March 11th 

Melbourne Queer Film Festival

More from Alliance France French Film Festival

Judas and the Black Messiah

Girls Can't Surf

As my good friend and presenter of On Screen (Saturdays 3CR 11 am) Melinda O'Connor told listeners, Melbourne is currently awash with fab film festivals. Don't forget you can still catch up with Transitions FF (all online), Jewish FF, French FF, and (unfortunately concluding this weekend) the Birrarangga FF (https://www.birrarangga.world/). But wait there's more! New releases are coming to cinemas thick and fast. Lots for your delectation this week, and several of them highlighting issues of gender identity and politics.

Melbourne Queer Film Festival  Film Festival 2021

Melbourne Until March 21

Village Coburg Drive-in, Village Jam Factory, Cinema Nova

For films and session times,  visit: https://mqff.com.au/

MQFF is always one of my favorite festivals. The usual wonderful features, shorts and documentaries, local and international, will be here, with another longer MQFF planned for later in the year. Every year I say the same thing: people of all sexual persuasions will find something to enjoy in this festival - like all good films, these speak to what we all share in common - being human. 

Rurangi

© MQFF - compassionate
story-telling

The pick of what I've previewed so far, this is a subtle, compassionate, beautiful film, set in the farming countryside of New Zealand. Transgender activist Kaz (Elz Carrad) returns to the small town he left as a girl before transitioning. He hopes to reconnect with his estranged father, who is now passionately involved in environmental issues. Having fled a community he believes would never accept him, Kaz now meets again people from his past. This is one of the best features on transgender I've seen and is a must for anyone wanting to better understand the subject, and the emotional trauma for young people questioning their identity. But it is also a most human story of parental bonds, friendship bonds, and acceptance of self and others. Moving and beautifully scripted, with powerful performances by all. 

  

Sublet

© MQFF - intergenerational 
understanding

Michael, a conservative fifty-something journalist, is writing an article on Tel Aviv and decides to sublet an apartment which belongs to young film student Tomer. Over the five days, the two men, almost polar opposites, learn much about themselves. Winning the audience award at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, this delicate, sweet film is a sure crowd pleaser, appealing to diverse age groups. The dialogue is beautifully written, and the various scenarios and emotions feel authentic. The two leads, who pretty much anchor most of the film, create two characters we can really relate to.

The Whistle

© MQFF - fascinating lesbian
history

Stormmiguel Florez is a trans man who has made a fascinating doco inspired initially by a secret whistling sound that many lesbians adopted in Albequerque back in the 1980s. It was used as a means of identifying each other, in a place and time when being out was not as easy as it is today. Interviews with a swag of women, reminiscing upon their schooldays and experiences coming out are warmly handled. Things get darker however when stats are discussed about how hate crimes against minority groups surged after the dreaded Trump was elected. Then and now footage, with plenty of photo albums, works well, and the film is a reminder that, especially in America, vigilance against haters must prevail.  

Cowboys

© MQFF - father and son
in glorious Montana

Troy (Steve Zahn) and his 11-year-old son Joe (Sasha Knight) head off for some bonding time in the mountains of Montana. But nothing is as it seems: Joe started life as a girl, and has run off with his father to get away from a mother who refuses to understand his gender dysphoria. Troy is bipolar, the police go on the trail assuming it is a kidnapping, and things get pretty fraught. This one of Zahn's best performances, Jillian Bell is terrific as a perplexed loving mother, and young Knight handles the role well. Notable is Ann Dowd (Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid's Tale), as an understanding police officer. The mountain scenery is stunning and, even if at times things are a touch too "pat" and simplified, this is a film with plenty of heart, tackling the increasingly spotlighted issues of young kids grappling with their gender identity.

Summerland

© Icon/MQFF  - mystery,
romance snd war

During WW2 in London, some children were evacuated to the countryside away from the constant threat of bombing. Local "grump" Alice, (Gemma Arterton) is totally reluctant to take in young Frank (Lucas Bond) and vows to get rid of him at the earliest possible opportunity. Gradually we discover the cause of Alice's sadness and slowly she also warms to Frank. This is a sweet film, with a very unexpected performance from Arterton, who shines in her role, as does Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Vera, a significant part of Alice's past. This is a sweet, solid and touching story, with yet another take on the war, and on times past, when freedom to be one's true self was rare.    

Alliance France French Film Festival 2021 . . . more

Melbourne until March 31

Palace Cinemas Melbourne

For other states, session times, and movie synopses visit: https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/

Final Set

© FFF - the tough life of 
professional sportsmen

Thomas Edison (Alex Lutz) is 37 and still playing on the international tennis circuit. Plagued by injuries and dealing with an endlessly harsh and disappointed mother (an always excellent Kristin Scott Thomas), he is determined to get accepted for one last Grand Slam. This film gives insight into the stresses of being a top athlete, and the problems of ageing, when sport is your life. The way the director constructs his shots makes it feel like you are watching the real thing, and Lutz is terrific in his role. 

De Gaulle

© FFF - should appeal to 
history buffs

Nominated for 3 Cesars including Best Actor for Lambert Wilson, this film focuses on a moment in the life of the iconic general (later to become President). The film focuses solely on the time frame of June 1940. During this seminal point in France's history, the government capitulated to the Nazis, while the General escaped to Britain and got Churchill on side. From there he broadcast regular radio messages of encouragement to the French resistance. This slice of  war history strongly portrays a courageous man, firm in his convictions and in his love for his family, an important sub-plot in this impressive film. 

The Godmother

© FFF - who's shopping
for what?

Fans of popular actress Isabelle Huppert should enjoy seeing her as an upstanding woman, gone rogue when an opportunity falls into her lap. Patience is a translator for the police, and when she gains access to a huge shipment of hashish, she disguises herself in Muslim garb, and sets up her own not-so-little dealership. Eluding police, who call her Mama Weed, she leads them a merry dance. I'm not one for French crime capers, but if it's your scene, then you'll probably enjoy this slight film, if just for its ever-watchable lead gal. 

How to Become an Astronaut

© FFF - should appeal to 
history buffs

At the age of 38. Thomas Pesquet became the youngest ever French astronaut. This insightful doco tracks the gruelling training regime he must go though, along with two other astronauts, before they are launched on their way to a six-month mission at the International Space Station. Anyone wanting to be an astronaut will be completely enthralled by this, as it is an unusual insight into a field I sure knew little about. 

Judas and the Black Messiah

Dir: Shaka King

Length: 127 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=sSjtGqRXQ9Y

© Universal - strong biopic, brilliant acting
and powerfully topical story

Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers in Chicago in the late 1960s. This biographical feature tells how local car thief  Bill O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) became an FBI informer and infiltrated the party, to unleash the ultimate betrayal upon Fred. This is a stunningly crafted depiction of one chapter of America's never-ending race wars. Kaluuya simply shines as the charismatic leader who seems genuinely more concerned for his downtrodden people than his own life, and it's no surprise he's just won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. The whole cast is splendid with stand-out perfs from Jessie Plemons as O'Neal's weasly FBI handler Roy Mitchell and Dominique Fishback as Deborah Johnson, fellow party member with whom Fred falls in love. The tension of the film is unrelenting and  Hampton's oratory inspirational, but it's the message that is so chilling - the fight back then seems not to have moved dramatically forward, with police brutality towards people of color still front and centre in the news.

4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended

Girls Can't Surf
Dir: Christopher Nelius

Length: 108 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBjcbZla2cA

© Madman - men take note: your
chauvinistic days are numbered!

Here's a terrific doco that should appeal to both surfers, and anyone following the ongoing gender wars. Girls Can't Surf looks at the inspiring women who battled for equality in their chosen sport, one until then dominated by men who were seen (and saw themselves) as gods. Starting with archival footage of the 60s, when "surfer chicks" were mostly hangers on to their blond-haired boyfriends, the film traces the rise of the sport with such star athletes as Pam Burridge, Frieda Zamba and Aussie Pauline Menczer. Later, more widely known names like Layne Beachley entered the arena, but women were still not getting the same pay for training as hard, surfing the same waves, and being the face of such high-profile sponsors as Roxy and Billabong. It took until 2019 for this to happen.  This film, featuring interviews and recollections from many Aussie and overseas women, and men sympathetic to the cause, really sticks it to the patriarchy - the "dumb-assed chauvinistic pigs" as one surfer calls them. It's fun, and another great notch in the belt of the battle for female equality.

3.5 - well recommended