TRAILER: Do I Sound Gay?

Prop 8 Doc Wins Sundance Prize

Yesterday The Case Against 8 won the Best Documentary Direction prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Case Against 8 / U.S.A. (Directors: Ben Cotner, Ryan White) — A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Directors say they met at Sundance five years ago and also thank the “incredibly inspiring people we were able to follow around for 5 years.” They also thank HBO and the lawyers who “showed that civil rights know no boundaries.”

The film airs on HBO in June.

Sundance Short: August Sings Carmen

"A homage to thousands of ambitious YouTube users and video bloggers, gifted and less gifted self-promoters on the Internet." It just gets weirder and weirder.

(Tipped by JMG reader Molly)

Sundance: Robert De Niro Debuts Documentary About His Gay Father

Robert De Niro has debuted a documentary about his late gay father at the Sundance Film Festival. Via the Hollywood Reporter:

Robert De Niro the actor has never been particularly forthcoming about his personal life -- nor anything else, for that matter. The very private New York-based Oscar winner rarely gives interviews or shows up at events. But for the first time, he reveals a great deal of his youth and upbringing, his early family life, and his relationship with his father, the late figurative painter Robert De Niro Sr., in Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro Sr. It will make its television debut in June on HBO, and its Sundance debut was met with enthusiasm, curiosity -- and surprise. Robert De Niro Sr., we learn, was part of the post WWII set of New York painters -- Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner, etc -- and he enjoyed initial success by being championed by Peggy Guggenheim at her New York gallery Art of This Century in the '50s. Actor De Niro appears in the film, reading from his father's very personal journals (which reveal he left De Niro's mother, also a painter, when he realized he was gay) and talking about watching his father paint as a child.

The elder De Niro died of cancer in 1993.

The Dangers Of Catnip

My own cat appears to be immune to catnip.

(Via JMG reader JS)

TRAILER: Kink

Also from James Franco and also debuting this weekend at Sundance. Via press release:

Director Christina Voros and producer James Franco pull back the curtain on the fetish empire of Kink.com, the Internet’s largest producer of BDSM content. In a particularly obscure corner of an industry that operates largely out of public view, Kink.com’s directors and models strive for authenticity. In an enterprise often known for exploitative practices, Kink.com upholds an ironclad set of values to foster an environment that is safe, sane, and consensual. They aim to demystify the BDSM lifestyle, and to serve as an example and an educational resource for the BDSM community. In kink, we discover not only a fascinating and often misunderstood subculture, but also, in a career far from the mainstream, a group of intelligent, charismatic, and driven people who really, truly love what they do.

Possibly not work-friendly.

TRAILER: God Loves Uganda

Opening at Sundance this weekend. Clip description:

God Loves Uganda, a documentary by Academy Award winning director and producer Roger Ross Williams, is a powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to change African culture with values imported from America's Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting "sexual immorality" and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow Biblical law. God Loves Uganda is selected for the Documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will premiere on January 18th 2013.

Visit the film's website.

HomoQuotable - Joan Jett

"It was initially kind of laughing, like that kind of smiling, going, ‘What are you doing? You can’t do this. Girls don’t play rock ‘n’ roll.’ And when they saw were really serious about it, the attitude kind of changed. Anything from really just insulting and dirty, nasty things. Calling us names, every name that you can call a woman. Just stupid things. Bands feeling threatened by us. You’d think that in the rock ‘n’ roll world, I guess people think of it as a liberal sort of thing and it wouldn’t be a problem, but guys in bands had problems with it. We wouldn’t get sound checks because people were threatened." - Rocker Joan Jett, speaking at the Sundance Film Festival where the biopic The Runaways is screening.

Twilight's Kristen Stewart plays Jett, Dakota Fanning plays Runaways lead singer Cherrie Curry. Let's hope the flick isn't a (cherry) bomb.

Prop 8 Film Debuts At Sundance

Yesterday the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition debuted at the Sundance film festival in Utah as two dozen anti-LDS protesters rallied outside the venue.

The activists were there to show their support for the film and to protest the efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to pass Proposition 8, the successful 2008 California ballot initiative that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. Conservative Christian groups opposed to the film also had been expected to demonstrate, but none showed up. "We are not here to be anti-LDS," rally organizer Eric Ethington said Sunday, outside the documentary's premiere at the Racquet Club venue in Park City. "We are here to share our own stories." During the 2008 election season, the LDS Church was part of a coalition of religious groups that pushed the "Yes on 8" campaign. The church encouraged its members in California to donate time and money to the effort, sparking protests near LDS temples after the measure passed. "We think it's a shame -- a very big shame," demonstrator Joe Baker-Gorringe said Sunday. "If [Mormons] would have channeled [their time and money] into something more constructive, they would have helped a lot of people."

Sundance: Free LGBT Films On iTunes

For the duration of the Sundance Film Festival, you can download two of their LGBT short films for free on iTunes. One of the offerings is Countertransference, which won the Jury Award for Best Dramatic Short at Los Angeles' OutFest, the other is James - which I don't know anything about.

No Boycott: Queer Lounge To Return To Utah's Sundance Film Festival

GLAAD will again sponsor the Queer Lounge at next month's Sundance Film Festival.

Despite calls for a Utah boycott, the Queer Lounge will return to Park City in January for the Sundance Film Festival. Noting their displeasure with the LDS Church for its efforts to ban same-sex marriage, leaders with lounge sponsor Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation say the festival is too important to pass up. "For many [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] filmmakers, Sundance is their single most important opportunity to ensure their stories about our community reach a broad audience," said Neil G. Giuliano, GLAAD president. "And they are not in a position to stay away from that opportunity."

Activists, columnists and bloggers raised the spectre of boycott when it was learned the LDS Church provided significant financial and other support to the successful campaign to pass California's Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage. "We continue the Queer Lounge," Giuliano said, "with a desire not to be rendered silent or invisible."

Park City Mayor Dana Williams welcomed the return of the Queer Lounge and said his town shouldn't be lumped in with those opposing same-sex marriage. The mayor hopes gays and lesbians won't stay away from Sundance or Utah ski vacations. "I don't treat anybody any differently, no matter their race, creed, color or sexual orientation," he said. "That is indicative of this community."