LGBT Inside Out Film Festival Review: WOMAN ON FIRE (USA 216) ***

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

woman on fire.jpgWoman on Fire follows Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter in New York City. A character-driven documentary, the film follows Brooke as she sets out to challenge perceptions of what it means to be transgender in America today.

Director: Julie Sokolow
Writer: Julie Sokolow
Stars: Brooke Guinan, James L. Baker, George Guinan

Review by Gilbert Seah
 
Woman on Fire follows Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter in New York City. At the start of the film, Brooke tells the audience, while looking in the mirror to follow your heart.

Well, Brooke did follow her heart to become a woman, the gender he/she was comfortable with. As a third-generation firefighter, Brooke has a passion for heroism that runs in her blood. Her father George is a respected lieutenant and 9/11 survivor with a 35-year legacy in the FDNY.

The film shows Brooke transitioning from male to female in her father’s workplace, as it poses not only a challenge to a macho profession, but also to the customs of the people she cares about the most – her traditional family.

The film also charts Brooke’s boyfriend of two years, Jim, struggling to come out to his family. A wise-cracking Air Force veteran, Jim still hasn’t told his mother that Brooke is a transwoman. But besides the transgender issue, the film also reveals the life of a firefighter and their sacrifice for society.

A film that proudly celebrates diversity!

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Advertisement

LGBT Inside Out Festival: MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN (Germany 2017) ***

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

mywonderful.jpgToday’s hip image of Berlin is based on the city’s vibrant and subversive subcultures, which originally emerged within the grey walls surrounding West Berlin. The queer scene played a major role in creating that subculture, with its sexual diversity and its wild and unconstrained party culture, ranging from the notorious clubs to CSD.

Director: Jochen Hick
Writer: Jochen Hick
Stars: Mabel Aschenneller, Wolfgang Cihlarz, Rolf Eden

Review by Gilbert Seah
 
MY WONDERFUL WEST BERLIN charts the gay activities between the end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall, looking from the point of view of West Berlin, which was a melting pot of political activists, partygoers, hedonists, club owners, musicians and fashion designers.

These are the stories of their lives, existing in gay communes and surviving the AIDS crisis. This trip down memory lane is not all nostalgic and joy. West Berlin is shown for all the ugliness and its gay history from the fights of the gay movements, the raids and arrests in gay establishments, the abolishment of paragraph 175, to the destruction of lives though A.I.D.S..

Shot mostly in back and white with extensive use of archive footage and home mvies, the audience is offered a ‘treat’ that still keels a relative light mood over the events. Celebrities that have visited West Berlin include Iggy Pop and David Bowie, stressed for heir use of drugs. Many older residents reminisce of the past from the youth to the present.

There is nothing really new revealed in this documentary, but it is still an informative and entertaining watch.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/218045422

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

LGBT Inside Out Festival: HOOKED (USA 2017

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

hooked.jpgDirector: Max Emerson
Writer: Max Emerson
Stars: Jared Sandler, Katie McClellan, Conor Donnally

Review by Gilbert Seah

In the United States, 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. (In Toronto, the estimate is anywhere from 20 to 40 percent.)

Max Emerson’s crowd funded film HOOKED as in Hookers) aim at two goals. The first is to make a relevant film on the subject and the second to reach out to people for funds to help the LGBT homeless.

His film has the subject of an 18-year old hustler called Jack. Jack and his boyfriend Tom are an item, close and very much in love with each other. Otherwise, Jack is impulsive and explosive with few redeeming qualities.

A married man, Matt who has not come out of the closet takes Jack from NYC to Miami with the intention of helping him. The trouble with this well intentioned but terrible film is that it is laden with cliches such as Matt’s unforgiving wife to his unfunny priest offering ridiculous advice.

At worst, Emerson’s film is preachy to the point of annoying with the the story leading to a predictable climax when the film ends asking unashamedly for donations. Every male in the film appears to have hard and beautiful bodies, a fact so terribly false, in the real world.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfLodk5fH7w

_________

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

 

 

 

 

 

LGBT Inside Out Festival: HEARTSTONE (Iceland 2016) ***

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

heartstoneA remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it’s time to leave the playground and face adulthood.

Director: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Writer: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Stars: Baldur Einarsson, Blær Hinriksson, Diljá Valsdóttir

Review by Gilbert Seah
 

HEARTSTONE is the dramatic story of two pre-teens, Thor and Christian who are so good friends that others around think that they might be gay.

As homosexuality is looked down upon in the small fishing village setting, things get to a boil. It does not help that Christian has an abusive often-drunk father and Thor, two older bullying sisters and a single mother who becomes the talk of the village when she starts dating again. A big plus of HEARTSTONE is its Icelandic setting.

The landscape and photography are nothing short of stunning. For example, when the from door opens in once scene where Christian bolts out of the house, one can see the sea and mountains in the background. As the film progresses, Thor begins to attract the attention of a local girl while Christian wrestles with his new unfound feeling towards Thor.

The film begins happily in summer where the boys are mainly playful and ends with the arrival of winter when they have to face the realities of adulthood and their sexual feelings.

Guðmundsson captures the complexity of youth, showing more of the pains and hurt than the joys of youth in his earnest feature.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Tcw-_SrcA

_________

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com