Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Great New 25th Vancouver Queer Film Festival Trailer Looks At The History Of The Event

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The Vancouver Queer Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, when it runs from August 15th-25th. Now they’ve released a great new trailer, which takes a pop-up look at the history of the event.

It includes clips from some great gay films such as Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, Hedwig And The Angry Inch and Shelter, showing us how far queer cinema has come in the last 25 years.

You can find out more about the Vancouver Queer Film Festival here, and take a look at the trailer above. [Read more…]

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Group Behind Ender’s Game Boycott Call Reject Lionsgate Response

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enders-game-pic2If you’ve been following BGPS for the last week, you’ll know that the gay group Geeks Out is planning a boycott of the upcoming sci-fi film Ender’s Game, due to the homophobic sentiments and work of the author of the book it’s based on, Orson Scott Card.

The boycott call led to responses from Card, who called for tolerance, and the studio behind the film, Lionsgate, who laid out their LGBT-friendly reputation, said the film and Card are completely separate and promised to hold a gay benefit screening of the film.

However Geeks Out has now responded and rejected Lionsgate’s arguments, saying the problem was never with the film itself or the company that made it, it’s due to the fact it could make Card millions of dollars, which he could then use to fight against gay rights.

They say, ‘The simple fact is that Skip Ender’s Game has never been about the content of the novel or the film Ender’s Game. It’s about money. It’s about the money the company has already paid to Card and the potential millions he and the National Organization for Marriage stand to make off of the success of the film—our money.

‘A benefit premiere, indeed any outreach to the LGBT community by Lionsgate, ought to be much appreciated. What’s clear is that whether or not they support his views, Lionsgate is standing by their man and their would-be blockbuster. They made the common, perhaps cynical, calculation that audiences wouldn’t connect Ender’s Game with Card’s very public homophobia—or wouldn’t care. Geeks OUT appreciates that most American families work for every dollar and care deeply about where that money goes and what it supports.

‘Skip Ender’s Game is not a threat; it is a reality. Our pledge adds hundreds of signatures every day from sci-fi fans around the world who would rather stay home than support homophobia. We have only just started and Geeks OUT and its allies are prepared to carry on past November 1. Nothing Card nor Lionsgate has said changes the fact that skipping Ender’s Game is the easiest way to ensure none of your dollars go to Orson Scott Card’s and the National Organization for Marriage’s extreme anti-gay agenda.’

There have also been reports that Card has quietly left the board of the virulently anti-gay National Organization For Marriage. That’s yet to be confirmed, although with Orson last week suggesting they’d lost the gay marriage debate, may turn out to be true.

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Max Landis Casts Dustin Milligan, Luke Bracey & Emily Meade In Sexual Identity Comedy Me Him Her

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Dustin Milligan

Dustin Milligan

A few months ago it was revealed that Max Landis – son on John and writer of Chronicle – was set to make his directing debut with an indie comedy called Me Him Her. He’s now moving forward with the film, with TheWrap reporting that with Dustin Milligan, Luke Bracey and Emily Meade will take the lead roles.

The film is described as a comedy about sexual identity, suggesting there may be a little gay going on, ‘Exploring love, sex, friendship and sword combat [yes, really] in what Landis has described as “the weirdest, most surreal way possible,” the story ultimately emphasizes that conceptions of self should be flexible.’

Landis adds, “’Me Him Her’ is completely different than anything I’ve ever written. You usually find me writing what I like to think of as intelligent summer action and genre films. ‘Me Him Her’ is deeply personal, and at its most basic level, a generational story about relationships and identity.”

Milligan (who incidentally was one of Cory Monteith’s roommates) will next be seen in The Conjuring. Bracey meanwhile recently appeared in G.I. Joe: Retaliation and will soon be seen in American Dream and the Pierce Brosnan movie November Man. Meade recently complete shooting Are We Officially Dating?, opposite Zac Efron and Miles Teller.

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Film Studio Lionsgate Responds To Planned Ender’s Game Gay Boycott

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Enders-Game-Poster1While Lionsgate must have known about author Orson Scott Card’s homophobic views when they bought the rights to make a movie of his classic sci-fi novel Ender’s Game, up until last week they’d largely managed to keep people focussed on the film, which stars Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield. However that came unstuck when the gay group Geeks Out announced earlier this week that they were organising a boycott of the film.

This led to Card responding and asking for ‘tolerance’, and also seeming to admit he’d lost the gay marriage debate. However Lionsgate didn’t say anything, until now that is. They’ve now said they want people to view Card’s beliefs as irrelevant to the movie, and have also promised to hold an LGBT benefit.

Here’s the statement: ‘Via: Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP

‘As proud longtime supporters of the LGBT community, champions of films ranging from Gods and Monsters to The Perks of Being a Wallflower and a Company that is proud to have recognized same-sex unions and domestic partnerships within its employee benefits policies for many years, we obviously do not agree with the personal views of Orson Scott Card and those of the National Organization for Marriage.

‘However, they are completely irrelevant to a discussion of Ender’s Game. The simple fact is that neither the underlying book nor the film itself reflect these views in any way, shape or form. On the contrary, the film not only transports viewers to an entertaining and action-filled world, but it does so with positive and inspiring characters who ultimately deliver an ennobling and life-affirming message. Lionsgate will continue its longstanding commitment to the LGBT community by exploring new ways we can support LGBT causes and, as part of this ongoing process, will host a benefit premiere for Ender’s Game.

‘Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state. Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.’

It remains to be seen whether those who want to boycott the film will accept, as their issue was never with the movie itself, which no one has suggested was anti-gay, but with the fact if it’s a success it will earn Orson money both from his film deal and with increased sales of his book, as well as giving him a higher public profile to espouse his views. While it’s understandable that the film company would want people to see the author and the film as completely separate, whether that’s a reasonable thing to do is another matter.

It was already clear before the boycott that Lionsgate was trying to sideline Card from the promotion of the film, and their latest statement is an attempt to pull the story back to being about the film rather than the beliefs of the man who created the story. Incidentally, their claim to being a very gay-friendly company is generally seen as true, even if many do wish they’d left Ender’s Game alone.

As well as a full-on boycott, there are others calling for LGBT-friendly people to go see the film if they want to but also make a donation to a gay cause, as a kind of offset against any money Card might make.

We’ll have to wait and see whether calls for a boycott affect the film when it’s released in November.

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Documentary About Coming Out In The Digital Age Seeks Funding

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Coming out is something nearly everyone on the LGBT spectrum does at some point in their lives. Now a new documentary, from filmmaker Alden Peters, wants to taking a look at the subject, asking ‘What significance does the traditional “coming out story” have in the digital era?’ To do so he uses his own coming out story, which he managed to capture on film.

Coming Out is now seeking Kickstarter funding, hoping to raise $20,000 to get the film through post-production, license the music and archive footage, and get it into film festivals, with the hope of getting everything ready in time for Sundance 2014. As always, there are plenty of goodies on offer depending on how much you pledge.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘COMING OUT is a feature-length documentary that reveals a portrait of the coming out process from the perspectives of everyone involved.

‘Shocked by the youth suicide tragedies in 2010, Alden Peters decided to come out of the closet to his friends, family, and online acquaintances. In the process of finding a new, gay identity, Alden discovers the profound ways that the internet and digital world can provide safety, community, and support, but also allow for cyberbullying, discrimination, and invasions of privacy. What importance does the traditional “coming out story” have in the gay community when there is now a digital component?’

Find out more over at Kickstarter. [Read more…]

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Gay Sci-Fi Author David Gerrold & Geeks Out Unimpressed By Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game ‘Tolerance’ Plea

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Orson-Scott-CardEarlier this week, the gay group Geeks Out announced they are planning a boycott of the movie version of Ender’s Game due to the fact that it’s based on a novel by Orson Scott Card, who is very anti-gay and sits of the board of the virulently homophobic National Organization For Marriage.

The boycott led Card to respond, asking for tolerance and seemingly accepting he’d lost the gay marriage debate. He said, “Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

“Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.”

However, many have been less than impressed with this plea, including Geeks Out themselves and gay sci-fi author, David Gerrold (who, among many other things, wrote the classic Star Trek episode, The Trouble With Tribbles).

Geeks Out responded by saying, ‘The Bill of Rights protects your freedom of speech but it does not protect your right to a blockbuster opening weekend…

‘This plea for tolerance is perhaps a bridge too far, especially from someone who characterized gay marriage as “the bludgeon [The Left] use to make sure that it becomes illegal to teach traditional values in the schools,” (2012). There’s nothing more democratic and tolerant than a consumer boycott, rooted in the ideas of free market accountability. Skip Ender’s Game is about doing what all of us do every day—use facts to determine who and what to support with our money.

‘Orson Scott Card, we can tolerate your anti-gay activism, your right-wing extremism, your campaign of fear-mongering and insults, but we’re not going to pay you for it. You’ve got the right to express your opinions and beliefs any way you choose—but you don’t have a right to our money. How many homophobic billboards and absurd “Gathering Storm” ads would a new fortune built off of Ender’s Game lunchboxes buy for NOM?’

Gerrold meanwhile wrote on his Facebook page, ‘After twenty years of despicably virulent homophobia, no. This is just another detestable characterization of LGBT people — that we are intolerant. Intolerant? Of people who want to lock us up, put us in concentration camps, deny us our civil rights? Intolerant? Are you fucking kidding me? You want me to be tolerant, Scott? First be one of those people who understands. Or to put it bluntly — get your fucking foot off my neck, then we’ll talk tolerance.

‘See, Scott — I don’t dislike you. I honestly don’t. I think you’re a very interesting author and you’ve turned out some works I admire. But you’ve made PR Mistake Number One. You’ve sided with hate-mongers. You’ve targeted a minority and you’ve characterized yourself as the righteous warrior. That gives you a short-term gain and a long-term loss. Look up Father Coughlin and Anita Bryant and Kirk Cameron.

‘Now you’ve made PR Mistake Number Two — instead of honestly and sincerely apologizing for the hurt you have caused others, you have doubled down. You have played the martyr card, arguing that you are the victim…

“Our nation was founded on the idea that ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (people) are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights — and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Your public statements, Orson Scott Card, put you on the wrong side of that declaration. Until you recognize that your public utterances have been at the service of bigotry and prejudice, there can be no redemption for you in the eyes of the LGBT community. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

You can find out more about the planned boycott at Skip Ender’s Game.

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Andrew Garfield Wants To Know Why Can’t Spiderman Be Gay?

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Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-manAlthough Hollywood might occasionally put a gay side-character into a big movie, there’s little chance they’d make the hero of a major big-budget superhero movie on the LGBT spectrum. But Spider-man himself, Andrew Garfield, wants to know why.

Talking to EW he asks, “What if MJ is a dude? Why can’t we discover that Peter is exploring his sexuality? It’s hardly even groundbreaking! So why can’t he be gay? Why can’t he be into boys?”

Garfield even know who he wants to play the male MJ. “I’ve been obsessed with Michael B. Jordan since The Wire,” he says. “He’s so charismatic and talented. It’d be even better—we’d have interracial bisexuality!”

His questioning was a result of a discussion with producer Matt Tolmach about Mary Jane or ‘MJ’ to fans, where he says, “I was kind of joking, but kind of not joking about MJ.”

I think it’s safe to say that MJ will remain female, even if Shailene Woodley, who came in to do a few scenes as Mary Jane, was recently cut from The Amazing Spider-man 2. She was supposed to be a small part of the second film, before becoming more important in parts 3 & 4. It’s already been decided the part will be recast – which does leave the door open to Spidey going on the downlow, but to be honest, I can’t see it happening.

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HBO Commissions Proposition 8 Documentary

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proposition-8HBO has become a big fan of all things gay in the last few years, such as backing  Behind The Candelabra and commissioning a new series about a group of gay friends in San Francisco.

Now the pay-cable network has picked up a documentary by Ben Cotner and Ryan White about Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that sought to ban same sex marriage in the state. While Prop. 8 initially passed, a court later ruled it unconstitutional, and with the Supreme Court recently deciding not to hear the case, that ruling will now stand. Indeed, gay people have already started marrying in California.

The documentary will look at the five year-battle to overturn Prop. 8 after it passed in 2008, which encompassed rallies, lobbying, endless court cases and lots of celebrity support. The documentary will include interviews with the legal team of David Boies and Ted Olson, and Prop. 8 case plaintiffs Sandy Stier, Kris Perry, Jeffrey Zarillo and Paul Katami.

“The story of the battle to overturn Prop. 8 is the story of a modern-day American revolution,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo commented. “HBO is proud to present what is intended to be the film of record on this landmark case.”

Director Ryan White said, “Watching this case unfold has been a master class in the judicial system and in the ongoing movement towards realizing equality in this country. We are excited to share that experience with the world.”

The documentary is expected to air in 2014.

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Ender’s Game Author Orson Scott Card Pleads For ‘Tolerance’ In Face Of Gay Boycott Of Film Version

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Orson-Scott-CardYesterday we reported on a planned boycott of the movie version of Ender’s Game, with the gay group Geeks Out setting up ‘Skip Ender’s Game‘, to try and convince people not to see it. The problem is that the man who wrote the sci-fi book the film is based on – Orson Scott Card – is very anti-gay. He has in the past said gay sex should be criminalised, linked homosexuality and paedophilia, and now sits of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, one of the most virulently unpleasant of the anti-gay marriage lobbies.

However now Card has stepped forward to plead for ‘tolerance’, and despite saying a few years ago about any government that tries to implement same sex marriage, “I will act to destroy that government and bring it down”, he seems to be capitulating that he’s lost that argument too.

He told EW, “Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

“Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.”

That argument might have more weight if Card was saying he was giving up working against gay rights, and also guaranteeing that any money he earns from the movie won’t be used to make gay people’s live more difficult.

So should we treat the film and author as completely separate entities, and accept Card’s statement that he’s accepted they’ve lost the equal marriage battle (I’d love to know what the National Organization for Marriage thinks of one of their board members sounding like he’s throwing in the towel)? Or is Card’s argument the equivalent of saying we shouldn’t worry about potentially giving money to a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as they lost the battle over Civil Rights?

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Director Chad Darnell Talks About His Planned Biopic Of Gay Porn Star Joey Stefano

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joey-stefanoIn the late 80s and early 90s Joey Stefano (born Nicholas Anthony Iacona Jr.) was one of the biggest names in gay porn. However he became HIV+ and was addicted to drugs, which led to his death from a speedball overdose at the age of only 26.

Now filmmaker Chad Darnell (Birthday) is planning a biopic of Stefano, called X-Rated, and he’s been talking to Queerty about his upcoming movie.

Talking about what drew him to the story, he says, “This is a story about addiction. The film is about the entire ‘porn brat pack:’ Chi Chi LaRue, Sharon Kane, Mickey Skee, Karen Dior and of course, Joey. They were a family. So, while Joey’s story is front and center in the film, as I’ve joked, it’s a little more X-Men and less Wolverine. It’s an ensemble film. Each of these characters battled years of addiction and Joey’s addictions killed him and everyone knew his addiction would kill him.”

As for who will play the central role,  he says, “I know who I want and I’m just waiting for the right pieces to be in place before we make the ‘ask.’ He was on a television show last season. I’m also excited about casting ‘Brian Maley’ and ‘Mickey Skee.’ I’ve really enjoyed getting to know all the surviving members of this story, so I’m very protective of them and how they are going to be portrayed.”

Some actors are already attached though. He adds, “We currently have attached Missi Pyle as Sharon Kane, Ryan O’Connor as Chi Chi LaRue and Willam Belli as Karen Dior. I have a few television actors who are interested in some of the other roles, and it will just really come down to availability and their schedule. We’ve done three cast readings of the script and everyone who has seen it and knew ‘the pack; say that Ryan, Missi and Willam are Larry, Sharon, and Karen.”

You can read more over at Queerty. There’s no news though on exactly when we might be able to see the film.

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