GAYLETTER

The story is so wild Al Pacino made a movie about it (Dog Day Afternoon 1975). Directed by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren The Dog tells the story of John Wojtowicz, a man who attempted to rob a Chase bank in Brooklyn in 1972 in order to buy his girlfriend, Liz Eden, gender-reassignment surgery (she was a trans woman). The robbery lead to a 14-hour siege that made international headlines, and a long jail sentence for John. 

As John says in the trailer below, he’s a true romantic. What lead him to making, what he considered to be, the ultimate romantic gesture — robbing a bank so his girlfriend could become the woman on the outside that she was on the inside — is explored in-depth in this film that was shot over 10 years. Using old news footage of the robbery, along with 10 years of interviews with John, and also interviews with many of the leaders of the gay liberation movement at the time, The Dog is a fascinating film.

John was a true pioneer of the gay rights movement. He loved sex and was unabashed in his desires for men, once even making out with a cop on the street after he called him a “faggot.” Way before same-sex marriage was even discussed in the media, John helped organize one of the earliest marriage equality protests and he was an active member of the Gay Activists Alliance. But more than anything he was, and is, a great storyteller, something this film brilliantly illustrates. …

Christophe Honoré’s 2010 film Man At Bath takes its name from an 1884 oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. In the painting, a man stands, back turned to the viewer, drying his naked body with a towel. It is both intimate and appealing, setting up a duality between the masculinity of the subject and the vulnerability of seeing him so exposed. Honoré aims for a similar relationship in his film’s titular homme au bain: gay porn titan François Sagat’s Emmanuel is gruff and stony, an oft-naked hustler who pushes the limits too far with his boyfriend Omar (Omar Ben Sellem) and winds up ruining the relationship for good. With Omar abroad in New York, Emmanuel is left to look after himself, an experience that shows us just how at odds our initial perception of him (beautiful, sculpted, impenetrable) is with the man’s true nature (dejected, humiliated, alone). The film bounces between Omar and Emmanuel’s separate adventures, as the former traipses around Manhattan with a handicam and an actress friend (the always delightful Chiara Mastroianni) while the latter struggles finding enough johns just to keep him financially afloat.

Man At Bath isn’t without its faults. The Omar sequences often feel inessential to the story being told, perhaps as a result of Honoré blending documentary and fiction by using actual footage he shot while promoting a film in New York and merging them with Omar’s fling with a Canadian student. François Sagat, however, starring here in his second serious lead role, is formidable. …

Following the maelstrom of controversy surrounding the word ‘tranny’ in the LGBTQI community in recent months, it may seem like something of a publicity stunt to release a music video embracing one of the more divisive terms of endearment in the queer lexicon: ‘cunt’. But then, you don’t know Andy Butler. The New York based DJ behind eclectic disco and house project Hercules and Love Affair embraced the term whole-heartedly for ‘My Offence’, the latest single from this year’s The Feast of the Broken Heart LP. Enlisting GAYLETTER fave Matt Lambert to helm the direction, the six month-long process undertaken by Butler involved filmed interviews with various NYC performance artists who subvert profanity and gender in their work, asking each of them what the word ‘cunt’ means to them. ‘I spoke to some of the people who appear in the video for over an hour,’ Lambert says of the filming. ‘Each of them had a different answer and different relationship to the word ‘cunt’ as well as the appropriation and reclamation of profane language as a means of pushing culture forward. Language, especially when dealing with issues surrounding identity, defines people’s realities whether they choose to embrace or ignore language.’

Including Kalup Linzy, Honey Dijon, Juliana Huxtable, Cakes Da Killa, Contessa Stuto, Black Cracker, Bailey Stiles, Dwayne Pierre and many more, the video itself reads as something of a modern riff on Paris Is Burning-style talking heads: we bounce from Juliana to Honey to Kalup and back again, each of them explaining a little bit about how and why ‘cunt’ has transformed into such a prevailing term of empowerment for so many queer boys and girls. …

Just when you think you’ve see it all, along comes a film to totally blow your mind, flip your equilibrium and open up tracks of thought you never imagined possible. The film I’m talking about is Canadian provocateur Bruce LaBruce‘s Gerontophilia, a love story about a gorgeous young man named Lake (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie) who has a relentless appetite for men of the geriatric persuasion. To satiate his needs, Lake takes a job at a nursing home where he falls hard for one of the residents named Mr Peabody (Walter Borden).

In this revolutionary tale director La Bruce, “…dares us to look beyond fetish to embrace the beauty of all stages of life.” The closing night gala includes the New York Premiere of this film, a pre-screening cocktail party, a Q & A with the director and a private after-party. Come with your guns fully loaded it’s sure to be a banging affair. Watch it here.

$15 screening only/$45 Gala ticket, 5:30PM cocktails, 7:00PM screening, Walter Reade Theatre 165 W. 65th St. NY, NY. …

Just because the film opens up on the searing white sands and blue skied beaches of Brazil doesn’t necessarily mean the film is going to be super hot and sweaty. Instead, in the hands of stellar Brazillian director Karim Ainouz, Futuro Beach opens with a tragedy that unites a lifeguard (involved in a failed rescue) with the victim’s super sexy biker friend visiting from Germany. In a twist of fate the two men fall hard and fast for one another. They initiate their sexual adventure in a car, with a scene that made me so horny I hit pause to cool off a bit and refresh my rum drink. Told in three parts, the film departs Futuro Beach and heads off to Europe where the drama continues to unfold in a mysterious and unexpected fashion. A surprise visit from the lifeguard’s brother years later turns the plot upside down and inside out, so hold on until the poetic and deeply poignant end where the men of this tale journey into an unknown future. A bold choice to open the festival and one I will remember for days to come.

Check out the Newfest schedule. There are a myriad of exciting LGBTQ themed films to enjoy, If I come across one of note you should check out I will be sure to let you know. Peace out from the sunny green mountains of Vermont.

$13, 7:00PM, Walter Reade Theatre, 165 W. 65th ST. NY, NY. …

If you’ve been lucky enough to spend some time in Berlin, you’ll know that the nightlife more than lives up to its reputation. Need a bit more convincing before you book your flights? Look no further than Yony Leyser’s upcoming movie, Desire Will Set You Free.

This feature-length film explores the queer and underground Berlin scene that makes it such a great city for the young and artistic. Filming has already taken place with highlights including performances by Peaches, Nina Hagen, Brooklyn’s Blood Orange and Rummelsnuff. Also the film will feature newcomers Tim-Fabian Hoffman (Sasha), Chloé Griffin (Cathrine) and the director himself, Yony Leyser (Ezra). Your support is needed to fund post-production. After checking out the fundraising video, we can’t wait to see this. So head over to their Kickstarter page for a watch and just try to keep a smile off your face (and your hand off your wallet) — we dare you. …

Matthew, a Canadian, arrives in Berlin for the first time. He meets Matthias, a striking, confident, and handsome German who quickly becomes everything Matthew wants. Then, he’s everything Matthew wants to be. Before long, Matthew is obsessed, and becomes bent on taking over Matthias’s identity entirely. So goes the disturbing plot to M / M, Canadian director Drew Lint’s first feature-length film. Currently crowdsourcing via an Indiegogo campaign, M / M is set amidst the stark buildings and techno clubs of Berlin, a perfect backdrop for Lint’s dark tale of obsession and lust, of dreams and reality, of comedy and tragedy. Part of what Lint dubs a ‘conscious effort to create unique, challenging and satisfying queer work,’ M / M strives for inventive rather than pandering. It’s no surprise to see David Lynch as the first name under Lint’s list of influences — M / M’s focus on surreality and interest in the intersection between dreams and reality seems like a depraved gay marriage between Mulholland Drive and Single White Female (as if that combo isn’t depraved enough).

Lint’s most recent short film, Rough Trade, made the rounds at some big name film festivals (Inside Out, Los Angeles Film Festival), which makes the anticipation for M / M pretty high on our list. Lint, who is Canadian himself, tapped into his own experiences as an outsider in Berlin, using inspiration from the unique atmosphere of the city to write the film. …