A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

We fired our press release writer. He wanted 5K to write a text. Believe it! Does this guy think we can't spell? Tss... Racist! Anyway, we're doing a new show. It's time to sit down and get some wisdom crammed into your heads. If you don't listen, you're gonna be bro-style. If you don't listen, you're gonna be bro-style. The show is so sick that even the Ministry of Education has approved it as a PhD in wisdom. I swear they have! Well... come on... we live in Denmark honestly there is nothing else to do anyway! And we have made sure that the ticket price is cheap so a whole bro family of 9 has enough pairs to see the show! Seriously!!!
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
Passing is a visually stunning portrayal of Larsen's story with an inclusive cast, and the performances of Thompson and Negga are sensational.
I came across Urchin by chance and decided to watch it because of the title. It made me think of the spiky animal that lives at the bottom of the ocean, and the old Dickensian novels, where an urchin was an orphaned, homeless child in shaggy and dirty clothes.
One Night in Miami... did not frame the racism and bigotry as something that could be solved by quality time spent between individuals. Instead, it featured four different legends of Black History together in one room disagreeing for about 2/3 of the film.
'Midnight at the Paradise' premieres tomorrow at Toronto's Paradise Theatre! I had the pleasure to sit down with Vanessa Matsui to discuss the making of this film.