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MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: Queer Doc
QueerDoc, the world's first and largest LGBT documentary festival hits Sydney screens September 9. This year's festival promises a line up of incredible true adventures by some extraordinary queers all around the world, earning the theme THE TRUTH IS QUEERER THAN FICTION.
"This year's QueerDoc is all about tall tales and amazing journeys undertaken by our fellow queers,” says Festival Director, Lex Lindsay. "We wanted the line-up to really capture ideas and images about the impossible things our community are doing, creating and experiencing; and I feel like we've really successfully captured that through a wide cross section of personal experiences."
As per usual, almost all of the QueerDoc documentaries are Australian Premieres. Of particular note is the Centrepiece film RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: PRIMA DONNA, which follows the openly gay pop star as he composes and produces his first mainstage Opera, and the reticence and reluctance he meets from the Classical Music community. "Prima Donna cast Wainwright in a whole new light in my eyes," says Lindsay, "we still see the charismatic star on stage and in interview, but what is most compelling is watching him, the underdog, the writer in the rehearsal room, trying to maintain a familiar sense of creative control. He becomes quite a vulnerable figure in the film and you find yourself right there championing him."
A musical theme continues with LE TIGRE: ON TOUR, Australia's first peek at the live concert-cum-backstage-pass chronicle of infamous, seminal queer band, Le Tigre's final tour. The documentary deftly moves between full stage spectacular to intimate reminiscence between band members JD Samson, Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman.
Festival Opener I SHOT MY LOVE comes direct from taking out the top gong at this year's HotDocs Festival. I SHOT MY LOVE charts the unfolding relationship between two unlikely lovers, the Grandson of Jews who escaped Germany in WWII and the Grandson on Nazis. Seventy years on, their intense and quirky courtship challenges both of their families to face their past and embrace forgiveness and togetherness.
The festival closes with the most extraordinary journey of the crop, FAN, by Dutch director Nienke Eijsink. As a young girl, Eijsink was obsessed with the Australian soap opera The Flying Doctors, discovering her Lesbian desires through her love of leading lady Dr. Chris Randall. Now in her twenties, Eijsink travels to Australia, camera in hand, to track down actress Liz Burch and tell her how she changed her life.
The incredible true adventures begin September 9. Complete program, session info and bookings can be found here.
Sarah Ward 7 Feb 2012
ROADSHOW: Despite spirited efforts from its cast, Working Dog's latest film Any Questions for Ben? feels flat, forced and false.
Sarah Ward 6 Feb 2012
ABC TV: Discomforting yet tender, Then the Wind Changed is an important record of the lasting human impact of the Black Saturday bushfires.
Sarah Ward 6 Feb 2012
TRANSMISSION FILMS: Magnetic and moving, Shame might just be Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender's finest hour.
Sarah Ward 2 Feb 2012
ACMI: Julie Moggan's documentary offers a slight and sweet glimpse at romance novel publishers Harlequin Mills & Boon.
Sarah Ward 1 Feb 2012
HOYTS: If the success of Man on a Ledge was judged on its adherence to its name, it would be a hit. Sadly, the film disappoints.
Melanie Sheridan 31 Jan 2012
ABC1: Set in the tropical paradise of Australia’s Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait, The Straits is a bullet-riddled, darkly funny local crime drama.
Melanie Sheridan 31 Jan 2012
SCI-FI CHANNEL: It’s not groundbreaking science fiction but Alphas is a serviceable ‘mutant’ show.
Sarah Ward 30 Jan 2012
ROADSHOW: With captivating turns from Oscar contenders Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, The Artist captures the essence of movie magic to become itself an instant classic.
Sarah Ward 24 Jan 2012
ROADSHOW: Sluggish direction and an average script bog down what should have been a fascinating film about one of America's best-known figures.
Melanie Sheridan 24 Jan 2012
SCI FI CHANNEL: If agents Mulder and Scully teamed up with Indiana Jones and Noah Wylie's Librarian, you might get a show like Warehouse 13.
Gareth Beal 23 Jan 2012
SYDNEY FESTIVAL: Live Live Cinema: Carnival of Souls is wonderful entertainment, and hopefully a precursor to many similar productions over the coming years.
Nicole Eckersley 23 Jan 2012
RIALTO: This lovely film about a gay one-weekend-stand manages to be languid, witty and insightful all at once.
Aleksia Barron 23 Jan 2012
ROOFTOP CINEMA: One-take experimental music videos may not be to every taste but if they’re to yours, watching them with the city lights as a backdrop is the way to do it.
Sarah Ward 17 Jan 2012
UNIVERSAL: The embodiment of the old-fashioned spy genre, this new cinematic interpretation of John le Carré’s famed novel is an intelligent, enigmatic and enthralling movie.
Helen Begley 16 Jan 2012
MADMAN: With an entirely new cast and set of stories, series 5 of British TV show Skins continues the form set in earlier seasons as it follows the lives of eight teens navigating life, love, lust and more.
Sarah Ward 16 Jan 2012
PARAMOUNT: A gender-reversed take on the man-child movies common of late, Young Adult sees Charlize Theron put in her best screen performance since Monster.
Sarah Ward 13 Jan 2012
MADMAN: The sequel to Gabriele Muccino's 2001 film The Last Kiss, Kiss Me Again is an uneven effort given life by a fine ensemble cast.
Sarah Ward 14 Jan 2012
ACMI: Seventeen years after his documentary Hoop Dreams, director Steve James returns with a powerful, unflinching look at Chicago's violence prevention endeavour CeaseFire.
Bianca Rohlje 14 Jan 2012
SHARMILL FILMS: National Theatre Live screens live performances from Britain's stage to cinemas worldwide. Its third season kicks off with the thoroughly enjoyable Collaborators.
Kate Boston Smith 11 Jan 2012
MADMAN: A rare look behind the scenes of one of the most venerated music photographers of our times, Shadow Play offers you an insight into the mind of a visionary.