Mardi Gras Film Festival

Benedetta takes glee in its farcical and graphic depiction of nunsploitation: Mardi Gras Film Festival Review

If there’s one thing director Paul Verhoeven loves to do, it’s poke the bear.  As he has so gleefully outraged audiences and critics across his career, his latest exploitive project – the “based on a true story” nunsploitation drama(?) Benedetta – could easily be dismissed as blasphemous, but there’s also an alarming sincerity to his…

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Moneyboys navigates its precarious subject with warmth and respect: Mardi Gras Film Festival Review

Films dealing with queer thematics are few and far between in mainland China.  Due to the government’s strict regime on censorship, stories detailing the LGBTQ communities are a rarity, which is why a feature like Moneyboys is all the more curious.  Though set in China, it was filmed in the neighbouring Taiwan, co-financed with European…

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Boulevard! A Hollywood Story is a fascinating look at life imitating art and the golden age of Hollywood: Mardi Gras Film Festival Review

Detailing a film and its lead actress adored by the queer community, and uncovering within that connection a story so juicy it seems almost too dramatic to be true, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story is a fascinating look at the intended musical iteration of Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson‘s determination to see its…

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The Novice clears the finish line in its horrific look at personal achievement: Mardi Gras Film Festival Review

Though presented in the guise of a character drama, The Novice is very much a psychological thriller detailing the compulsive, obsessive need one can hone in their attempt to perfect their field of interest.  For the central figure in Lauren Hadaway‘s dark effort, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to the role, both physically…

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Potato Dreams of America is an artificially sweet tale that proves fact is stranger than fiction: Mardi Gras Film Festival Review

There’s that old chestnut saying that truth is stranger than fiction, and it would appear that no one knows this more than writer/director Wes Hurley.  An autobiographical tale of growing up queer in the USSR in the 1980’s, Potato Dreams of America is an often bizarre, occasionally sad, but completely unique feature that, however trite…

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The 2020 Queer Screen Film Festival goes online

This year’s annual Queer Screen Film Festival, the little sister to February’s Mardi Gras Film Festival, will be held entirely online, allowing for anyone across the country to join the celebration. Running across 11 days from Thursday 17 September to Sunday 27 September, this year’s program features over 40 feature films, documentaries and shorts. With…

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Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival returns to Sydney for its 23rd program on February 18th

Now in its 23rd year, Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival proves it’s as important as ever in bringing LGBQTI stories to audiences, with a massive program across 2 weeks. Held at The Star Event Centre, Festival Director Paul Struthers took us through an upcoming program with films from all over the world as well…

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