The 25th Mardi Gras Film Festival have announced their full programme for next month’s festival.
This festival never disappoints with their selection of films accessible to youth (if you’re under 15 you must have a guardian attend the 15+ films with you). One of favourite films of the summer Call Me By Your Name is also screening– read Nick’s review here.
We are excited to be covering the festival again this year with reviews and interviews from our team. You can check out the full programme here for more info and to get hold of your tickets.
Youth focused 15+ films featured:
Love, Simon – we are one of the first countries in the world to showcase a special preview screening of this hotly anticipated coming of age story about the thrilling ride of falling in love for the first time. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykHeGtN4m94
The Substitute – Simmering tensions grow between a Taiwanese actress and her stunt double in this beautifully realised film from acclaimed Taiwanese director Zero Chou, the first in her six-part Rainbow Cities series.
Just Charlie – Emotionally charged and powerful, this is an award-winning drama about a young soccer star who risks losing the love of family and community, to live as a girl. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyckp_HpxGw
Team Hurrricane Winner of the most innovative film award at the Venice International Film Festival, this ‘punk chick flick’ is an immersive, experimental look at several young girls’ friendship over one summer. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p25XO5Gj3Cs
They Iranian writer/director Anahita Ghazvinizadeh teams up with executive producer Jane Campion to create a visually stunning coming-of-age film about a non-binary teen at the crossroads of adulthood deciding whether to transition.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5KZkw5q2E
Also 15+
A Womb of Their Own – What can a diverse group of masculine-of-center-identified pregnant people teach the world about gender? Six thoughtful, funny people tell their stories of complicated gender as they birth their children and form their families.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPNY37exVjk
Against the Law When Peter Wildeblood fell in love with Edward McNally in 1952, homosexuality was a crime in Britain. Their love affair would have devastating consequences for each of them.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPI1Rv1XdyA
Black Divaz – Holding its World Premiere at the Festival is BLACK DIVAZ, the Australian documentary following the inaugural Miss First Nation pageant, providing an intimate portrait of what it means to be an Indigenous Drag Queen today.
Call Me By Your Name with three Golden Globe nominations and numerous international awards, this is the film to watch in 2018.Almost every frame of this film is a work of art pulsing with sexual tension amid the backdrop of a luscious Italian summer. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9AYPxH5NTM
Desert Hearts Set in the late 1950s and made in the mid-1980s, this lesbian classic was and still is a ground-breaking portrayal of lesbian sexuality, in a sultry mix of cowgirls, casinos, convertibles and country music.Trailer: https://youtu.be/btiuZwlYhyI
Die Beautiful Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Shakira, Julia Roberts and more star in this multi-award-winning drama – or at least their likeness does as transgender beauty queen, played by Filipino superstar Paolo Ballesteros, is dressed for each day of her wake.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0ERN2rZ7g
Evening Shadows Upon returning to his family home for a supposedly brief visit, Kartik is lost. He is lost because he cannot tell his parents the truth about his new life in Bombay – that he is living as a gay man, and he is deeply in love. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpqasfWF9k
Freak Show When Bette Midler is your mother, how could you not be fabulous? That’s the lot of Billy Bloom (Alex Lawther) in this quirky coming-of- age flick that’s all about being yourself, no matter what mean girls come your way. Trailer: https://youtu.be/AGYNlsQg7XI
I Dream in Another Language – Sundance’s World Cinema Audience Award winner is set in a remote jungle village in Mexico where the last two living holders of the indigenous language of Zikril have not spoken a word to each other in over 50 years. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ruRMWcbMI
Ideal Home In Ideal Home, Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd are hilarious as an extravagant bickering couple who must look after a grandson they never knew they had
It’s Just Not Me: This intimate and honest portrait of four young transgender men living in Perth, Western Australia explores the often neglected, less visible story of female to male transitions. Director Jonathan Messer’s raw documentary follows David, Simon, Logan and Max along different stages of their transition. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/212448588
Awards: Winner ‘Best LGBT Feature Documentary’- Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival 2017ward
Jade of Death Dark, funny and sexy as hell, this supernatural thriller is about a young woman who can hear when and how people are going to die. Trailer: https://youtu.be/p2urhUtza_w
Kiss Me! This French feel-good romp is all about that irreplaceably warm feeling of falling in love, and the crazy antics we go through to hold onto it. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xySYoTpOX6w
McKellen: Playing the part Lord of the Rings and X-Men star, Sir Ian McKellen, shines in this rich biographical documentary. McKellen: Playing the Part, insightfully depicts McKellen’s rise to stardom and gay activism.
One Last Thing – directed and written by Tim Rouhana, is a compelling American drama about a lonely dentist whose life changes after he meets his lesbian daughter for the first time.
Rebels on Pointe: Meet the male ballerinas of the world famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in this playful documentary full of colourful characters, lots of laughs and some seriously good dancing. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erhZtNMZYb8
Saturday Church: A shy, effeminate14-year-old being raised by his strict aunt finds escape in a rich fantasy life of music, dance and a lively transgender youth community. (rated M)Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFW4zGO1Z5c
Sensitivity Training The ruthless Dr Wolfe (Anna Lise Phillips) must survive sensitivity training with impossibly bubbly coach, Caroline in this hilarious comedy about friendship and bacteria.
Signature Move – brace yourself for mother-daughter relationships and lucha libre women’s wrestling in this multicultural lesbian love story between a Pakistani-American immigration lawyer and passionate Mexican-American bookstore owner. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LsH6HWpeBA
Stumped: Filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser agrees to undergo an experimental double-arm transplant in the hope of reclaiming his independence. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L11xL4RqeiU
Susanne Bartsch: On Top an intimate look at the woman who has been making her mark in fashion and art for over 30 years, and gave some of the biggest names in drag their start.
The 34th: Legal fights, political wrangling, heated public debate. Sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Discover how Ireland ultimately said Yes! to marriage equality in this timely and inspiring doco. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSK9GphDM7I
The Cakemaker After his married boyfriend dies, a young German pastry chef insinuates himself into the life of his lover’s widow. What does he really want from her?Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBa3S_FzPQ
The Carmilla Movie The movie sequel to the hit web series finds Laura and Carmilla five years after they vanquished the apocalypse and Carmilla became a bonafide mortal human. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJhUaEHSWg
The Gospel According to Andre the story of André Leon Talley, the couture guru who hit NYC when it was the time of Andy Warhol and Studio 54, and is the former American editor-at-large of Vogue magazine.
The Last Goldfish Born in Trinidad in the West Indies, Su Goldfish wonders how her European parents ended up on this tropical island. They have no family in Trinidad. When Manfred, her father, refuses to talk about his past Su is determined to uncover the truth.Trailer: https://youtu.be/fPiVZj8Mm7o
The Ring Thing: When a woman proposes to her girlfriend by accident, she finds that they each have very different expectations of their future.Trailer: https://vimeo.com/210433387
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin – The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin is an engrossing documentary profiling the life of gay American author Armistead Maupin, famous for the Tales of the City stories and TV series.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQP4RxZlg4g
Today Match at 3 – an utterly charming, low-fi indie which has all the heart, drama and action of a world cup qualifier as a group of girls in Buenos Aires are determined to get their match played.
Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters: As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, let’s go back and remember our history with one of the most important Australian queer documentaries of our time.
Young Soul Rebels – rescreening of the iconic coming-of-age film YOUNG SOUL REBELS, winner of Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991.Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C48N4TBsBdQ
PG
Zootopia – PG