actor profiles
animation
book reviews
director profiles
documentaries
experimental &
avant garde
exploitation
film festivals
film noir
film reviews
gay & lesbian
hong kong films
horror
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silent film
tranny cinema
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Film Festivals
in issue 66
After the Surge: The 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival
"An alternative agenda for the festival might be: what can we make of modernism?"
By Lesley Chow
Bucking the Tide: The 2009 New York Film Festival
This year's strong, idiosyncratic line-up reminds us that moviegoing can still be more than "a museum experience"
By Megan Ratner
Lucky 13: The 2009 Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Getting out of the ghetto
By Gary Morris
From Air Dolls to the Anchorage: The 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival
"VIFF remains the unspoiled oasis for cinephiles looking to get away from it all."
By Ben Cho
in issue 65
No Transcendence: Cannes Film Festival 2009
"It's becoming more and more rare that a fresh, original film gets into the Cannes competition." — Frederic Boyer
By Karin Luisa Badt
in issue 64
Screening Hong Kong: The 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival — One of the world's largest cinema events is also one of the most ambitious
The View from Here: Middle Eastern Cinema at the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival — "What happens when the gaze is returned?"
in issue 63
Deep and Wide: The 2008 American Film Institute Festival — A sampling of the best of the fest's international offerings
in issue 62
Music in the Making: Highlights from the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival — "The surprise musical number can represent a facile avoidance of complexity, a moment of true strangeness, or a way of harmonizing existing, underlying themes."
Queer Angles: The 2008 Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Feisty orthodox Jewish dykes, globe-trotting ladyboys, fascistic Armani queens — you know, the gang
What's Up, QDoc? Portland's 2008 Queer Documentary Festival — Seeing queer lives from the U.S. and Canada to South Africa and Iran
in issue 61
Getting Better All the Time: The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival — Just lose the red carpet
in issue 60
Plus Ça Change: The 2008 Rendez-vous with French Cinema — Gingerly moving out of the 20th century, not quite into the 21st
in issue 59
Tickets to the Dark Side: The 43rd Chicago International Film Festival — "We will see whose heart is sharpest!"
Onward and Inward: On the 2007 Thessaloniki International Film Festival — "Each work limns a moral dilemma that has no discernible answer."
in issue 58
How Did History Happen? The 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival — "Each stranger is a figure of seemingly infinite potential, pinned down to a changing series of points."
Safety First: The 45th New York Film Festival — The 2007 NYFF's more cautious than courageous this year
in issue 57
Movin' On Up: The 2007 Tribeca Film Festival — From neighborhood festival to NYC player
Closing the Closet: QDoc: The 2007 Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival — "We couldn't figure out how to divide the cat . . ."
in issue 56
Secrets of the European Union: Chicago's Tenth Annual EU Film Festival — They saw what you did!
On the Border of the Thermian Gulf: The Ninth Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival — "The documentaries that most stood out have a near fictional flair, blurring the border between reality and fable."
in issue 55
Dragons, Tigers, and Citizen Rayns: The 25th Vancouver International Film Festival — Asian cinema triumphs in this year's D&T, Tony Rayns's last
in issue 54
Less Is Less: The 44th New York Film Festival — Past trumps present in this unremarkable fest
Chicago, je t'aime: The 42nd Chicago International Film Festival — "There are things you shouldn't sell"
On the Prowl with MadCat: On the 2006 MadCat International Women's Film Festival — Provocative and visionary!
in issue 53
Success Breeds Confidence: Korean Movies at the NYAFF — A quartet of recent Korean films shows a reassuringly robust national cinema
in issue 52
Hands Across the Atlantic: The 9th Annual European Union Film Festival — A Baltic-to-Balkan road trip
in issue 51
More Fun in the New (Old) World: The 2005 Portland Gay and Lesbian Film Festival — Out of the closets and onto the screen
in issue 50
The Unbearable Lightness of Cannes 2005: Diversions and Disappointments — At least the parties were fun
The Global Gaze: The 43rd New York Film Festival — Much to admire, little to love
I Am a Film Addict: The 41th Chicago International Film Festival — What the devil did they show?
in issue 48
In the Realm of the Real: The 3rd Chicago International Documentary Film Festival — "The governments will be forgotten but the masterpieces will remain."
Maybe Next Year: Slim Pickings at Berlinale 2005 — When good ideas go wrong
O Bruder, Where Art Thou? The 8th European Union Film Festival (Chicago)
Doing the Continental
in issue 47
Theda Bara's Eyes: The 40th Chicago International Film Festival, Part 2 — Angelopoulos to Zhu: "This is an artistic film. You wouldn't like it."
in issue 46
Theda Bara's Eyes: The 40th Chicago International Film Festival, Part 1 — From Akerman to Zhu
The Verve Is Back: The New York Film Festival 2004 — This year's fest features a wealth of winners — and a few flops
Where Kink Is King: CineKink Festival 2004 — Won't you be my pony boy?
in issue 44
Too Busy Making Work: Honoring Michael Snow at the — 2004 Thessaloniki Film Festival
Painter, photographer, sculptor, composer, musician — and here, seminal experimental filmmaker
in issue 42
Together Again in the Dark: The 2003 Chicago International Film Festival — The crowd has a thousand eyes
57th International Film Festival in Edinburgh — Not the best of times, not the worst of times
2003 Montreal World Film Festival — A world-class city offers a world-class fest — despite some troubled backstory
The 2003 New York Film Festival — This year's NYFF is a decidedly mixed bag of tricks
in issue 41
Put the Camera on Us! Documentaries at the 2003 SFILGFF — Reality cinema celebrates homos of this year and yesteryear
in issue 40
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, 2003 — Fine performances are the main attraction of this timely New York tribute to recent French film
in issue 38
The 38th Chicago International Film Festival, 2002 — "The Scandals of 2002"
The 40th New York Film Festival, 2002 — "No reassurance and little escapism — just right for the current state of uncertainty"
in issue 37
San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: The Docs! — As usual, reality trumps the alternatives
San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: The Dicks! — Where have all the penises gone? This year, to England
in issue 36
The 20th Bergamo Film Meeting, March 9-17, 2002 — This fine Italian festival features wide variety, no polemics
The Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival, Canada 2002 — An engaging mix of cinema — two-thirds of it Canadian — visits the Great White North’s "postcard village on steroids"
The Belfort International Film Festival, France 2001 — Identity politics, urban terror, and Bulle Ogier distinguish this festival from some of its more pretentious peers
in issue 35
Uncertainty and Change: The 42nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2001) — The fest’s focus on New Argentine cinema is especially timely in light of the country’s dire economic situation
San Francisco’s Berlin & Beyond Festival (2002) — Despite the American juggernaut, Germany and its neighbors continue to make good regional cinema
37th Chicago International Film Festival (2001) — "It’s so twenty-first century!"
in issue 34
Cinemayaat 2001: The Fifth Arab Film Festival in San Francisco — More relevant now than ever, this solid fest brings some of the complexity of the Arab world to often uncomprehending western eyes
QFilmistan: The First South Asian LGBT Film Festival — A treasure trove of short queer cinema — and one feature — from cultures where creating it can be a criminal act
in issue 33
Shaddup! The 2001 San Francisco Silent Film Festival — All's quiet on the cinematic front in this seductive survey of the artful '20s
The 2001 San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival — Gangbangers, sex robots, and babydykes, oh my!
Queer Documentaries at the 2001 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — A bumper crop of docs scale the heights and trawl the depths of queer culture
Penisspotting in the 2001 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Our annual survey of cinematic dick in the SFILGFF
in issue 32
Yugoslavia in Focus: Observations From the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival — Archival footage, dramatizations, and dark satire capture the dire end-of-century events in the former Yugoslavia
San Francisco’s 2001 International Human Rights Watch Festival — Celebrating activism and exposing some of the more chaotic corners of world politics
San Francisco’s IndieFest 2001 — Some bright lights and a few dim bulbs distinguish this year’s preeminent indie showcase
in issue 31
Russian Cinema After Perestroika: Notes from Thessaloniki International Film Festival — A heady tour of recent Russian cinema from one of Europe’s oldest festivals
in issue 29
Documentaries at the 2000 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Friendly Christians, bitter rent boys, and South Africa’s liberated queens are part of this year’s queer reality parade
Penisspotting at the 2000 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Our spongy-tissued li’l pal is a bit shy this year
in issue 25
The 1999 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — The preeminent queer filmfest in overview
Penisspotting: Phallic Imagery in the 1999 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Sightings of our spongy-tissued li’l pal in this year’s fest
Ask, Tell: Documentaries in the 1999 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Highlights of the lives of real-life queers from as far as South Africa and as near as your closet
Of Loincloths and Lamé: "Sons of Hercules" at the 1999 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Shed a tear for these long-lost Roman go-go boys and evil queens of all sexes
in issue 23
Cultural Makeovers: San Francisco's Tranny Fest 1998 — Wrestling with the limits of the body — and breaking them
in issue 21
The 1998 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — The queer community's longstanding obsession with roles and labels may be starting to loosen up
Penisspotting in the 1998 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — For those who prefer anatomy to artistry, or more coarsely, meat to melodrama, we offer this consumer guide
Queer Cartoons in the 1998 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — Cartoons have always been a rich repository of queer subtext. How else to explain all those too-close buddies and their serious lack of female companionship?
Queer Innovators in the 1998 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — The queer contribution to experimental film
in issue 19
Queer Voices in the 1997 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival — The world's biggest lesbian and gay filmfest shows the pleasures and pitfalls of gay auteurs caught between assimilation and opposition. Watch out for the "Stepford" homosexual!
The Penis in the Festival (SFILGFF) — And you thought the lavender-haired titmouse was an endangered species! Penises are hard to find even in gay movies that ought to know better
