Brent Corrigan movie Judas Kiss.
Gay and lesbian movies Judas Kiss – starring gay porn star Brent Corrigan (as Sean Paul Lockhart) – Trigger, Mangus!, Leading Ladies and Suicide Room have been acquired by Wolfe Releasing. Those five titles will be released on DVD and VOD this fall.
In Judas Kiss, a filmmaker returns to his alma mater, where he gets the chance to reshape his future. In the cast: Brent Corrigan / Sean Paul Lockhart, Charlie David, and Richard Harmon. Directed by J. T. Tepnapa, from a screenplay by Tepnapa and Carlos Pedraza.
Featuring Molly Parker, Tracy Wright, Don McKellar, and Sarah Polley, Trigger chronicles the ups and downs in the friendship of two female rockers. Bruce McDonald directed from a screenplay by Daniel MacIvor.
Writer-director Ash Christian’s comedy Mangus! tells the story of a young man, Mangus (Ryan Boggus), whose major goal in life is to play Jesus in a school production of “Jesus Christ Spectacular.” Also featured are Jennifer Coolidge and Heather Matarazzo.
Daniel Beahm and Erika Randall Beahm’s Leading Ladies is described on the IMDb as a “zany comedy about two sisters, their gay best friend, and their overzealous stage mom.” In the cast: Lauren Vail, Shannon Lea Smith, Melanie LaPatin, and Benji Schwimmer.
Jan Komasa’s Polish drama Suicide Room features a gay teenager who spends his time in a (cgi-created) virtual online world. In the cast: Jakub Gierszal and Agata Kulesza.
Brent Corrigan photo: Blue Seraph Productions.
Harmony Santana, Esai Morales in Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Gun Hill Road.
Newcomer Rashaad Ernesto Green’s family drama Gun Hill Road, starring Esai Morales, will open Outfest 2011, the 29th edition of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The festival’s closing-night presentation will be Anne Renton’s comedy-drama The Perfect Family, featuring Kathleen Turner, Jason Ritter, Emily Deschanel, and Richard Chamberlain. Outfest 2011 runs July 7-17.
In Gun Hill Road, a macho ex-con (Morales) returns home, where he discovers that his teenage son Michael (Harmony Santana) has turned into his daughter Vanessa (Santana). Judy Reyes plays the transgender woman’s protective mother.
Written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Riley, The Perfect Family stars Kathleen Turner as a housewife eager to win the Outstanding Catholic of the Year Award. Trials and Tribulations: son Jason Ritter has just gotten divorced; daughter Emily Deschanel is about to marry her lesbian lover.
The schedule/synopses below are from the Outfest 2011 press release:
Opening Night Gala – Gun Hill Road (July 7 at 8:00pm – Orpheum Theatre)
After three years in prison, macho Enrique (Esai Morales) returns home to the Bronx and finds things changed. His wife, Angela (Judy Reyes), is distant, and his teenage son, Michael, has come out as Vanessa, a transgender woman. Unable to accept his child for who she is now, Enrique clings to his masculine ideals while Angela attempts to hold the family together by fiercely protecting Vanessa. Still under the watchful eye of his parole officer, Enrique must become the father he needs to be or once again risk losing his family and freedom.
The heart of Gun Hill Road lies in two places: the richly drawn character of Michael/Vanessa (newcomer Harmony Santana is unforgettable) and a father’s inability to escape the vicious cycle of his life. Writer/director Rashaad Ernesto Green’s first feature film is told with gentle humor, sensitivity and a deep understanding of the environment that defines its inhabitants.
Closing Night Gala – The Perfect Family (July 17 at 8:00pm – Ford Theatre)
How far will one housewife go to win the Outstanding Catholic of the Year Award? Dedicated churchgoer Eileen Cleary (Kathleen Turner, in a heartbreaking performance) will bend over backwards to portray her brood as the Catholic ideal, even though her son (Jason Ritter) has just left his wife for the woman he really loves, and Eileen’ daughter Shannon (Emily Deschanel) is about to marry her lesbian lover. Eileen’s struggle to reconcile her faith and her goal of perfection with the reality of her life makes for an unforgettable comedy-drama, bolstered by a talented cast that also includes Richard Chamberlain.
Outfest 2011’s four centerpieces are Maryam Keshavarz’s Teheran-set drama Circumstance (U.S. Dramatic), winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year; Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (International), a sleeper hit at SXSW 2011 and the winner of the festival’s Emerging Visions Audience Award; P. David Ebersole’s Patty Schemel documentary Hit So Hard (Documentary); and Tom Tykwer’s ménage à trois drama 3 (Broad Stage Gala). [Schedule/detailed film information.]
In Circumstance, an addict (Reza Sixo Safai) replaces drugs with Allah, joins Iran’s Moral Police, and starts meddling in the affairs of his sister (Nikohl Boosheri) and her intimate friend (Sarah Kazemy).
Directed, written, and edited by Andrew Haigh (assistant editor on Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven), Weekend chronicles the sexual-emotional bond that develops between two young men (Tom Cullen and Chris New) following what should have been a booze- and drug-filled one-night stand.
Hit So Hard tells the story of Hole drummer Patty Schemel. The documentary features interviews with Courtney Love, Melissa Auf der Maur, and Eric Erlandson.
Tom Tykwer’s 3, presented at both the Venice and Toronto film festivals, portrays the complex relationship between a couple (Sophie Rois and Sebastian Schipper) and the man (Devid Striesow) in their lives.
Photo: Gun Hill Road (Motion Film Group)
Long-Lost Ian McKellen Footage Found: ‘The Tomb of His Ancestors’
Footage of two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) in his first television role has been found in the US decades after it was thought lost, reports the BBC.
McKellen had a supporting role in the 1964 BBC period drama “The Tomb of His Ancestors,” based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling; that episode was part of the series Kipling: The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling.
A copy of “The Tomb of His Ancestors” was unearthed in a private collection in Illinois. It was then bought by a consortium led by classic TV organization Kaleidoscope. Also recovered were two other BBC shows previously thought lost: a 1950s ballet production of “Giselle” and a 1963 episode of the series Suspense, starring Sylvia Syms (perhaps best known nowadays for her Queen Mother in Stephen Frears’ The Queen).
As per the report, “it used to be BBC policy to wipe recordings to recycle expensive tape stock, so only two of the original 25-part series were known to exist.”
McKellen is currently filming Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.
Photo: BBC.
Lisa Cholodenko’s Oscar-nominated The Kids Are All Right was announced as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s (GLAAD) choice for Outstanding Film – Wide Release of 2010 at a ceremony held at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Glee‘s Naya Rivera was the evening’s hostess.
Co-written by Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right portrays a happy lesbian couple (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore) whose family is negatively affected by the appearance of a heterosexual male (Mark Ruffalo), who happens to be the biological father of their children (Josh Hutcherson, Mia Wasikowska).
Sex and the City‘s Kim Cattrall received the Golden Gate Award, “presented to a media professional who has increased the visibility and understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.” According to GLAAD’s press release, Cattrall “has been outspoken in her support of full equality for the LGBT community.”
Upon receiving her award, Cattrall demolished gay male stereotypes with one swoop: “You may be asking yourself why I have been chosen to be the honoree at the [GLAAD Media Awards]? Well, as many of you know, I played a gay man on a very popular television show for six wonderful years!”
Past recipients of the Golden Gate Award listed in the press release were six women (Megan Mullally, Jennifer Beals, Stockard Channing, Cybill Shepherd, Jennifer Tilly, Brooke Shields) and one guy (James Schamus).
The Outstanding Film – Limited Release was Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s troubled domestic box office disappointment I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, and Rodrigo Santoro.
Reed Cowan’s 8: The Mormon Proposition was the Best Documentary. Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who narrates The Mormon Proposition, showed up to receive the award.
Openly gay Mexican singer Christian Chavez won in the Spanish-language music artist category for his album “Almas transparentes.”
Also present at the ceremony were television personality Mario Lopez, international rugby star Ben Cohen, and actress Sara Ramirez. According to the press release, Elizabeth Taylor “allowed GLAAD to offer free tickets to the event to over 80 young people from the greater San Francisco area.”
Previous winners at GLAAD Award ceremonies held in New York and Los Angeles include Ricky Martin, Kristin Chenoweth, and the television shows 30 Rock, Glee, Modern Family and True Blood. And Project Runway, too, which pretty much discredits the whole thing.
Photo: The Kids Are All Right (Suzanne Tenner / Focus Features).