Reviews

All You Need is Love…

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Courtney Gardner follows Fiona Dawson’s work on her new episodic series, Now With Fiona, an talks with Dawson about the 50th anniversary of Stonewall and the fight for transgender minors in Arkansas.

Bill Tipton and his parents.

An Extraordinary Trancestor

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Courtney Gardner reviews the new documentary on Billy Tipton by Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-Yee. They review the film with an eye towards how Tipton’s evolution into a trans masculine role model has changed his position in popular culture.

Three men leaning on a police car

Dale Bell’s “Woodstock”

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Dale Bell’s Woodstock (Rare Bird Books, 2019) is a day-by-day, event-by-event diary by Bell, the associate producer, and 22 other professional volunteers who put together the Oscar-winning Best Documentary of 1970. As Martin Scorsese writes in a brief forward, “the second half of the 1960s is the only time I’ve ever heard people talk about… Read more »

Painted face with the text, "Venus as a Boy"

Venus Personified

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Courtney Gardner reviews Ty Hodges’ new film, Venus as a Boy. The film challenges our assumed stereotypes as it follows a small groups of friends as they navigate adulthood in Los Angeles.

A man and woman on a fire escapte staring out at morning in New York City.

20th Annual Tribeca Festival June 9-20

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Senior Film Critic Kurt Brokaw reviews the 2021Tribeca Festival, which celebrates its 20th anniversary. He spotlights the Warner Bros. musical In the Heights and Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless, two movies tied to the Dominican Republic in two very different ways. He also reviews Coded, Ryan White’s short documentary about J. C. Leyendecker, and The Queen of Basketball, Ben Proudfoot’s documentary on basketball pioneer, Lusia Harris-Stewart.

Two women sitting at a restaurant.

The Evolutionary Turning Point

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Film critic Courtney Garnder takes a look at Mari Walker’s feature debut, See You Then and all the messy parts of old relationships that bubble to the surface when people reunite.

A young woman smiles and holds her younger brother.

Let the Armor Fall Away: “Lupe”

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Lupe is the directorial debut of Andrè Phillips and Charles Vuolo. Lupe tells the story of the film’s namesake, a young transgender Latinx woman who has recently immigrated to New York City from Cuba. During Lupe’s childhood, her sister Isabel went missing and was believed to have been taken to New York City, where she… Read more »