Coming soon this fall to an arthouse theater near you: Gay Chorus Deep South, a moving documentary from filmmaker David Charles Rodrigues that’s been rolling through the queer film festival circuit, and now picked up by distributor MTV Documentary Films. It’s about the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and their 2016 tour of America’s southern states, places where anti-queer discrimination still runs the gamut from polite disapproval to openly and murderously hostile, with more than enough Republican legislators trying to turn back the tide of progress for the LGBTQ community.
On this journey the chorus was led by their director, Dr. Tim Seelig, and joined by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, which made them nearly 300 strong as they sang their way through the Deep South in the middle of a rancorous election year. Obviously, you’ll need some Kleenex when you go, and you might want to refresh your memory of the lyrics to Into The Woods’ “No One Is Alone” or Wicked’s “Defying Gravity,” in case there’s a sing-along screening.
Laurent Bouzereau, the director of Netflix’s great Hollywood-meets-World War II documentary Five Came Back, as well as of the upcoming HBO doc Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, has a new project. He’ll be turning Dustin Lance Black’s memoir, Mama’s Boy: A Story From Our Americas, into a feature-length documentary. It’s Black’s story, but very much centered on his relationship with his mother, who grew up disabled but possessed a steadfast optimism and strong will. Beyond that we don’t know much, only that Black says that his relationship with her helped bridge unnamed political divides. If you can’t wait for the doc, the book is out now so you can read all the film’s spoilers – here’s one: Black won an Academy Award for writing Milk, so you could say his Mom raised a strong-willed person of her own – and if you can wait, then it’s scheduled to arrive sometime in late 2020.
Romeo San Vicente slays all Sondheim at Broadway karaoke.
