“The Lavender Lens – 100 Years of Celluloid Queers” is a documentary by filmmaker David Johnson from 1995, I just found it on the sissydude tumblr (Johnson has uploaded it himself a while ago). The movie is a pretty extensive and uncommented montage of both famous and rather unknown queer moments of all film historical eras, starting with the legendary “Gay Brothers” from 1895, one of the first example of a motion picture. Because of it’s length I think it is a good idea to take the advice given on Best Documentary not to watch the movie in one go, but to “dip into it periodically”. Especially since the resolution of the video is not very high.
Synth Britannia is a documentary that aired on BBC Four in October 2009 and that follows the British synth pop movmement from its early and rather experimental stages in the late seventies to the eighties, when it all of a sudden had a major impact on Western pop culture. The inventors of synth-based pop music such a The Normal, The Human League or OMD where all influenced by computer music heroes such as Kraftwerk and Gorgio Moroder as well as the punk era in which making music was no longer perceived as a the privilege of trained musicians. Unfortunately the documentary focuses mostly on the technical side of this music and on the way it affected and was affected by society in general, the fact that this movement established a whole new style that e.g. allowed men to be androgynous and emotional isn’t really analysed here, it’s only superficially mentioned . Still the film is really worth watching if you like the music and the style of that time. I also posted some of my favourite artists and songs appearing in the film below.
Cabaret was released in 1972 and is directed by Bob Fosse, the guy whose Broadway choreographies were the inspiration for Beyonce’s “Single Lady” video. The movie is set in Berlin in the early thirties, a time that on the one hand was a pretty liberal, while on the other the nazis slowly started to take over the social life in Germany. It is partly based on the “Berlin Stories” by gay writer Christopher Isherwood and so became one if the first Hollywood movies that (after the so-called “Hays Code” had lost its impact) very openly adressed issues of love, sexuality and coming out. It is especially worth watching because of the brilliant acting of Liza Minelli who got an oscar for her role as an American singer called Sally Bowles (I think the film may be the reason for this demonstration banner by the way.) Click here for the first part of the movie – compared to other clips of this movie on YouTube the quality of these ones is surprisingly good.
A few days ago BUTT Online posted the latest episode of Travis Mathews‘ “In Their Room” project, which allows us to share some intimate moments with Brontez who can be observed smoking, singing, talking and playing with his cock in front of the camera. I posted the video below, the complete movie can watched here or on in a better resolution in the video section of Mr. Mathews website.
Some really cool person called “Zilbernet” managed to upload “Black Lizard” on Youtube. The movie was one of the favourite ones we showed at the Villainz filmfest last weekend – it’s a weird and campy Japanese detective based on a stage adaptation of a book by Edogawa Rampo. The Black Lizard is female jewel thief played by a drag artist called Akihiro Miwa who tries to kidnap the daughter of a famous jeweler to gain possession of the precious “Star of Egypt” (and, as you’ll find out later, to turn her into a puppet). The movie’s really a lot of fun, so if you don’t mind watching it in a rather suboptimal quality I recommend it to watch it on youtube since it’s not out on DVD yet. Here’s part one, don’t forget to click HQ for a better quality:
This is the full version of Jean Genets “Un Chant D’Amour” (A song of love) from 1950. I didn’t know it was available on the internet. This is the link. Thank you, Anal Magazine.
Thanks to Patent Leather Daddy we’ve now got access to the 45-minute-pilote of a never broadcasted MTV series called “This is how the world ends” created by Gregg Araki. I wouldn’t consider this his greatest piece of art but this could also be owned to the fact that it seems like MTV wanted a crazy but not too crazy coming-of-age show, so I think working on it must have been quite a balancing act for him. And it’s still got its entertaining funny moments. Does anybody know what he’s working on by the way?
