[This article appears in the May/June 2024 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
For many cinephiles, Andrew Haigh’s latest film “All of Us Strangers” was unjustly overlooked by this year’s Oscars.
Haigh adapted Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel “Strangers” to create a moving mix of ghost story, gay romance and medication on grief. “All of Us Strangers” stars Andrew Scott as Adam, a writer in his 40s who comes to terms with the deaths of his parents when he was a child as he begins a relationship with the mysterious Harry, the only other tenant in his vast London complex, pl,ayed by Paul Mescal. With eerie tenderness and the poignant inclusion of “The Power of Love,” the 1984 hit by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “All of Us Strangers,” which is streaming on Hulu, made many “best of” lists for 2023.
Audiences will be able to celebrate Haigh in Provincetown when he’s fêted as Filmmaker on the Edge at the 26th annual Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF), running June 12–16. The award ceremony will include a conversation between Haigh and director and longtime PIFF supporter John Waters. Haigh will be traveling from London with his husband and making his first visit to Provincetown for the festival, says PIFF artistic director Lisa Viola.
The British filmmaker grabbed universal attention with his second feature, the intimate “Weekend” (2011), about a one-night stand between two men that becomes something more. Haigh also wrote, produced and directed episodes of the LGBTQ-centered HBO series “Looking” (2014–2015) and its film sequel “Looking: The Movie” (2016). Although it was little-seen stateside, Haigh’s 2009 debut “Greek Pete,” about a London hustler, signaled that his was an important emerging voice after the film premiered at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and then earned acclaim at Outfest. “Weekend” premiered at SXSW where it won the Audience Award for Emerging Visions.
The year’s lineup, with many titles still to be announced, promises to introduce audiences to a new crop of emerging LGBTQ filmmakers with indie films fresh from Sundance and SXSW. For starters, there’s the queer immigrant drama “High Tide,” the debut feature from Marco Calvani which he shot in Provincetown. It centers on Brazilian émigré Lourenço (Marco Pigossi, earning critical raves for his performance), working in Provincetown as his tourist visa is about to expire and he waits for the return of his American lover.
Highly anticipated documentaries include director Dawn Porter’s latest, “Luther: Never Too Much,” a profile of the life and career of legendary songwriter and singer Luther Vandross who died in 2005 at 54 due to complications from a 2003 stroke. The film charts Vandross’s rise to the top of the charts throughout the 1980s and ’90s with numerous smash hits including “Any Love,” “So Amazing” and “Here and Now.” The documentary looks at the artist’s triumphs and struggles on and off stage including, briefly and thoughtfully, his much-speculated-about sexuality, which Vandross skirted in interviews during his lifetime.
“Merchant Ivory” is Stephen Soucy’s film about the professional and personal partnership between legendary filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant. Along with their collaborator, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Merchant and Ivory created an extraordinary number of quality films throughout the 1980s and ’90s, such as “The Bostonians” (1984), “A Room with a View” (1986), the gay classic “Maurice” (1987), “Howards End” (1992) and “The Remains of the Day” (1993). They were life partners from 1961 until Merchant’s death in 2005.
Ivory, who is 95, became the oldest Oscar winner in history when, at the age of 89, he won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for “Call Me by Your Name.” He’s interviewed in the documentary along with stars of Merchant Ivory Productions including Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter and Hugh Grant.
A crowd pleaser is sure to be “Stand Out: The Documentary,” which traces the history of LGBTQ+ stand-up comedy. A companion to the Netflix variety special “Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration,” this new documentary from Page Hurwitz is rich with archival material, performances, interviews and backstage footage. Among the performers captured in the film are Wanda Sykes, Rosie O’Donnell, Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Eddie Izzard, Tig Notaro, Marsha Warfield, Fortune Feimster, Judy Gold, Margaret Cho, Bruce Vilanch and many more.
“The Queen of My Dreams” from director Fawzia Mizra mixes Bollywood and coming of age in its story about Azra (Amrit Kaur), a young Pakistani Canadian woman from a traditional family. Set in Toronto in 1999, Azra lives with her female “roommate,” which doesn’t rouse suspicions from her parents while Azra purses her dreams of being an actress.
“Desire Lines,” recently featured in Boston’s Wicked Queer LGBTQ Film Festival, is writer-director Jules Rosskam’s hybrid documentary that blends first-person interviews with transmen who are attracted to men, a fictional storyline and never-before-seen archival footage. The story centers on Iranian-American transman Ahmad, who is searching for his place in history and discovering the intersecting lines of private desire and identity.
If that’s not enough queer content for one festival, John Waters will again present a favorite film in one of PIFF’s most popular programs. Waters’ selection this year, “A Prince,” is a 2023 release from French director Pierre Creton that’s billed as “a bizarre tale of horticulture and gay sex in Normandy.” [x]
More: provincetownfilm.org/festival
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