ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Sequins – A gay movie review

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SequinsSEQUINS is a short comedy film about the coming of age of a 17-year-old teenage boy, of self-discovery and achieving your ambition.  In Paul’s case, he wants to become a ‘drag queen’.  Opportunity favours the brave, and after meeting Mimi Le Pur, a seasoned performer and drag queen, at The Sequin Club in Blackpool, his future is set; this is despite his fear of ridicule from his peers (remember he still is at school) and of being ostracized or disowned by his parents (a very real consideration as well all know).

Mimi (or Rodger out of drag) helps Paul to begin his journey and to transform himself both emotionally and physically.  When it comes to Paul first outing as a drag queen he does it to the song ‘Female of the Species’ written by Scott Thomas et all.

 

…A thousand thundering thrills await me

Facing insurmountable odds greatly

The female of the species is more deadlier than the male…

 

A particularly app choice when you look at all the lyrics.

There are a lot of cameo parts in sequins, but in particular, I want to direct your attention to the performers’ comments when he first goes to the club and asks to become a drag queen…

 

…we were all like him once

Me, be a fairy godmother!

Mama has a daughter…

 

Director:   Michael Beddoes

Writer:   Amy Clarke

Stars:   Robbie Gaskell  James Dreyfus  Ben Willbond

 

Links:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequin
  2. YouTube –   Sequins (lgbt short film)   
  3. Wikipedia – What is a Sequin
  4. The Truth About Alex by Anne Snyder

 

Freedom of The Press – Is It Time Stamped?

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Freedom of the Press is something we should cherish, so when the Duchess of Sussex won her case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter to her father in August 2018, Downing Street (which as we all know means the Prime Minister has sanctioned it) has said that ‘A FREE press is “one of the cornerstones of any democracy, and that they (meaning the government) will be looking at the judgement carefully!

Freedom of The PressHowever, in the Guardian dated 24 Jul 2021, Nick Cohen wrote about ‘Who’ll defend our right to a free press? Not the ex-hack in No 10’, and I quote journalists have every right to be fearful of the prime minister’s proposed legislation (the Home Office proposes to “modernise” the Official Secrets Act … it has been decided that there can be no public interest defence for unauthorised disclosure.   An official or ‘reporter’ will not be able to escape jail by saying they had exposed abuse of power…)

This government is very good at spin; if it gets something wrong it either attacks or denigrates the person or organisation who made the claim, or it waits a short while and then gets an apology said as though that will white wash the event (and so far it often has!)

 

 

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The Old Museum Building, Belfast

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The Old Museum Building, Belfast In Belfast in 1991, the first Pride Week took place.  It was a week of events which included our Pride Dander (march).  But what was of equal interest were the events held in so many venues one of which was the Old Museum Building.  I have to say that I did not know of this building until our Pride Committee met and were discussing what events we should try and organise, and then of course where should we try to put them on.

There were so many items put on, including this in the Old Museum Building:

  • Mixtures and Allsorts were in the Old Museum Arts Centre.  It was billed as a cabaret – we were required to bring our own refreshments – so we did! There was a vast range of performance styles

But why has this been brought to mind; in the Belfast Telegraph dated 20 November 2021 there was a lovely article by Louise Finn on how The Old Museum Building had weathered bombs and multiple changes of use, and now due to an exciting regeneration plan it will be returned to its former glory for the public to enjoy once more.

My remembrance of the inside of the building was of the high ceilings, slightly tatty decor, but then money was tight in those days, as it is indeed even today.  There is always (usually) the will to do these projects, but we need money and also careful management of the project to ensure that The Old Museum building returns to its former glory, but equally practically to be of use to our society.  We can ill afford to lose yet another cultural icon of our buildings from our city!

 

Links:

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

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LGBTQ+ Library SurveyLGBTQ+ Survey – Over the last 30+ years, I have written for various magazines and organisations, and I have been an active member of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association,  and whilst based in Surrey was active in CHE.

Prior to the pandemic, I had been trying to find out how libraries across the United Kingdom had been responding to the LGBTQ+ community, but with little success.  

This is not my first time trying to gain an understanding of what is happening in our libraries for the LGBTQ+ community; whilst I was based in Surrey, England I was totally surprised over what can occur during a four year period.  When I first arrived in Sutton, a town 14 miles from Central London, and in the heart of natural conservatism, stocked the Pink Paper, Capital Gay and Gay Times (all of which are no longer in production or print-based magazines).  They also had a ‘few’ gay books on the shelves in the social studies section.  these items slowly disappeared because according to the librarians ‘some users abused the facilities i.e. they kept moving or hiding the items.

Just as everything seemed to go into limbo, Sutton Libraries got a new assistant librarian.  IN the two years following my initial survey, she provided the LGBTQ+ community with an alternative book show, including a display from Gay’s the Word, free copies of gay papers openly available on a shelf for anyone who wanted one, and also a Gay & Lesbian section in the main library with over 120 items including videos.

To find out what our current situation is after the pandemic I have created a short survey online and I am asking any individual or group to go and check it out and complete it in relation to their location.

I hope you will all take part and look forward to pulling together the survey results and publishing them.  LGBTQ+ Library Survey

 

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

LGBTQ+ Library Survey

 

 

Links:

Northern Ireland Gay Movies

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Northern Ireland Gay Movie showing; A couple of months ago I approached the Queen’s Film Theatre for a listing of movies they had shown during the past year (Aug 20-Aug 21).  What I was trying to find out was how many ‘gay’ movies had been shown in the QFT during this period, and bearing in mind that it was the pandemic, the community managed to have 5 movies out of a total of 100 (a 5% showing).

In the scheme of things, we cannot really complain, especially as from observation, not all the showings had sufficient seats occupied to break even!  But when you then look at other cinemas in Northern Ireland, there would seem to have even fewer gay movies shown for the LGBTQ+ community, so the number showing drops dramatically.

So is there a sparsity of gay movies for the LGBTQ+ community being produced?  Not from what I can see, in 2020 my brief research has indicated that there were 80 LGBTQ+ movies released that year.  The BFI Flare 2021 Festival has 38 short LGBTQ+ movies showing, and considerably more full movies.

So, OK you might say that the movie industry has obviously improved and that it was different in the past.  In 1991 the Fifth London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival had a combination of 39 items on show, and I can assure you that very few of them reached Northern Ireland cinema halls.  (Details of this can be found in Capital Gay dated February 22nd, 1991)

There used to be a travelling BFI show of Lesbian and Gay movies, indeed the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association actively worked with many individuals in the community to get it shown at the QFT.  When I approached the BFI about any information on the festival and when it stopped coming to Northern Ireland, they were unable to furnish me with this information, they couldn’t trace anything in their records!

I am not saying we need special treatment, however, if a festival is already in hand in London, and in the past has been in Northern Ireland at the QFT, has also travelled to Manchester Pride and to Edinburgh to name a few other locations, then I do ask why have we gone backwards?

 

 

Links:

Exploring the history of the BFI Flare LGBTQ+ film festival through posters

Gay Magazines

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In 2000 I was in contact with the gay-libn group part of the USC, and a request came up about ‘what was the first gay magazine or gay magazines’?  Obviously, the US had the first [?] and it was called ‘One’ published in 1952.  This was not an auspicious time for a gay magazine anywhere, but in the USA Dwight Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, and it said:

 

…gays and lesbians were perverts, criminals, mentally ill, and must be blocked from any kind of federal employment…JSTOR Daily

Gay Magazines

This soon led to the FBI monitoring all the magazines posted through the USA postal system, and for employers being ‘advised’ to no longer employ these deviants.

But, in 1954 a new magazine hit the UK newsstands, Film & Filming magazine!  Not an inspiring title or magazine at first glance, but as Dr Bengry, senior lecturer in queer history at Goldsmiths University of London, said:

 

…If you go through it, for many of us, it will tweak our gaydar looking at those 1950s issues – because there seems to be more bare-chested men than you’d expect…and also the personal ads of young bachelors looking to meet other young bachelors…

 

It was in 1885, that “gross indecency” between two men was made illegal, and believe it or not, in 1921 a similar law was discussed for women as well.

Last week we saw the demise of Gay Times as a print magazine, it is still available on the internet, but like its predecessors Gay News (which ran from 1962 to 1970, and Capital Gay which ran from Jun 1981 to June 1995, it is no longer something tangible you can get hold off from the newsstand, supermarket or other outlets.  This is a large blow, because we fought to have gay magazines removed from the top shelf and available for everyone to get hold of, and it was no small fight.  By moving the magazine from the top shelf (and even in some cases out of the plastic bag) we provided visibility to all of the reading population, and also enabled those who were in the closet or to frighten or to stretch for it, to be able to get a copy and purchase it along with their ordinary magazines and newspapers.

Gay Magazines Gay Magzines

When you look back at these old newspapers and magazines you realise that the standard of news capture was of extremely high quality, and these outlets covered the news across all of the UK, and even indeed other parts of the globe.

The question is how in today’s world of almost instantaneous news through ‘social media’ and supposed 24-hour news coverage can we be sure that the news we are getting is accurate and relevant to the area we live in.  It is up to all of us to report the news to a responsible outlet or journalist  – remember that the print newspaper and magazines will want to sell papers and magazines – so what is news to you may not be news to the, or indeed they may even flip the story and give it a totally different slant.

There are gay journalists, I am one and I operate through my blog ‘ACOMSDave’, I write reviews of books and movies, and also articles relevant to us in Northern Ireland – so write and let me have your stories.

 

Links:

 

The Truth About Alex by Anne Snyder – a gay book review and a movie

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The Truth About AlexThis book, The Truth About Alex, was originally entitled ‘Counterplay’ and has since been made into a film by HBO starring Scott Baio.  The story is about an adolescent growing up in a pressured society, with a domineering absentee father and a placating mother.  It is about his development, about how he deals with his “best” friend’s gayness and other people’s inability to handle the situation.  Counterplay, or The Truth About Alex,  tells the story of Alex Prager, a high school student who is inadvertently outed as gay and the difficulty his best friend Brad has in coming to terms with it.

The story is supportive, teenage reading, and it would be pleasant if life treated everyone this way.

 

 

 

 

 

Information:

Format: Mass Market Paperback
Language: English
ISBN: 0451149963
ISBN13: 9780451149961
Release Date: February 1987
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

The Truth About Alex

 

 

 

 

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Torch Song Trilogy – a gay movie review

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Torch Song TrilogyIn September 1989, Torch Song Trilogy had just ended its run at the Queen’s Film Theatre.  It was well worth going to pains to see it.  Indeed, if you haven’t seen it yet, then do make an effort either on DVD, one of the streaming media or if it ever returns to the cinema theatres.  The lead, Harvey Fierstein, also wrote the original stage play and the screenplay.  The theatrical origins of the piece are quite obvious but not intrusive – except at one point.

This is the section where the drag-queen Arnold Beckoff [Fierstein]’s Ma turns human, after having been presented as a monstrous harridan.  It needed a much more subtle modulation.  IN the theatre there was probably a scene change of some minutes duration at this point.  Here the transformation takes seconds.

This film runs the gamut of Gay male life.  We go from bars to backrooms to long-term relationships [semi-marriages], and brutal killing by queer-bashers.  Despite this violence and a certain emotional aggro, this is a deeply optimistic and humane film.  And it ends – praise be! – on a sentimental up-beat.

About the performance:  Anne Bancroft [Ma] and Harvey Fierstein are as subtle as a hurley caman across the skull.  Matthew Broderick turns in a quite subtle performance, which is impressive – he could have sailed through it on the strength of a pretty face [we don’t see much of the rest of him, more’s the pity].  the rest of the players performed so much like a repertory company that one wondered if they were some sort of repertory company?Torch Song Trilogy

 

Links:

 

Far Right

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The ‘faFar Rightr right’ continue to use whatever methods work for them, and there is little reason to believe that an appeal on moralistic grounds will work, remember, they believe they are on the moral high ground. If we need to beat them then we need to adopt strong tactics within the law, but we have to be as smart if not smarter than them.

‘Conservative Candidates Promoted Petitions That Sent Personal Data to European Far-Right Group’

In an article by Philip Baldwin, in the Gay Times [now no longer a print-based magazine, I am sorry to say] he said that

…the British Government is increasingly moving towards an agenda which, in his view, is profoundly lesbophobic, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic…

[Are LGBTQ+ people under siege in the UK?] (dated 

Then we have William Koenig who claimed that the LGBTQ people are prepping children to be”groomed and sexualized” and that COVID is God’s “judgement” for U.S. being “so pro-LGBT”

You, no matter where you turn you can see what appears to be a backlash against the LGBTQ+ community and the affirmation of our rights. 

Tonight EMMA POWYS MAURICE , has reported in the Pink Paper ‘ Police are investigating after three people were reportedly whipped with belts by a group of men in a suspected homophobic attack.‘, and before this ‘The Independent‘ reported that attacks on LGBT people have surged by almost an 80% increase in the UK over last four years.

For so many in the LGBTQ+ community we have been living through what appears to have been an enlighten ‘rosy’ period; we have been legally recognised [though at different times in the various parts of the UK], different sectors have recognised us within the working world [i.e Gay and lesbian citizens have been allowed to serve openly in the Her Majesty’s Armed Forces since 2000], same-sex marriage has been recognised and performed in England and Wales since March 2014, in Scotland since December 2014, and in Northern Ireland since January 2020.

And because of these wins, we in the LGBTQ+ community have become complacent.  We go on our Pride Parades, and forget that these were originally Marches to fight for our rights!  IN the past we also had local magazines and Gay News was a fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), this ran until 1983.

We don’t have these resources anymore, we depend on social media outlets, but remember in the main these are written by ordinary people and not journalists.  It also means that we are limited often in the in-depth research articles that we need.

Protection of our community is down to you the community, you need to report things of consequence to our community, to take a stance against things that are wrong (and let others know about your stance), and lastly, yes enjoy Gay Pride when it comes around, but remember this is to show everyone that we are not going away and that we have a right live as equal people.

 

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Carrington and Braveheart – movie review

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CarringtonSitting through Carrington I wished that I was at Braveheart,  I did not quite think the opposite at Braveheart.  Mel Gibson is going to have to face the fact that dallying with women in their twenties is beginning to look dubious in a man who’ll soon be a grandfather.

Some objected to the portrayal of the Prince of Wales (Edward II) in Gibson’s film,  Wales (Peter Hanly), and his gay friends came across as the few rational people in the drama.  Maybe Gibson’s (alleged) homophobia comes out in an (a historical) affair between William Wallace (the ‘braveheart’ of the title) and Edward’s wife.  It’s a good film if you like lots of blood and guts.

Carrington is about a Bloomsbury (Virginia Woolf ‘n’ all) painter, she dropped her ‘feminine’ forename Dora.  the film is actually about Lytton Strachey, who approaches Carrington because he thought she was a “lovely boy”.  This should have given an edge to the other pairings she engages in the film,  Emma Thompson unfortunately, is not in the least boyish, or even mildly androgynous.  Her method of playing a painter is to stand at an easel and look worried while dabbing at it.  Carrington’s paintings are wonderful; big, colourful and full of life.

Strachey comes across as a dry stick, no notion of the revolution he wrought in history and biography is conveyed Jonathan Pryce makes the best of a bad job.  He says in the course of one scene that there are no lovely boys in Wales which won’t make him popular in some quarters.

 

Information:

Director  Christopher Hampton
Writers  Christopher Hampton,  Michael Holroyd (book)
Stars  Emma Thompson,  Jonathan Pryce,  Steven Waddington

Genres   Biography,  Drama,  Romance

1995   18   2h 1min

 

 

Carrington

 

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