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

Justin Mikita & Christine O’Leary Added To Matt Riddlehoover’s New Film

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Over the last few weeks we’ve been covering the growing cast of Scenes From A Gay Marriage’s Matt Riddlehoover’s upcoming LGBT-themed movie, which already includes the likes of Maria Conchita Alonso, Charlie David, Jared Allman, Josey Greenwell, Jonathan D. Lovitz, and Enrique Sapene. Now two more have been added, in the form of Gay rights activist Justin Mikita and award-winning comedienne Christine O’Leary.

Mikita co-produced last year’s Los Angeles premiere of 8: The Play, which chronicled the landmark trial of California’s Prop. 8, using actual court transcripts and first-hand interviews. O’Leary, who recently performed stand-up with Joy Behar, has been nominated “One of the 50 Funniest Lesbians in America” and serves on the Board of Directors for True Colors, Inc., a GLBTQA Youth Serving Agency.

Riddlehoover’s currently untitled film is about a newly together gay couple who find their blissful life disrupted by friends and relatives. Thematically, the script aims to grind gears about civil rights, hereditary illnesses, and life itself – all while making you laugh. Production is slated to begin shooting in Spring 2013 in Los Angeles.

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the movie is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo, so head over there if you’d like to help.

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Plan B’s Marco Berger Wants To Go To Hawaii With A New LGBT-themed Project

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Argentinian director Marco Berger has produced a couple of fascinating gay-themed movies with Absent and Plan B (we chatted to him about those films, and you can have a read of that here). Now he’s hoping to put together a new one called Hawaii, and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and help bring the movie to the screen.

Here’s the synopsis (and remember it’s written by someone whose first language isn’t English): ‘Hawaii is a film about a helpless man that is reunited with a childhood friend who helps him, thus creating a bond that goes beyond friendship.

‘Martin seeks for an odd job at Eugenio’s house. When Eugenio recognizes Martin as a childhood friend, and realizes his current situation, he decides to give him work for the summer. Unintentionally, a power & desire game is generated and a strange relationship starts to grow, but it cannot flourish mostly because of the social differences that grew between them since childhood. This kind of barrier, typical in Jane Austen’s novels, is resignified in a contemporary story of social classes.

‘The film is about solidarity but also about the power game that is generated when one person is relying on another. The idea is to explore power, helplessness, social boundaries, brotherhood, desire and love.

‘Similar to Plan B, Hawaii is a small & simple story, easy to shoot independently. All the film takes place in summer, in a countryside house, and only two characters carry the story forward. Working with a small team, the film can be shot with $40,000. While reaching the goal would allow us to shoot the film, it would be great if the goal is exceeded and we can make things more comfortably. Maybe even recording the music in an actual professional studio! ;)’

Manuel Vignau & Mateo Chiriano are set to star. Take a look at the vid above to find out a bit more, and head over to Kickstarter to help get the movie made – Berger is a talent worth supporting, so it may well be worth giving a bit of cash.

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Two Weddings and a Funeral Trailer – LGBT movies go South Korean

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I’m kind of intrigued by the growing number of gay-themed films emerging from South Korean and other Asian countries, partly because while we in the west have become increasingly used to movies about gay people, over there they’re still something of a novelty. As a result, they tend to tell stories that deal with themes and stories that come from the beginning of the LGBT story, almost as if they’re introducing audiences to gay people.

That seems to be true of South Korea’s Two Weddings And A Funeral, which is about a gay man who starts a fake relationship with a lesbian, so that they both have beard cover. Hyo-Jin (Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung) is an obstetrician who really wants to adopt a baby with her girlfriend. To help make that possible, she arranges a fake marriage with Min-Soo (Kim Dong-Yoon), who is gay but wants his parents to think he’s straight.

The movie is currently doing the festival circuit, but there’s no info on when it might get a release in the west.

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Matt Bomer Talks Growing Up Gay And Closeted

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One of the nice things about being gay and famous, is that shortly after you come out, you tend to get some awards. Magic Mike and White Collar star Matt Bomer picked one up over the weekend from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), where he and his partner, Simon Halls, were given the Inspiration Award.

Bomer, who came out publicly in February, used to opportunity to talk about the difficulties of growing up gay and in the closet, and his feelings about the problem of bullying that LGBT teens still face. He said, “When I was in high school, there was no safe haven, there was no outlet for you to speak your mind. So I did what any self-preserving 14-year-old would do – I signed up for the school play and also the football team to cover my tracks. When that happens, when you aren’t allowed to speak about who you are, one of the most authentic parts of who you are, which is who you love or who you’re attracted to, feels invisible.”

He added, “Unfortunately, in some parts of the country, some kids are taught at an early age that being different is somehow bad or wrong or worthy of ridicule…Kids aren’t born to be bullies, they’re taught to be bullies.”

Bomer was handed the gong by Magic Mike co-star Joe Manganiello, who commented, “You are the example that the rest of our country needs to wake up and see in terms of equality and putting an end to the bullying epidemic and making sure that every family is respected in our schools and our society.” (Source: E! Online)

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Sally Field Talks About Her Gay Son’s Coming Out

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You gotta love Sally Field, and now you gotta love her even more, as she has a gay son who she spoke movingly about a few days ago while accepting the Human Rights Campaign’s Ally for Equality Award in Washington, D.C..

We saw her dealing with a gay son on-screen in Brothers & Sisters, and she had that same experience in real-life as well (although hopefully with less TV style drama), as her son Sam came out when he was 20, something she supported him in. Take a look at Sally’s heartfelt speech above.

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Sacha Baron Cohen Takes On The Lesbian

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A story has been doing the round recently about Hong Kong billionaire Cecil Chao, who’s offered a hefty $65 million reward to any man who marries his daughter, even though she’s a lesbian who lives in France with her wife (and has even has the relationship blessed by a French church).

Sacha Baron Cohen thinks this is prime material for a comedy, as Variety reports he’s teamed up with Paramount to produce and potentially star in a movie about it, currently called The Lesbian.

One of the more interesting things about the tale is that Cecil Chao has never even married himself, so it’s not like he’s an avid believer in the institution, it appears he just doesn’t want his offspring to be gay. It’s also known that despite the massive dowry, his daughter remains on good terms with him. It is believed that Sacha Baron Cohen is looking to play the billionaire father, so it’s likely there’ll be some racial changes from real life to the movie.

The film is in the very early stages at the moment, as no screenwriter has yet been attached. It is of course not Cohen’s first brush with gay-themed films, as he starred as the flamboyantly homosexual Bruno in the movie of the same name.

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Adam Brody Turns Flamboyant Flight Attendant For Baggage Claim

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It’s almost like a coming of age for actors nowadays to play gay, and the latest to sign up to do just that is Adam Brody, who’s joined the comedy Baggage Claim as what Variety describes as ‘a flamboyant flight attendant’.

OC stars Brody joins Paula Patton and Octavia Spencer, with Patton as Montana Moore, a flight attendant who is the oldest, unmarried woman in her family. She goes on a cross-country trek to find a husband in 30 days, before her younger sister gets hitched. Spencer and Brody are fellow flight attendants who come up with a plan to help Patton’s character, organising for her to bump into various exes as she goes on her travels.

The movie is already shooting, with Taye Diggs, Derek Luke, Djimon Hounsou, Lauren London and Jill Scott also set to star.

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First Look At James Franco’s 40 Minutes, The Star’s ‘Homo-Sex-Art-Film’

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A few weeks ago we reported that James Franco has shot a gay art film called James Franco’s 40 Minutes. Now the first look at the film has emerged, although unfortunately you’ll have to head over to Papermag to take a look.

The idea behind the movie is that William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 movie Cruising supposedly had 40 minutes chopped out of it which were too much for the censors, and dealt explicitly with the gay S&M subculture and Al Pacino’s character’s descent into it. Cruising sparked controversy even before it was shot, and protesters attempted to disrupt filming on what they saw as a movie that would paint gay people as S&M obsessed perverts one step away from being psychopathic serial murderers.

Franco had originally wanted to update Cruising, but rights issues meant he couldn’t, and so instead he and director Travis Mathews have created a film that’s both a fictitious look at those lost 40 minutes of Cruising and an exploration of the making of the James Franco’s 40 Minutes, which Mathews has described as a ‘Homo-Sex-Art-Film’.

Head over to Papermag to see the first clip from the film, as well as an interview with Travis Mathews.

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Gael Garcia Bernal Getting Showily Effeminate For The Dallas Buyers Club

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Matthew McConaughey has been looking scarily skinny for the past few months in preparation for playing AIDS patient Ron Woodroff in The Dallas Buyers Club. Now he’s got some more company as THR reports that Gael García Bernal is negotiating to appear in Jean-Marc Vallée’s (The Young Victoria) movie.

The drama is based on the true story of Ron Woodroff, an AIDS patient who before the advent of modern treatments, began smuggling drugs into the US that had shown great promise in helping people with HIV/AIDS. The Texas electrician then clashed with the Food and Drug Administration, which wanted to keep the drugs out of the country until they’d been fully licensed – even though that meant some people would die in the meantime. While Woodroff was straight, Gael García Bernal will play a ‘showy role’ as an effeminate member of the Dallas Buyers Club.

Shooting will start this November in New Orleans.

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XPOSED International Queer Film Festival Berlin Makes A Call For Entries

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It takes a long time to organise a decent programme for a film festival and so while the 8th XPOSED International Queer Film Festival in Berlin isn’t due to run until May 30th-June 1st 2013 (coinciding with Berlin’s Pride month), they’ve just issued their call for entries.

Every year XPOSED picks a country to focus on and this year it’s Austria. As a result they’re looking for queer-themed films from Germany’s neighbour for their Austrian focused section. However that’s not all the programmers are hunting for, as they also want a great selection of Queer Short Films from Germany for their Local Shorts Program and Queer Short Films from the rest of the globe for the International Program! There is no entry fee and all films will be eligible for the annual Lolly Award.

If you’re a queer filmmaker (or a maker of queer films), you’ve got a couple of months to get your entry ready, as the deadline for entries is December 21st, 2012. If you have something you want to enter, need more info or are just interested in the XPOSED International Queer Film Festival itself, head over to the event’s website.

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