The Two Gay Geeks received this press release from our friend Michael Krause at Foundry Communications. Thank you.
Film Movement Plus is celebrating Pride Month with quite a few LGBTQ+ films. Check them out below.
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FILM MOVEMENT PLUS CELEBRATES PRIDE MONTH
WITH THE STREAMING PREMIERE OF GENDER TRANSITION DOC, COBY, ALONG WITH AN INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION
OF ACCLAIMED LGBTQ CINEMA
Among other Gay Cinema Classics in the Specially-Curated FM+ Collection Are BENT, Starring Clive Owen and Ian McKellen, Derek Jarman’s EDWARD II, Arvin Chen’s WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW and More
This June, join streaming platform FILM MOVEMENT PLUS to celebrate Pride Month with the streaming premiere of COBY, an acclaimed doc that Queer Guru.com says “makes an important contribution to the continuing dialogue on transitioning, and is also a thoroughly entertaining documentary.” In addition to COBY, the Pride Month collection includes an international assortment of award-winning gay cinema, from the powerful Holocaust-set drama BENT, starring Clive Owen and Ian McKellen, and Derek Jarman’s iconic New Queer Cinema classic EDWARD II to XXY, Lucia Puenzo’s coming-of-age tale, a Cannes Critic’s Week Grand Prize winner.
In COBY, in a small town deep in the American Midwest, Suzanna begins a gender transition and becomes a boy: Coby. Coby’s transformation deeply impacts the lives the lives of all who love him – and each member of this tight-knit family must confront their own preconceived notions of gender and sexuality. Combining excerpts from Coby’s video dairy with candid, heartfelt interviews from his closet friends and family – Christian Sonderegger’s debut feature is an intimate and sensitive look at timely subject. Ultimately, Coby’s journey morphs into the transformation of a whole family compelled by love to modify their own perspectives. Stefan Dobroiu of Cineuropa says, “This story of a gender revolution takes place in the living room of an ordinary American family. It is difficult to find such a personal subject yet capable of touching and speaking to the whole society.”
Continue to celebrate Pride Month with FM+’s acclaimed collection of LGBTQ films from around the world, including:
BENT (1997, 105 mins., UK/Japan, dir. Sean Mathias) — In 1930s Berlin, Max (Clive Owen) sleeps with German SA officer Wolf (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), only to see him killed by his fellow Nazis the next morning as part of the Night of the Long Knives. Refusing an offer of new papers from his Uncle Freddie (Ian McKellan) for fear of leaving his boyfriend Rudy behind, Max and Rudy are found by the Gestapo, to whom Max lies about his homosexuality and his relationship with Rudy. Bound for the Dachau concentration camp, Max will have to reckon with his identity, and his dignity, in the face of terrible persecution. The cast also includes Lothaire Bluteau, Mick Jagger, Brian Webber, with cameos by Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Paul Bettany.
BLUSH (2015, 85 mins., Israel, dir. Michal Vinik) — 17-year-old Naama spends most of her free time drinking and partying in the hopes of escaping from her parents’ constant bickering, worsened by the recent disappearance of her AWOL soldier sister. When a free-spirited new girl shows up at school, Naama falls deeply in love for the first time and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning. BLUSH was an Official Selection at film festivals in San Sebastian, Warsaw, Reykavik and Chicago, among others.
THE CHAMBERMAID LYNN (2014, 90 mins., Germany, dir. Ingo Haeb) – Lynn (Vicky Krieps) is the most meticulous chambermaid in her hotel, leaving no shelf undusted, no sheet untucked. Crippled by shyness, she rummages through guests’ belongings and even hides under their beds, vicariously experiencing their conversations, meals and discreet interludes. After clandestinely observing an S&M session, Lynn discovers the phone number of the call girl, Chiara. Bold and unrestrained, Chiara soon draws Lynn out of her shell, opening her up to a new kind of passion she had only dreamed about as a voyeur.
THE COUNTRY TEACHER (2008, 113 mins., Czech Rep., dir. Bohdan Sláma) — A gifted young teacher takes a job teaching natural sciences at a grammar school in the country. Here he makes the acquaintance of a woman and her troubled 17-year old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but they quickly form a strong friendship, each recognizing the other’s uncertainties, hopes and longing for love. When the teacher’s ex-boyfriend comes to visit from the city, he quickly realizes that nobody in the village knows that the teacher is gay and harbors a secret affection for the teenage boy. His jealous actions set in motion a series of events that will test the inner strength and compassion of the teacher, the woman and her son to a breaking point.
EDWARD II (1991, 90 mins., UK, dir. Derek Jarman) — In this new restoration of the iconic New Queer Cinema classic, Derek Jarman offers a postmodern take on Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan drama. Pleasure-seeking King Edward II sets the stage for a palace revolt by taking as a lover the ambitious Piers Gaveston – who uses his favor in bed to wield political influence – sending the gay pair from the throne to a terminal torture dungeon. This landmark of gay cinema features an incredible performance from Jarman muse and Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) as Edward’s spurned Queen Isabella and a rare film appearance by singer Annie Lennox.
IN THE NAME OF (2012, 102 mins., Poland, dir. Malgośka Szumowska) – Adam is a Catholic priest who discovered his calling as a servant of God at the relatively late age of 21. He now lives in a village in rural Poland where he works with teenagers with behavioral problems who fight and yell abuse. He declines the advances of a young blonde named Ewa, saying he is already spoken for. However, celibacy is not the only reason for his rejection. Adam knows that he desires men and that his embrace of the priesthood has been a flight from his own sexuality. When he meets Lukasz, the strange and taciturn son of a simple rural family, Adam’s self-imposed abstinence becomes a heavy burden. During its festival run, IN THE NAME OF won a prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and a Golden Angel at Tofifest.
NUDE AREA (2014, 78 mins., Netherlands/Poland, dir. Urszula Antoniak) -In a series of 15 vignettes, NUDE AREA tells the sensual and seductive story of a forbidden love between two very different girls living in Amsterdam. Dutch teenager Naomi hails from posh Amsterdam South. Fama is a beautiful Middle Eastern girl from the poor quarters of Amsterdam East. They meet each other in the nude area of a female only sauna where nudity means equality.
WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW? (2013, 106 mins, Taiwan, dir. Arvin Chen) -In this madcap and lighthearted comedic romp, introverted optometrist Weichung begins to question his marriage with his wife Feng, upon learning of her desire to have another baby. At his sister’s engagement party, Weichung bumps into an old friend, Stephen, a wedding photographer who, though also married, is living the high life of a younger, single gay man. When Stephen teases Weichung for his newly straightlaced lifestyle, dormant emotions are awakened in Weichung, setting him off on a quest for true romance and desire.
XXY (2007, 91 mins., Argentina, dir. Lucia Puenzo) – For just about everybody, adolescence means having to confront a number of choices and life decisions, but rarely any as monumental as the one facing 15 year-old Alex (Ines Efron,) who was born an intersex child. As Alex begins to explore her sexuality, her mother invites friends from Buenos Aires to come for a visit at their house on the gorgeous Uruguayan shore, along with their 16-year-old son Álvaro (Martin Piroyanski.) Alex is immediately attracted to the young man, which adds yet another level of complexity to her personal search for identity, and forces both families to face their worst fears. XXY captured the Grand Prize during Cannes Critic’s Week, as well as Best Film at the Goya Awards and Athens International Film Festival.
YOU WILL BE MINE (2009, 100 mins., France dir. Sophie Laloy) — Marie Dandin (Judith Davis), a promising young concert pianist, leaves home to study at the prestigious Lyons National Conservatory. Shy and innocent, she moves in with her childhood friend Emma (Isild Le Besco) who has lived alone since the death of her father years earlier. The intimate bond that the two women share eventually develops into an intense sexual relationship. But as Emma grows more possessive and controlling, Marie struggles to reconcile her feelings of desire with the need to escape Emma’s suffocating passion.
About FILM MOVEMENT PLUS
FILM MOVEMENT PLUS opens up a world of provocative, compelling and award-winning films from Film Movement’s singular library. Priced at $5.99 per month with a free 14-day trial, the SVOD subscription service, currently available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV, mobile (iOS and Android), and Chromecast, offers consumers immediate access to 250 festival favorite feature films and 100 short films, including: THEEB, the 2016 Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Film; AFTER THE STORM, a powerful family drama from 2018 Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda; HUMAN CAPITAL, a political thriller from Paolo Virzi (The Leisure Seeker) that was Italy’s Best Foreign Film submission for the 87th Academy Awards® and MY LOVE, DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER, an unforgettable documentary about true love that transcends generations and cultures and is South Korea’s most successful film of all time. Classics from the Film Movement catalog include Bille August’s PELLE THE CONQUEROR, an Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996 and much more.
About Film Movement
Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. It has released more than 250 feature films and shorts culled from prestigious film festivals worldwide. Film Movement’s theatrical releases include American independent films, documentaries, and foreign art house titles. Its catalog includes titles by directors such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Maren Ade, Jessica Hausner, Andrei Konchalovsky, Andrzej Wajda, Diane Kurys, Ciro Guerra and Melanie Laurent. In 2015, Film Movement launched its reissue label Film Movement Classics, featuring new restorations released
theatrically as well as on Blu-ray and DVD, including films by such noted directors as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway, Bille August, Marleen Gorris, Takeshi Kitano, Arturo Ripstein, Sergio Corbucci and Ettore Scola. For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com.
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