With three feature films centered on the LGBTQ+ experience and a handful more with queer protagonists, TIFF is light on representation this year. The push for diversity in film doesn’t leave room for resting on laurels. (Yes, Moonlight was great, but that was two years ago.) TIFF 2018’s queer film lineup boasts the kind of underwhelming numbers that should spark a hashtag (suggestion: #TIFFSoHetero). We’ve rounded up the queer titles, along with a few queer directors, writers and actors with big films at this year’s fest.
GIRL
A teenaged girl (newcomer Victor Polster), who was assigned male at birth, impatiently undergoes the process of transitioning all while enduring the rigours of becoming a ballerina. Polster, a cis male actor, was plucked from a general call for dancers after a series of gender-blind castings failed to produce a lead who could both dance and do the emotional heavy lifting. He’s been praised for his sensitive portrayal of 15-year-old Lara, although when the film hits North American shores it’s sure to add to the conversation about trans roles for trans actors. The first feature by Belgian director Lukas Dhont (who co-wrote the screenplay), Girl won this year’s Caméra d’Or at Cannes. (Netflix picked up the film, but it doesn’t yet have a premiere date.)
Sep 8, 3:30 pm, TBLB 2 Sep 9, 6 pm, Scotiabank 2 Sep 16, noon, Scotiabank 1.
RAFIKI
Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu’s latest has Shakespearian overtones in its tale of two rival politicians’ daughters who fall in love at first sight. Complicating matters, and endangering our protagonists, is the fact that Kenyan society criminalizes LGBTQ+ sex. While there’s sure to be heartbreak, Rafiki doesn’t look like a dour film thanks to Kahiu’s colourful, kinetic visual style, which takes its cue from Afrofuturism. It’s a genre that imagines abundant possibilities for the historically oppressed Black diaspora, so we’re hoping Kahiu ditches Shakespeare’s lead and doesn’t resort to killing her star-crossed lovers. Predictably the film was banned in her home country, but it screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, making it the first Kenyan film to premiere at the festival.
Sep 6, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank 2 Sep 8, 10 pm, TBLB 3 Sep 16, 11:45 am, Scotiabank 4.
BOY ERASED
Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges (who is in three TIFF films this year, including Mid90s and Ben Is Back) stars as the teenaged son of a Baptist pastor (Russell Crowe) whose parents send him to conversion therapy. Writer/director-actor Joel Edgerton (Loving, The Gift) helms the film, which also stars Nicole Kidman and a supporting turn from Xavier Dolan whose The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan is world premiering at the festival. All of this star power is brought to bear on a subject that has been rarely depicted in Hollywood. Whether this particular project is a win for LGBTQ+ representation remains to be seen. Chloë Grace Moretz, the star of another recent gay-conversion film, The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, has criticized Boy Erased as yet another queer film shot through the “straight male gaze” of its director.
Sep 11, 9 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 12, 2:30 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 15, noon, Roy Thomson.
COLETTE
Keira Knightley didn’t mince words when she told Variety she rarely takes roles set in the modern day because “the female characters nearly always get raped.” Instead, the period films she’s frequently starred in offer “inspiring characters,” and this historical drama about celebrated Claudine novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is no exception. Directed by Still Alice’s Wash Westmoreland, who co-wrote the film with his late husband, Richard Glatzer, the film promises a witty, scandalous and exquisitely detailed look into the sexually fluid Colette’s demands to receive recognition in a patriarchal, French literary scene that celebrates her publisher-husband, Willy (Dominic West), but renders her invisible.
Sep 11, 5:45 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 12, noon, Winter Garden.
SPLINTERS
Two decades after his debut, The Hanging Garden, won TIFF’s best Canadian feature film, director Thom Fitzgerald returns to the question of what happens when prodigal children (his protagonists are queer) return home to their disapproving families in small-town Nova Scotia. Since coming out as a teen, Belle (Sofia Banzhaf) has been at odds with her conservative mother (Shelley Thompson). When she returns home for her father’s funeral, she attempts to hide her two-year relationship with a man lest her mother think she’s somehow bowed to her traditional expectations. Things start to get complicated when Belle’s boyfriend unexpectedly shows up.
Sep 11, 7:15 pm, TBLB 3 Sep 12, 10 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank 10.
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
This highly anticipated film is an adaptation of iconic queer author James Baldwin’s 1974 novel about a pregnant teen in Harlem fighting to exonerate her falsely accused husband before she gives birth. Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins, whose indelible 2016 film Moonlight treated LGBTQ+ themes but was more broadly a depiction of Black love in its multiple forms, brings that latter sensibility to his realization of Baldwin’s work. The film stars newcomer Kiki Layne, Toronto’s Stephan James (who made a memorable turn as track and field sprinter Jesse Owens in 2016’s Race) and dramatic powerhouse Regina King (Ray, American Crime).
Sep 9, 6 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 10, 11 am, Princess of Wales.
THE HATE U GIVE & WHERE HANDS TOUCH
At 19, Amandla Stenberg hasn’t appeared in many films of note (you may remember her as Rue from 2012’s The Hunger Games), but off-screen she has become notable. An outspoken youth activist who advocates for gender equality, she was named Feminist of the Year by Gloria Steinem’s Ms. Foundation for Women in 2015. She’s appearing in two films at TIFF that mark a shift toward weightier, riskier fare. In the highly anticipated The Have U Give, based on the acclaimed young adult novel, Stenberg plays Starr, a promising student who finds a cause to fight for when her friend is shot dead by police. She’ll also star in British director Amma Asante’s Where Hands Touch, a complex coming-of-age story about a Black German teenager who falls in love with a member of the Hitler Youth.
The Hate U Give: Sep 7, 9:30 pm, Roy Thomson Sep 8, 11 am, Princess of Wales Sep 13, 2:30 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 16, 11 am, Ryerson.
Where Hands Touch: Sep 9, 9:30 pm, Winter Garden Sep 10, 2:45 pm, Scotiabank 2 Sep 15, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank 2.
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Based on a true story, Melissa McCarthy takes a dramatic turn as Lee Israel, a biographer who resorted to selling forged historical letters in 1980s New York after her successful writing career nosedived. Israel was a lesbian with ties to the city’s LGBTQ scene, which isn’t often mentioned in profiles on her but is acknowledged in the film. The other queer character is Israel’s loyal friend Jack, played by Richard E. Grant, a recently released armed robber who aids her in her literal, literary caper.
Sep 8, 2:15 pm, Winter Garden Sep 9, 3 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, noon, Princess of Wales.
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN
Quebecois directo Xavier Dolan’s contributions to queer cinema have landed him both international acclaim and some impressive hardware, including the Cannes Queer Palm for his 2012 film, Laurence Anyways, featuring a trans protagonist. His English-language debut, The Death And Life Of John. F Donovan, shifts its focus to the cult of celebrity with its tale of a young actor’s recollections of his infamous childhood correspondences with a troubled American TV star. The big-name cast includes Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon and Thandie Newton.
Sep 10, 6 pm, Winter Garden Sep 11, 3 pm, Scotiabank 1.
chrisr@nowtoronto.com | @missrattan
