

Philip, Hussein, Remy, and Shammy are the dignified, human faces of an unfolding crisis: these refugees are among the thousands whose lives are in peril due to Uganda's draconian laws that criminalize homosexuality.

Perpetrator

Jennifer Reeder (USA/France)

In this campy thriller, teenage badass Jonny enrolls in a new school full of plastic surgery-obsessed adults, acerbic teens, and fake purity pledges—not to mention a masked maniac picking off the popular girls one by one.

A Place of Our Own

Ektara Collective (India)

Following two transwomen in Bhopal, India, as they seek a safe place to call home after an unjust eviction, this intimately shot Audience Award winner at SXSW asks not just where, but in whom do we find home.

Playland

Georden West (USA)

A tribute to one of Boston’s oldest queer bars, Playland condenses decades of history into one stark, opulent reflection on queer spaces, the people that inhabit them, and the destructive forces they provide refuge from.

Pornomelancholia

Manuel Abramovich (Argentina/Brazil/France/Mexico)

Through the story of an aspiring gay Mexican adult film star named Lalo Santos, director Manuel Abramovich slyly blends fiction and documentary in this artful, alluring portrait of sex in the age of OnlyFans.

Queendom

Agniia Galdanova (USA/France)

With a cinéma vérité eye, Queendom tracks visionary, gender-defying internet sensation and fearless art rebel Gena Marvin as she navigates Russia’s draconian treatment of queer activists, performers, and people.

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed

Stephen Kijak (UK)

With a fresh documentary look at an impossibly rich career, director Stephen Kijak (Sid & Judy, Frameline43) makes time for both the private life and persona of one of Hollywood’s greatest stars: Rock Hudson.

Rotting in the Sun

Sebastián Silva (USA/Mexico)

Sebastián Silva is an artistically blocked, ketamine-addicted artist in Mexico City. After nearly drowning at a gay nude beach, he's rescued by a social media star with a new project that could pull him out of his rut.

Rule 34

Júlia Murat (Brazil/France)

Young, Black, bisexual law student Simone pays for school by moonlighting as a camgirl. Aiming to keep these two facets of her life separate, these two worlds nevertheless become entwined in dangerous ways.

Serial Mom

John Waters (1994, USA)

With our diverse strand of films exploring motherhood, we couldn't help but include one of queer cinema's most unforgettable matriarchs, Beverly Sutphin (a hilarious Kathleen Turner), in one of John Waters' funniest features.

Shorts Program: Fun in Shorts—The Joker Tarot

Frameline's annual Fun in Shorts program takes a comic approach to some of our deepest queer anxieties—whether it be flying, sex, social niceties, daddy issues, incidental murder, or the general miseries of apartment dwelling.

Shorts Program: Homegrown—The Sun Tarot

Come warm yourselves by our Sun with these homegrown shorts, showcasing diverse local talent and a wide range of genres. These stories present a transformative future filled with compassion and change.

Shorts Program: Revivals & Restorations—The Ace of Swords

For Frameline47’s first official screening, we’re returning with brand new restorations of a pair of indispensable shorts that have played significant roles in the history of the Festival and the Frameline Distribution catalog.

Shorts Program: The Ace of Cups Tarot

Characters mark the beginning of new relationships or the strengthening of existing ones in this shorts program, which encompasses friendship, family (chosen and otherwise), and the complex dynamics of loving and being loved.

Shorts Program: The Ace of Wands Tarot

These shorts honor queer bodies and blossoming libido while complicating and interrogating body politics. With nudity and eroticism, this program highlights the intoxication of sexuality and importance of bodily autonomy.

Shorts Program: The Lovers Tarot

Through stories of romance, from the fantastical to the everyday, couples overcome the challenges of dating to build a new reality together. Ideal for date night, this program may cause viewers to die from the cuteness.

Shorts Program: The World Tarot

Grouping together 7 shorts that played before features during Frameline47’s in-person screenings, this virtual-only program offers an eclectic line-up of international shorts from both Festival alum and visionary artists making their Frameline debuts.

Silver Haze

Sacha Polak (Netherlands/UK)

East London nurse Franky's first romantic relationship with another woman pushes her to confront the demons of the past—notably a mysterious fire that left both her mind and body scarred—in complicated ways.

Sisi & I

Frauke Finsterwalder (Germany/Austria/Switzerland)

US Premiere

Rebellious and ravishing Empress Elisabeth, aka Sisi, escapes Viennese court life to create a proto-queer paradise on a Greek isle. There she develops a deep bond with her latest plaything, the charismatic lady-in-waiting Irma.

Soft

Joseph Amenta (Canada)

In this striking feature film debut by Frameline alum Joseph Amenta, three young friends attempt to infiltrate a local queer nightclub, but their impish ways quickly turn dangerous.

Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman (USA)

In this mesmerizing concert film, Oscar-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman document drag superstar Taylor Mac’s 24-hour performance showcasing the popular music of every decade in American history.

Theater Camp

Molly Gordon (USA)

After its indomitable and beloved founder (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, the eccentric staff of a scrappy theater camp must band together with her clueless “crypto bro” son to keep the thespian paradise afloat.

This Place

V.T. Nayani (Canada)

Two women—one Tamil, the other half Mohawk, half Iranian—search for what it means to belong to a family or tribe as they meet, explore the city of Toronto, and slowly begin to fall in love.

The Trace of Your Lips

Julián Hernández (México)

World Premiere

In this erotic drama from director Julián Hernández, two neighbors battle their loneliness and lustful yearnings as they try to connect with each other (with anyone) as an unnamed pandemic ravages the world around them.

The Venus Effect

Anna Emma Haudal (Denmark)

In this warm, romantic drama, a free-spirited artist inspires Liv, a young woman accustomed to routine and stability, to look beyond her familiar horizons as she finds herself changing along with the seasons.

Who I Am Not

Tünde Skovrán (Romania/Canada/South Africa/Germany/USA)

In this powerful documentary, two intersex people living in Johannesburg, South Africa—one a beauty queen, the other an activist—seek to discover and embrace themselves as they truly are, not as the world would have them.

Will-o’-the-Wisp

João Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal/France)

In the year 2069, an ailing king recalls his memories of youthful defiance when he abandoned the monarchy to become a firefighter and fell for one of his fellow firemen. From the provocative director of The Ornithologist and O Fantasma.

Winter Boy

Christophe Honoré (France)

Joining his bohemian brother in Paris with the hopes of jump starting his adult life, a self-confident gay boarding school student finds his sense of self unraveling in the wake of a family tragedy.

Keep reading...

Netflix's new animated film Nimona now has a teaser trailer and a release date.

Based on The New York Times best-selling graphic novel by ND Stevenson, Nimona follows its titular shapeshifting hero (voiced by out actor Chloë Grace Moretz) as she works to help disgraced knight Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) clear his name of a crime he didn't commit. Netflix describes the film as "an epic tale about finding friendship in the most surprising situations and accepting yourself and others for who they are."

Nimona began as a project at the now-shuttered Blue Sky Studios and changed hands several times before being picked up by Annapurna Pictures and Netflix.

The debut teaser trailer for the film opens with an ironic spin on Disney-esque princess stories before showcasing its flashy, vibrant animation and punk-rock aesthetics. The trailer also reveals a number of Nimona's shapeshifting forms as she turns into a gorilla, whale, rhino, horse, and armadillo — all of them pink.

In addition to Moretz and Ahmed, the film stars The Try Guys member Eugene Lee Yang, Frances Conroy of American Horror Story, Lorraine Toussaint, and other queer talent like RuPaul Charles, Julio Torres, and Indya Moore. Saturday Night Live actors Beck Bennett and Sarah Sherman are also lending their voices to the project.

The Nimona graphic novel is notably queer, featuring a gender non-conforming lead character and a same-sex relationship between Ballister Boldheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin, another knight.

Nimona premieres globally on Netflix on June 30.

You can check out the official teaser for Nimona below.

Nimona | Official Teaser | Netflix www.youtube.com

Keep reading...

I’m a former teacher and an openly gay man. Before I ever stepped foot in the halls of Congress, I spent the 1980s and 90s working in California public schools, and I can tell you: we’ve been here before. What Republicans are trying to do to our students and public education will send us back 40 years.

When I began my career in the 80s, California was just a few years out from a defeat of the Briggs Initiative — a piece of state legislation that would have banned all openly gay and lesbian teachers from working in California public schools. I was a high school student when that proposition was debated and listened to state legislators talk about how such a ban was necessary to “defend our children.” They claimed that the presence of LGBTQI+ teachers and the mere discussion of LGBTQI+ topics was an effort to “recruit” children into the “homosexual lifestyle.”

In the four decades since we’ve come a long way with LGBTQI+ rights – but the rhetoric is just the same as it was 40 years ago. Today, in a frenzied effort to create new culture wars targeting the LGBTQI+ community, anti-equality politicians are staking the health, well-being, and safety of our educators and our children on their messaging campaigns.

More specifically, anti-equality Republicans are asking families, teachers, and students to carry the cost of their political gain and turning a blind eye to the myriad of other consequences that will come from enacting anti-LGBTQI+ laws through Congress in addition to the legislation sweeping through state legislatures.

As we approach Harvey Milk Day this month – named in honor of an LGBTQI+ civil rights hero that spearheaded the charge to defeat the Briggs Initiative – I’ve been thinking about a quote of his from the campaign against the anti-gay laws that swept the country in the 1970s:

Openly LGBTQI+ role models are far more numerous today than when I first began teaching, and our language is constantly expanding to describe the beautiful array of identities and experiences that exist. Educators, parents, and community advocates are publishing books that help LGBTQI+ kids see themselves represented, educate their peers, and put tools in the hands of teachers.

At the same time -- and likely directly in response to this progress -- I listen to my colleagues use their platform in the House of Representatives to use the same tactics that State Senator John Briggs tried back in the 1970s: using fear to whip up a moral panic for political gain.

In the first education-related bill that the Republicans have brought to the Floor this Congress, they chose to use committee time and taxpayer dollars to pass H.R. 5, the “Parents Bill of Rights,” through the House of Representatives, a bill which opens the door to book bans and would require schools to forcibly out trans youth, even if it puts them in harm’s way. In the name of preserving the rights of a small but vocal minority of parents, H.R. 5 places further bureaucratic burdens on teachers and further marginalizes an already vulnerable group of students.

As a teacher, I can tell you the cost of these kinds of insidious measures on children.

When I was training to be a teacher in the late 80s, I remember the vicious and relentless bullying that a transgender student of mine went through. I know of instances where students were outed by staff and faced severe punishment at home. Later in my career, I learned of one student who was viciously beaten by his father and transferred out of the district after his family was informed that he had been caught being physically affectionate with another boy.

As a Member of Congress, it’s my job to support the most vulnerable members of our community. We must focus on making our children feel safe and supported so that they can reach their fullest potential. We must tackle the crises in our education systems that threaten safety and support in our schools including underresourced teachers, the youth mental health crisis, gun violence, and gaps in educational equity. As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and a Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, I will continue to use my position to do just that.

It is time to advocate for the real needs of our students and to stop playing politics. Politicians with a platform, teachers with lived experience, activists brave enough to speak out, and those who fight for full equality in this country must speak up.

LGBTQI+ students deserve to know that elected officials aren’t working against them, but rather working to ensure they can be successful in the future.

I think about my former students all the time. I may no longer be their teacher, but I’ll never stop fighting in the halls of Congress for their right to receive an education in a safe and affirming environment.

Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California representing the state's 39th district, is co-chair of the Equality Caucus.

Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.

Keep reading...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the national ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the Transgender Law Center said Thursday they will file a lawsuit against a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth that Gov. Greg Abbott has promised to sign into law.

The Texas Senate Wednesday approved the House version of Senate Bill 14, sending it on to Abbott, a far-right Republican. He told Fox News Thursday that he would sign the bill. “I’m not going to make any secret about it. I’ll be signing it,” he said. “This is about protecting children.”

SB 14 would ban puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-affirming surgeries for trans Texans under 18. Genital surgeries are almost never performed on minors, in any case. It would require those already taking hormones or puberty blockers to gradually end the treatment. It would go into effect September 1. Violation would bring revocation of a medical provider’s license.

In a joint statement, the organizations said that they were filing the legal challenge to "protect transgender youth in Texas from being stripped of access to health care that keeps them healthy and alive."

The groups also referred to the state's attempt to classify such care as child abuse last year.

“[Texas lawmakers] are hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth, in direct opposition to the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as appropriate and necessary," the groups said. "Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers. Medically necessary health care is a critical part of helping transgender adolescents succeed in school, establish healthy relationships with their friends and family, and live authentically as themselves. We will defend the rights of transgender youth in court, just as we have done in other states engaging in this anti-science and discriminatory fear-mongering.”

Similar restrictions in Alabama and Arkansas have been enjoined by federal courts, and legal advocates have filed challenges in federal court to bans enacted in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Montana. A state court judge in Missouri recently blocked enforcement of the Missouri attorney general’s emergency order blocking provision of gender-affirming care. The attorney general has now withdrawn that order, but the legislature has approved a ban that Gov. Mike Parson is expected to sign into law.

Keep reading...

Powered by RebelMouse
100 Crosby St
New York, NY 10012