FILM
Guide to Queer Films in August
Six streaming and video options for the month ahead
BY GARY M. KRAMER
August streaming and
video options provide a
double dose of Udo Kier
and some fascinating
documentaries along with a feature
throwback to the swinging
sex fi lms of yesteryear. Here are six
queer fi lms to stream this month.
Pier Kids
Writer/director Elegance Bratton’s
intimate, affecting, and eyeopening
documentary (on PBS August
2, and available to stream at
pov.org until September 1) chronicles
life as it is lived on New York
City streets by a secret society of
homeless queer and trans youth.
Krystal, who is transgender, periodically
engages in sex work to
earn money she needs. A scene of
her visiting her mother and aunt,
who fail to acknowledge her gender
identity, is heartbreaking. When
DeSean is interviewed, he talks
about how he was kicked out of his
house when he came out, and later
reveals a troubled childhood. Other
subjects, like Casper, tell their personal
stories to Bratton’s unfl inching
camera. “Pier Kids” shows the
close-knit community these homeless
youths create, and the support
they have for each other. The
fi lm also captures how the pier
provides these youths with a safe
space, despite repeated encounters
with cops. Bratton features ballroom
scenes, protests, and even a
“twerk fest,” to include some happier
moments, but what resonates
is the grim statistic that opens the
fi lm: half of the 2 million homeless
youth identify as LGBTQ, and 40%
“Holy Beasts” is now available on Film Movement Plus.
of them are people of color.
Pray Away
Streaming August 3 on Netfl ix,
this fi lm shows the hypocrisy of the
ex-gay movement and conversion
therapy as a handful of former proponents
of this practice talk candidly
about their experiences and
their regrets as they harmed LGBTQ
folks who were either willingly
or forced to “pray the gay away.”
This sobering documentary not
only features stories by folks who
were subjected to the treatment,
but also profi les one man who continues
this hurtful practice.
Swan Song
In this fi lm, which arrives on
VOD August 13, Udo Kier plays Mr.
Pat, an aging, once-famous hairdresser
in Sandusky, Ohio, who
has lost everything and is now
living in a nursing home. When a
will specifi es that his services have
been commissioned by the late, local
FILM MOVEMENT
socialite (Linda Evans) to style
her for her funeral, Mr. Pat travels
across town to fulfi ll his former
client’s last wish. In the process,
he refl ects on his life, visiting his
former home, salons, and the cemetery
where his partner lies buried.
While there are many poignant
moments in “Swan Song,” Kier is
also very amusing, sassing a convenience
store clerk, jumping rope
with some children, or performing
a routine in a gay bar. The actor
gets a plum leading role here and
gives a phenomenal performance
in this wonderful comedy-drama.
Holy Beasts
For those wanting to see more of
Kier — and who doesn’t? — check
out “Holy Beasts,” which is now
available on Film Movement Plus.
The fi lm takes its cue from the
work of the late Jean-Louis Jorge, a
murdered Dominican writer/director
who made kitsch fi lms such as
“Mélodrame” and “Serpents of the
Pirate Moon,” that featured drag
queens, transgender, and bisexual
characters. Clips from Jorge’s features
are screened in this fi ctional
drama, written and directed by
Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia
Guzmán. The plot has Vera
(Geraldine Chaplin), an actress/
fi lmmaker hoping to complete an
unfi nished fi lm written by Jorge.
She invites her old friend Henry
(Udo Kier) to choreograph a musical
number, and he reluctantly
agrees. Once he arrives, however,
dancers start dying. “Holy Beasts”
allows Kier — whom Vera wants for
his “Teutonic elegance” — to lurk
his way through the fi lm, sporting
vampire fangs in one sequence,
and Vera references the actor’s
work in Andy Warhol’s “Blood for
Dracula.” The fi lm is gorgeously
made with many vivid images and
a few queer moments. And while
Chaplin and Kier are magnetic,
the fi lm itself can be a bit muddled.
Nevertheless, it whets an appetite
to see more of Jorge’s work.
Truman & Tennessee: An
Intimate Conversation
“Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate
Conversation,” which starts
streaming on Kino Now on August
17, recounts the friendly and
sometimes fi endly relationship between
two great gay Southern writers,
Truman Capote and Tennessee
Williams. The documentary,
directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland,
uses clips and letters from
the authors to illustrate their personal
and professional lives. Out
gay actors Jim Parsons and Zachary
Quinto give voice to Truman
and Tennessee, respectively, and
imbue their lives with a wit and a
tenderness that is affecting.
Viva
Writer, director, producer, editor,
costume designer, and star Anna
Biller’s 2007 fi lm, “Viva,” starts
streaming August 24 on Kino Now.
Set in 1972 Los Angeles, Bambi
(Biller) is a housewife who, after a
fi ght with her husband, assumes
the identity of Viva, a call girl, and
gets sexually involved with various
men and women on her journey
to fi nd herself. This stylish fi lm,
replete with garish sets and costumes,
is as camp as Christmas,
with a plethora of dumb sex jokes,
cheesy musical numbers, and
obligatory nudist camp and orgy
sequences. Nothing in “Viva” is
taken very seriously, and this will
amuse audiences who appreciate
such kitschy sensibilities. The fi lm
is mostly of interest as a homage
fi lms of Radley Metzgar and Russ
Meyer, but for some viewers, a little
goes a long way.
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