FABULOUS FILMS

Trans Rockstars, Blacktino Nerds, and Hipster Hook-Ups: 6 Of SXSW’s Queerest Films

Queerty contributor Daniel Villarreal and his brother Socrates have returned to the SXSW interactive, film, and music festival to dig up its queerest gems. This year’s film offerings include Canada’s most popular suicide bridge, a weekend-long hookup between two British hipsters, blacktino nerds mingling with theater fags, a twin transgender couple, and a lesbian rock star burn out. Get ready to blast out your rainbow-colored eyeholes!

(The Villarreal brothers will post interviews, reviews, and short features here as well as on their site Hispanic Panic and their Twitter accounts @hispanicpanic79 and sockytx.)

Weekend

An art film about a two scruffy guys doing drugs and making out sounds like hipster porn, but director Andrew Haigh turns Glen and Russell’s weekend-long hookup into an intimate portrait of the wonder and uncertainty. What happens when you meet a special stranger? Will they change your life or just disappear once the workweek comes? Think of it as a the gay version of Before Sunrise.

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye

You may remember Gen and Jaye the pandrogyne couple portrayed in Jake Yuzna’s OPEN that underwent numerous plastic surgeries to become the same person. Yuzna based those characters on real-life rocker Genesis P-Orridge and lover Lady Jaye, who have musically collaborated for the last 15 years. Part rockumentary, part profile, director Marie Losier mixes interviews, home movies, and performance footage to tell a rocking love story with a rapturous trans twist.

Hit So Hard

Courtney Love’s raw-voice, burnt-out lyrics, and drug-fueled antics take center stage whenever someone considers her band Hole, but Hole’s openly-gay drummer Patty Schemel has a rough story all her own. Schemel very nearly drummed in Nirvana and found herself on the cover of Rolling Stone. But after Kurt Cobain killed himself, her bandmates abandoned the red-haired rocker and Schemel got lost in the solitude of depression, drugs, and fame. Director P. David Ebersole also directed an adaptation of the gay literary classic Death in Venice and co-produced Stranger Inside with REM frontman Michael Stipe.

The High Level Bridge

Meet the Edmonton High Level Bridge—one of Canada’s most popular suicide spots. Gay director Trevor Anderson had a friend throw himself over the railing. And now through a series of captivating vantage shots and grim narration, Anderson paints a troubling portrait of a dark bridge reaping souls from the snowy Canadian city. His film even culminates in the camera jumping over the ledge too.

Muscles

Young Richard stands at the edge of adolescence (not a boy, not yet a man) watching as his “testosterone driven” 14-year-old sister Millie molds her musculature into that of a professional body builder. Edward Housden’s short film radiates with danger and fury as Millie and Richard both lash out in confusion and desire, eager to define themselves in a world obsessed with male power.

Blacktino

High school’s hard for sad, fat, nerdy, half-black, half-latino Stefan Daily. He just got thrown out of a cool kid’s party, his friends have abandoned him, his classmates mock him, and his loving grandma just passed away. Can he win friends and the school playwriting competition with the help of a sassy hispanic choreographer and his allegedly-bisexual love interest? 26-year-old Austin native Aaron Burns directs this atypical coming-of-age story. You may also recognize his name from his visual effects in the Tarantino-Rodriguez collaborations Grindhouse and Machete.

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