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A coming-of-age drama about a queer teen with a troubling passion for starting fires ― yes, literally ― will make its hotly anticipated premiere this weekend .
Written and directed by Mauricio Calderón Rico, All the Fires (Todos los Incendios) will be screened Sunday as part of NewFest, New York’s premier LGBTQ+ film festival. The Spanish-language film, which is subtitled, will also be available to stream online through Oct. 24, the conclusion of the festival.
All the Fires follows Bruno, a teen who has developed an obsession with uploading videos of himself setting objects on fire after his father dies. As his widowed mother is developing feelings for a new man, Bruno runs away from home in search of a girl, Dani, with whom he’s connected online. Though Bruno imagines himself in a romantic relationship with Dani at first, his out-of-town journey prompts him to make a startling discovery about his own sexuality.
For years Andrzej and Michal have been meeting up during the summer holidays, which they spend with their parents at the tiny resort of Siemiany. Over the years, their friendship has grown steadily, but this year the monotony of life in the country and their feelings of togetherness lend their friendship a new dimension of sexually charged intimacy.
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Greek School Prayer is a short narrative film that negotiates, using bullying in the background, the transition to the difficult phase of puberty and its revelations. The actors chosen were amateurs.
A tale of first love, Fireworks (original title: Stranizza d’amuri) tells the story of two teenagers who fall for each other in the very conservative Sicily in the 1980s. They will carry the weight of society and face tragic consequences. Gabriele Pizzurro and Samuele Segreto star in the film alongside Fabrizia Sacchi (“Suspiria’) and Simona Malato (“The Macaluso Sisters”).
Stranizza d’amuri is inspired by true events, the murder of two boys in a Sicilian small town in the ’80s,” said Eleonora Pratelli of Ibla Film. “This was a crime that changed forever the perception of homosexuality in Italy. Its emotional impact on public opinion was so deep and vast that it opened the way to the creation of the first association aimed at safeguarding homosexuals’ rights.”
She added that story was “still dramatically relevant today.” She said the film aimed at “restoring the dignity of two boys killed by hate and prejudice and whose memory was then buried in indifference.”
I’ll post a review of the film when I can find a stream somewhere.
Every team behind a book-to-film adaptation has hard choices to make. But one of the trickiest is taking a book that’s very much embedded in a character’s head and putting those moments on screen in an interesting way. Voice-overs can only go so far in conveying the way authors capture specific thought patterns.
That’s the cchallenge in adapting a book like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s YA queer coming-of-age novel, which soars on the page because of the main character’s internal monologue.
The film adaptation from Hara Kiri director and writer Aitch Alberto stumbles a bit in conveying the book’s adolescent angst and poignant longing, often feeling like a collection of snapshots instead of one cohesive movie. Nevertheless, the lead actors carry the film, and the individual scenes are strong, though it never quite captures the deep longing that is threaded throughout the original.
A moving documentary will explore the life and legacy of Matthew Shepard, 25 years after his death in what remains one of the most horrendous homophobic hate crimes in modern history. Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was just 21 years old when he was brutally beaten and left for dead in the US state on 6 October 1998. He was pronounced dead six days later, on 12 October.
On 9 October this year, marking 25 years since his death, a new two-hour documentary will premiere, honouring his life and reflecting on how the murder marked a turning point in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
Matthew’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, set up the Matthew Shepard Foundation in his memory. The foundation works to educate on LGBTQ+ inclusion and advocate for equal rights. Their fight was instrumental in the formation of the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which introduced federal-level protections for crimes based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability.
In the new documentary Matthew Shepard Story: An American Hate Crime, airing on Investigation Discovery, Matthew’s friends, local journalists and members of the queer community will reflect on how his story created change and forced America to reckon with its deep-rooted homophobia.
Emil and Adam are close friends, and after a night at the movies, Emil is going to sleep over at Adam’s. A film about friendship and the longing for something more.
