#lgbtq +sundance 2022

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Rowan Ashley Smith at The Advocate:

"Why does transphobia exist?" is a large question with many even larger and more multifaceted answers. One such answer was recently supplied by comedian and actor Will Ferrell in a new interview with The Independent. "Whether or not you can ultimately wrap your head around that, why would you care if somebody’s happy? Why is that threatening to you? If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself.” Period! The interview was with Ferrell and Harper Steele, his former Saturday Night Live collaborator and close friend of 30 years. Steele came out as trans in 2022, after which she and Ferrell decided to take a cross country road trip together. The pair were accompanied by filmmaker Josh Greenbaum, who turned the journey into the new documentary film Will & Harper. After a sensational debut at Sundance earlier this year, the film was picked up by Netflix, where it is now available to stream starting today.

So a question like, "Why does transphobia exist?" is one that Ferrell has been contemplating a lot as of late. He responded, "I think we fear what we do not know." It's an excellent response. It brings to mind Harvey Milk's Gay Freedom Day speech from 1978, delivered less than a year before his assassination. In the speech, Milk called on the LGBTQ+ community to, "Come out to your neighbors, to your coworkers, to the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions."

In an interview with UK paper The Independent, actor Will Ferrell gave an excellent answer to the “why does transphobia exist?” question: “If the trans community is a threat to you, I think it stems from not being confident or safe with yourself.” 🏳️‍⚧️

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Will Ferrell says transphobia “stems from not being confident or safe with yourself”

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Inside Taylor Swift and Zoe Kravitz's Friendship Timeline

From their first meeting to their current status, we dive into the timeline of Taylor Swift and Zoe Kravitz's friendship.

2014: The First Meeting

The duo first met at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, where Swift was nominated for several awards for her album 'Red'. Kravitz was there to support her father, Lenny Kravitz, who was performing at the event.

2015: Swift's Album '1989' and Kravitz's Movie 'Dope'

Swift released her fifth studio album '1989' in 2014, which became a huge success. Kravitz starred in the film 'Dope', which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015. The movie received positive reviews, boosting Kravitz's acting career.

2016: Kravitz's Support for Swift

When Swift was involved in a highly publicized feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Kravitz showed her support for the singer on social media. Kravitz posted a series of snake emojis, which were a nod to Swift's 'Reputation' album cover, indicating her solidarity with the singer.

2017: Swift's Album 'Reputation' and Kravitz's Album 'Liberated'

Swift released her sixth studio album 'Reputation' in November 2017, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Kravitz released her second album 'Liberated' with her band Lolawolf in November 2017 as well.

2018: Kravitz's Wedding and Swift's Tour

Kravitz married actor Karl Glusman in June 2018. Swift embarked on her 'Reputation' world tour in May 2018, which concluded in November of the same year.

2019: Kravitz's Role in 'Big Little Lies' and Swift's Album 'Lover'

Kravitz starred in the second season of HBO's 'Big Little Lies', playing the role of Bonnie Carlson. Swift released her seventh studio album 'Lover' in August 2019, which featured the hit single 'You Need to Calm Down', which advocated for LGBTQ+ rights.

2020: Kravitz's Role in 'The Batman' and Swift's Album 'Evermore'

Kravitz was cast as Selina Kyle (Catwoman) in Matt Reeves' 'The Batman', set to be released in 2022. Swift released her ninth studio album 'Evermore' in December 2020, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.

Conclusion

From their first meeting in 2014 to their current status as close friends, Taylor Swift and Zoe Kravitz have come a long way. Both women have achieved great success in their respective careers, and their friendship has only grown stronger over the years. To keep up with more celebrity friendships and updates, stay tuned to our site!What do you think about the friendship between Taylor Swift and Zoe Kravitz? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Read the full article

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Sundance 2022 announces festival jury & Beyond Film lineup

Sundance 2022 announces festival jury & Beyond Film lineup

Ahead of Sundance 2022, taking place on the festival’s online platform at Festival.Sundance.org January 20th-30th, and in person at seven Satellite Screens venues around the US during the Festival’s second weekend, the nonprofit Institute has announced the members of the six prize-awarding juries and the Beyond Film lineup. Among the jurors is Weekend filmmaker and the creator of HBO’s Looking,…

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Black LGBTQ+ playwrights and musical-theater artists you need to know

These artists are producing amazing, timely work.

By Marcus Scott Posted: Friday July 24 2020, 4:56pm

Marcus Scott is a New York City–based playwright, musical writer, opera librettist and journalist. He has contributed to Elle, Essence, Out, American Theatre, Uptown, Trace, Madame Noire and Playbill, among other publications. Follow Marcus: Instagram, Twitter

We’re in the chrysalis of a new age of theatrical storytelling, and Black queer voices have been at the center of this transformation. Stepping out of the margins of society to push against the status quo, Black LGBTQ+ artists  have been actively engaged in fighting anti-blackness, racial disparities, disenfranchisement, homophobia and transphobia.

The success of Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, Donja R. Love’s one in two and Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’���not to mention Michael R. Jackson’s tour de force, the Pulitzer Prize–winning metamusical A Strange Loop—made that phenomenon especially visible last season. But these artists are far from alone. Because the intersection of queerness and Blackness is complex—with various gender expressions, sexual identifiers and communities taking shape in different spaces—Black LGBTQ+ artists are anything but a monolith. George C. Wolfe, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Robert O’Hara, Harrison David Rivers, Staceyann Chin, Colman Domingo, Tracey Scott Wilson, Tanya Barfield, Marcus Gardley and Daniel Alexander Jones are just some of the many Black queer writers who have already made marks.

With New York stages dark for the foreseeable future, we can’t know when we will be able to see live works by these artists again. It is likely, however, that they will continue to play major roles in the direction American theater will take in the post-quarantine era—along with many creators who are still flying mostly under the radar. Here are just a few of the Black queer artists you may not have encountered yet: vital new voices that are speaking to the Zeitgeist and turning up the volume.

Christina Anderson A protégé of Paula Vogel’s, Christina Anderson has presented work at the Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Penumbra Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons and other theaters around the U.S. and Canada. She has degrees from the Yale School of Drama and Brown University, and  is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and Epic Theatre Ensemble; she has received the inaugural Harper Lee Award for Playwriting and three Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominations, among other honors. Works include: How To Catch Creation (2019), Blacktop Sky (2013), Inked Baby (2009) Follow Christina: Website

Aziza Barnes Award-winning poet Aziza Barnes moved into playwriting with one of the great sex comedies of the 2010s: BLKS, which premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017 before it played at MCC Theatre in 2019 (where it earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination). The NYU grad’s play about three twentysomethings probed the challenges and choices of Millennials with pathos and zest that hasn’t been seen since Kenneth Lonergan’s Gen X love/hate letter This Is Our Youth. Barnes is the author of the full-length collection of poems the blind pig and i be but i ain’t, which won a Pamet River Prize. Works include: BLKS (2017) Follow Aziza: Twitter

Troy Anthony Burton Fusing a mélange of quiet storm ‘90s-era Babyface R&B, ‘60s-style funk-soul and urban contemporary gospel, composer Troy Anthony has had a meteoric rise in musical theater in the past three years, receiving commissions and residencies from the Shed, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company and the Civilians. When Anthony is not crafting ditties of his own, he is an active performer who has participated in the Public Theater’s Public Works and Shakespeare In the Park. Works include: The River Is Me (2017), The Dark Girl Chronicles (in progress) Follow Troy: Instagram

Timothy DuWhite Addressing controversial issues such as HIV, state-sanctioned violence and structural anti-blackness, poet and performance artist Timothy DuWhite unnerves audiences with a hip-hop driven gonzo style. DuWhite’s raison d’être is to shock and enrage, and his provocative Neptune was, along with Donja R. Love’s one in two, one of the first plays by an openly black queer writer to address HIV openly and frankly.  He has worked with the United Nations/UNICEF, the Apollo Theater, Dixon Place and La MaMa. Works include: Neptune (2018) Follow Timothy: Instagram

Jirèh Breon Holder Raised in Memphis and educated at Morehouse College, Jirèh Breon Holder solidified his voice at the Yale School of Drama under the direction of Sarah Ruhl. He has received the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, among other honors. His play Too Heavy for Your Pocket premiered at Roundabout Underground and has since been produced in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Des Moines and Houston; his next play, ...What The End Will Be, is slated to debut at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Works include: Too Heavy for Your Pocket (2017), What The End Will Be (2020) Follow Jirèh: Twitter

C.A. Johnson Born in Louisiana, rising star C.A. Johnson writes with a southern hospitality and homespun charm that washes over audiences like a breath of fresh air. Making a debut at MCC Theater with her coming of age romcom All the Natalie Portmans, she drew praise for empathic take on a black queer teenage womanchild with Hollywood dreams. A core writer at the Playwrights Center, she has had fellowships with the Dramatists Guild Fellow, Page 73, the Lark and the Sundance Theatre Lab. Works include: All the Natalie Portmans (2020) Follow C.A.: Twitter

Johnny G. Lloyd A New York-based playwright and producer, Johnny G. Lloyd has seen his work produced and developed at the Tank, 59E59, the Corkscrew Festival, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and more. A member of the 2019-2020 Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency, this Columbia University graduate is also a producing director of InVersion Theatre. Works include: The Problem With Magic, Is (2020), Or, An Astronaut Play (2019), Patience (2018) Follow Johnny: Instagram

Patricia Ione Lloyd In her luminous 2018 breakthrough Eve’s Song at the Public Theater, Patricia Ione Lloyd offered a meditation on the violence against black women in America that is often overlooked onstage. With a style saturated in both humor and melancholy and a poetic lyricism that evokes Ntozake Shange’s, the former Tow Playwright in Residence has earned fellowships at New Georges, the Dramatist Guild, Playwrights Realm, New York Theater Workshop and Sundance. Works include: Eve’s Song (2018) Follow Patricia: Instagram

Maia Matsushita The half-Black, half-Japanese educator and playwright Maia Matsushita has sounded a silent alarm in downtown theater with an array of slow-burn, naturalistic coming-of-age dramas. She was a member of The Fire This Time’s 2017-18 New Works Lab and part of its inaugural Writers Group, and her work has been seen at Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Playwright Playground and the National Black Theatre’s Keeping Soul Alive Reading Series. Works include: House of Sticks (2019), White Mountains (2018) Follow Maia: Instagram

Daaimah Mubashshir When Daaimah Mubashshir’s kitchen-sink dramedy Room Enough (For Us All) debuted at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in 2019, the prolific writer began a dialogue around the contemporary African-American Muslim experience and black queer expression that made her a significant storyteller to watch. She is a core writer at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis as well as a member of Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. Her short-play collection The Immeasurable Want of Light was published in 2018. Works include: Room Enough (For Us All) (2019) Follow Daaimah: Twitter

Jonathan Norton Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Jonathan Norton is a delightfully zany playwright who subverts notions of post-blackness by underlining America’s obscure historical atrocities with bloody red slashes. The stories he tells carry a profound horror, often viewed through the eyes of black children and young adults. Norton’s work has been produced or developed by companies including the Actors Theatre of Louisville (at the 44th Humana Festival), PlayPenn and InterAct Theatre Company. He is the Playwright in Residence at Dallas Theater Center. Works include: Mississippi Goddamn (2015), My Tidy List of Terrors (2013), penny candy (2019) Follow Jonathan: Website

AriDy Nox Cooking up piping hot gumbos of speculative fiction, transhumanism and radical womanist expression, AriDy Nox is a rising star with a larger-than-life vision. The Spelman alum earned an MFA from NYU TIsch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and has been a staple of various theaters such as Town Stages. A member of the inaugural 2019 cohort of the Musical Theatre Factory Makers residency, they recently joined the Public Theater’s 2020-2022 Emerging Writers Group cohort. Works include: Metropolis (in progress), Project Tiresias (2018) Follow AriDy: Instagram

Akin Salawu Akin Salawu’s nonlinear, hyperkinetic work combines heart-pounding suspense chills with Tarantino-esque thrills while excavating Black trauma and Pan-African history in America. With over two decades of experience as a writer, director and editor, the prize-winning playwright is a two-time Tribeca All Access Winner and a member of both the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and Ars Nova’s Uncharted Musical Theater residency. A graduate of Stanford, he is a founder of the Tank’s LIT Council, a theater development center for male-identifying persons of color. Works include: bless your filthy lil’ heart (2019), The Real Whisperer (2017), I Stand Corrected (2008) Follow Akin: Twitter

Sheldon Shaw A playwright, screenwriter and actor, Sheldon Shaw studied writing at the Labyrinth Theater Company and was part of Playwrights Intensive at the Kennedy Center. Shaw has since developed into a sort of renaissance man, operating as playwright, screenwriter and actor. His plays have been developed by Emerging Artist Theaters New Works Festival, Classical Theater of Harlem and the Rooted Theater Company. Shaw's Glen was the winner of the Black Screenplays Matter competition and a finalist in the New York Screenplay Contest. Works include: Jailbait (2018), Clair (2017), Baby Starbucks (2015) Follow Johnny: Twitter

Nia O. Witherspoon Multidisciplinary artist Nia Ostrow Witherspoon’s metaphysical explorations of black liberation and desire have made her an in-demand presence in theater circles. The recipient of multiple honors—include New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, a Wurlitzer Foundation residency and the Lambda Literary’s Emerging Playwriting Fellowship—she is currently developing The Dark Girl Chronicles, a play cycle that, in her words, “explores the criminalization of black cis and trans women via African diaspora sacred stories.” Works include: The Dark Girl Chronicles (in progress) ​Follow Nia: Instagram

Brandon Webster A Brooklyn-based musical theatre writer and dramaturg, Brandon Webster has been a familiar figure in the NYC theater scene, both onstage and behind the scenes. With an aesthetic that fuses Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist storytelling, with a focus on Black liberation past and present, the composer’s work fuses psychedelic soul flourishes with alt-R&B nuances to create a sonic smorgasbord of seething rage and remorse. He is an alumnus of the 2013 class of BMI Musical Theater Workshop and a 2017 MCC Theater Artistic Fellow. Works include: Metropolis (in progress), Headlines (2017), Boogie Nights (2015) Follow Brandon: Instagram

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Dakota Johnson, la reina de Sundance 2022

Febrero 01, 2022

Desde hace algunos meses Dakota Johnson se ha convertido en una de las celebridades más queridas del famoso "film twitter" por su increíble personalidad. No obstante, la semana pasada en Sundance la actriz presentó dos proyectos increíbles que dejaron huella en el festival.

El premio a mejor película por la audiencia se lo llevaría Cha Cha Real Smooth, el primer largometraje de "TeaTime Pictures" propiedad de Dakota, junto con Ro Donelly una ex ejecutiva de Netflix. La película resultó ser una dulce manera de rompernos el corazón y al mismo tiempo una especie de reflexión para todos aquellos adultos jóvenes que sienten sus vidas perdidas.

Tuve la oportunidad de verla y honestamente creo que esta película me hizo recuperar la fe acerca de lo maravilloso que es crecer, y de que algunas almas gemelas solamente llegan a tu vida para ayudarte y no necesariamente significan que se quedarán.

"Cha Cha Real Smooth" demostró su poder al ser tendencia en Twitter y tener todas sus funciones agotadas; al principio muchos la vieron por Dakota Johnson, pero el gran trabajo que hizo Cooper Raiff como director es lo que, personalmente, me hizo amar la película.

Por otro lado tenemos "Am I Ok?" y después de verla podemos decir que ¡no, no estamos bien! necesitamos verla nuevamente porque ya la podemos considerar parte de las mejores películas LGBTQ+ de los últimos años.

Describir esta película es sencillo, una película acerca de que nunca es tarde para ser quien realmente eres; osea es una historia ya antes vista y sencilla, pero Dakota Johnson da mucho más a través de sus sutiles gestos y miradas.

Quisiéramos contarles a fondo de qué van las películas, pero como muchos críticos lo han dicho "deben de verlas" así que estén pendientes porque HBO Max anunció la compra de "Am I Ok?" y Apple, por su parte, compró los derechos mundiales de "Cha Cha Real Smooth"

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Sundance 2022 Film Review: Mars One/Marte Um ★★★★

Sundance 2022 Film Review: Mars One/Marte Um ★★★★

Writer-director Gabriel Martins’ sophomore feature, Mars One (Marte Um), which world premiered on the opening night of Sundance 2022 and is part of the festival’s World Cinema Competition, focuses on a Black working-class family in Contagem, Brazil, the Martins, as the far-right extremist Bolsonaro prepares to take office. One of the many pleasures of the film is the equal time that we get to…

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Exclusive Interview: Alan Cumming & Jono McLeod on telling "the perfect high school movie story" with My Old School

Exclusive Interview: Alan Cumming & Jono McLeod on telling “the perfect high school movie story” with My Old School

With his intriguing and innovative feature documentary My Old School, filmmaker Jono McLeod revisits the now legendary, stranger-than-fiction story of a Scottish high school student who went by the name of Brandon Lee. A former classmate of McLeod’s, Lee had enrolled at Bearsden Academy in Glasgow, Scotland in 1993. After leaving the school the following year, an incredible secret about Lee was…

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Exclusive Interview: director April Maxley & cinematographer Melinda James on their Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated short film Work

Exclusive Interview: director April Maxley & cinematographer Melinda James on their Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated short film Work

Writer-director April Maxey’s Work was one of the queer highlights at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it received its world premiere and was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Inspired by her own personal experience, Maxley set out to reevaluate the misconceptions and stigma surrounding sex work. The film, developed at AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, follows young queer…

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Exclusive Interview: Antonio Marziale on his stunning short film Starfuckers "I was inspired by how drag queens carve out space for themselves"

Exclusive Interview: Antonio Marziale on his stunning short film Starfuckers “I was inspired by how drag queens carve out space for themselves”

Antonio Marziale, who has starred in three Netflix series—Alex Strangelove, Altered Carbon, and the upcoming Grendel—makes an impressive debut as a writer-director with his short film Starfuckers, which premiered at Sundance and is currently playing at the Berlinale. The LA-based actor, who also stars in the film alongside Cole Doman and Jonathan Slavin, was born in London and grew up in…

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Sundance 2022 Film Review: Sirens ★★★★

Sundance 2022 Film Review: Sirens ★★★★

Rita Baghdadi’s feature documentary Sirens, which world premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, is a nuanced, intimate, and upbeat portrait of the Middle East’s only all-female thrash metal band, Slave to Sirens. Although it opens with footage of protests on the streets of Beirut with chants of “revolution” and shots of graffiti with phrases like, “homophobia is a crime”, Baghdadi’s focus…

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Sundance 2022 Film Review: Framing Agnes

Sundance 2022 Film Review: Framing Agnes

Chase Joynt’s follow up to his exceptional No Ordinary Man (co-directed with Aisling Chin-Yee) about the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton, is the equally thrillingly and similarly genre-defying feature Framing Ages—expanding upon his own 2019 short—which just had its world premiere in the NEXT lineup at Sundance. It’s a fitting section of the festival for the film to play given that it not only…

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Sundance 2022 LGBTQ+ Shorts & Series Reviews

Sundance 2022 LGBTQ+ Shorts & Series Reviews

Among the LGBTQ+ highlights at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was an eclectic lineup of short films and series, which James Kleinmann reviews below. Zélia Duncan and Bruna Linzmeyer appear in A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here by Érica Sarmet, an official selection of the Shorts Program at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. A wild patience has taken me here/Uma…

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Chase Joynt's Framing Agnes among LGBTQ+ Award Winners at Sundance 2022

Chase Joynt’s Framing Agnes among LGBTQ+ Award Winners at Sundance 2022

Chase Joynt’s Framing Agnes was among the LGBTQ+ winners at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival—announced on Friday January 28th—honored with both the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. “This film simply grabbed me, taking me on a ride, questioning and re-questioning what was “real”,” commented NEXT juror, Transparent creator Joey Soloway. “What an inspiring, alive structure this…

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LGBTQ+ highlights at Sundance 2022

LGBTQ+ highlights at Sundance 2022

With the full 2022 Sundance Film Festival slate of features, docs, shorts, series, VR, and AR works now announced, here we take a deep dive into the program to discover some of the LGBTQ+ highlights that we’re looking forward to catching at the upcoming integrated in-person and online event running January 20th – 30th. Film descriptions courtesy of Sundance. FEATURES: Zackary Drucker appears in…