Wild and weird queer cinema at the Sydney Underground Film Festival
Image: The Misandrists.
This weekend, the 2018 Sydney Underground Film Festival will push cinematic boundaries, bringing queer cinema highlights to the forefront.
Among the queer offerings at this year’s festival, Bruce LaBruce – he of The Raspberry Reich and L.A. Zombie infamy – returns with The Misandrists.
“In an alternate reality, somewhere in Ger(wo)many, the Female Liberation Army prepares to overthrow the patriarchy and usher in a new female world order,” the synopsis reads.
“How? With a new sort of lesbian porn that functions as propaganda for the female revolution.
“However, when self-proclaimed ‘separatist among separatists’ Isolde is caught harbouring a young injured man in the basement of the feminist headquarters, the very nature of womanhood is called into question.”
Another highlight is the transgressive, erotic The Wild Boys. Set at the turn of the century, the film’s surrealist vulgarity is a distinctly queer approach to genre and visual style.
Centred on a group of delinquent schoolboys – all played by women – The Wild Boys sees them punished for taking their sexual aggression too far.
They find themselves on a supernatural island, and director Bertrand Mandico draws on influences like Kenneth Anger and Joseph von Sternberg in depicting this out-there fantasia.
Cult cinema fans will delight in the restorian of 1982 film Liquid Sky, a neon, camp extravaganza of sex and gender fluidity.
On the documentary side, Escape from Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith explores the life and work of filmmaker Jack Smith, an underground legend of glitter, camp and excess.
This unconventional bio-doc takes the same convention-smashing approach to its subject that Smith took to his own filmmaking, which was born of a distinct American queer sensibility.
The full program is bursting with other festival highlights, including Let the Corpses Tan, Nic Cage in Mandy, Guy Maddin’s Hitchcock tribute The Green Fog, feminist thriller Revenge, and the lauded arthouse sensation Madeline’s Madeline.
There’s a little something for everyone – so be sure to check out the full program and score your tickets! The festival opens tonight and runs through to Sunday September 16.
