- Hey, it's Rowan, and today I'm here with Jazza.
Honestly, you've already seen the title,
so we're not going to make you wait til the end
of the video to reveal something.
We're doing a podcast together.
It's called The Queer Movie Podcast.
It's basically us exploring, talking about, dissecting
the best and the worst of LGBTQ+ cinema,
one genre at a time.
So the trailer and the first three episodes are already out.
Just search for Queer Media Podcast
wherever you listen to podcasts,
and if you would like to follow us on Twitter,
where you can actually vote for the films
that we're going to cover in the podcast,
then I'll leave a link below.
If you like what you listen to,
then please rate and review.
It is extremely important for new podcasts,
in terms of search rankings
and also potentially, you know, getting sponsors involved.
- Mm-hmm.
- If they see people like it, just gonna say.
And as Jazza just said to me,
we're millennials who need external validation,
so I guess also that.
And another way to support the podcast,
because obviously at the moment
we're having to pay for it out of pocket,
is to maybe join us on Patreon.
I'm gonna leave a link below.
It jut means that we're gonna be able to make episodes,
and we're gonna have some really cool perks
and tiers there as well.
This is gonna be a monthly podcast,
but we are gonna try and do some extra episodes,
so if you have any ideas of stuff
that you would like to see in little mini episodes,
leave them in the comments below.
- Mm-hmm.
- Cool, and on with the listicle.
So what we have done is we've written a list,
each of us have written our top five LGBT films.
What we're gonna do is go through one at a time,
backwards and forwards, and we're each gonna have 30 seconds
to sell the other and you on the films that we've chosen.
So, let's get started.
Jazza, would you like to go first?
- Oh, the stakes, they are but so high.
- (laughs) We win nothing.
(both laugh) OK, 3, 2, 1 sell me.
- OK, so Shortbus is a movie from 2006,
and it's basically porn with narrative.
It's not really just porn and narrative,
but all of the, in the creation of the movie,
all of the cast like fucked one another,
and it ended up being kind of like this big experimentation
of the sharing of themselves as artists,
as queer people, and it's really wonderful,.
- What's the plot? - hilarious.
- A sex therapist tries to get an orgasm
and then goes and enters into a
(timer beeps) (laughs) It's brilliant.
- I'm sold, I don't know what just happened.
(Jazza laughs)
But that sounds great, honestly.
- To continue, can I?
- It's got - I'll allow it.
- Some really great queer performers.
Justin Vivian Bond is in it,
who is a really famous like cabaret performer
from New York. - Mm-hmm.
- Jay Brannan, who was really big
in the Naughties - Mm-hmm.
- Who's like a queer singer-songwriter.
But it's a really, kind of like massive
- I'm assuming like comedic vibe, or?
- Like tongue-in-cheeky, but like so heartfelt you cry.
And all based in New York.
It's really beautiful. - That is, I'm not gonna lie,
that is my cryptonite,
is (laughs) like tongue-in-cheek, but also you cry.
- Yeah yeah yeah. - 'Cause that's my vibe.
- It was brilliant, it is brilliant.
- Oh my gosh, that's not one even,
I feel like that I have heard of it,
but only because you've mentioned it before.
I know about it through you. - Yes, because I keep on
telling you to watch it.
Hopefully we're gonna cover it
in the podcast at some point.
- Just lay your heart out there.
- It's in, yeah, it's on one of our short lists.
- So the difficulty with the podcast,
the way that it works, is we pick,
in a genre we pick the four options,
and you guys decide. - And then you guys decide.
- Which one you want, you vote for it on Twitter.
Sometimes we really know which one we want you to pick.
(both laugh)
So we did this three times before,
for the first three episodes,
but we didn't say what people were voting for.
We were just like, pick between these films
for us to do something with.
And some of them, you picked ones we wanted,
and some of them you didn't.
So I guess democracy, you know, power of the people.
- Just so you know, when Shortbus comes up,
vote for it. (Rowan laughs)
Thank you.
Alright, Rowan, are you ready?
- Um.
- Are you prepped?
- Yes.
- Are you primed?
- Yes.
- Right go.
- OK, the film I'm gonna recommend is Pride.
This is an incredible British film.
It's very clash of cultures, with a mining town
and a load of gay people who try and raise money
for the miners during what's called the Miners' Strike
in the 80s; look it up if you aren't familiar.
- (laughs) Mm-hmm.
- It has an incredibly - Halfway, by the way.
- It has an incredible cast of characters.
It has humour; it has joyfulness.
It has bittersweet moments.
It has activism on screen.
It's just incredible.
- OK fine, yeah, that's over, (timer beeps)
- I like turned and it was two seconds,
I was like I can't, I can't. - Yeah. (laughs)
- That's so hard to do. (laughs)
- This is also one of my favourite movies.
It's similar to kind of like Milk,
in that it is a, not necessarily a bio pick, but it is a
- Based on true events, yeah. - Based on true events.
And something that's really wonderful is,
it ended up there being an alliance with Welsh miners
and the LGBT community, 'cause everybody was being repressed
in the 80s; look it up.
But the miners - We're like do some homework.
- Yeah, the miners (both laugh)
- Read a book. (laughs)
- (gasps) This is why you watch us.
(Rowan laughs)
But you end up, we've ended up with London Pride,
they still march at the front of the parade,
even in front of the main sponsor.
- I saw, it was really emotional actually,
going to Pride and seeing all of the mining banners.
- Mm-hmm. - It was really lovely.
Especially 'cause they had the one for Duncaster,
which is where my family's from as well,
and my family from Duncaster were all miners as well,
so it was just really nice.
- Yeah, there's no miners in Essex.
- Not with that attitude. (laughs)
- (laughs) Not with that attitude, there won't be.
- Be the first, you know? (both laugh)
So I guess, I mean that was typical,
because you were already kind of sold,
because we'd already
- Oh, yes, I am sold now.
- There we go.
- This premise works.
- It's honestly going to be really disappointing
if we're not sold (laughs) on one the other people's.
- (laughs) Yeah, it's just really bad.
- Like, you did a real bad job of selling that.
And start.
- I remember watching Milk as the kind of,
like the first gay movie that had,
wasn't necessarily about just being gay.
Obviously it's about Harvey Milk,
who was the first - Halfway through.
- Elected um, he was a Councilman in San Francisco,
and he was murdered and assassinated,
and it kind of like about his life.
- Spoiler alert.
- Spoiler alert? It's history.
And it's a really important seminal movie
about a very important person in the LGBT movement.
(screen clicks)
Is that OK?
- That was 30 seconds; that was on the nose.
- Oh yeah. - Nailed it.
I mean, I've already seen this movie,
and you've kind of already,
so I'm sold on it already; I really enjoyed it.
I felt like it was a really good bio pick.
And it's sad, and I feel like a lot of LGBT films are sad,
but it also kind of explored his life
in more positive ways as well.
- Yeah you, it really humanises somebody
who ends up being defined by tragedy a lot.
- Mm-hmm.
- And gives Harvey Milk a personality, and I love that.
- Ooh, nice. - I think it's really nice.
- I can recommend, very randomly,
if anyone ever goes to San Francisco,
they have in Castro, a museum,
which has a load of artefacts from Harvey's life
and also an audio recording of this recording he did
that was basically something to be played
in the event of his assassination,
and it's very moving, so.
- I'm going in two days.
- (gasps) In which case, go to that museum.
(Jazza laughs)
It's really good.
- Right, are you
- Mm-hmm. - Ready
- Yes.
- To go.
- So, The Way He Looks.
This is a film, not in English,
(Jazza laughs)
but don't count that against it.
It was original a short film that I adored,
and it was so good, they made it into a feature film
with the original cast.
It is two teenage boys, one of whom is blind.
The other one comes to his school.
He's a new student. _ Oh, 10 seconds.
- And they form this incredible friendship,
and it is just so tender, so lovely, so romantic, so sweet.
I mean that's all I need to say, it's just so good.
(timer beeps)
- Oh very good. - Thank you, thank you.
I'm getting better at this. - It's almost like you could
see the timer in the corner of your eye.
(Rowan laughs)
Um, what language is it in?
It's Portuguese, right, it's from Brazil?
- Yep, it's from Brazil.
- Just thought I'd put that in there.
- Oh yeah, I didn't actually say that.
- No, you didn't. (both laugh)
You were just like (both) Not in English.
- It gives me kind of Moonlight vibes.
- Yeah. - Which is a movie
that we talked about,
which was one of the films that we've done
in the first three - Spoiler alert.
- Cool, the first three episodes of the podcast
that you can go and download now.
- Well I guess if you've watched
to this far in the video, then you deserve to know
- Yeah.
- One of the things that you're going to listen to.
- But there's lots of those shots of lingering touches.
- Yeah.
- And they, it puts across the idea of kind of like
the feeling of butterflies quite beautifully I think.
- Yes, yeah, like a softness to it.
- Yeah. - It's really lovely.
- It's really gay.
- It's really sweet.
It's like as, obviously I think there's definitely a place
for gay films which talk about real tragedies
that have happened, or real difficulties,
or periods in our community which have been really tough.
This is just such a lovely, nice remedy to that,
that you can maybe watch afterwards.
Be like, watch a sad one and then watch this one.
- It's a nice pick-me-up isn't it?
- Double bill, double feature.
(Jazza laughs)
Last one. - Is it?
- Of this video, and then we're gonna do
the next five - Yes.
- over on Jazza's channel.
- The link will be below.
Don't know if you're familiar with how collabs work,
(both laugh) but that's what you do apparently.
- (laughs) I've actually, have I ever
done a collab like this?
I don't think I've ever done a collab
where I make one on somebody else's channel
and then one on my own. - Oh my God, hmm.
Thank you for letting me be your first.
- (laughs) Oh God, oh it's so clammy.
- Wow, wow.
(both laugh)
3, 2, 1 go.
- This one is also not in English.
- What's it called?
- It's in Spanish; it's called All About My Mother.
- OK.
- It's an Almodóvar; Pedro Almodóvar,
who is a really famous Spanish director.
In Spanish it's called Todo Sobre Mi Madre.
It's about the death of a child.
- Oh OK. (laughs)
- And it is heavily implied that the child is gay,
but then also there's this really powerful trans character
called Agrado, who talks about her journey to womanhood.
The whole film is a celebration
(timer beeps) - Wow you spent a lot of that
just saying people's names (timer beeps)
- (laughs) Yeah.
- (laughs) And about five seconds of plot.
But the plot that I heard intrigued.
- It's celebration of womanhood,
and Almodó, it' kind of like all types of womanhood,
from like the really feminine,
to the kind of more butch,
to the protector, to the mother.
- Ooh.
- And Agrado really beautifully gets included in that
as a trans person who gets one of the best monologues ever.
And it's also how I learned Spanish when I was 15.
- Here's the thing, Jazza.
- Hmm?
You're cheating.
- (laughs) Why?
- In that every time we've done this,
we've gone just 30 seconds
and then you've just continued.
- (laughs) Yeah.
- But I'm not mad. - I'm a white man
and I make up the rules myself. (laughs)
I'm not mad about it, 'cause it's so,
'cause I'm like yes, you're selling me even more on this.
This makes sense. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- So those are five.
We're gonna do the other five on Jazza's channel.
- How exciting.
- The link's gonna be below.
We've got some, I mean, not to give you spoilers,
but some great ones on the list still to come.
(both laugh)
Also just once again, if you like either of our stuff,
if you're into queer movies,
if you're into movies in general,
which I feel like if you subscribe to my channel,
you're probably, that's probably something you're into.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- Go and give the podcast a go.
We think it's really cool; we've worked really hard on it.
- I think it's one of the best things
I've ever made creatively,
and it's the best thing we've ever made creatively.
- Together, wow, and if you like this video,
then (both laugh) the podcast has gotta be better than this.
In the comments below, please let us know, maybe,
whether you were persuaded by any of our 30-second,
slash 60-second, summaries of these films.
Or if you have any other recommendations
that you think should be in a kind of top LGBT movies list.
Until I see you next time, bye.
- Bye.
- (laughs) Now turn.
- Thank you.