September 30th - Actor Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Houston Cinema Arts Festival, and Deborah Hope

How do you feel about the state of film, especially queer film? And how does that relate to the movies that you're going to be

screening coming up? I'm conflicted about current queer films.

I would always make that joke of like, I would know what films people had seen based off of how old they were because everyone was searching Netflix gay and be like whatever they had licensed at the time.

There's a lot more like accessibility.

But I also think understanding like what a queer aesthetic is.

I think so many films right now.

care about things that are explicitly queer, but not implicitly queer.

And to me, the beauty is in the implicency.

Like it's in that texture and understanding queer eye and understanding like the makers around something, becoming obsessed with like who's a costume designer, who's the production designer.

And that's something that I'm hoping through Letterboxd and some of these other memes people get excited about.

In terms of the films, though, that I'm presenting at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, that's really top of mind.

We have Coward, which is the new film by Lucas Daunt, who directed Close and Girl.

And it is a pretty straightforward gay film.

We'll kind of connect anyone who wants a more straightforward film.

But there's also The Blood Countess, which is by Ora Gottinger, who's made films since the 70s.

And she's this zany, queer German woman who will always make things that people might describe as esoteric.

Image forward, Isabella Payer playing a lesbian vampire.

Like it's just like so out there and beautiful.

And like every single image is this incredible tableau.

And that's what excites me.

There's also a great documentary called Mickey that the whole point is questioning like what is trans cinema? Like it equates so much of movies to like PC music of how do you understand these like modularities? How do you understand these digital textures, these fabrics of like when a body can become an image and therefore like augmented, what therefore is a body? And, like, that's, to me, when cinema can, like, provoke these questions and can, like, be the starting point of a conversation.

Like, when people can go watch a movie and then, like, the real magic comes from the conversation afterwards, that's, like, my dream as a programmer.

I've recently really delved into watching the type of arthouse, indie, cult classic type of stuff that, you know, the cool kids want to watch or the people studying film are getting into.

And the last few years, I've had some issue with career cinema overall where it just feels a little...

I don't know, not relatable.

How do you feel about the state of film, especially queer film? And how does that relate to the movies that you're going to be

screening coming up? I'm conflicted about current queer films.

I would always make that joke of like, I would know what films people had seen based off of how old they were because everyone was searching Netflix gay and be like whatever they had licensed at the time.

There's a lot more like accessibility.

But I also think understanding like what a queer aesthetic is.

I think so many films right now.

care about things that are explicitly queer, but not implicitly queer.

And to me, the beauty is in the implicency.

Like it's in that texture and understanding queer eye and understanding like the makers around something, becoming obsessed with like who's a costume designer, who's the production designer.

And that's something that I'm hoping through Letterboxd and some of these other memes people get excited about.

In terms of the films, though, that I'm presenting at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival, that's really top of mind.

We have Coward, which is the new film by Lucas Daunt, who directed Close and Girl.

And it is a pretty straightforward gay film.

We'll kind of connect anyone who wants a more straightforward film.

But there's also The Blood Countess, which is by Ora Gottinger, who's made films since the 70s.

And she's this zany, queer German woman who will always make things that people might describe as esoteric.

Image forward, Isabella Payer playing a lesbian vampire.

Like it's just like so out there and beautiful.

And like every single image is this incredible tableau.

And that's what excites me.

There's also a great documentary called Mickey that the whole point is questioning like what is trans cinema? Like it equates so much of movies to like PC music of how do you understand these like modularities? How do you understand these digital textures, these fabrics of like when a body can become an image and therefore like augmented, what therefore is a body? And, like, that's, to me, when cinema can, like, provoke these questions and can, like, be the starting point of a conversation.

Like, when people can go watch a movie and then, like, the real magic comes from the conversation afterwards, that's, like, my dream as a programmer.

I've recently really delved into watching the type of arthouse, indie, cult classic type of stuff that, you know, the cool kids want to watch or the people studying film are getting into.

And the last few years, I've had some issue with career cinema overall where it just feels a little...

I don't know, not relatable.