QUEER CINEMA CLUB
Animation by Paul Twa
Queer Cinema Club is more than a film series: it’s a mission to bring Toronto’s LGBTQ folks together in celebration of some of the best queer cinema ever made.
Every month at the Paradise Theatre, curator and host Peter Knegt will be offering queers (and anyone who loves them) a classic queer film, special guests and performers, and some good old fashioned drinks and conversation in the Paradise’s lobby bar. Each film is paired with a different local queer artist, who designs an original poster for the screening (which will be available for purchase the night of the event).
Up next…
Next month, we are not only turning 3 years old but also celebrating our 50th edition. Which obviously is cause for celebration, though how exactly does one celebrate a continued existence in this hellscape of a world? Easy: by coming together to watch Lizzie Borden’s radical and revolutionary ode to liberation and love: Born in Flames.
Released in 1983, Born in Flames imagines a dystopian future of America where an underground women’s army rises up against government oppression and violence. It’s a wild and imaginative mix of punk and sci-fi, and a film that Borden has said she never expected to be relevant 40 years later. Like all of us, she’s horrified that it basically couldn’t be more relevant.
So 3 years and 50 screenings after Queer Cinema Club was indeed born flaming (in the good way!), let’s gather at the Paradise to raise a glass to many more years of us watching queer movies together as the world continues to burn (in the very bad way) around us. Maybe we’ll get a little inspired to build our own underground movement in the process.
And since it’s such an occasion, we thought we’d add a few other elements to the night’s festivities: Born in Flames will be preceded by both a performance by the flaming legend that is Seyonce Knows *and* a short film from a flaming legend in his own right, Keith Cole. We’ll be showing Cole’s 2005 short Une Petite Mort, since we may have been born 3 years ago but we’ve been dying little deaths every day since!
See you all April 23rd, where you can also pick up a print of this gorgeous poster by the mightily talented H.E.E.S.H. Get your tickets now.
(This screening will be presented in partnership with the York University Sexuality and Gender Advocacy (SAGA) Alumni Network, whose support we very much appreciate!)
And then…
Are you ready for a Motherfest?
On two consecutive Wednesdays surrounding the Mother of all Days, we will be showing two movies that aren’t just about mothers but also star MOTHER: Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, perhaps the ultimate contemporary cinematic examples of the (admittedly extremely overused!) slang term.
On May 7th, we will be showing Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 breakout film I Am Love, which stars his muse Swinton (who learned to speak Italian AND Russian for the role) as the matriarch of a wealthy Milanese family. A luscious melodrama with tremendous style (and some queer twists!), Swinton and Guadagnino spent 11 years working to get it made and we should all be oh so grateful for their efforts. If you have not seen this on the big screen get ready to swoon. (And before the film, we will be screening local filmmaker Beth Warrian’s wonderful 2022 short film Adore 😍)
Then on the Wednesday next door (May 14th), we will be doubling down with a film featuring a considerably more monstrous mother: Savage Grace, which stars Moore as real-life heiress and socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland, who has an intensely dysfunctional relationship with her schizophrenic gay son Antony (Eddie Redmayne). Directed by the great Tom Kalin and produced by queer cinema legend Christine Vachon, this 2007 true crime drama is a fucking wild ride that we do not recommend viewing with your own mother!
Thank you so much to Kneekey Pea for creating the motherlode of dual posters for these two films, both of which will be available at the screenings. Tickets now on sale here. See you in May, you motherloving queers!