London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: APRES LUI, FUCKING DIFFERENT TEL AVIV
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009
Saturday, April 4, highlights
Schedule and synopses from the LLGFF website
Après lui
| Directed by: | Gaël Morel |
| Cast: | Catherine Deneuve, Thomas Dumerchez, Adrien Jolivet |
| Country: | France |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Running time: | 90min |
Following the sudden death of her son Mathieu in a car accident, Camille (Catherine Deneuve) reaches out to his best friend Franck in an attempt to cope with her loss and gain a focus for her pain. However, this initially cathartic relationship soon begins to border on the obsessive, and Camille’s family begin to question her state of mind as she devotes more and more time to Franck. While the film hints at a possible sexual relationship between Franck and Mathieu in the opening scenes, sexuality is not the focus here. Instead, director Gaël Morel (À Toute Vitesse, Le Clan) and co-writer Christophe Honoré (Les Chansons d’amour) have put together a beautifully controlled meditation on the suffocating nature of grief, driven by a remarkable performance from Deneuve at the film’s centre. Michael Blyth
Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project
| Directed by: | Charles B Brack |
| Country: | USA |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Running time: | 58min |
Sakia Gunn was a fifteen-year-old black lesbian who was stabbed to death in a gay hate crime in New Jersey in 2003. Dreams Deferred questions the lack of national media coverage after Gunn’s murder and explores the racism and homophobia that has caused this silence. Brack’s documentary combines courtroom footage of Gunn’s family and friends as they confront her murderer, with interviews that paint a picture of the victim and discuss the problems that Aggressives (homosexual women of colour who dress in masculine attire) face. It is particularly moving to see the activism Gunn’s death has inspired within the Black LGBT community in the USA. Nazmia Jamal
Japan Japan
| Directed by: | Lior Shamriz |
| Cast: | Imri Kahn, Tal Meiri, Irit Gidron |
| Country: | Israel |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Running time: | 65min |
A strange and provocative debut feature from a young Israeli. The film is set mostly in Tel Aviv and features Imri, newly arrived in the city, a despondent young man who is obsessed with visiting Japan. His fantasies of Japanese life include some porn imagery and the film weaves in and out of film-making styles. Although we return to the mundane experiences of his life in the city, there are moments from a video artist in New York, encounters with men, his quirky flatmate, a musical number and one never knows what’s going to happen next. The dialogue is mainly improvised which accounts for some of the strangeness but it’s done with a bold cinematic intelligence and offers both a fascinating perspective on a slacker’s life and an oblique political commentary. It finishes by quoting a Cavafy poem including the lines, "As you have ruined your life here… you have destroyed it in the whole world." Brian Robinson
Fucking Different Tel Aviv
| Directed by: | Elad Zakai, Eran Kublik Kedar, Ricardo Rojstaczer, Eyal Bromberg, Sivan Levi, Hagai Ayad, Nir Ne’eman, Yossi Brauman, Avital Barak, November Wanderin, Galit Florenz, Yasmin Max, Hila Ben Baruch, Stephanie Abramovich, Anat Salomon, Yair Hochner |
| Country: | Israel-Germany |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Running time: | 95min |
Following on from Berlin and New York, the ‘Fucking Different’ project continues with this latest edition from Israel, which offers the most diverse, exciting and impressive addition to the series yet. Fifteen filmmakers from Tel Aviv were each approached to make a short film, with one criteria in mind – that the gay men must produce a film about lesbians and vice-versa. The shorts that emerged are wildly inventive, flitting between various styles and genres, and guaranteed to include something to please everyone. Viewed as a whole, it is an inspirational piece of work, and a true testament to the wealth of queer filmmaking talent evident in Israel. Michael Blyth
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: BANDAGED, 57000 KM BETWEEN US
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: BURN THE BRIDGES, CAMPILLO, YES I DO
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: GHOSTED, THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: PEDRO, MADAME X: AN ABSOLUTE RULER
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: EROS O BASILEUS, STEAM
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Tags: Apres lui, Catherine Deneuve, Dreams Deferred The Sakia Gunn Film Project, Fucking Different Tel Aviv, Gay Film Festivals, Gay Interest, Japan Japan, Lior Shamriz, London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, London Screenings
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4 Responses to “London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009: APRES LUI, FUCKING DIFFERENT TEL AVIV”
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Catherine Deneuve is excellente in Apres Lui. I would say it is probably the best performance of her career.
I am one of the co-chair’s for the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival. I was wondering if you can help me. I would like to contact the distributors for two films you screened, Japan,Japan and Fucking Differnt Tel Aviv. Our festival has created a mini LGBT festival this year and we are looking for films for next year.
Thanks for your help.
Bob,
I’d suggest you contact the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival directly.
Good luck!
Can I see Fucking Differnt Tel Aviv anywhere else?i’m from America and The only gay film festivals i know of are in california and florida :( and i’m from Texas.It looks like a good film.