Outfest Fusion Film Festival 2023

The Outfest Fusion Film Festival is one of the premiere spots that showcases, affirms and supports QTBIPOC storytellers. The festival runs from March 24th to April 2nd in Los Angeles (with virtual screenings available). Pay special attention to the short films programming-- there you can find some true gems and catch emerging filmmakers shine in that format. 

Here are some intriguing films that stand out...

Hold Onto Me directed by Ravjvi Desai and Te Shima Brenen.

A documentary celebrating grassroots activist Mother LaTravious, a Black Trans femme matriarch whose journey from caterpillar to a butterfly began in her 30s.

Where Do We Go from Here directed by LaQuan Lewis. 

On the eve of Jamila and Rae’s one-year anniversary, Rae receives a voicemail from her ex-lover.

This Place directed by V.T. Nayani. 

Kawenniióhstha pursues her dreams of being a poet by moving to Toronto: the city where her estranged Iranian father happens to live. Malai also estranged from her father, but now that he's battling terminal cancer, she begins tries to repair her relationship with him, the one remaining link she has to her Tamil roots. When the two young women lock eyes in a laundromat, inexplicable sparks fly. As they grow closer, the weight of family and culture — which bear legacies of loss, migration, and displacement — complicate the growing intimacy they share.

I Identify As Me direted by Tina Colleen and Monick Monell. 

A chorus of queer and trans BIPOC reflects on how the intersectionalities of gender and people are infinite. 

For more info on the Outfest Fusion Film Festival visit their website.  

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The Young Wife

The Young Wife is the sophomore movie release by auteur writer / director Tayarisha Poe (Selah and the Spades). It premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival this week to positive reviews. It's what I lovingly refer to as a "Subtle Core"  type film; that means it's the kind of Black cinema that offers a beautifully layered and lyrical approach to Black life and love. 

The film stars Kiersey Clemons (Dope) and Leon Bridges (Ocean's Eight) as the central couple; it also features the Emmy Award-winning Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary) portraying Clemons' mother in the film. 

A young woman grapples with the meaning of love and commitment over the course of her “non-wedding” day. 

The film comes from the Higher Ground Productions collab with Netflix and the Obamas. More info on the trailer and release date is to come. Stay tuned!

Bottom line: Anything that Tayarisha Poe directs gets an automatic add to on our must-watch list.

 

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Frybread Face And Me

Catch this Indigenous coming-of-age story, Frybread Face and Me, at the SXSW Film Festival tonight. The film is helmed by writer / director Billy Luther, and executive producer Taika Waititi (Eagle vs. Shark). 

Two adolescent Navajo cousins from different worlds bond during a summer herding sheep on their grandmother's ranch in Arizona while learning more about their family's past and themselves.

The film stars Keir Tallman and Charley Hogan as the young cousins in this touching tale of belonging and becoming. It also features Martin Sensmeier (La Brea, Yellowstone).

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Heavenly Brown Body

The opening line of Leslie Foster's Heavenly Brown Body makes a bold statement, with gorgeous cinematography to match. This experimental short film is a perfect visual Queer Anthem for the current times. You get four frames of lush and poetic visuals woven together as one, to create a dreamy tapestry of queer lives, presented in a harmonious aesthetic worthy of a big screen experience.

Heavenly Brown Body is one of the best short films of Outfest 2020. It's the kind of relevant, and artistic narrative that the LGBTQ+ community needs to celebrate and bring to the forefront of the movement. Leslie Foster is an indie filmmaker that should to be on your radar, and I am delighted to see where his career goes next.

For those fatigued by white lesbian seaside films becoming the "new face" of LGBTQ representation in cinema, let the beauty of Heavenly Brown Body be a short remedy, and reminder, that Black and BIPOC narratives rightfully deserve exquisitely shot feature films that showcase longing and love in epic coastal dramas as well. 

Also, of note, Heavenly Brown Body was filmed on location on "unceded Gabrielino-Tongva and Chumash territory." Hollywood desperately needs more Indigenous representation in film & TV. I would love to see more LGBTQ+ stories emerge that center on the Indigenous experience. 

Bottom line: Heavenly Brown Body is a film worth celebrating!

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Afrotopia Film Fest [Photos]

Afrotopia celebrates the weird and quirky sci-fi films featuring black stories, and filmmakers. It's a strangely cool fest curated by Ingrid LaFleur, and held in downtown Detroit. Here are some photos from the event:

Website: AfrotopiaIsNow.com

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Jeff Who Lives at Home (AFI Fest 2011)

Jason Segel and Ed Helms have loads of comedic chemistry in this heartfelt story about two brothers trying to find their place in the world. Writer/director/brother team Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass (Cyrus, The Puffy Chair) have found their stride; they are able to artfully blend comedy and poignancy while making normal activities (like fixing a closet door) seem epic. The film also features Susan Sarandon, Rae Dawn Chong and Evan Ross in interesting supporting roles.

Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.

No trailer yet, but here's a video of the Q&A at the AFI Fest presented by Audi.

In theaters March 2012. 

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Oslo, August 31st (AFI Fest 2011)

Oslo, Ausgust 31st is a depressingly good slice of Norwegian cinema. The film follows a 34-year-old rehabbing from drug abuse, who in one day, must decide between finding purpose and losing his grip on reality. Anders Danielsen Lie (Reprise) gives a powerful performance in this tragically moving story that highlights a city, a place and a decision.

Michael Nordine of NotComing.com captured it nicely...

"Oslo, August 31st has an ear for dialogue and an eye for natural movement; it employs a documentary-like approach that uses little but communicates much." [source]

The somber tone bleeds through the screen haunting every scene quite perfectly.

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Green (AFI Fest 2011)

Green is a peculiar film, oddly charming, eerie, lingering, I'm still digesting it. As I sat through the film I wasn't sure how it would end, and I liked that. There were times when I found certain characters annoyingly pretentious (the farmer-blogger boyfriend) but thankfully moments of depth surfaced, and eventually I found him likable enough. Sophia Takal is by far the stand-out actor of the piece, her character sparked the brightest, her performance kept me captivated through the lulls of the story. Takal also holds the title of writer/director and Green marks a noteworthy entrance. If you're looking for a conventional Hollywood love-triangle then be forewarned, Green travels more subtle waters. But if you're interested in something a little less neat, strangely potent and thought-provoking you're on the right boat.

An intimate friendship between two women dissolves as they are drawn into an irrational, destructive spiral of jealousy and paranoid fantasy in this haunting examination of the female psyche.

You can catch an encore screening of Green at the AFI Fest presented by Audi on Saturday, Nov. 5th at 10p.m. For more info visit www.afi.com/afifest

Official Site: www.themoviegreen.com

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AFI Film Fest (Black Film Picks)

The AFI Film Fest presented by Audi opens tonight with a gala screening of Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar. One of the neat things about this festival are the smaller indie films that come from the U.S. and around the world. Two noteworthy films emerging from the the black cinema sphere are Restless City and Kinyarwanda.

Restless City tells the story of an Africa immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle, and falling in love is his greatest risk.

I've seen Restless City and it's exactly what black cinema needs. I'll talk more about the film later but it's a definite must-watch. It screens on Friday, Nov 4th at 4:45pm and Saturday at 4:15pm.

Kinyarwanda is the second film promoted by Ava DuVernay's AFFRM company which brought us I Will Follow (that played at last year's AFI Fest). I haven't seen this one yet but it looks promising. Kinyarwanda screens on Saturday, Nov. 5th at 1:15pm and Monday at 7pm. 

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as the country became a slaughterhouse, mosques became places of refuge where Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis came together to protect each other. Inspired by true stories KINYARWANDA interweaves six tales that provide a complex and real depiction of life and human resilience in the face of unimaginable danger.

The AFI Fest presented by Audi runs November 3rd - 10th in Hollywood. For more info visit www.afi.com/afifest

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Parked (LA Irish Film Fest)

Parked is one of the best films I've seen. It showcases the beauty of storytelling, quiet in tone but powerful in spirit. It's the kind of movie you feel, and feel deeply. The cinematography is dreamy, lots of ghostly shots by the water. But its richness comes in the subtle scenes between Colm Meaney (Law Abiding Citizen) and Colin Morgan (Merlin) who offer two solid performances.

Lonely and beleaguered Fred Daly (Meaney) returns to his native Ireland with no place to call home except his car. When pothead Cathal (Morgan) parks next to him, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. With Cathal’s help, Fred begins to put his life back together little by little, and starts by introducing himself to cute, unusual music teacher Jules.

In theaters March 2012. (For those in Ireland, it opens on October 14th)

Official Site: www.parkedmovie.com

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Trailer - The Future

The second film from writer/director/artist Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) is about a couple who adopt a stray cat while going through a mid-life crisis. The trailer looks equal parts quirky and heartwarming. If you haven't seen her first film it's currently available on watch instantly. The Future will play at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which starts June 16th. Can't wait to see this!

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Sundance 2011: Rashida Jones, Raul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Jesse Williams, James Franco

So many reasons to make us wish we were at Sundance.

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Putty Hill

Putty Hill is a pseudo documentary that flows like a quiet river through the lives of a working-class community who suffers the lost of a teen to a drug overdose. The film's achievement is mostly in its mood, small moments that have a sense of "realness" to them, with the funeral karaoke tribute being the highlight of story. Putty Hill opens at the NYC Cinema Village on February 18th. 

Official Site: www.puttyhillmovie.com

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AFI Fest Review - The Fighter

AFI Fest 2010 presented by Audi listed a 'secret screening' which turned out to be a sneak peek at Paramount's The Fighter. In his introduction to the film, Mark Walhberg explained how he has been trying to get this film made (and training) for four years! You might recall at one point it was going to be made by Darren Aronofsky (he is a producer on the film). Walhberg eventually turned to his quirky collaborator David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings) to direct.

It tells the true story of rising boxer 'Irish' Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) who is trained by his big brother Dickie Eklund (Christian Bale), once a great boxer himself who is now a crack-addicted deadbeat. The trailer sells the movie as your typical boxing biopic but it is actually a drama about two brothers, their eccentric family, and their small hometown that happens to be set against a boxing/sports backdrop. It opens with Dickie 'the pride of Lowell' walking us through his working-class hometown, set perfectly to The Heavy's energetic song 'How You Like Me Now?', and we see that these people love him. He may have fallen from grace but he is still their hero. He made it out. He proved it could be done. He knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard. Or did he? Dickie is sure he's gonna have a comeback but it's very clear that's not gonna happen. Micky could break out but his family is dragging him down. Dickie hardly shows up for their training sessions and his family's paranoia is keeping him from succeeding. Micky starts getting better offers and dating Charlene (Amy Adams) which leads him to question leaving his family out of the ring. When the film starts there is also an HBO documentary crew following Dickie around so we get some ever popular in-character interviews. At first this seems gimmicky but it pays off incredibly well later in the film.

David O. Russell has a unique cinematic voice and I was worried Russell was just a director-for-hire here because this is the first film he didn't write himself. Thankfully that's not the case, Russell keeps the film from being a typical Hollywood boxing biopic by infusing it with his own sensibilities. It doesn't feel like a studio film at all with its gritty indie visual aesthetic and Russell's trademark humor. There is also an authenticity to the town of Lowell and you can tell they used a lot of locals to populate the cast. What really makes the film work though is the acting. Bale is absolutely amazing in the film. His funny, twitchy mile-a-minute Dickie is a lovable loser that will break your heart. It is a complete transformation and at no point are you aware that you're watching anyone but Dickie. He will definitely be getting some nominations next year. Bale certainly steals the show but the entire cast is excellent. Wahlberg does a great job keeping the film on track as the straight man. Micky has been living in his big brother's shadow all his life and you can see the simmering frustration across Wahlberg's eyes. He loves his family but knows he needs room to breathe. Amy Adams. What can you say she nails it again. Her no-nonsense bartender that always stands up for her man is a force to be reckoned with. Melissa Leo is great as the loud proud white trash mother who is in denial about Dickie and will stop at nothing to keep her dysfunctional family together. Skip the awful trailers and just go watch this film. You won't regret it. Opens December 10th.

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AFI Fest Photos - I Will Follow Premiere

Ava DuVernay's I Will Follow had its West Coast premiere at the AFI Fest (presented by Audi). Photo contributor Wilki Tom snapped these photos on the red carpet of Reel Artsy favorite Salli Richardson-Whitfield and cast.

[Photos via WilkiImage]

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DocuWeeks: Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders covers an interesting piece of American history in the 1960s that made way for the Civil Rights Movement. The "Freedom Riders" were mostly a mix of college students, both black and white, joining together in hopes of challenging segregated Greyhound buses in Jim Crow South.

Now playing at the DocuWeeks Film Festival.

Official Site: www.freedomridersfilm.com

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Feel Good Film Fest: The Mouse That Soared

This weekend marks the 3rd Annual Feel Good Film Fest in Los Angeles. If you're in the mood for films with a heart-warming vibe look no further. The festival spotlights shorts and features, live-action and animation and includes a panel about web series. For more info visit www.fgff.org

And now onto this adorable little short by Kyle T. Bell about a mouse with big dreams.

Official Website: www.themousethatsoared.com

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HollyShorts Film Fest: Swerve

Shiloh Fernandez stars in this impressively crafted short film about fate and second chances. When I first saw Fernandez in a made-for-TV move called Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness I remember thinking to myself, this guy is intense. His onscreen presence is captivating because he brings a certain level of intensity to all of his roles, no matter how different the character. Even though Swerve is a short film its feels larger in scope and that's to the credit of director Brendan Gabriel Murphy. According to IMDb this is their second pairing (and hopefully not the last). Bottom line: Keep Fernandez and Murphy on your radar, they ooze cinematic potential.

Official Website: www.swervethefilm.com

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DocuWeeks: This Way of Life

This Way of Life is a beautifully shot documentary about a family of nine set in the luscious backdrop of New Zealand. Peter and Collen are intent of teaching their children to appreciate the land, nature and each other amidst real-life drama that threatens the values they hold dearly. This Way of Life is part of the DocuWeeks Film Fest held in New York and Los Angeles. For tickets and showtimes click here.

Official Website: www.thiswayoflifemovie.com

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Séraphine

Séraphine is a quiet yet stirring film about a woman's struggle between reality and spiritual devotion. Wrapped in beautiful cinematography Séraphine scrubs and cleans most of the day, yet her hard labor inspires something fierce inside: the need to paint. Yolande Moreau gives a wonderful performance as Séraphine and the film went onto win several awards. I caught it at the City of Angels Film Fest and unfortunately it's one of those cinematic gems that little coverage in the States.

Available on Netflix.

Official Website: www.seraphinemovie.com

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