Distributor Peccadillo Pictures’ bread and butter is finding interesting gay-themed films from around the world and bringing them to the UK, along with various other intriguing non-gay treats. They’ve now revealed their planned cinema releases for most of the rest of 2013, as well as a preview of what’s coming in 2013. So what can we look forward to (text from Peccadillo Pictures press release)?

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LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR – IN CINEMAS AUGUST 1ST (EXCLUSIVE WEST END RUN)
Dir: Sheldon Larry | Country: USA
“A sizzling mash-up of Paris Is Burning, Rent and Dreamgirls” – IndieWire

Sheldon Larry’s audacious, raunchy and big-hearted musical—with songs by BEYONCE’S music director Kim Burse and choreography by BEYONCE’S dance master Frank Gatson Jr.—takes us into the fabulously funky world of voguing. (Remember the documentary Paris is Burning?) Here the setting is contemporary downtown L.A.  Our hunky, homeless hero Brad, discarded by his homophobic mom, falls in with the members of the House of Eminence, ruled by the stern aging diva Queef Latina, who keeps a careful, loving watch over her makeshift family of runaways and throwaways. When two of her crew fall for Brad, the Queef is royally unamused. STEP UP and STREETDANCE move aside, there’s a new beat in town…

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CIRCUMSTANCE – IN CINEMAS AUGUST 24TH
Dir: Maryam Keshavarz | Country: Iran/USA
“SWIRLING AND SENSUOUS. Ripples with the indignant energy of youthful rebellion…undeniable power and conviction.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Set in contemporary Iran in the unseen world of Iranian youth culture, filled with underground parties, sex, drugs and defiance, Circumstance is the story of two vivacious young girls – Atafeh and Shireen – discovering their burgeoning sexuality, struggling with their desires and the boundaries placed upon them by the world they were born into.

Winner of the Sundance Audience Award, Circumstance is a thrilling exposé of an Iranian culture rarely seen. Maryam Keshavarz’s directorial debut has blazed a promising trail at film festivals the world over, challenging audience’s pre-conceived perspectives of a society and how women can defy the rules imposed upon them, despite the dangers they face.

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HIT SO HARD – IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 5TH (TBC)
Dir: P.David Ebersole | Country: USA
“Hit So Hard is one of the most inspiring rock docs in recent memory” – San Francisco Bay Guardian

When Nirvana burst onto the scene in 1991, the music they played spoke directly to an angry and disenfranchised generation. Grunge took over MTV and radio overnight… but just three years later, the drug-related deaths of several musicians and the suicide of Kurt Cobain closed the books on an all too brief era.  Patty Schemel, the acclaimed drummer for Courtney Love’s seminal rock band Hole, was in the middle of all of it. The openly gay woman who always felt different never dreamed she would be in a multi-platinum band, touring with legends… or that, thanks to drug addiction, she could lose it all.  Given a video camera just before Hole’s infamous Live Through This world tour, Patty filmed everything; the shows, the parties, and startlingly intimate footage of Kurt and Courtney. This footage has never been seen… until now.

Directed by P. David Ebersole, HIT SO HARD is a harrowing tale of overnight success, the cost of addiction, and ultimately, recovery and redemption. Featuring music from Hole, Nirvana and grunge legends Sonic Youth, HIT SO HARD is an all-access backstage pass to the music that shaped a generation.

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KEEP THE LIGHTS ON – IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 2012
Dir: Ira Sachs | Country: USA
“Breaking new ground in contemporary Gay American cinema” – The Hollywood Reporter

It’s 1997 and New York City is in a state of intense flux when documentary filmmaker Erik Rothman (Thure Lindhardt) first meets Paul Lucy (Zachary Booth), a handsome but closeted lawyer in the publishing field. What begins as a highly charged first encounter soon becomes something much more, and a relationship quickly develops. As the two men start building a home and life together, each continues to privately battle their own compulsions and addictions. A film about sex, friendship, intimacy and most of all, love, Keep the Lights On takes an honest look at the nature of relationships in our times.

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COMING IN 2013
LOVING WITHOUT REASON
Dir: Joachim Lafosse | Country: Belgium/France
WINNER: BEST ACTRESS – Cannes: Un Certain Regard

Young, effervescent and full of life, Murielle (Emilie Dequenne, Rosetta) has a promising future ahead of her when she meets and falls head over heels for the handsome Mounir (Tahar Rahim, A Prophet). A wedding soon follows, and the happy couple quickly set about preparing to make a family. However, with family comes ties, and none come so tight as that between Mounir and the mysterious Doctor Pinget (A Prophet, Sarah’s Key), his adoptive father. As Murielle continues to bring new life into the family, in the form of four beautiful young girls, frictions between Mounir and Doctor Pinget reach boiling point. Helpless to extract her husband and children from the wealthy nest that Doctor Pinget has provided for them, Murielle is drawn deeper into an unhealthy three-way relationship. With Doctor Pinget acting as Murielle’s personal pharmacy, and Mounir taking extended trips abroad to Morocco, Murielle becomes increasingly alone and unstable. There is only one way out of this nightmare, and for Murielle, all sense of reasoning must be abandoned.

Celebrated director Joachim Lafosse’s intense, multli-layered dissection of an unorthodox family unit created an unprecedented buzz at the Cannes Film Festival, not least because it was based on real-life events.

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KUMA
Director: Umut Dag | Country: Turkey

Ayse, a beautiful 19-year-old girl from the Turkish countryside, is chosen to be married to the handsome Hasan, son of formidable and house-proud mother Fatma, who resides in Vienna with her husband and six children. However, what soon becomes apparent is that Ayse is to be second wife to Fatma’s husband. This tight-knit family go to great lengths to preserve traditional values, and although polygamy is illegal in Austria, Ayse is welcomed with warmth. Yet, her presence in a country whose language and culture is entirely foreign to her immediately marks her as an outsider. As Western societal norms and Muslim religious beliefs draw closer together in an ever diversifying family unit, tensions arise, resulting in an explosive stroke of fate.

Umut Dag’s mature feature debut is a rich tapestry of swirling emotions, suppressed desires, unspoken words and uncomfortable yet pressing social and political questions.

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