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

Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Ron Perlman Join Roland Emmerich’s Gay Rights Drama, Stonewall

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jonathan-rhys-meyersA couple of months ago Roland Emmerich promised he’d start shooting his gay rights movie Stonewall soon. Now he’s making good on that, as filming is about to kick off and more cast members have been announced.

Jeremy Irvine and Caleb Landry Jones are already onboard, and now Variety reports they’ve been joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman and Joey King. Jonny Beauchamp, Karl Glusman, Vlademir Alexis, and Alexandre Nachi will also star.

The film will centre around Irvine’s Danny, a young man whose political awakening happens against the backdrop of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which have since become a touchstone for the gay rights struggle. Caleb Landry Jones will play an eccentric gay street hustler named Orphan Annie who at first resists then warms up to Danny and later participates in the Stonewall uprising.

It’s not clear who the other actors will play. Shooting is starting now in New York.

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Test Trailer – A young dancer experiences gay life in the early days of the AIDS epidemic

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Set in the free-spirited San Francisco of 1985 in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, Chris Mason Johnson’s Test follows young aspiring dancer Frankie (dancer Scott Marlowe in his acting debut) as he confronts the challenges of being an understudy in a modern dance company where he’s taunted to “dance like a man!”

Frankie embarks on a budding relationship with hunky Todd (Matthew Risch, HBO’s “Looking”), a veteran dancer in the same company and the bad boy to Frankie’s naiveté.As Frankie and Todd’s friendship deepens, they navigate a world of risk, but also a world of hope, humor, visual beauty, and musical relief.

The film features captivating dance sequences especially choreographed for the film by acclaimed US choreographer Sidra Bell. The film won Grand Jury Award — Best Screenplay and Best U.S. Dramatic Feature at Outfest.

Test arrives on VoD platforms in the US on June 6th thanks to Filmbuff and on DVD on June 17th, courtesy of Wolfe Video. [Read more…]

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Brothers Episode 1 – The web series about four trans men debuts and is looking for funding

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In the past few years there have been some big changes for trans people, not least that social and technological changes (not least social media) have made it easier for them to tell their own stories and control their own narratives, rather than it having to be filtered though non-Trans media.

Even so, trans people in fiction still tend to be written, directed and even plated by cisgender people. Brothers is a bit different, as the web series is the brainchild of trans writer/director Emmett Lundberg, with the main four men the show is about, all played by trans guys.

The premiere episode has now been released, which you can watch above. To get the other seven eps of the first season in the can, the show has launched an Indiegogo campaign, with the hope of raising $60,000. You can read a little more about the show below, then head to Indiegogo to help out.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Meet Jack, Davyn, Aiden and Max.

‘Jack, a transgender man living in Brooklyn, has recently started sleeping with a cisgender* man after exclusively dating women his entire adult life. His friend Davyn is on the verge of proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Amy. Aiden, the youngest of the group – pre-testosterone and pre-surgery – is aiming to raise money for his top surgery as the date approaches. Max, the eldest, has been on hormones longer than both Jack and Davyn, but hasn’t had the financial resources to obtain his top surgery.

‘There is a definite lack of trans masculine stories being told; stories that reflect us and the people we know. This is where you come in. BROTHERS follows the daily lives, the ups and down, ins and outs of what it means to live as a transgender individual in today’s urban society.

‘Do you know a Davyn? Are you an Aiden? These are our friends, our teachers, our coworkers, our husbands, our BROTHERS.’

brothers-s1ep1

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Sam Smith, Harry Styles, Russell Brand & More Celebrate Their 1st Snog For Stonewall

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Douglas Booth

Douglas Booth

Celebrities have contributed to a #FirstSNOG Insta-Exhibition using an app created by SNOG frozen yogurt to pay tribute to gay equality charity Stonewall’s 25th anniversary

Celebrities from the worlds of fashion, film, music and art provided their image in support of the charity’s international work and decorated them with graphics by Cassette Playa inspired by peace and love.

Fans can voice their support in aid of the work of SNOG and Stonewall by uploading to an interactive #FirstSNOG Insta-Exhibition which already features First SNOG takeovers of Stonewall supporters from the fashion, art, music and film world, including: Russell Brand, Harry Styles, Rita Ora, Florence Welch, Douglas Booth, 3D from Massive Attack, Bobby Gillespie, Boy George, Jack Whitehall, Noel Fielding, Rhys Ifans, Katy B, Nick Grimshaw, Calvin Klein, Karen Elson, Cheyenne Jackson and many more. To get involved, download the app from iTunes.

Speaking on the collaboration and the brands support of Stonewall, SNOG founders Rob Baines and Pablo Uribe commented, “We admire and respect the work of Stonewall and are proud to be part of the 25th year celebration. We commissioned Cassette Playa as we loved the freedom and vibrancy of Carri Munden’s graphic sensibility and we are thrilled so many of the SNOG fans have got involved in the campaign.”

As well as raising awareness, SNOG is helping Stonewall to raise funds via their London based shops where a special Stonewall serve featuring a selection of rainbow coloured fruits will be available for the duration of the Stonewall 25 celebration. A donation of £3 can be made to Stonewall by texting ‘SNOG’ to 70300, with proceeds going towards the charity’s continued international work.

You can take a look at some more of the pics below.

Alan Carr
Cheyenne Jackson
Douglas Booth
Harry Styles
Jack Whitehall
Rita Ora
Russell Brand
Sam Smith
Rhys Ifans

Images available:
Aki Omoshaybi
Alan Carr
Alan Cumming
Alastair Mackie
Benn Northover
Bobby Gillespie
Boy George
Calvin Klein
Carmen Carrera
Cheyenne Jackson
Daisy Lowe
Delilah
Dominic Jones
Douglas Booth
Edie Campbell
Eliza Doolittle
Florence Welch
Harriet Verney
Harry Styles
Henry Holland
Isaac Ferry
Jack Fox
Jack Guinness
Jack Whitehall
James Brown
James O’Connor
Jodie Harsh
Karen Elson
Katy B
Laura Whitmore
Luella Bartley
Mat Horne
Melanie C
Michael Wincott
Naomi Campbell
Natt Weller
Nick Grimshaw
Noel Fielding
Noomi Rapace
Otis Ferry
Paloma Faith
Rhys Ifans
Rifat Ozbek
Rita Ora
Robert del Naja – 3D, Massive Attack
Russell Brand
Sadie Frost
Sam McKnight
Sam Smith
Sienna Guillroy

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Lupita Nyong’o & Gwendoline Christie Join Star Wars: Episode VII

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lupita-nyongoA couple of months ago there were rumours that 12 Years A Slave Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o was being courted to appear in Star Wars: Episode VII, but when the main cast list was announced, her name was missing. However now it’s been officially announced that she’s joining the movie.

She’s not the only one, as Gwendoline Christie, best known for playing Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones, will also appear. Christie will also be seen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

Lucasfilm’s head Kathleen Kennedy commented, “I could not be more excited about Lupita and Gwendoline joining the cast of Episode VII. It’s thrilling to see this extraordinarily talented ensemble taking shape.”

As with the other new cast members, there’s no news on exactly who they will play, but they join fellow newbies Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Max Von Sydow. The join original cast members Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

The film is already shooting with JJ Abrams directing. The film is due out towards the end of 2015.

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My Last Round Trailer – Two young gay men head for the bright lights of the big city

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Octavio is a prize-winning boxer, living in the south of Chile. But when he meets Hugo, a young and attractive man, everything he believes is brought into question. As their relationship starts to bloom, Octavio realises that he must sacrifice his love for boxing.

The couple move to the capital, Santiago, where they can fulfil their dreams and be together without the watching eyes of those around them. But nothing turns out as planned as Hugo is seduced by the temptations of the big city.

Octavio makes a new attempt at what he does best: boxing. But this time he’s not looking for victory, but a cure for his heartache. Both he and Hugo soon realise, this fight could be a new way out – or his very last round.

Peccadillo Pictures will release the film on DVD in the UK on June 9th. [Read more…]

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (DVD Review)

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After Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck comes Chris Pine as Jack Ryan, with a film that attempts to relaunch the Tom Clancy-based franchise for a new generation. As with the Ben Affleck effort, Shadow Recruit takes us back to the early days of Ryan, this time setting him up as a Marine injured in Afghanistan who is then recruited by the CIA to use his superior intellect as an analyst inside top banks, in order to try and track funding for terrorism.

It’s supposed to be a desk job, but he’s still not allowed to tell his girlfriend, Cathy (Keira Knightley), he’s in the CIA until they’re married. Ryan uncovers hidden accounts that suggest some rich Russians plan to destroy the American economy by tanking the dollar and coinciding that with a terrorist attack. His handler, Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), decides to send Jack to Moscow as he is the only one who understands the complex financial information. [Read more…]

That Awkward Moment (DVD Review)

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Jason (Zac Efron) isn’t good with commitment. In fact he isn’t that good at knowing whether he’s dating someone or not, as they tend to emotionally break up with him when he just thinks they’re hooking up. His friend Mikey (Michael B. Jordan) is more settled down, with a wife, job and nice home.

Then Mikey discovers that his wife is cheating on him and suddenly he’s single. Jason and their third musketeer, Daniel (Miles Teller), vow to help him enjoy his newfound freedom, and they all agree to stay single and have some fun. Inevitably though (as this is a movie) Jason almost immediately meets Ellie (Imogen Poots), and after getting over an initial mistake where he thinks she’s a hooker, they start seeing each other. Daniel also has a new beau in the form of the rather posh Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis). [Read more…]

The Normal Heart (TV Review)

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In the last few years there seems to have been a renewed interest in the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. There have been documentaries, films and books, as well as major re-stagings of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. The reason for this is probably twofold.

Firstly there is a whole generation of LGBT people who weren’t even born when AIDS first emerged, many of whom know little about it. Even if they do know about it, they often treat it like something from the dim and distant past that has nothing to do with them (as I’ve said before, the fact gay-history isn’t taught in schools tends to make many people, including many gay people, think there isn’t one or that it isn’t important). Secondly, those who survived the emergence of ‘gay cancer’ are now getting older (Kramer is now 78) and so it’s not surprising that they should want their stories recorded to ensure that it’s those who lived through it who control the narrative. [Read more…]

The Wonderful Laverne Cox Becomes The First Trans Person To Make The Cover Of Time

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laverne-cox-time-magazineEarlier this year there was a bit of controversy when Orange Is The New Black star Laverne Cox was given a massive thumbs up by nearly topping the Time 100 Reader Poll. However when the actual list of the 100 most influential people of the year was published by Time magazine – as decided by the editors – Cox was nowhere to be seen.

Many people were pretty upset, but now Time has decided that better than putting Cox somewhere into an arbitrary list is to make her the first transgender person ever on the cover of the magazine, accompanying an article and interview about the ‘Transgender Tipping Point’.

The interview goes deep into Cox’s journey, such as the fact that in her youth she wasn’t allowed to learn ballet, because “ballet was too gay.”

She also looks back on her childhood when she knew she wanted to be a girl, but it wasn’t until third grade that she realised she wouldn’t just somehow become one simply because that’s how she felt inside. By the time she was in sixth grade she tried to kill herself.

Luckily as she reached her teens could start exploring androgyny and her creativity that she began to find a way through.

However as she notes, there’s still a long way to go for trans people until there is proper acceptance, with part of the problem being that the stories of transgender people are often filtered through non-trans media that doesn’t really have much understanding of what it’s talking about. However with more high-profile people such as Cox and Janet Mock, as well as the fact social media has allowed trans people a voice it’s been difficult for them to get before, they are now starting to own their own stories and control them.

It is an article that’s important not just because it puts a trans person on the cover of Time, but also because the article is about Cox’s internal, emotional life and experience of being trans, not about hormones, surgery, genitals and the other things that have a tendency to distance people from thinking of trans people simply as human beings.

The cover has already sparked a lot of comment, and also saw Time editor Nancy Gibbs and GLAAD’s Tiq Milan sitting down with Ronan Farrow on MSNBC to talk about it, which you can see below.

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