Fatelink Productionsis not playing when it comes to marketing their Short, Winner Takes All, they’ve sent a wonderful amalgamation of materials for the film.
Actually, We’d like to take this moment to thank ALL the filmmakers who have contributed to the Qblog, can’t wait to see what else comes in!
Winner Takes All (Directed by Camille Carida) is a dark comedy tackling the “looks” hierarchy in gay L.A.. It follows the unapologetic manipulator Ryker as he engineers a fight between his two lovers….with Ryker himself as the ultimate prize. After all, Ryker (Gavyn Michaels, “The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency”) is gorgeous and talented and smart and famous (sort of), so he deserves to be a prize, right?
Here’s a clip and film introduction by writer/producer Hunter Lee Hughes:
In addition, Hunter Lee Hughes is the first filmmaker to send a video response to the 3 Q-Questions! What was Hunter’s first LGBT film to make an impact on his life? Watch to find out.
And for QFest’s Spanish-speaking audience. Winner Takes All principal actor, Adrian Quinonez did an interview with “Los Ojos Del Espectador” click HERE to read.
Winner Takes All screens on Friday, July 8, 5:15 PM (Ritz at the Bourse) & Monday, July 11, 9:15 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) Preceeding the film Over the Edge .
And also
Thursday, July 14, 9:30 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) & Sunday, July 17, 9:30 PM (Ritz at the Bourse) preceeding the film Kink Crusaders.
Join us for an after-party on Thursday, July 14, until 2:00 AM at The Bike Stop, (204 S. Quince Street), in the Gayborhood. Where Hunter and Kink Crusaders’Dorjan Williams (Editor/Co-producer) and Lombodara Das will be talking with QFest Attendees!
Q: What was the first LGBT film you ever saw? Did you watch it openly or in secret?
KW: I think the first LGBT film I saw wasTorch Song Trilogy – My dad was sharing a flat with some friends and I found it in their video collection. The first LGBT film I saw that really had an impact on me though wasGo Fish, I was deep in the emotional turmoil of my first lesbian relationship and went to see it with a straight male friend. Afterwards he kept waffling on about the film and I was in another dimension, having never seen women like that on screen before!
Q & A: Fill in the blanks: When it comes to being a filmmaker what I lack in…CrowdPleasing_ I make up for in… Originality.
Although we know you’d like to see every film screening at QFest, just give us your top 3 pick of films (besides your own), you want to see or have seen in the festival.
Filled with sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, Break My Fall brilliantly follows a sexy gender-bending dyke couple who work hard and play harder in East London’s vibrant queer underground.
Set across three days, baby butch Liza (Kat Redstone) and fiery Sally (Sophie Anderson) are a couple struggling to make ends meet both financially and emotionally. This tumultuous pair find respite with their incestuous friends; in the success of their band, The Blankets; snorting coke; and their fervent sex life. Everything comes to a head the day that Liza turns 25 and the lovers decide this is the turning point in their relationship. What starts out as quiet and romantic rapidly descends into an ominous night that will redefine their lives. Director Kanchi Wichmann splendidly captures the beauty and volatility that surrounds young love. Break My Fall is one of those films that sticks in your conscious for a very long time. — Kelly Burkhardt
Can an ex be your best man (wedding /commitment ceremony) without any jealousies, passive aggressive behavior, regrets and deception? Evidently not, according to writer/director Wade McDonald’s World Premiere filmHold Your Peace.
Below is a teaser video with actors, Chad Ford, Scott Higgins, Tyler Brockington & Blair Dickens introducing the film through their own individual perspectives.
(Browser Note: Using Explorer 7, I couldn’t view the video, all works great in Firefox. If anyone has trouble seeing this clip, please e-mail socialmedia@phillycinema.org)
Hold Your Peace screens Wednesday, July 13, 9:30 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) & Sunday, July 17, 5:00 PM (Ritz at the Bourse). 7/17 screening includes Q & A with Wade McDonald
Michael Simon, writer/director ofThe Love Patient was the next filmmaker to respond to our Q-Questions:
Q: What was the first LGBT film you ever saw?
MS: Well, who can forget Making Love with Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean. The scenes
where they meet and get hot for each other in the doctor’s office were pretty racy. And how about when Kate Jackson deliberately drops and smashes a dinner plate in the dining room to get his attention. Priceless!! I saw it with two friends and you can be sure we both wanted examinations after that
Q & A: Fill in the blanks – When it comes to being a filmmaker what I lack in …camp I make up for in… heart.
Although we know you’d like to see every film screening at QFest, just give us yourtop 3 pick of films (besides your own), you want to see or have seen in the festival.
A hunky but self-centered ad executive pretends he has life-threatening cancer in order to win back the love of his ex in this wild American indie comedy.
QFest is thrilled to host the world premiere of the often hilarious, raucous tale of what one man would do to gain back his ex. Paul (Benjamin Lutz, Love Bites) is a cocky, fast-talking, hard-living, self-centered hunk and ad executive who thinks he may have lost a good thing when sensitive hunk Brad (John Werskey, also in Love Bites) drops him and begins dating another man. Not used to losing and determined to regain his love, Paul, in Lucy-inspired “great idea,” announces to all that he has cancer, a sad situation which is sure to have Brad running back to him. But the plan he concocted spirals out-of-control when Paul’s family spring into action by moving into his apartment and making it a near-hospice. With distraught parents and a skeptical sister hovering around, any chance of reigniting the romance with his ex becomes remote. A plan B is needed! Populated by outrageous characters, this is a fun, entertaining, wacky romantic comedy of what one man would do for love, brought to us by director Michael Simon (Gay Zombie). — Raymond Murray
Check out The Love Patient film intro video, which features Michael Simon pop interviewing strangers, asking the question, “What is the craziest thing you’ve done for love?”
Michael and the Qblog would love to hear your answers too!
The Love Patient screens Saturday, July 9, 9:30 PM (Ritz East Theater 1) and Sunday, July 10, 5:00 PM (Ritz East Theater 1) Tickets on Sale Now! And don’t forget to like Love Patient facebook page.
Q: When it comes to love, sex and relationships, What do you hope our QFest audience will take away from this film (Love Actually… Sucks!) ?
Scud: I reckon many audiences may find sympathetic experience from their own love. To me the film is a vibration, a sign, an exclamation to what love is and means to our life, and the fact that passion is often very fateful, as the shopkeeper in the island said to “Spider”: rivals meet, lovers drift apart (a concept in Buddhism). Some love like that just can’t work out in the current life and there is little we can do about it.
The reason for leading this post with the ending question to the film’s director Scud, is because it’s such a wonderful answer! And an enticing teaser on theqfest.com website blog feed. (Scroll down for more Scud Interview)
But as a proper introduction to the post, we are so looking forward to presenting the World Premiere ofLove Actually… Sucks! And screening Amphetamine; but we are overly stimulated by the fact that Scud, the filmmaker of these two World Cinema centerpieces will be at QFest in person, along with members of his cast (Ryo van Kooten, Haze Leung and Lareine Xu).
Here’s the synopsis, in case you haven’t had a chance to check out this film yet:
Taking inspiration from six different court cases involving crimes of the heart, Scud examines the intense, often self-destructive sexual longings among several well-to-do young Hong Kong residents – gay, lesbian and straight. The film opens with the most scandalous wedding reception ever put on film: a young couple’s marriage ends (in the most dramatic fashion) before it begins. There is the 30-ish married gym instructor who trolls the active bathroom scene for young flesh; a lesbian couple with roleplay issues; a dance instructor who becomes the object of attraction to his much older student; a married painter who falls for his male model; a brother and sister who take family togetherness a bit too literally; and a young man who becomes increasingly deranged until he takes his love interest problems into his own hands. In Scud’s world, every love story is a fairy tale – but here the stories are sexual and troubling. Overall, a complex, sensual and compelling film. (Cantonese with English subtitles) — Raymond Murray
Attendees will have a chance to discuss both films at length with Scud, during the festival Q & A’s after each screening: Love Actually… Sucks - Saturday, July 9, 7:30 PM (Ritz at the Bourse) & Sunday, July 10, 9:30 PM (Ritz at the Bourse).
Amphetamine – Friday, July 8, 7:00 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) & Saturday, July 9, 12:15 PM( Ritz East Theater 2)
However, in advance of the Q &A’s, I had a chance to ask Scud a few questions for the QBlog:
Q: Did you do a lot of research on the 6 court cases the film represents? Or did you just use the headlines of these crimes for the beginning idea?
S: Some of those were rather high profile cases, like the “Spider” story which hit the headline a few times, to the extent that we could dress him with the same cloth, interviewed the shopkeeper who met him, and shot at exactly the same location where he spent the last 19 days of his life. For the less covered ones we went to court files to make sure the drama is close to the reality whenever possible.
Q: When shooting, did you film all the scenes of one story completely before shooting the next story?
S: We had to shot the scenes in parallel. The need for so many casts from different parts of the world also limited our options.
Q: How are movies with a lot of sex received in Hong Kong? Are your films able to reach a wide audience?
S: Unfortunately, the film has yet to clear the censorship of both Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Asian especially Chinese community is still very conservative on sex scenes and so called moral issues such as incest. My earlier films actually set precedents for the HK cinemas, like “Amphetamine” caused so much controversies that there was a wide debate on whether we need a censorship body at all.
Q: What are you looking forward to doing in Philadelphia besides attending QFest? When was the last time you were in the United States?
S: I was in a few film festivals in US last year, and just returned from California. I’ve never been to Philadelphia but knowing it was the first capital and major city of USA. I’m very excited to meet the audiences over there and look forward to any questions and discussions about my films in this greatest film market of the world. But sightseeing or the sort is not my cup of tea.
Here’s QFEST video of both Amphetamine and Love Actually post screening Q & A’s:
Scud also sent us some behind the scenes footage on the making of Love Actually… Sucks!(Note: Don’t adjust your computer’s audio, it’s subtitled without sound).
We sent out a missive to all our QFest Film Directors to Answer 3 Questions for our QBlog.
Mark Bessenger, Director of Bite Marks was the first to respond!
Q: What was the first LGBT film you ever saw? Did you watch it openly or in secret?
MB: A gal pal of mine in college rentedMy Beautiful Laundrette, then gave it to me, saying she wasn’t going to have time to watch it, and someone should. I wasn’t outthen, and perhaps she knew more than I did about me. I lived alone, so watching itwithout having to explain to others why I was watching a gay film wasn’t a worry. Ifound the film amazingly crafted and erotic, and soon after, I bought my own copy.
Q & A: Fill in the blanks: When it comes to being a filmmaker what I lack in… budget, I make up for in… concept.
Q: Although we know you’d like to see every film screening at QFest, just give us yourtop 3 pick of films (besides your own), you want to see or have seen in the festival.
Bite Marks – Blood thirty vampires set their sights on a sexually repressed truck driver and a young gay couple in this alternately funny, sexy and gory horror flick.
In recent years there have been a bevy of gay (and gayish) horror films, but you will probably not find one as funny, spoofy, sexy and rotting-flesh zombiefied as Bite Marks. Hunky truck driver Brewster (Benjamin Lutz, The Love Patient) takes over his missing brother’s delivery of coffins. On the way to his funeral home destination, he picks up some hitchhikers: the cute and wise-cracking Cary and his smitten but tense boyfriend Vogel. The couple’s relationship is on the rocks (though that doesn’t stop them from some hot-and-noisy gas station toilet fucking, which ignites the repressed homo in the voyeuristic Brewster). With dicks back in pants, trouble descends on the threesome when a faulty GPS leads them into a deserted junkyard, where the truck promptly breaks down. Normally, this would not be a terrible situation. But this night is far from normal, as an assortment of blood-thirty vampires begin to attack! Now the mismatched trio must fend off the marauding monsters and try to survive until dawn. With plenty of witty asides, sexy encounters and blood-drinking scenes, this low budget gem delivers the goods! — Raymond Murray
Everybody has a dream. Most of us are only willing to go so far to see it materialize and often find ourselves waiting for the right opportunity to come to us. Not so for the Lane twins -they were not content to send their screenplay Full Circle to Dolly Parton’s manager or publicist. No, they were determined to get it into the hands of their idol and on the 25th Anniversary of Dollywood, no less.
Thus, their journey became their first film, which documents their adventures traveling cross country in their RV (Jolene). Perhaps next year, Full Circle will premiere at QFest!
Click HERE for Lane Twins article from GreginHollywood.com
Question:What’s the craziest, most difficult or most fun thing you’ve done in pursuit of adream?
QFest Audience Exit Interviews after the Monday screening of Hollywood to Dollywood:
Hollywood to Dollywood screens:Saturday, July 9, 2:30 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) and Monday, July 11, 5:00 PM (Ritz East Theater 1) Purchase your tickets now!
Our Co-Opening Night Film - Judas Kisshas a really professional and sleek website; in which they not only prominently feature QFest, they’ve even created artwork!
Click HERE to visit the Judas Kiss site. Click HERE if you haven’t already bought tix for J.T. Tepnapa & Carlos Pedraza’s imaginative film on filmmakers!
Director Scud is actually flying in from Hong Kong to present both his films Amphetamine, andLove Actually…Sucks. We’re very pleased he and cast members Leung Cheuk, Hei Haze, Ryo Van Kooten and Lareine Hsu will be with us in Philadelphia and also pleased to see he’s listed his QFest itinerary on his site!
Get Tickets for Amphetamine -Friday, July 8, 7:00 PM (Ritz East Theater 2) or Saturday, July 9, 12:15 PM (Ritz East Theater 2)
Get Tickets for Love Actually…Sucks Saturday, July 9, 7:30 PM(Ritz at the Bourse) or Sunday, July 10, 9:30 PM(Ritz at the Bourse)
Welcome to the Qblog, where you’ll find festival recaps, revelers, reviews, interviews, pics, flixs; where you can get your kicks or be a prick.
The 17th Annual QFEST staff, curators and filmmakers are all ready and raring to bring you plenty of everything in LGBT film! We want to keep you up-to-date, informed and entertained. And in return, we want to see and hear from you!
Please like us onfacebookand follow us ontwitter. We’re looking forward to your facebookposts(including pics and video) your tweets (@QFest) seeing your check-ins tofoursquare(QFest Ritz East & QFest Ritz Bourse) along with reading your comments here on the Qblog.
In case you haven’t had a chance to pick up a QFest Program Guide yet, here’s a reprint of the Message from our Artistic Director, Raymond Murray:
What’s not to like in this festival that features: a band of overly emotional lesbians from another planet; a 30-year-old man having a one-night stand with his college-age self; a young man lured into the porn world; heteroTexans giving each other a much appreciated hand; a high schooler with the hots for his teacher; a high schooler with the hots for her teacher; a man who fakes having cancer to get a little sympathy love from his ex; a little girl who wants to be a little boy and kiss a girl; a country-western star who comes out; and a gay couple under attack from a bevy of blood and- flesh-hungry zombies? Not impressed? How about a group of ABBA-singing drag queens; politicians discovering their gay side; a gay “Romeo and Juliet” set in a boy’s military school; Queer Latvians fighting for their rights; Muslim gays and lesbians seeking freedom; scheming Philadelphia go-go boys; gay twins obsessed with Dolly Parton; competing leather queens; and kids who wish their dyke mamas weren’t so lesbo? (it’s a comedy) We’ve taken the filmic temperature of LGBT filmmaking today and the patient is thriving. There is diversity, comedy, melodrama, documentaries, horror and thrillers. And all of them are coming from the international independent queer filmmaking movement. Collectively, the films demonstrate what creative people can do with little money when fueled with passion and a vision.
But taste is subjective – so I expect to receive your own top ten list which you can post tofacebook.com/QFestPhilly at the end of the festival. On behalf of the programming and management staff and the many volunteers, thanks for supporting the festival, and we hope you’ll enjoy the movies!
Are any of Ray’s favorites on your list of must sees? Check out the lineup of films (qfest.com) and let us know.
