If you remember watching the somewhat dorky (OK, very dorky, but also fully well-meaning) miniseries When We Rise and thinking to yourself, “OK, where is the queer Ken Burns(es) who’ll take this historical material and make a kickass documentary that engages audiences with the same sense of urgency and intelligence that the LGBTQ+ community has expressed at every step of our civil rights movement over the past 60 years?” Well, we may have an answer to your question. Pride, a six-part documentary series from producer Christine Vachon’s Killer films and Refinery29, will chronicle as many of those real-life narrative strands as possible. Each section will be handled by a different acclaimed queer filmmaker, and go deeper into the stories that shaped where we’ve all been. Right now we don’t know which filmmakers are attached, or even when it’s going to air, but we do know that FX is eventually going to present it as part of their upcoming slate of docs. We suggest bookending every episode of Pose, but that’s just us being really smart about marketing.
It’s entirely possible that you missed 2018’s low-key indie charmer Skate Kitchen, the one about a teenage girl who finds community with an all-female skateboard crew. It was a small release and had the bad luck to hit theaters at roughly the same time as Jonah Hill’s all-boy version, Mid90s. But it’s worth finding now, and you’ll want to, if only to prep for HBO’s upcoming series called Betty. Created by Skate Kitchen’s director Crystal Moselle and Lesley Arfin, the creator of the series Love, Betty will take Skate Kitchen’s premise and extend it for a six-episode first season. Rachelle Vinberg will reprise her SK role as Camille, the lonely suburban girl who finds friendship and purpose with her new friends. And other SK alumni – Nina Moran, Kabrina Adams, Dede Lovelace and Ajani Russell – will pick their characters back up, as well. Expect plenty of casual young lesbianism when this comedy-drama rolls by sometime in 2020.
Romeo San Vicente loves indie charmers!
