The Baby Formula (Trailer of the Week)
Alison Reid‘s terrific new lesbian feature, THE BABY FORMULA just world premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival and got a great response from both audiences and critics alike. Check out this sneak peek at what promises to be one of the biggies on the 2009 queer film fest curcuit.
Gus Van Sant Gets Gotham Award
from Filmmaker Magazine Blog:
IFP announced today that Gus Van Sant will be presented with a Gotham Awards Tribute at the 18th Annual Gotham Awards on Tuesday, December 2nd in New York.
Van Sant’s next project is the bio pic, Milk, about the first openly gay man elected to major public office in the United States, Harvey Milk. Starring Sean Penn as Milk along with Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and James Franco, the film will be released by Focus Features in select cities on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 and then expand in December.
IFP also announced that they will be teaming with The Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School in New York City. IFP, courtesy of Deloitte Financial Services LLP, is donating 45 video cameras to the school. IFP hopes to work with the producers of NewFest, The New York LGBT Film Festival, to create a series of training and mentoring sessions. Select works by youth members from The Hetrick-Martin Institute and students from Harvey Milk School will be invited to screen during the next edition of NewFest (June 4 – 14th, 2009).
Itty Bitty de-tittified Committee
Read Grace Chu’s hilarious and shocking report on how major retailers have balked at the word “Titty” in the title of Wolfe’s latest lesbian DVD release, ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE. (Tho’ truth be told, Borders IS indeed carrying the uncensored version and are to be commended for it!). Be sure to scroll down and read the comments section (and add your own).
Wolfe Nabs 2 Fest Faves
Wolfe Releasing announced today the acquisition of two popular hits from the summer LGBT film fest circuit. Both WERE THE WORLD MINE and THE NEW TWENTY will see release in 2009.
WERE THE WORLD MINE, directed by Tom Gustafson is an original musical about the life of a struggling high school teenager. Armed with a magical love-potion and empowered by dazzling musical fantasies in his head, he turns his narrow-minded town gay and makes them walk a heartbreaking mile in his musical shoes. The film has been wowing audiences at festivals across the US and around the world bringing filmgoers to their feet with standing ovations, while continuing to compile awards since it began its festival run at the 2008 Florida Film Festival where it took home the Audience Award for Best Film. Since then, the film has racked up 13 awards and countless critical accolades.
THE NEW TWENTY, directed by Chris Mason Johnson is about five best friends in their late 20s facing the disintegration of their tight knit urban tribe. Gay and straight, white and brown, driven and aimless, this disparate group lives and breathes New York City with a vivid emotional realism that captures the tenor of a new generation. (Winner of the Outfest 2009 Best Actress Award.)
Kate Bornstein (author, playwright, performance artist)
“My favorite LGBT film is TIPPING THE VELVET. It’s a historical film about show biz, and I’m a sucker for those. (I must’ve seen Yankee Doodle Dandy over 3 dozen times.) But more than that, TIPPING THE VELVET is genuinely fun, sexy and full of good-hearted people who win out over the mean, nasty people. It’s a wonderful depiction of a full range of the butch/femme dynamic and since I’m seeing less and less of that in the queer world these days, it’s good to see it on film. I watch TIPPING THE VELVET any time I’m short on courage to go out in the world and be what I wanna be, and it always fixes me up.”
Check out Kate’s Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws where you can get read all her latest wisdom and find our more about her life-saving book, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide.
Michael Koresky on SAVE ME
Critic Michael Koresky reviews the new First Run Features release, SAVE ME, on indieWIRE.com:
Robert Cary’s “Save Me” is hardly the incendiary, ripped-from-the-headlines passion play that a short description of it might imply. And indeed its poster, depicting its star, Chad Allen, skull-capped and mouth slightly agape, pointing an inverted cross to his temple, revolver-style, likewise promises a scorching take-down of bullying American fundamentalism. Yet “Save Me” isn’t a teeth-bared addition to the culture wars; surprisingly docile and rigorously even-handed in its portrait of a New Mexico Christian sexual “re-education” house for men, Cary and screenwriter Robert Desiderio are not courting controversy as much as curiously surveying a state of mind.
Read the rest of Michael’s review at indieWIRE.com.
[Koresky is co-founder and editor of Reverse Shot and the managing editor and staff writer of the Criterion Collection.]
Gus Van Sant’s MILK (Movie Trailer of the Week)
ITTY BITTY Trailer Contest Winner
The winner of the AfterEllen.com contest to create a movie trailer for Jamie Babbit’s ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE is the perfect showcase for all the great things about this movie: it’s funny, it’s sexy, it has a great soundtrack and a lot of cute girls in it. And, they spend a lot of time making out! Enjoy.