OUTStream Film Festival - It's Happening Right Now
Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 9:00AM by Nathaniel R
Last night we told you about the Cannes selection. While that's glitzy information it's not particularly useful since none of the films are available and Cannes isn't actually happening. But there is a festival happening right now. It's called OUTStream and 2020 is its inaugural outing. The queer festival runs through this weekend (Sunday, June 7th) if you wanna have a mini queer film adventure over the next few days. You purchase virtual "tickets" to the movies and watch (if you want to see the Q&As though you have to watch at the alotted times, otherwise it functions like a normal rental).
HERE ARE SOME OF THE HOT TICKETS
Song Lang is a Vietnamese drama from debut filmmaker Leon Le. It's about the romance between an opera performer and a debt collector in 1980s Saigon. We've heard nothing but good things about this one on the festival circuit but we haven't seen it yet. Leon Le won Best New Director at the Beijing Film Festival for this. There's a livestream Q&A on Friday June 5th...
Gay Chorus Deep South (Sunday, June 7th @ 7 PM EST) is a moving terrific doc that tours with Southern states with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. [Previously Reviewed]
Mack Beggs in "Changing the Game"
Changing the Game, which took the top prize last year at the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (yours truly was on the jury) is a fascinating doc about the controversies surrounding trans athletes in high school athletics. [Previously Reviewed]
Benjamin is a romantic comedy from the UK about a 20something filmmaker falling for a Frenchman musician. Colin Morgan, who we loved in The Fall and Humans on television, is the lead.
Fabulous is a documentary about a voguing dancer who made it from NYC ballrooms to Parisian runways.
Brief Story from the Green Planet sounds interesting, too. It's a sci-fi trans drama from Argentina.
rubber dolphin
Their shorts program includes the sexual Israeli drama Rubber Dolphin which previously played at Cannes. We always wish we had time for more shorts programs at festivals so online festivals might just be the way to squeeze more of them in.
More films and info here. Pretty website, too. Love the mood and color of that moving image homepage.
Reader Comments (10)
Thanks for the info. You can never have too many LGBTQ film fests.
Long time (7 years!) reader, first time poster. But I had to write something: Song Lang is an absolute must watch. One of my favorite movies I have seen in years!!
Geoblocked. Damn.
Tak -- OH WOW. Thanks for reading. I definitely will try to check that out.
The rubber dolphin pic is too much. Nathaniel, dear, please remember that some of us are single and that we have been hiding in a bunker for the last three months.
Peggy Sue - sorry, trigger warning. I have also been in a bunker for three months as a single so perhaps that is WHY i posted the picture. ;)
I watched "Brief Story from the Green Planet" at QueerLisboa (an LGBT+ film festival here in Portugal) and thought it was quite good. Some of its images are delightfully kooky while others haunt. There's a shot of a field at night covered in smoking torches that have been put out, the ghost of an angry mob, that has remained in my head ever since I watched it. Also, no matter how weird it is, it's short (75 minutes) so, even if it's not your thing, it breezes by quickly.
I cannot recommend Song Lang enough.
I don't go to film festivals often, but when I do I LOVE going to the shorts programs. I guess in my head it SEEMS like more bang for my buck/time and it almost always provides a pleasant surprise (or several). Going through the synopsis of a few of those short films have me VERY tempted. Thanks for sharing!
This is very nice! Many of us we have connected the summer with the festival experiences and we miss them a lot! I'm really glad that these beautiful productions are available online! These days that we can't go out very much it's the greatest company at home. Even national theatres and operas stream their plays online. We need these events, they keep as strong. In Greece where I live the Greek National Opera offer opera, dance, ballet performances for free https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/ check it out if you 're interested!