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Archives for 2025

Boys Grammar [2005] – Movie Review

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Boys Grammar – A Harrowing Short Film

Boys GrammarBoys Grammar is a short film that lingers with you long after the screen fades. Directed by Dean Francis and written by Rozlyn Clayton-Vincent, the 2005 award-winning piece pulls no punches in its portrayal of bullying, toxic masculinity, and the silence of institutions that should protect the vulnerable.

The story follows Gareth – or Gary – a student at a prestigious boys’ school. When a magazine with nude male images is found in his possession, he insists it is for art, saying simply, “I like the human form.” But his classmates seize on it as proof of something else, and in moments he is branded a “faggot” and subjected to escalating abuse. What begins with taunts quickly spirals into physical and sexual assault, shot with such raw intensity that it feels less like schoolyard cruelty and more like a descent into horror.

The film’s most chilling turn comes afterwards, not in the violence itself but in its aftermath. Gareth comes home late to a family dinner, only to discover one of his tormentors – Nick – sitting comfortably at the table as a guest. Gareth, still shaken and desperate to leave school, finds no comfort in his father. Mr. Jaeger dismisses his son’s pleas, insisting that these ordeals are part of growing up – “a rite of passage” that will harden him into a man.

The dinner scene is unbearable to watch for its quiet betrayal. While Gareth sits in silence, his father and his abuser bond over the philosophy that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” The cruelty is not in the words themselves, but in their weight: Gareth’s pain is ignored, his voice erased, while his abuser is validated. When his father offers him a cigar as a token of manhood, it becomes clear that violence has not only been excused but sanctified, passed down as tradition.

Boys Grammar is not an easy film to watch. Its power lies in exposing how cruelty is normalised – at school, at home, in the very structures meant to nurture. The violence in the playground is shocking, but the quiet violence at the dinner table cuts even deeper. It shows how cycles of abuse are sustained, not just by the perpetrators, but by the fathers, teachers, and authority figures who look away or even nod in approval.

This is a film that unsettles because it is so plausible, so close to reality. It reminds us that the harshest lessons are not always taught in classrooms, but in homes where empathy is replaced with a rigid, destructive code of masculinity.

 

Boys Grammar Boys Grammar Boys Grammar

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The Follies

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The FolliesThis was not my first time in the Belfast Opera House, and it was not my first time attending a musical. Still, it was my first time attending a Community Dress Rehearsal for the Follies, and especially in the company of a group from the NI Civil Service LGBT.

It had been a damp, overcast day, indeed, as I waited to receive my ticket outside the main doors, the rain, which had held off for half an hour, started ever so slightly.

But ticket in hand, I climbed the stairs to door C for Seat C5 in the Grand Circle.  Second row back from the front, a clear, uninterrupted view of the stage, and of some of the things taking place on the ground floor.

There were cameras on tripods, and people milling around as the theatre came to life.  Then my eyes were drawn to the boxes facing me, and the almost statuesque vision of a lady in a silver costume with feathers and a silver skullcap.  This was then repeated at Door C, five seats away from me, and in a box to my left and on the ground floor at the left and right of the stage.  Each was unique, with a different costume, but they still tied together – for me, the costumes of these lady statuesque dancers were almost the heyday of musicals -the period from the 1920s to the 1960s.  They shimmered, as did The Follies later.

I was lucky, and I knew it.  In the short time before the musical started, I was able to view the architecture around the stage and boxes – I even attempted to draw part of it.

Then it started, the stage set was right for the musical, not over the top, but scaled back to emphasise the story – that of a group of people who had lived and loved together in the theatre’s heyday, but now meeting for probably the last time to reminisce and try and relive that past.

All I can say about this production is that you must go and see it when you can – the actors covering the young storytellers and the mature actors looking back at themselves and then looking at themselves now, like the theatre, are perfect for their roles.  The singing is real, and you feel the story unfold with its ups and downs. The Follies is wonderful vehicle to transport out of today.

This is not a review, but a glimpse into what you have coming when you go and view a period and a profession which is different for a lot of us to comprehend.

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Summer Friends [2021] – Movie Review

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Summer FriendsSummer Friends (2021) – Between Tides and First Feelings

Maxime Hermet’s short film Summer Friends takes us into the fragile, in-between world of adolescence, where friendships stretch and shift under the weight of new encounters.

Tom and Ellis, both fifteen, have known no summer without each other. Their days are spent at sea, casting lines into the water, their bond built on an ease that requires little talk. Their friendship feels as steady and unbroken as the horizon they face together.

When Lucie arrives in their small village for the holidays, that horizon tilts. Played by Syrine Conesa, she is at once familiar and new—an outsider who draws them out of their habits. What begins as idle company slowly takes on a different shape, carrying with it the electricity of first intimacies and the quiet fear of change.

Jean Aviat and Tim Rousseau embody Tom and Ellis with a raw naturalism, letting glances and pauses do most of the speaking. Hermet resists dramatics, instead allowing theSummer Friends silences, the play of light on water, and the passing days to carry the story forward. The film is less concerned with what happens than with the unspoken tension of what might.

Summer Friends runs under twenty minutes, but its images linger. It leaves the aftertaste of a season remembered: the sense of time both endless and fleeting, the discovery that friendship can expand and fracture in the same breath, and the knowledge that even the smallest summer can leave permanent marks.

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LGBTQI+ Books

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LGBTQI+ BooksThe landscape of LGBTQI+ books and literature experienced a remarkable expansion between 2000 and 2025, marked by a significant increase in the volume and diversity of published works. An analysis of the provided sources reveals a clear upward trend, particularly in young adult (YA) fiction and a broad range of resources catering to various aspects of LGBTQI+ life.

Investigations have highlighted the PFLAG Library Collection, and also a deep trawl of the internet enabled me to put together a spreadsheet showing those publication details available for the years 2000 to 2025.

The “PFLAG Library Collection” from February 23, 2005, offers an insightful snapshot of the types of materials available early in this period. This collection already showcased a diverse array of resources, including **books (some in Spanish), fiction, audiocassettes, videocassettes, and DVDs**. Topics ranged from personal narratives and coming out stories like *Acts of disclosure: the coming out process of … gay men* and *Coming home*, to guides for parents such as *Always my child* and *Coming out to parents*. The collection also featured works on religious perspectives, historical accounts, anti-homophobia initiatives, and specific identities, with titles like *Beyond Queer*, *Bisexual resource guide*, and *Becoming a visible man*. Notably, it included several **fiction titles** like *Annie on my mind* and *Daddy’s roommate*, and **media formats** such as the *Celluloid closet* and *Both of my moms’ names are Judy* on videocassette, indicating a multi-faceted approach to resource provision at the time.

Fast forward through the period, the “LGBTQIA_books_2000_2025.pdf” document illustrates a **dramatic surge in publication numbers**, particularly evident in the Young Adult category. In 2000, fewer than 10 YA books were documented. This number saw a steady increase, reaching **36 in 2009, 79 in 2016, and an estimated 200–300 in 2020**. By 2025, the estimate stands at over 175 YA books annually. The “Rainbow evaluated/selected (youth)” column, starting in 2021, further highlights this growth, with approximately 450 youth books evaluated and 122 selected in 2021, growing to around 550 evaluated and 190 selected by 2023.

Beyond YA, the “Estimated conservative floor (NA English)” column for all LGBTQI+ publications also shows substantial growth, from **fewer than 50 in 2000 to 350–450 by 2020, and projecting over 700 by 2025**. The category for “Adult considered (Over the Rainbow)” also remained robust, with figures around 300-330 from 2021 to 2025. This comprehensive data underscores a remarkable increase in the **visibility, availability, and dedicated evaluation of LGBTQI+ literary and educational resources** across a quarter-century.

So if we accept the very conservative figures shown in the two areas of my investigation, and bear in mind that this does not cover those published in the UK, Australia or many other countries; we have many books being published for our community but we rarely get to find out about them because unless we know of an author, and follow that author, we don’t know that they have published; or indeed take the time to check out the N I Library website and also Watersones (our only mainstream book shop in N Ireland).

The Northern Ireland Library does its best with its limited resources, and its website would seem to indicate that over 200 books for our community have been put in the catalogue.  As I have stated, the only mainstream bookseller left in Northern Ireland is Waterstones, it has a Pride page with many books on it, covering a wide range (just as the N.I. Library does).

But I would ask, would it be possible for a dedicated section of the library or shop to be given over to a selection of LGBTQI+ books to enable browsing – this must increase the purchase of books and or the lending in the case of the library?

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An Instant (Une Instante) – Movie Review

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An InstantAdrià Guxens’ short film An Instant captures the fleeting power of a single encounter to reshape lives. It is a tender, finely crafted work that lingers in memory long after its brief runtime.

At its heart is Hugo (Adrià Sánchez-Campo), a young man locked into the rhythm of routine and responsibility. He lives anchored to the past, unable to see beyond the safe, familiar patterns he’s built. Enter Cosmo (Marc Joy), a free spirit untethered by obligation, whose life is defined by spontaneity and forward motion. Their paths cross one summer afternoon—just an instant—but from it blooms a fragile friendship, one that forces Hugo to pause and, perhaps for the first time, truly inhabit the present.

What makes An Instant remarkable is not revelation, but reflection. Guxens’ direction emphasises performance, dialogue, and atmosphere, crafting a film that feels like a pause in time. It’s a meditation on freedom, intimacy, and the significance of small moments—those fleeting details that can quietly alter the course of a life. Victòria Llena rounds out the cast, contributing to the film’s understated yet resonant emotional core.

The film has been widely recognised on the international circuit. It premiered with acclaim, winning Best International Student Film at the Zaragoza International Film Festival in 2017, and went on to screen at prestigious festivals including Reeling in Chicago, Outshine in Miami, Kashish in Mumbai, and Barcelona’s International LGBT Film Festival, among many others.

Ultimately, An Instant resists the need for grand revelations. Instead, it offers a delicate reflection on how a brief connection can nudge us toward change. Profound and beautiful in its restraint, it is a film that reminds us of the meaning hidden in life’s smallest encounters.

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As I Am

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Movie Review: As I Am (2020)

As I AmAnthony Bawn’s As I Am (2020) is a haunting portrait of a man wrestling with the weight of his past and the fear of what his reflection might reveal. It’s a story that sits at the crossroads of LGBTQ+ drama and romance, but its true power lies in its unflinching exploration of memory, regret, and identity.

At its core is August Chandler (Andre Myers), once celebrated for his athletic talent, now teetering on the edge of emotional collapse. A young man who has long run from the truth of his childhood, August returns to confront the shadows of his past in hopes of correcting old mistakes. Yet what he discovers is more than a reckoning with others—it’s the unearthing of a side of himself he has long suppressed.

Haunted by warped ideals of love and the damage his choices have caused, August faces what Bawn frames as a metaphorical mirror: a painful, unrelenting reflection of his actions and the people who have borne the brunt of them. Denial gradually gives way to realisation, forcing him into the most difficult confrontation of all—the one with himself.

The ensemble cast—Judeline Charles, Rashad Davis, Bradon Moten, Devion Andrez Coleman, and Dre Matthews—provides grounding and authenticity, their performances amplifying the consequences of August’s spiralling choices. Their presence makes clear that personal collapse is never private; it reverberates outward, leaving scars in its wake.

Bawn’s direction leans into stillness and silence, capturing the unease of moments where truth hovers unspoken. The film asks whether a man defined by mistakes can genuinely change, or whether redemption is only ever an illusion we chase.

Ultimately, As I Am is a stirring, sometimes unsettling journey into the complexities of love, responsibility, and self-forgiveness. It challenges not only August to face his reflection, but invites the audience to consider the parts of themselves they, too, may have long suppressed.

 

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Would you like me to now also add a concise meta description and SEO tags for As I Am (2020) in the same style as we’ve done with your other reviews?

Why Scouting Is For Everyone, Including LGBTQI+

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Scouting – Fostering Inclusivity, Growth, and Community for All

IntroductionScouting

Scouting has long been a movement dedicated to nurturing the character, skills, and sense of responsibility in young people across the globe. Since its beginnings in the early 20th century, Scouting has inspired values of leadership, respect for nature, community service, and personal growth. But as society evolves, so must its institutions. Today, the principle that Scouting is for everyone—including LGBTQI+ individuals—stands as a testament to the movement’s capacity for inclusivity, resilience, and solidarity.

This article explores why Scouting must be open and welcoming to all, the benefits of such inclusion, and how it aligns with the movement’s foundational values.

Scouting’s Core Values: A Foundation for Inclusivity

At the heart of Scouting lie values that transcend background, belief, and identity. The Scout Law and Promise—though expressed differently across nations—emphasise honesty, respect, kindness, and making the world a better place. These principles naturally extend to LGBTQI+ people.

  • Respect: Treating others as we wish to be treated ourselves applies to people of all genders and sexual orientations.
  • Community: Diversity enriches the Scouting community with fresh perspectives and lived experiences.
  • Personal Growth: A supportive environment allows every young person—including LGBTQI+ youth—to flourish without fear of exclusion.

Creating Safe Spaces: The Importance of Belonging

Every young person deserves to feel safe, accepted, and valued. For LGBTQI+ youth, Scouting can be a haven where they experience belonging, encouragement, and affirmation. Studies consistently show that LGBTQI+ youth thrive in environments where acceptance is visible and real—leading to improved mental health, confidence, and resilience.

Inclusive Scouting creates more than just safe spaces; it nurtures a sense of family that many young people may not find elsewhere.

Diversity Strengthens the Movement

Inclusion is not simply a moral imperative; it makes Scouting stronger:

  • Broader Perspectives: Diverse groups encourage empathy, adaptability, and teamwork.
  • Role Models for All: LGBTQI+ leaders and Scouts show that integrity, service, and leadership exist across all identities.
  • Skills for Society: Inclusive Scouting prepares young people to thrive in the modern, multicultural world.

Addressing and Overcoming Barriers

It must be acknowledged that Scouting has not always been inclusive. Historical barriers—rooted in prejudice—once excluded LGBTQI+ youth and adults. Progress has been made, but work remains:

  • Policy Updates: Many national organisations now have explicit non-discrimination policies covering sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • Education and Training: Leaders and members benefit from ongoing learning that dispels myths and builds empathy.
  • Zero Tolerance for Bullying: Clear standards ensure that harassment or exclusion is never tolerated.

Scouting as a Path to Advocacy and Allyship

Scouting is about ethical leadership and social responsibility. By embracing LGBTQI+ members, Scouting teaches all its members to become allies, advocates, and champions of fairness.

  • Service Projects: Engagement with LGBTQI+ issues ensures meaningful, responsive community service.
  • Leadership Opportunities: LGBTQI+ youth can take on visible leadership roles, helping to shape a fairer future.
  • Ally Development: Cisgender and heterosexual Scouts learn skills in empathy, advocacy, and allyship that are invaluable in wider society.

The Positive Impact on Individuals and Society

The ripple effect of inclusive Scouting extends far beyond individual troops:

  • Health and Well-being: LGBTQI+ youth in affirming spaces enjoy better mental and physical health outcomes.
  • Social Cohesion: Inclusivity strengthens bonds within communities and across differences.
  • Challenging Stereotypes: Visible LGBTQI+ participation breaks down outdated assumptions, showing that leadership and kindness are universal.

Real-Life Examples of Inclusion and Struggle

Across the world, Scouting organisations are increasingly celebrating diversity and actively welcoming LGBTQI+ members:

  • United Kingdom: The Scouting movement openly welcomes LGBTQI+ youth and leaders. Many groups actively participate in Pride events, making inclusion visible and celebratory.
  • Canada: Scouts Canada has clear non-discrimination policies and provides resources and support networks.
  • United States: The Boy Scouts of America, once exclusionary, now welcome gay youth, adult leaders, and transgender members.
  • France: Challenges remain. Less than two months into her role, Marine Rosset resigned as President of the French Scout Movement after facing hostility on social media and criticism from some church-affiliated organisations due to her openness as a lesbian leader. This demonstrates how inclusivity, though embraced in some regions, still faces resistance in others.

Looking Forward: Building an Even More Inclusive Future

The journey toward true inclusivity is ongoing. To secure its future, Scouting must:

  • Listen to LGBTQI+ Voices: Inclusion is strongest when shaped by those it seeks to serve.
  • Continue Education: Age-appropriate diversity training ensures empathy and understanding.
  • Celebrate Diversity: Visible affirmations—Pride participation, rainbow badges, inclusive leadership—make belonging tangible.
Scouting - Belfast Pride 2025

Scouting – Belfast Pride 2025

Scouting - Belfast Pride 2025

Scouting – Belfast Pride 2025

Conclusion

Scouting is a movement built on the conviction that every young person deserves the chance to discover their best self, learn vital life skills, and contribute to building a better world. By embracing LGBTQI+ youth and leaders, Scouting lives up to its founding ideals—fostering respect, growth, and inclusivity for all.

When Scouting truly opens its arms, it not only transforms lives but also strengthens communities and society at large. Across the UK, this spirit of inclusion is evident in Pride participation and active diversity initiatives. Yet, as recent events in France reveal, the struggle for equality is not over.

For Scouting to thrive in the 21st century, it must remain unshakably committed to its core promise:

Scouting is for everyone—including LGBTQI+ people.

 

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Arlo and the Sea – Movie Review

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Arlo & the Sea – A Quiet Tide of Longing

Arlo and the SeaArlo & the Sea is a short film by Damian Overton and Ruben Russo that was shot on an iPhone 14.

  1. Arlo (played by Russo) is a solitary character who lives in a coastal town. He meets Finn (Paris Moletti), and their interactions are mostly unspoken. The film has a narration by Kieton Beilby, which adds to the mood of the film.
  2. The score, composed by Michael Drew, is melancholic, and the sound design by Daniel Pimm is also notable. The film’s use of the iPhone lens gives the visuals an intimate, raw feel.

I think the film’s strength is in what it doesn’t say. It’s less about a grand romance and more about the simple moments of connection. It’s a short film (12 mins long), but it stays with you.

I would be interested in receiving other people’s observations, views, and comments.

Arlo & the Sea Arlo and the Sea Arlo & the Sea

 

 

Director – Damian Overton
Writer – Damian Overton
Stars – Ruben Russo, Paris Moletti, Kieton Beilby

 

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Who Killed Teddy Bear? – Movie Review

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Who Killed Teddy Bear? Joseph Cates’ Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965) is one of those films that refuses to sit neatly within a single category. Part noir, part exploitation, part art-film experiment, it mixes high-style melodrama in the manner of Sirk with Hitchcockian unease, while foreshadowing the urban paranoia of Taxi Driver. At just under two hours, it’s a smutty, disjointed, but undeniably fascinating window into 1960s New York, filmed on location in Times Square and 42nd Street back when both still throbbed with seediness. Its black-and-white photography is as moody as it is haunting, a visual diary of a city on the cusp of cultural breakdown.

Though dismissed on release and banned outright by the British Board of Film Classification (with even the Catholic Church calling for a boycott), the film has grown into a cult artefact. Today, restored in 4K and revisited in repertory cinemas, it demands attention not just as a curious thriller, but as a queer-coded time capsule.

Performances and Characters

The ‘Who Killed Teddy Bear?’ cast is startling in its range.

Sal Mineo delivers one of his boldest roles as Lawrence Sherman, a sweet-faced waiter whose sexual confusion curdles into obsession and stalking. Mineo allows the camera to linger on his body with startling intimacy — a voyeuristic fixation that plays between tenderness and menace. His self-touching scenes, implied masturbation, and desperate vulnerability are almost unbearably raw. For an actor seeking to escape typecasting, it was a daring gamble, and his “bizarre intensity” remains mesmerising.

Juliet Prowse, in a rare dramatic outing, plays Norah Dain, the hostess stalked by Lawrence. The camera is less generous with her than with Mineo, yet there are moments where her angular beauty sharpens the film’s emotional edge.

Elaine Stritch is unforgettable as Marian Freeman, the nightclub manager and unapologetically lesbian protector of Norah. In lesser hands, this role might have been reduced to caricature, but Stritch injects it with her trademark bite and surprising vulnerability. Her “acid tongue” hides a deeply humane streak — a queer performance handled with intelligence at a time when such depictions were almost always poisonous.

Margot Bennett brings startling feral energy as Edie Sherman, Lawrence’s brain-damaged sister, a role that could have slipped into exploitation but instead feels frighteningly grounded in raw emotion.

A Queer Time Capsule
For LGBTQ audiences, Who Killed Teddy Bear? resonates in ways its original audience may not have been prepared for. Elaine Stritch’s openly predatory but deeply human Marian is one of the era’s rare lesbian portrayals, though her brutal treatment within the narrative places the film squarely in the lineage of “smear the queer” cinema.

Yet, there’s also Sal Mineo — by then already a queer cult icon — whose body the camera eroticises with unusual frankness. The sight of Mineo in jockey shorts (reportedly the first time a man wore them on screen in American cinema) is more than just scandal: it’s cinema pushing up against censorship, queerness refusing to stay hidden.

The film’s refusal to settle into a clear genre or moral stance makes it, paradoxically, more queer. Its “smut-tastic” mix of voyeurism, incest, pornography, and lesbianism anticipates the frankness of the late ’60s and suggests a film made with queer eyes, or at least alert to a gay urban audience that was beginning to seek itself on screen.

Conclusion

Who Killed Teddy Bear? is messy, dark, and often incoherent — but also remarkable. As both an exploitation thriller and an unintentional queer artefact, it captures a seedy New York that no longer exists while charting the shifting boundaries of what could be shown, implied, or desired on screen. For LGBTQ viewers, it offers both caution and fascination: a film that punished its queerness, yet couldn’t resist showing it in all its uneasy allure.

 

Director – Joseph Cates

Writers

Stars

 

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Kiss Me Softly – Movie Review

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Kiss Me SoftlyIn Anthony Schatteman’s tender 16-minute short Kiss Me Softly, music becomes both a weight of expectation and a pathway to self-discovery. The film follows Jasper (Ezra Fieremans), the son of a well-known schlager singer, who longs not just to inherit the family legacy, but to express it in a way that feels true to himself. It’s a familiar generational clash—tradition against individuality—but Schatteman infuses it with the intimacy of queer awakening.

Fieremans carries Jasper with a mix of quiet restraint and smouldering vulnerability. His performance hints at the complexity of growing up in the shadow of someone else’s stage, while harbouring a desire to step into the spotlight on his terms. Tim Bogaerts offers a grounded counterpoint, bringing warmth and sensitivity to the role of Jasper’s love interest. Their chemistry provides the film’s most affecting moments: unspoken touches, fleeting glances, and the courage found in a kiss.

Marijke Pinoy, as the mother, delivers a gentle but firm portrayal of familial expectation—never villainous, but still bound by tradition. Her presence adds texture to the story, reminding us that pressure often comes from love, even if misplaced.

Visually, the film is sleek and atmospheric, balancing the bright artifice of the schlager world with the softer, more natural palette of Jasper’s private life. Schatteman’s direction avoids melodrama, instead capturing a tone of quiet rebellion. At its heart, Kiss Me Softly is not just about claiming a song, but about claiming identity—the courage to love, to sing, and to exist authentically.Kiss Me Softly Kiss Me Softly

Though short, the film lingers long after its closing note. It’s a love letter to the act of living truthfully, and a reminder that even within the most glittering traditions, there’s always room for a new voice.

Director – Anthony Schatteman
Writer – Anthony Schatteman
Stars – Ezra Fieremans, Tim Bogaerts, Marijke Pinoy

 

 

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