Eyes Wide Open Cinema, Brighton’s queer film programme, is collaborating with Brighton & Hove Pride yet another year in a row for the Pride Film Festival .
With our selection of documentaries and cult classics, shorts and features, new releases and old favourites, we invite you on a cinematic journey across decades and continents as we explore the lives of gender and sexual minorities around the world and the power of cinematic representation.
Press can claim two complimentary tickets to any of these screenings in exchange for promotion of our festival.
If you would like to attend any of them, please email your requests to jacob@eyeswideopencinema.co.uk by Sunday 24th July.
Below please find more information on the Pride Film Festival screenings.
Shinjuku Boys
Monday 25th July, 6.15pm. Duke of York’s Picturehouse.
Dir: Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams (United Kingdom, 1995. 53mins)
The first instalment of our Pride Film Festival with Brighton & Hove Pride is an insightful documentary that takes viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of three “onnabes” working as hosts in a Tokyo’s New Marilyn Club. The identity “onnabe” connotes people assigned female at birth who engage in masculine self-presentation, some of whom identify as men and some of whom do not. Living a nocturnal existence as hosts in a private club for women clientele, this is an intimate portrait of a seldom explored gender identity in Japan. The performers are shown both at work entertaining their adoring female clients and at home, where they reflect on their lives, hopes and sexualities. A monumental documentary celebrated for its honest and dignified style, this is a humane portrait of trans lives with which we may not be so familiar.
Tickets: £5 – £7
https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Duke_Of_Yorks/film/shinjuku-boys
Bound
Friday 29th July, 11pm. Duke of York’s Picturehouse.
Directors: Lana and Lilly Wachowski. (USA, 1996. 109 mins)
When the discontented Violet meets alluring ex-con Corky, a clandestine affair emerges between the two women – unbeknownst to Violet’s violent Mafioso boyfriend Caesar. When the two hatch a plan to steal $2 million of mafia money and pin the blame on Caesar, they find themselves embroiled in a dark world of vice and retribution. The legendary first feature from the Wachowski sisters is as enthralling today as ever, and is noteworthy for employing bisexual, sex positive feminist Susie Bright to choreograph the film’s sex scenes.
“Bound is far more subversive than the boys’ night out it could so easily have been, a film that plays around with conventions of both gender and genre, putting two women at the heart of a crime picture and letting them succeed on their own terms.” – James Oliver, Arrow Films
Tickets: £6.50 – £8.50
https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Duke_Of_Yorks/film/bound
Oriented
Sunday 31st July, 4pm. Duke’s at Komedia.
Dir: Jake Witzenfeld (United Kingdom/Israel/Palestine, 2015. 86 mins) In English,
Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
This powerful documentary follows three gay Palestinian men as they negotiate the intersections of cultural, sexual, and political identities in Tel Aviv. Filmed in the lead up to the 2014 Israel- Gaza conflict, this insightful documentary follows three gay Palestinian men living in the Jewish -majority city of Tel Aviv. Each man’s personal dilemmas are explored, including filial and national allegiances, sexuality, racism, and violence. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of subjects on the margins of both race and sexuality, which speaks to wider issues surrounding the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, Israeli homonationalism, and identity.
Tickets: £7.50 – £9.50
https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Dukes_At_Komedia/film/oriented
Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn
Thursday 4th August, 9pm. Duke’s at Komedia.
Dir: Ethan Reid (United Kingdom, 2014. 97 mins)
Armed with only an 8mm movie camera, Peter De Rome was an eccentric English gentleman who spent the 1960s politely asking young men to remove their clothes and “perform” on camera. His work was daring yet iconic, his charm simple yet irresistible and his persuasive abilities simply unmatchable.
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Trouser Bar
Dir: Kristen Bjorn (United Kingdom, 2016. 20 mins)
This controversial short erotic fantasy that was recently found in the late Peter de Rome’s collection. Set in a ‘70s gentlemen’s outfitters, the film is a softcore ode to the fetishistic love of corduroy, leather and tight trousers.
Tickets: £7.50 – £10.50
https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Dukes_At_Komedia/film/peter-de-rome-grand
father-of-gay-porn
