Latest news with #HeightenedScrutiny
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NewFest 2025: LGBTQ+ projects we're most excited to watch
Courtesy of NewFest Heightened Scrutiny; Plainclothes; Dreams in Nightmares NewFest Pride is one of very few film festivals with a primary focus on celebrating queer content. Thankfully, the 2025 edition of the festival won't be any different. The 37-year-old film festival, based in New York City, is presenting its annual Pride selection starting on Thursday, May 29. This year, the organization is presenting films that could become sizable box office successes, as well as indie darlings that have received acclaim at other festival circuits. These projects include the Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey-led Sundance Award-winning drama, Plainclothes, an advance screening of HBO Max's And Just Like That... season 3, as well as Jimpa featuring Academy Award winner Olivia Colman. Since 1988, NewFest has proudly hosted global theatrical releases of seminal queer films such as Paris Is Burning, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, God's Own Country, Bottoms, and Problemista, to name a few. Here's a list of LGBTQ+ films we're most excited to watch at NewFest Pride 2025. Courtesy of NewFest John Lithgow and Aud Mason-Hyde in Jimpa. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow star in the festival's opening night film. Colman plays a filmmaker named Hannah, who takes her trans nonbinary teenage child (Aud Mason-Hyde) to visit their gay grandfather, affectionately nicknamed "Jimpa," played by Lithgow. Her child decides they want to stay with Jimpa for a year abroad, Hannah has to learn to let go and confront her past, as well as her idea of parenting. The film also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in Plainclothes. Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey star in Plainclothes, a steamy drama about cruising in the 1990s inspired by real events. In the movie, Blyth plays an undercover police officer who lures gay men to fall into his trap and quite literally catches them with their pants down. Meanwhile, Tovey portrays a seductive queer cruiser who catches Blyth off-guard and makes him question his duties as a cop in contrast to his attraction to Tovey's character. Out reviewed the film at this year's Sundance, where it won the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Dezi Bing, Denée Benton, and Sasha Compère in Dreams in Nightmares. Starring Dezi Bing, Denée Benton, and Sasha Compère, Dreams in Nightmares has been making the rounds at film festivals, which included a world premiere at the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia and a screening at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. Through NewFest, New York City audiences will now get the chance to see Shatara Michelle Ford's sophomore feature that follows three Black queer friends embarking on a road trip to find their missing friend. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Elliot Page and Chase Strangio in Heightened Scrutiny. With the relentless assault on transgender rights in the U.S. in the last few years, this documentary is particularly timely. Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase Strangio, an ACLU attorney who became the first trans person to argue in front of the United States Supreme Court. In this case, Strangio works to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The film features commentary and expertise from activists like Laverne Cox and Elliot Page, as well as journalists like Lydia Polgreen and Gina Chua. More information about this screening of can be found on . Courtesy of NewFest Alan Cumming and Charlie Creed-Miles in Drive Back Home. Legendary actor Alan Cumming, who's now also a reality TV superstar as the host of The Traitors, stars in Drive Back Home. The film centers on a man (Charlie Creed-Miles) from a small town in New Jersey — set in the 1970s — who is tasked with bailing his brother (Cumming) out of jail after being caught having sex with a man in a park. The brothers then set out on a road trip that tests their bond as they make their way back home. More information about this screening of can be found on .
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival to celebrate māhu stories
HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Hawaiʻi LGBT Legacy Foundation unveiled the schedule for their 36th Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, built around the theme of 'Where Stories Take Root.' The festival will take place at the Doris Duke Theatre from June 27 to June 29, and the public is invited to buy tickets for the 'unforgettable celebration of queer storytelling, culture and community.' Polynesian Cultural Center to host free show in Lahaina Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival is one of the longest-running and esteemed queer film festivals in the nation, and will feature local, national and worldwide films. 'Queer storytelling and representation in media is so important for members of the LGBTQIA+/MVPFAFF+ community,' said Brent Anbe, the director of the festival. 'It fosters pride in authenticity, helping others to embrace their identity while reminding them that they are not alone.' The Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival schedule is as follows:June 27 at 7:30 p.m. 'SEAT 31: Zooey Zephyr,' a short film directed by Kimberly Reed, explores character Zooey Zephyr's expulsion from the Montana House of Representatives for defending transgender medical care, and her acts of resilience following her expulsion. 'Heightened Scrutiny,' the opening night feature film directed by Sam Feder, will follow character Chase Strangio, an ACLU attorney and the first openly transgender person to argue a case before the Supreme Court as he fights to overturn a ban on gender-affirming car for queer youth. June 28 at 1 p.m. 'Paradise of Thorns,' a matinee feature film directed by Boss Kuno, follows a queer individual coping with the loss of his partner and his fight to reclaim their home. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news June 28 at 4 p.m. 'GiGi,' an animated short directed by Cynthia Calvi, follows the gender transition story of a mermaid. 'First Comes Love,' a short film directed by Kanaka director Sayla Uʻilani Whalen, is a coming-of-age romance between two teenage girls. Whalen will be in attendance at this showing. 'Sisters,' the centerpiece feature directed by Susie Yankou, follows two girls who discover one of them actually has a long-lost sister. Following the discovery, their relationship begins to strain. An actor from the film will be in attendance. June 28 at 7 p.m. 'The 7th Moon,' a short film directed by Hawaiʻi resident Tony Dia, reimagines the Filipino myth of Bakunawa and the seven moons as an allegory for abuse. Dia will be in attendance. 'Queens of the Dead,' a feature film directed by Tina Romero, follows drag queens and club kids as they battle zombies during an undead outbreak at a Brooklyn drag show. Kīlauea's eruptions uncover secrets of volcanic activity June 29 at 11 a.m. 'EKG,' a short film directed by Allan Q. Brocka, will follow an emergency room doctor coping with guilt and fear following his coming out. Brocka will be in attendance. 'Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus,' a documentary directed by Bart Every, follows visionary James Bidgood who was a prominent figure in 1960s queer art. Every will be in attendance. June 29 at 2 p.m. 'Just Between Us,' a short film directed by Zac Hug, follows a queer couple in an open relationship. The lead actors will be in attendance. 'Riley,' the festival's closing feature film directed by Benjamin Howard, follows a high school athlete as he faces conflict between his queer identity and societal standards. Howard and the lead actor will both be in attendance. VIP passes, as well as tickets for individual screenings and events are available to buy online, with discounts for students an kūpuna. To purchase tickets, visit Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Heightened Scrutiny' details the high-stakes Supreme Court case over trans health care
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the next few weeks in a high-stakes case that could affect transgender people's access to transition-related care nationwide. The case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, concerns a law in Tennessee that prohibits certain care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and whether the restrictions are discriminatory on the basis of sex and transgender status. A new documentary, 'Heightened Scrutiny,' follows Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, as he represents trans youth, their families and a doctor who filed suit against the law in April 2023. Strangio became the first openly trans person to argue in front of the Supreme Court during oral arguments in December. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and will show at NewFest, a queer film festival in New York, on May 29, and then at other film festivals across the country. The film's director, Sam Feder, said it is a follow-up to another documentary he directed called 'Disclosure,' which was released in 2020 and evaluated how trans people are depicted in film and television. 'The motivation to make that film was to explore how the rise in visibility could lead to backlash,' Feder said. 'I did not know it would be as terrifying as it is now.' 'Heightened Scrutiny' features interviews with trans activists including actress Laverne Cox, and with journalists including Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and a writer for The New Yorker; Lydia Polgreen, a New York Times opinion columnist; and Gina Chua, one of the most high-profile trans media executives. Much of the documentary focuses on the effects of increasing media coverage, particularly from The New York Times, on minors' access to transition-related care. Julie Hollar, a senior analyst at the media watchdog group FAIR, says in the documentary that she evaluated the Times' front page coverage for 12 months, and during that time, she said, the Times 'actually published more front page articles that framed trans people, the trans movement, as a threat to others than they did articles about trans people being threatened by this political movement.' The New York Times did not respond to a request for comment. Amy Scholder, who produced both 'Heightened Scrutiny' and 'Disclosure,' said that while researching media coverage of trans people over the last few years, she was astonished by how quickly much of the public appeared to go from celebrating trans visibility after 'Disclosure' to questioning it. 'It was disconcerting how many avowed feminists were questioning health care for trans adolescents and questioning the participation of trans people in sports, and especially adolescents in sports — things that just seemed so against my understanding and experience of what it means to be a feminist,' she said. She compared the public response to laws targeting trans youth to what she experienced during the AIDS epidemic, when people distanced themselves from the crisis because they didn't think it affected them or didn't want it to. 'Then the irony is,' Feder said, 'people thought it didn't affect them, but you chip away at anyone's bodily autonomy and you're chipping away at everyone's bodily autonomy.' The documentary shows that media coverage that is critical of transition care for minors has been referenced by state legislators trying to pass laws to restrict the care, and by states that are defending those laws in court, with Strangio saying at one point during the film that he had never previously seen news articles referenced so regularly as evidence in lawsuits. Feder said the film was originally going to focus entirely on media coverage, but Strangio's story allowed them to show viewers the real-world consequences of that coverage. They followed Strangio from July, just after the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the Skrmetti case, to Dec. 4, the day Strangio argued the case. The film shows Strangio the day after the election, a month before his oral arguments at the high court, when he says he's 'had moments of 'I can't do this again,' but then I wake up this morning and I think, 'F--- it, we fight.'' 'That's part of what is so extraordinary about him — he has that fight in him,' Scholder said. 'He knows how to be strategic, and he's such a brilliant legal mind and has always reminded us that we're going to take care of each other, and that these laws, for better or worse, will never actually take care of us.' Feder said that going forward, he hopes the film provokes conversations about how laws restricting transition-related care could have widespread effects outside of the trans community. He also said he hopes people will 'examine and understand how they want to be able to make decisions about their own body.' 'We're seeing state after state ban abortion, and soon it's going to be all contraception, and then it's who are you going to be able to marry, do you have any privacy in your own home? It's going there. This is one example of how we are a moment of complete civil liberty freefall,' he said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
'Heightened Scrutiny' details the high-stakes Supreme Court case over trans health care
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the next few weeks in a high-stakes case that could affect transgender people's access to transition-related care nationwide. The case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, concerns a law in Tennessee that prohibits certain care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and whether the restrictions are discriminatory on the basis of sex and transgender status. A new documentary, 'Heightened Scrutiny,' follows Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, as he represents trans youth, their families and a doctor who filed suit against the law in April 2023. Strangio became the first openly trans person to argue in front of the Supreme Court during oral arguments in December. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and will show at NewFest, a queer film festival in New York, on May 29, and then at other film festivals across the country. The film's director, Sam Feder, said it is a follow-up to another documentary he directed called ' Disclosure,' which was released in 2020 and evaluated how trans people are depicted in film and television. 'The motivation to make that film was to explore how the rise in visibility could lead to backlash,' Feder said. 'I did not know it would be as terrifying as it is now.' 'Heightened Scrutiny' features interviews with trans activists including actress Laverne Cox, and with journalists including Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and a writer for The New Yorker; Lydia Polgreen, a New York Times opinion columnist; and Gina Chua, one of the most high-profile trans media executives. Much of the documentary focuses on the effects of increasing media coverage, particularly from The New York Times, on minors' access to transition-related care. Julie Hollar, a senior analyst at the media watchdog group FAIR, says in the documentary that she evaluated the Times' front page coverage for 12 months, and during that time, she said, the Times 'actually published more front page articles that framed trans people, the trans movement, as a threat to others than they did articles about trans people being threatened by this political movement.' Amy Scholder, who produced both 'Heightened Scrutiny' and 'Disclosure,' said that while researching media coverage of trans people over the last few years, she was astonished by how quickly much of the public appeared to go from celebrating trans visibility after 'Disclosure' to questioning it. 'It was disconcerting how many avowed feminists were questioning health care for trans adolescents and questioning the participation of trans people in sports, and especially adolescents in sports — things that just seemed so against my understanding and experience of what it means to be a feminist,' she said. She compared the public response to laws targeting trans youth to what she experienced during the AIDS epidemic, when people distanced themselves from the crisis because they didn't think it affected them or didn't want it to. 'Then the irony is,' Feder said, 'people thought it didn't affect them, but you chip away at anyone's bodily autonomy and you're chipping away at everyone's bodily autonomy.' The documentary shows that media coverage that is critical of transition care for minors has been referenced by state legislators trying to pass laws to restrict the care, and by states that are defending those laws in court, with Strangio saying at one point during the film that he had never previously seen news articles referenced so regularly as evidence in lawsuits. Feder said the film was originally going to focus entirely on media coverage, but Strangio's story allowed them to show viewers the real-world consequences of that coverage. They followed Strangio from July, just after the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the Skrmetti case, to Dec. 4, the day Strangio argued the case. The film shows Strangio the day after the election, a month before his oral arguments at the high court, when he says he's 'had moments of 'I can't do this again,' but then I wake up this morning and I think, 'F--- it, we fight.'' 'That's part of what is so extraordinary about him — he has that fight in him,' Scholder said. 'He knows how to be strategic, and he's such a brilliant legal mind and has always reminded us that we're going to take care of each other, and that these laws, for better or worse, will never actually take care of us.' Feder said that going forward, he hopes the film provokes conversations about how laws restricting transition-related care could have widespread effects outside of the trans community. He also said he hopes people will 'examine and understand how they want to be able to make decisions about their own body.' 'We're seeing state after state ban abortion, and soon it's going to be all contraception, and then it's who are you going to be able to marry, do you have any privacy in your own home? It's going there. This is one example of how we are a moment of complete civil liberty freefall,' he said.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
How Frameline is asking ‘allies to show up' for trans and nonbinary movie fans
Facing adversity, Frameline is going on the offensive. Amid anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and drastic cuts to arts funding in just the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the organizer of the nation's oldest and largest queer film festival is forging new partnerships and innovating at the grass roots level. One standout is a unique pay-it-forward campaign to provide free tickets to transgender and nonbinary attendees to a documentary that's ripped from today's headlines. 'We're asking our audience and allies to show up and take real, tangible action,' said Frameline Executive Director Allegra Madsen. 'With resources and support for LGBTQ+ people drying up, queer people have to show up for each other and, in particular, trans folks. When I think of using the past as a roadmap for navigating the challenges ahead, it's clear that community care, in all its forms, is the answer.' Sam Feder's documentary 'Heightened Scrutiny,' which focuses on American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio — the first openly trans person to argue before the Supreme Court, is scheduled to make its California premiere on June 20 at the American Conservatory Theater's 1,000-seat Toni Rembe Theater, Frameline told the Chronicle on Wednesday, April 30. It is the First Friday screening at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, considered almost a second opening night film, followed by the First Friday party at Charmaine's, the Proper Hotel's rooftop bar on Market Street. Frameline patrons who buy a ticket for 'Heightened Scrutiny' and/or the party to purchase tickets on behalf of trans or nonbinary attendees. Tickets are available now at A recipient of Frameline's 2025 Completion Fund Grant, 'Heightened Scrutiny' focuses on Strangio's high-stakes legal battle to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The Supreme Court's decision on the case, United States v. Skrmetti, is expected to be handed down during the June 18-28 festival. 'As a community, we are bearing witness,' Frameline said in a statement. 'No matter the results, we need to be in a room together. Feder's timely documentary not only provides an opportunity to gather in the same space, it also gives us a moment to show up for each other.' Feder shared he was inspired to make films by attending Frameline in the early 2000s. 'I made my first feature in 2006, and since then my films have been indebted to the bold, sometimes risky, choices and craft that I witnessed at the festival,' Feder said. 'Our goal is to use 'Heightened Scrutiny' in solidarity with, and for coalition building among, all movements of oppressed peoples. Our team is so grateful for Frameline's support at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are so viciously under attack.' This season, Frameline is also partnering with the California Film Institute to preview a selection of five films at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael from June 13-15, the weekend before the festival begins. Titles include Elena Oxman's San Francisco-filmed 'Outerlands,' which just closed the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival on Sunday, April 27. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow, as both festivals' opening night film. The full festival lineup will be announced at a later date.
