SIGNAL BOOST: Animated LGBT Short Film “Arrival” Aims to Raise $20,000 on Kickstarter [Interview]

Arrival: A Short Film by Alex Myung

New York City-based artist Alex Myung has started a Kickstarter project to raise $20,000 to create Arrival, an animated short film with a focus on the theme of coming out. Equalitopia sits down with Alex to discuss the project.

Currently, the project has raised almost $4,000 from 74 different backers, averaging out to about $52 per backer. Keep in mind that Kickstarter projects are “all or nothing,” meaning that if the project doesn’t reach its funding goal by Wednesday, February 20th, no funds will be transferred to the project.

ACTUP.ORG: Hollywood – 12 gay book characters turned straight for the movie version

Adapted screenplays may follow books very closely, or may be completely different. When characters are gay or lesbian – or have had some significant same-sex experiences – screenwriters sometimes sidestep those facets of their stories entirely when it comes to the big screen. Here are twelve of those instances.

Harvey Milk Doc Named to National Film Registry

The Oscar-winning documentary and several gay-relevant narrative films are among this year’s selections.

BY TRUDY RING



The Times of Harvey Milk, the Oscar-winning 1984 documentary about the martyred gay politician, is among the 25 films designated this year for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Rob Epstein’s film won the Academy Award as Best Documentary. Other gay-relevant films selected this year include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella with Audrey Hepburn starring, and the 1950 Judy Holliday comedy Born Yesterday,directed by George Cukor.

“The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., will work to make sure that each title is preserved for future generations either through its own preservation program or through collaborative efforts with other archives, movie studios and independent filmmakers,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“These films are not selected as the best American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture,” Librarian of Congress James M. Billington said in a statement released this morning. “They reflect who we are as a people and as a nation.”

The registry chooses 25 films each year. This year’s group brings the total to 600.

#759

thisiswhiteprivilege:

White privilege is being able to enjoy Disney films as good old fashioned family fun instead of a reminder that you’re living in a culture that thinks of you as inferior or doesn’t think of you at all… And no, white folks, four poc as protagonists does not count.

(via riley-ferretboy-konor)

Source: thisiswhiteprivilege

July 18th: Screening of HBO documentary film '12th & Delaware'

fuckyeahfeminists:

On Wednesday, July 18th, Chicago Abortion Fund will be showing the HBO film 12th & Delaware. This event will take place at Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago. The documentary will run from 6 PM until 8 PM. There is no cover charge for this film screening but donations will be accepted at the door.

12th & Delaware is a documentary film about an abortion clinic and a crisis pregnancy center operating directly across the street from one another in the town of Fort Pierce, Florida.

Read more at: http://www.examiner.com/article/july-18th-screening-of-hbo-documentary-film-12th-delaware

Gays In Movies: "I Am" too gay to be televised

homoinmotion:

Filmmaker Onir is upset with the Indian censor board for not giving his National Award-winning-film “I AM” a U-certificate, without which it cannot be telecast on Doordarshan. This is in spite of his making the cuts demanded and he says he would like to challenge the decision.
The story of “I AM”…

(via qbits)

Source: homoinmotion

Janet Jackson Producing Documentary About Transgender People

BY Jeremy Kinser

Superstar entertainer Janet Jackson is set to executive-produce a documentary that will help “stop the hate and find understanding” toward transgender people.

The documentary is titled Truth and described as “a journey through the lives of trans- and nongendered people around the world and their epic struggle for equality.” The film will be directed by Robert Jason and is expected to begin production this summer.

“All people are very important to me,” Jackson says in a statement released to the media. “I’ve been fortunate to make friends and learn about very different lives. Truth is our small chance to ask that you try and understand someone who lives their life in a way that is a little bit different from yours, even though all of our hearts are the same. We want to stop the hate and find understanding.”

Jason is obviously ecstatic to have such a high-profile collaborator on the project. ”Janet Jackson will take us on a visually innovative, cerebral journey through the turbulent lives of transgendered people of all ages around the world and their epic struggle for equality,” he says. “This film will highlight landmark mainstream stories and provide a glimpse at others that will change the gender landscape of the world forever. Just as it is hard to believe that there ever was a time when different components of society were required to use separate drinking fountains, it is as incredible that one’s gender expression remains just such a target for discrimination.”

alllovenoh8: thedailywhat: Follow-Up of the Day: Weinstein Co. Edits Bully to Earn PG-13 Rating: After a drawn-out battle with the MPAA, a toned-down re-submission of The Weinstein Company documentary Bully has earned a PG-13 rating. A crucial scene in the film that centers on main subject Alex Libby — in which there are three uses of the word f**k as he is harassed on a bus — will stay put. “The scene that mattered remains untouched and intact, which is a true sign that we have won this battle,” said director Lee Hirsch. [hollywoodreporter] Fantastic news you guys :]
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alllovenoh8:

thedailywhat:

Follow-Up of the Day: Weinstein Co. Edits Bully to Earn PG-13 Rating: After a drawn-out battle with the MPAA, a toned-down re-submission of The Weinstein Company documentary Bully has earned a PG-13 rating.

A crucial scene in the film that centers on main subject Alex Libby — in which there are three uses of the word f**k as he is harassed on a bus — will stay put.

“The scene that mattered remains untouched and intact, which is a true sign that we have won this battle,” said director Lee Hirsch.

[hollywoodreporter]

Fantastic news you guys :]

Source: thedailywhat

'Bully' Director Defends Choice to Release Film as Unrated - Video

By: Boo Jarchow

The Weinstein Company announced plans to release Lee Hirsch’s documentary Bully unrated, rather than with the Motion Picture Association of America’s original R rating, and Hirsch toldThe Hollywood Reporter that it is “the right thing to do.”

The recent controversy that developed when the MPAA gave the film an R rating had kids, celebrities and politicians all rallying to reduce the rating to PG-13. The film, about the bullying epidemic in the American school system, received the R rating for using the word “fuck” six times, two more times than allowed for PG-13 rated films.

A recent appeal hearing to reduce the R rating with the Classification and Ratings Administration filed by Harvey Weinstein and Lee Hirsch was unsuccessful, as they lost by just one vote. The Classification and Ratings Administration has set guidelines about language in film, while sex and violence are more subjective.

“The small amount of language in the film that’s responsible for the R rating is there because it’s real,” Hirsch said to THR. “It’s what the children who are victims of bullying face on most days. All of our supporters see that, and we’re grateful for the support we’ve received across the board. I know the kids will come, so it’s up to the theaters to let them in.”

Click the link above to continue reading…

Jetta Vegas: The Radical Uprise Zine needs you. (:

jettavegas:

What are some of your favorite inspiration films and/or books? Perhaps they changed your life, or merely opened your eyes in some way, shape or form? And WHY? Looking for films and/or books that inspire wanderlust or taking the road less traveled. Trying to get some more feedback from an upcoming…

NERDBUTTS: Lisbeth Salander and the End of Men

article by Dave Shapiro of Nerdbutts

(TRIGGER WARNING: discussion of rape, rape culture and related topics)

I haven’t read Steig Larsson’s novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, nor have I seen the recently released American film adaptation. I do work at a bookstore, and I do know many people who have read the book and/or seen the Swedish films, and so I am familiar enough with the character of Lisbeth Salander and her background that I could understand fully the article “We Are All Lisbeth Salander”, written by Katie Roiphe and published by Slate a couple of days ago. 

It’s a clumsy article that appeared to me at first to be trying to reconcile the state of female characters in popular media with the state of women in the real world. Real analyses of this type on sites not explicitly labelled as feminist are pretty rare, and so I was excited at the prospect of an article that connected the dots between women and their fictional counterparts. Unfortunately the article failed to really explicitly say anything except that we like “damaged” female heroines these days. Its title claims that we are all Lisbeth Salander, but its word choice and tone said something much different.

Click the link above to read the full article and comment with your opinion.