If you have one ounce of love for this planet in your heart, I highly recommend this documentary about the Amazon pink river dolphins the fight to saving them from extinction.
After Louie, a film centered on the evolution of the AIDS crisis in present day New York City, had its East Coast premiere as the centerpiece of the NewFest last weekend. The premiere was attended by a full cast and its director, Vincent Gagliostro, and sponsored by ACT UP New York (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power).
The film revolves around Sam Cooper (Alan Cumming), a middle-aged gay man, and his relationship with the much younger Braeden O’Reilly (Zachary Booth). Before the film, Gagliostro took to the microphone to thank his entire staff, from his makeup artist to his production assistants to his set designers, and conclude with a few words from LGBT activist and author Vito Russo, to whom the premiere was dedicated.
“Someday the AIDS crisis will be over,” Gagliostro quoted. “Remember that. And when that day comes — when that day has come and gone, there’ll be people alive on this earth — gay people and straight people, men and women, black and white, who will hear the story that once there was a terrible disease in this country and all over the world, and that a brave group of people stood up and fought and, in some cases, gave their lives, so that other people might live and be free.”
The cast of After Louie answering questions after the screening.
After the film, the cast was invited to the front of the theater for a panel question-and-answer session. An audience member asked Cumming how he dealt with taking his character into an “unlikeable zone.”
“As actors, we want people to like us, we just do,” Cumming said. “When you’re a performer, you’re used to trying to make your character appealing in some way, even if they’re a bad character. You want to find the good in them. It was quite hard for me to actually not be charming, to switch off that thing that I’m just used to doing. That’s another reason I said yes to play the part – because I usually playing evil people…charming in a way. But this was kind of someone who was so closed off. But he has a journey.”
In response to a question about the most effective comment he has ever received from an audience member, Gagliostro gave an anecdote about one of the first screenings in New Orleans, where he was approached by two transgender youth. “This film…is to give the younger people the freedom not to hold up these gold standards, and to kind of look into the issues that best concern them,” he said in regards to the classic ACT UP slogans.
“That was then, and this is now,” Gagliostro continued. “Now is very, very different. And maybe they’ll come up with a way to deal with the freak in the White House.”
Cumming, answering the same question, told of the After Louie screening in San Francisco. He had been seated on the aisle, far away from his mother and mother-in-law, to avoid awkwardness during the sex scenes. “But I was glad I sat on the aisle,” Cumming said. “At one point I looked over and there’s this man – older, gay man – weeping. Just weeping uncontrollably.Aand I just thought, this is what its all about. This is why you do films like this. This is why you’re an artist. Because you make people feel that they’re being heard. That their stories are being told.”
After Louie debuted at the School of Visual Arts theater in Chelsea October 22 as the centerpiece film of NewFest: New York’s LGBT Film Festival, which continues through October 24.
The film follows middle-aged artist-activist Sam Cooper (Alan Cumming) as he struggles to reconcile the differences between generations with a new and much younger lover Braeden Reilly (Zachary Booth). After losing his love, William (David Duke), to AIDS in the nineties, Sam finds it impossible to let go of his memory, immortalizing William in film. The movie’s title is derived from a book William had written about his lover Louie, creating an internal perpetuity of relationships in the community that is reflected throughout the film.
Directed by Vincent Gagliostro and written in part by Anthony Johnston (who also plays Braeden’s boyfriend Lukas), After Louie is gripping, timely, and devastatingly beautiful. Cumming provides a stellar performance, making personal the community struggle of now thirty years past. I felt enveloped in the heartbreak of losing William and the confusion of trying and failing to relate to the “new” LGBTQ+ community.
Alan Cumming as Sam Cooper [via newfest.org]
The cinematography is absolutely breathtaking. Each shot is so meticulous and so deliberate that it was impossible to correctly appreciate each moment with only one viewing. After Louie is evocative and incredibly moving, and a must-see for people of all ages.
Tribeca Enterprises and Chanel hosted the third annual Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program kickoff luncheon Tuesday. From October 17 to October 19, the conjunctive companies support, celebrate, and promote the work of women working across the spectrum of entertainment jobs: actors, directors, writers, producers, casting directors, and costume designers. The luncheon, held at Locanda Verde, began the three-day workshop, which finishes with a film competition. The winner will receive full financing for production costs and support of Tribeca Studios to bring the project to fruition.
Jane Rosenthal and Paula Weinstein, executive chair and executive vice president of Tribeca Executives respectively, spoke of the importance of supporting women in the entertainment industry.
Executive Chair of Tribeca Enterprises, Jane Rosenthal.
“When you hit success, when you take another step forward, it’s not enough,” Rosenthal said. “Make sure you pull another woman up with you. Women producers, select women directors. Women directors, hire more women designers and crew. Produce and direct the work of women writers. Women in power, commit to mentoring the next generation of women.”
Weinstein remarked that her own Hollywood experience had been nothing like what she and Rosenthal are promoting now: “In the 70s, my generation of women in Hollywood used to look at each other with envy over their jobs. There was no sisterhood.”
The workshop includes master classes taught by writer and director Amma Asante, actor Dakota Fanning, producer Donna Gigliotti, composer Laura Karpman, producer Riva Marker, and costume designer Sandy Powell. The program also includes mentors for each field of the entertainment industry, meant to advise and support the program’s participants. Notable guests included Olivia Wilde, Kyra Sedgwick, Lola Kirke, and more.
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 17: Dakota Fanning attends Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program Luncheon. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage )
“Today women are committed to each other,” Weinstein said. “They wouldn’t consider a day without reaching behind to pull someone up or to hold a sister by her hand and encourage her to do well and not see her success as less success for them but rather that it is success for all of us. If we don’t approach it this way, our stories won’t be told.”
The show features 100,000 roses as well as a number of multi-media experiences.
God’s Own Country, the story of a young sheep farmer whose binge drinking and meaningless sexual encounters mark his life day by day, has been commonly deemed the “British Brokeback Mountain.”
Ai answers questions about his monumental refugee crisis film project.
The documentary is the latest film work of Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei
‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ is the most important film of 2017. The politically charged film will leave you fired up and ready to make your voice heard. Shortly after the spectacular premiere at New York Film Festival, The Knockturnal gained exclusive access to the film’s panel, featuring Taylor’s brother, scholar Crystal Feimster, actor Cynthia Erivo, and director Nancy Buirski. Catch the commentary below:
Director, Nancy Buirski
On films immortalizing a story:
“So while I was in the middle of making the film I realized these stories were connected … I’ll just say that I met Recy, her family, and Robert the day that Barack Obama as inaugurated. And I went there with my family, I brought them a box of the legal documents and I think it was really import that they weren’t able to find anything and Robert had searched his whole life to find something. And the documents that I had brought back- town, those young men, and the historians in Alabama all tried to erase it and make it disappear and that erasure is anther kind of error and injustice. So the documents brought that back by saying of course what happened to you was real and no one can erase it. And I think this film adds a layer to that. No one can take this away anymore.”
Actor, Cynthia Erivo:
On the role actors play in aiding these stories:
“I feel like my job as an actor is to tell the stories people otherwise wouldn’t get to see or know about. There are things that are hidden and swept under the rug and I get the idea to get them out so there are no longer hidden. And I agree with what Nancy said, once it is part of a film it’s written down forever and can not be erased. So the idea that I was even able to be a small part of this means a lot to me.”
Scholar, Crystal Feimster
On the importance of the film:
“I think one of the things that Recy did was always maintain her humanity as a mother, a sister, and as a daughter. But then also, I think there is also the work that we do at different levels. For me as a scholar who works in the field and works on race and sexual violence-doing that deep work and showing these people as not just victims right. So the documentary does that work, it gives us humanity it shows us humanity, and brings humanity to Recy and her story. And then Nancy picks it up and she sees this as a story that’s to be told, and makes this beautiful film that humanizes the story at every level. So it’s not just we have this black woman who’s brutally assaulted but we have these young white boys who believe they have the right to behave in a certain way. That is part of a long tradition of the south that is not just about a bad apple, but this how racial and sexual violence functions. And you can use different terminology, but it really requires, artist, and historians, and family members to come out and be a voice to this story and we have to voice those wrongs in order to make them wrong.”
The black woman’s body has been viewed under a duo racist and sexist gaze since the founding of our country. Dating as far back to when the first black woman stepped onto U.S soil, blackness had always been ‘othered’: made to seem inferior or exotic in nature. So, it came as no surprise when the black woman’s body became a commodity to U.S slave masters and government officials like Thomas Jefferson. For too long the sexualizing and dehumanizing of black women had been swept under the rug as apart of everyday life, however the 2017 release of the film ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ rejects this silence and uses the theatre as a space to hold a mirror up to the face of United States history.
‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ in title alone, is powerful: forcing you to say her name, and acknowledge what was done that night in 1944. The film is not for the faint of heart, as it deals with heavy realities and tells the story of Recy Taylor, the black woman who was gang raped by 6 white men who were never brought to justice.
Throughout the film, we follow the story of Recy as told by her brother, Robert, and Alabama historians. Director, Nancy Buirski, does a wonderful job of visually mapping and connecting Recy’s case with the heavy involvement women of color have had in pushing the civil rights movement forward. We are given a new understanding of civil rights leaders, like Rosa Parks, who dedicated much of her time post-Montgomery bus boycott to cases of sexual assault against black women.
Buirski does a great job of connecting all of the historical dots. We see how past racial positioning have shaped our current day social standings. No stone goes unturned as, Buirski even examines how the treatment of women of color has its lineage in shaping the way black family roles are set up.
Upon thinking about it, I can not name a film more important in 2017. In the wake of the Charlottesville riots, the film mixes past outrage with a present day viewpoint. The film is so powerful and emotionally charged it will leave viewers wanting to leave the theater to go out and protest more than 70 years later.
We screened the film at the 2017 New York Film Festival.