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

Win The Gay-Themed Thriller Truth On DVD, Starring The Sexy Sean Paul Lockhart

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truth-dvd-coverThe tense, gay-themed thriller Truth arrives on DVD in the UK on May 26th, courtesy of TLA Releasing. And we’ve teamed up with them to give away three copies in this comp.

The film stars porn actor turned legit thesp Sean Paul Lockhart (aka Brent Corrigan), alongside actor/director Rob Moretti.

After a chance encounter over the Internet, Caleb (Lockhart) meets and falls head over heels for Jeremy (Moretti) and soon the line between love and lies blur. Struggling to keep his past a secret, including his mentally ill mother, Caleb slowly succumbs to his darker side. A sudden turn of events finds Jeremy held captive, until Caleb’s quest for the truth is revealed.

As we said in our review of the US Cinema release, it’s ‘an entertaining, sexy and sometimes a little disturbing thriller that will keep you watching’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at9qZHH03j0

If you’d like to try and win one of the three copies of Truth on DVD that we’ve got to give away, answer the question below and fill in your details, then press submit! The competition closes on June 6th 2014, so get answering and good luck! [Read more…]

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Gay-Themed Miners’ Strike Brit Flick Pride Takes The Queer Palm At Cannes

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pride-new-slideA few days ago we posted the first clip from the gay-themed Brit flick Pride, ahead of its May 23rd premiere as closing film of the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2014 International Cannes Film Festival.

If that weren’t honour enough, it’s now picked up the Queer Palm, handed out each year to the best LGBT themed movie showing at the festival. Previous winners include the excellent Stranger By The Lake, Laurence Anyways, Beauty and Gregg Araki’s Kaboom!.

Based on a true story, Pride is set during the summer of 1984, with Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on strike. At the Gay Pride March in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of the striking miners. But there is a problem. The Union seems embarrassed to receive their support.

But the activists are not deterred. They decide to ignore the Union and go direct to the miners. They identify a mining village in deepest Wales and set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person. This brings together two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership.

The likes of Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Andrew Scott and Paddy Considine star, with Tony Award-winning theatre director Matthew Warchus making his feature helming debut with the movie.

Pride was one of 13 movies up for the Queer Palm, including previous winner Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, Melanie Laurent’s Respire, and Thomas Cailley’s Love At First Sight. It’s the first time a British movie has picked up the award.

Organiser Franck Finance-Madur tolc AFP, “It’s important here in Cannes to think together about problems inherent to the production of queer films that promote sexual diversity.”

Pride is due out in the US in September.

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Emile Hirsch Directs Homoerotic Cross-Dressing Music Video For Koga

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It seems that Emile Hirsch doesn’t want to let James Franco to be the only actor who’s output becomes homoerotic when they stepped behind the camera. After the shirtless guis and sexual tension of his directorial debut, a music video for Daft Punk’s ‘Alive’, he’s back with a cross-dressing tale of a man, his neighbour and the internet.

It’s a nicely ambiguous video where are man could be seen as sweet and romantic, or odd and stalkerish, while the twist at the end could either be a situation getting slightly out of hand, or almost the fruition of an elaborate piece of role-playing.

It’s a nice way of playing with gender-roles and expectations, although it does seem that if we’re going to draw any conclusions about Hirsch from his directorial output so far, he’s very interested in the male body and working out. We’ll have to see whether he continues the theme with whatever he comes up with next. [Read more…]

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Daniel Radcliffe To Host Gay Trailblazers Special, Honoring DOMA Champions Edie Winsor & Roberta Kaplan

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Daniel-RadcliffeThe US network Logo TV has announced that they will be hosting a special event called Trailblazers, set up to honour those who have helped the progress of LGBT people over the years.

The event on June 26th will be hosted by long-time gay-ally Daniel Radcliffe and comes almost exactly a year after the Supreme Court ruling that started to dismantle the Defense of Marriage Act (the law that banned federal acknowledgement of gay marriage), and 45 years after the Stonewall riots. Fittingly, the first Trailblazers event will honour Edie Winsor, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

“Through their courage, Edie and Roberta redefined an institution to make it open to everybody,”  said Stephen Friedman, President of MTV and Logo. “Like the greatest civil rights pioneers, they secured a basic human freedom for all of us.”

Trailblazers will also include a performance by A Great Big World, along with special appearances by Jared Leto, Kylie Minogue, Ariana Grande, Rita Ora, Iggy Azalea, Tyler Glenn and Mary Lambert. Logo hopes this will be the first of what will become an annual event, allowing them to honour other important names in LGBT rights.

Alongside the starrier side of this initiative, Logo has also launched the ‘Hometown Trailblazers’, designed to pay tribute to local heroes who have made a difference in their community. Nominations for Hometown Trailblazers are being invited from the public, with a call for a picture or video, alongside an explanation of why the person is meaningful. You can find out more about that here.

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Someone Paid 700,000 Euros To Go Into Space With Leonardo DiCaprio To Raise Funds For AIDS Research

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leonardo-dicaprioIf you’ve ever wanted to go into space with Leonardo DiCaprio, it appear you’ve missed your chance. On Thursday night amFAR (American Foundation For AIDS Research) took over Cannes with an incredibly starry Cinema Against Aids gala. It also included an auction, where the monied classes were asked to reach as deep as they can for some rather unique things.

One of those things was a trip into space with Leo! He was on hand to auction it off, with the top bidder shelling out 700,000 euroes for the opportunity to get on one of the first Virgin Galactic commercial space strips with the Hollywood A-lister, which are due to take off next year.

The trip topped other prestigious lots, including a 1967 Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe which went for 350,000 euros and a 1968 Picasso 380,000 euros. However everything paled in comparison to a gilded mammoth skeleton by Damien Hirst which sold for 11m euros.

Guests at the event included amfAR chairs Sharon Stone, Harvey Weinstein, Milla Jovovich, Heidi Klum and John Travolta, as well as A-list guests Jane Fonda, Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Rosario Dawson, Justin Bieber, Michelle Rodriguez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Adrian Grenier, Kellan Lutz and Paris Hilton.

At the gala, Stone said on stage, “Today is the day we can say we have a cure for pediatric AIDS. There were many times we came here over the years where we’re failing. Now we are in the beginning of the end of AIDS.”

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Facebook Apologises After Banning Gay Filmmaker Del Shores’ Marriage Equality Post

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del-shoresFacebook is getting itself a bit of a reputation for banning posts and pages with innocuous gay content, and then having to backpedal furiously when it sparks an outcry. It’s happened again, this time to Del Shores, a producer on Queer As Folk who’s also helmed films like Sordid Lives and the recent Southern Baptist Sissies.

On his Facebook page, Shores posted in response to court victories overturning the gay marriage ban in Pennsylvania, ‘AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT FOR ME TODAY! I’m not sure that all of you know that I wrote for and was one of the producers of Queer as Folk for the last three seasons. Today, a fan pointed out that Debbie can now marry Carl! Why? Because in one episode of QAF – when Carl asked Debbie to marry him, she said she would not until gay marriage was legal in Pennsylvania. How amazing! I wrote the writers: ‘Debbie and Carl can get married!’ — and my good friend Michael MacLennan wrote me this: ‘And what a heady time. In those Dark Days of Bush (and not the positive and life-affirming variety) we’d have never imagined that less than ten years later, such progress as this would be happening.’ I teared up. It’s an amazing time in history! Love you all!’

A while afterwards he discovered a message from Facebook saying, ‘We removed something your page posted’ as it supposedly violated ‘Facebook Community Standards’. He was also informed he wouldn’t be able to post anything for 30 days.

Shores then appealed the ban, writing, ‘Dear Facebook:

‘Please tell me what in my post that you removed, then suspended me from posting for thirty days, does not “follow Facebook Community Standards”.

‘First and foremost, I LOVE FACEBOOK. It is an amazing way to connect to my fans. I buy ads for my shows daily and have a very active page. Thank you Facebook for my page. I mean that sincerely. I love connecting with friends and fans. Even while suspended, my ads are still running, and I am gladly paying for them.

‘In that, there is a flaw in your system. The particular offending post was attacked by a few religious bigots, one who railed on the gay community by quoting scripture after scripture. Many fans commented back, and I ultimately banned and blocked him, deleting his hateful comments in the name of the Lord. But apparently not before he and his trolls reported my page.

‘It seems to me, since this is the third time this has happened to me (and all “offending” posts or pictures were not offensive in any way AND you never would respond to my complaints or reverse the suspensions) that whomever is in charge of suspending does not look at the “offending” posts or pictures. They simply trust those reporting.

‘I cannot believe that Facebook is homophobic. Otherwise, many of us would be gone long ago. Although with the recent press of you suspending an Italian woman for posting a pro-gay rights picture of two women kissing citing “she had violated FB rules on ‘nudity and pornography’”, along with you removing my post — you are getting that reputation. [Includes line to Metro.]

‘Yes, I can still post via my administrators. BUT, it is a hassle. And this suspension is simply wrong!

‘Please do the right thing!’

After refusing to comment, 48 hours later Facebook overturned the ban and spokesperson Meg Sinclair told Global News the move was “a mistake”, and that Facebook would reach out to Shores to apologise.

The filmmaker responded, “I will be talking to Meg Sinclair of Facebook soon as she has reached out to me to apologize on behalf of Facebook.

“The suspension was wrong! It was antigay. It was siding with religious nuts who troll my page daily, trying to silence me. And I had to take the risk of losing this page in order to expose what had happened.”

Facebook’s issue seems to be that it has tried to automate its removal procedure. What appears to take place is that is someone complains about a post and an automated algorithm decides whether to remove it, without human intervention. Inevitably this means mistakes happen, especially if, like many other similar systems, it’s particularly sensitive to gay content (despite protestations that their systems aren’t specifically anti-gay, many companies nevertheless still seem to work on a presumption that anything gay is NSFW, until proven otherwise).

The automation that appears to take place with Facebook was a response to earlier criticism that it wasn’t dealing with offensive posts quickly enough, particularly in regards to pornography and bullying. However it definitely appears that it’s too sensitive to all things LGBT, and until they sort things out it’s going to continue to make stupid mistakes like this. At the very least, if removal is going to take place without human intervention, they need to be able consider appeals much faster.

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In A Shock Move, Egdar Wright Is Out Of Marvel’s Ant-Man

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Edgar-Wright2In a very surprising announcement, Marvel has revealed that Edgar Wright will no longer direct the Ant-Man movie. It’s a bit of a shock as the movie has its main cast and a release date, and Wright has been working on it since its inception in 2006 – so it’s not like he isn’t heavily invested.

However the studio has issued the statement: ‘Marvel and Edgar Wright jointly announced today that the studio and director have parted ways on Ant-Man due to differences in their vision of the film. The decision to move on is amicable and does not impact the release date on July 17, 2015. A new director will be announced shortly.’

Variety reports that the studio has already found a replacement – which isn’t surprising as they’re keeping the release date – which would suggest Wright’s departure has been in the works for some time now. It’s also led many to suggest the new helmer could be Attack The Block’s Joe Cornish, who co-wrote the Ant-Man script alongside Wright. That’s just speculation at the moment though.

At the moment it seems Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, Clifton Collins Jr., Evangeline Lilly, Patrick Wilson and Corey Stoll remain attached to star.

Expect more news on exactly who will be taking over very soon.

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Gareth Edwards To Helm Star Wars Spinoff (But He’s Still On For Godzilla 2)

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gareth-edwardsGareth Edwards has had a meteoric rise. He went from the micro-budget Monsters to the all-conquering Godzilla and now it’s been announced that he will direct the first of the planned Star Ward spinoffs.

Here’s the official release: ‘In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney have begun development on multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.

‘Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year’s smash hit Godzilla.

‘Said Gareth Edwards, “Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm.”

‘Gary Whitta screenwriting credits include 2010’s The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.’

At the moment it’s not known which characters’ Edwards’ Star Wars movie will focus on, although it’s believed Lucasfilm is working on movies about Boba Fett, Han Solo and Red 5 (with most expecting them in that order). It is also speculated that Yoda may be getting his own spin-off movie.

So what about the planned Godzilla sequels? Well, according to Legendary Pictures, Edwards is still attached to those and he should be able to make Star Wars as well. As Godzilla 2 is in the very early stages, the director will probably have time to go to a galaxy far, far, away before he’s expected back on the mighty lizard set.

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Hidden Hills Trailer – Things get a little bit gay with a 1960s-style sex-capade

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It’s back to the 1960s in a slightly kitsch way with the gay-themed Hidden Hills, which describes itself as ‘A dazzling 60s sex-capade with a dazzling modern twist’. It’s currently screening at film festivals, but you can watch the trailer right here.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘1960’s in Hidden Hills, California. A handsome real estate agent, Drew Drake finds himself in a secret relationship that has become an overbearing lie. For seven years he has secretly been dating and living with his business partner Whitey Ford. None of his friends know. The issue isn’t that they’re gay. Nearly everyone in Hidden Hills is gay. (Straight people are the ones hiding in the closet.) The problem is that both Drew and Whitey are Caucasian.

‘No one dates the same race! It’s a social taboo. Will Drew Drake have the nerve to buck societal norms and come clean about his love for Whitey Ford? Can two white men admit their love for each other and take their relationship to the next level – marriage?

‘Starring Ted Trent and Tim O’Leary, Hidden Hills is a comedy that looks at race, sexuality, aging, and weight issues, flipping the world upside down in a 72 minute feature film that mimics the classic styling of Rock Hudson and Doris Day movies. Also featuring up and coming Hollywood talent including Joy Sudduth (Criminal Minds), Wendy Shapero (Robot Chicken), and Chris Fennessy (Zoey 101) and a performance of an original song by Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s. The movie was written and directed by Dan Steadman (Red Lodge) whose first project Jesus People: The Movie is to be released in early 2014. It features Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids) and Academy Award® winner Octavia Spencer (The Help).’

You can find more info on the official website. [Read more…]

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Legendary Actress Olympia Dukakis Steps Up To Support Gay Rights In Cyprus

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Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis has long showed she’s a supporter of all things gay, whether it’s playing Mrs. Madrigal in the adaptations of Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City or her more recent turn playing an ageing lesbian in Cloudburst.

Now the Greek-American actress has a few things to say about LGBT rights in Cyprus. Her message comes in response to opposition to the fact the island is due to hold it first Pride event starting on May 31st. That includes the Greek Orthodox Church issuing a statement that includes, ‘The Church and science consider homosexuality to be the human being’s fall from grace and an illness and not a natural way of life or choice’.

We’re not entirely sure what science they’re talking about, as I don’t think they’ve devised a scientific test for ‘fall from grace’ and virtually all mainstream science stopped classing being gay as an illness decades ago.

Dukakis isn’t having any of it though, saying “To be deprived of anything out of what people consider religious principals is repugnant.” We have to agree, especially as when religious people say things like this, they’re not even reflecting what a lot of those who are religious actually believe (even if they present it as a universally accepted truth of their religion) – but if you’re religious and like gay people, nobody reports that on TV. However if you want to have a dumb anti-gay rant, the media floodgates open.

Olympia is also spot on when she says it’s “offensive” to have to ask whether another human being deserves to have equal rights.

And in case you’re interested, there’s also a Kickstarter seeking funding for a documentary about the wonderful Olympia that you can donate to if you’re feeling so inclined. [Read more…]

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Iris Prize LGBT Short Film Festival Seeks Applications For Its Youth Jury

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iris-prize-slideThe Iris Prize FIlm Festival, held in Cardiff each autumn, has managed to become one of the best LGBT film festivals around by recognising that a lot of the best work in gay filmmaking is taking place in the short film arena. At Iris these films are at the forefront, rather than being sidelined into niche little collections like they are at many fests.

It also does a great job of trying to open itself up to all people, whether gay, straight, young or old. That includes the Iris Prize Youth Jury 2014 sponsored by Cardiff University, which is returning for a second year and will give up to 10 young people the opportunity to play an integral part in the Iris Prize Festival.

“We are delighted to once again support the Iris Prize Youth Jury. The Iris Prize has in a short space of time become a beacon for the international LGBT film-making community, and each year the number of media professionals we welcome to Cardiff during the festival grows,” said Professor Elizabeth Treasure, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University.

She added: “The local community has an important role to play in the festival, which has become a highlight of Cardiff’s events calendar.  Our sponsorship will enable local young people to have direct access to film industry professionals, which we hope will inspire them to pursue their own creative aspirations.”

“I’m thrilled to see the relationship between the Iris Prize and Cardiff University develop and grow. This is an amazing opportunity for somebody who loves film and is considering a future career in media. The chance to meet so many talented people from all over the world is just part of the experience as they select the second Iris Prize Youth Award 2014,” said Andrew Pierce, Festival Chair.

The Iris Prize Festival is looking for young people aged between 14 and 17 years of age who love film to be judges at this year’s Cardiff-based lesbian and gay film festival. Those selected will get a private screening of some of the best short films produced over the past 12 months; a chance to meet the 10-strong Iris Prize International Jury, and a VIP ticket to attend the exclusive 2014 Iris Awards presented by Amy Lamé.

Application forms are available by e-mailing [email protected] and must be returned by Friday 19 September 2014. You can find more details by clicking here.

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Straight Men React To Grindr In A Great New Video

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The last thing we posted was all about the dumb preconceptions straight people often have about gay people, where comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding turned the table to show us what happens ‘If Gay Guys Said The Shit Straight People Say’.

However when straight guys are presented with anything that’s genuinely gay, the results are often funny to see.

Last year we saw how straight guys react to watching gay porn, and now we’ve got a vid where nine straight guys are asked to go on Grindr. Most of them kind of know what the app is, but their reactions to actually being part of the Grindr world is undoubtedly amusing.

It actually works out to be a fun way to explore the similarities and differences between gay and straight men – as in some ways things are somewhat different, but in others they’re very much the same, even if we approach things in different ways. Take a look above.

straight-men-react-to-grindr

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