Stonewall Gazette

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette

Timothy Olyphant and Chris Wiehl in a scene from, "The Broken Hearts Club"

My first introduction to the talented Timothy Olyphant was in the 2000 gay relationship film, "The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy." It was an entertaining movie written and directed by TV uber producer Greg Berlanti.

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette

Joe Orton (L) and Kenneth Halliwell (R)

Award-winning British playwright Joe Orton would have turned 85 years old on Jan 1. Sadly, his life was cut short by his lover Kenneth Halliwell. On August 9, 1967, Halliwell bludgeoned the 34-year-old Orton to death with a hammer then Halliwell later committed suicide by taking an overdose of Nembutal.

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette



What price Hollywood? was the title of an early George Cukor film, but it's a question every closeted movie star has asked themselves.

In 1930, the top box office star was a gay man, William "Billy" Haines. Billy lived with his partner, Jimmie Shields. Unlike other closeted stars then and now, Haines never posed on the red carpet with a beard on his arm.

By 1933, Billy's his Hollywood career was over. However, by 1936, Billy Haines had become hugely successful in an entirely new line of work as an interior decorator.

Watch the video, Out of the Closet, Off the Screen: The Life of William Haines, below.

Written by Shane Smith, Editor of Stonewall Gazette


The homeless are everywhere, from the largest urban centers to the smallest of heartland towns. They 'live' in doorways and alleys, abandoned buildings and vehicles, and their numbers are overwhelming. Did you know, for example, that approximately 40% of homeless youth are LGBT? According to a report from the Williams Institute at UCLA, "... nearly all homeless youth service providers in the U.S. now serve LGBT youth."

Written by Shane Smith, Editor, Stonewall Gazette


The erotic image above was taken from the 1968 film, Autumn Nocturne and was used as part of the cover of The Los Angeles Advocate, published in December 1968. Autumn Nocturne was a soft-core pornography film directed by Pat Rocco.

Ciao means both hello and goodbye in Italian and co-writers, Alessandro Calza and Yen Tan (also the film's director) used it to good effect in their independent romantic drama from 2008.

Synopsis: 
Jeff (Adam Neal Smith ) is taking care of everything Mark (Chuck Blaum) left behind when he died. Mark was about to have a visitor, Andrea (Alessandro Calza), an Italian guy he met online. Both of them will have the chance to share memories of the Mark they knew while knowing each other.

Cast:
Adam Neal Smith as Jeff; Alessandro Calza as Andrea; Charles W. Blaum as Mark; Ethel Lung as Lauren; John S. Boles as Mark's Father; Margaret Lake as Mark's Mother; Tiffany Vollmer as Doctor

WATCH: Romantic Drama, "Ciao"

Via Youtube Channel: Fabio Costa

Written by Shane Smith , Editor of Stonewall Gazette


Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt went from just another TV child star to indie film favorite with his performance in Gregg Araki's 2004 drama, "Mysterious Skin." The story deals with the traumatic affects of sexual abuse as experienced by the two boys in the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his co-star Brady Corbet (pictured in a scene from the movie above) play their roles well.

Other cast members include: Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Elisabeth Shue, Chris Mulkey and Richard Riehle. The screenplay by Gregg Araki is based on Scott Heim's eponymous 1995 novel.

Here's the trailer for the film, Mysterious Skin.

Longtime Companion was the first wide-release theatrical film where AIDS was pivotal to the story. The film starts in the year 1981 introducing the audience to a group of gay men. As the film chronicles the first years of the AIDS epidemic we witness their loss and struggle as they try to deal with this plague. It's a classic movie. When it was released in 1989 I knew of no gay man who hadn't sought out a movie theatre in which to watch it, often with friends, and often in tears.

The film was a critical success with a stellar cast that included: Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, Patrick Cassidy, Dermot Mulroney, Dan Butler, Michael Schoeffling, Stephen Caffrey, John Dossett and Mary-Louise Parker. Bruce Davison received an Academy Award nomination (supporting actor category) for his heartbreaking performance.

Watch Movie: Longtime Companion




Via Youtube Channel: Bangle1

In 1992, independent film maker Tom Kalin wrote and directed "Swoon". The movie depicts a more realistic relationship between two infamous killers: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. In May of 1924 the two wealthy students kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Robert Franks. The subsequent trial was a sensation at the time. Kalin's film received much praise when it was released.

Actors Craig Chester played Leopold and Daniel Schlachet played Loeb in the film.


Film critic Roger Ebert reviewed Swoon for his movie review column (November 13, 1992) and wrote:

"Swoon" reopens once again the notorious thrill-killing of Bobby Frank, whose murder in the 1920s became an international scandal when it was revealed that two rich young Chicago homosexuals, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr., had committed the crime. Their motives were chilling: They wanted to do it simply to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. 

The case has been made into two previous movies - Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" (1948) and Richard Fleisher's "Compulsion" (1959), but both to one degree or another played down the topic of homosexuality. This new version by writer-director Tom Kalin plays it up, sometimes in ways that are fairly disturbing, as when he seems to linger on the ways the dominant Loeb was able to control the more submissive Leopold by using sex as a weapon. 

The movie, shot in black and white, has the look of modern men's fashion photography, and Kalin deliberately allows anachronistic props into the frame (a TV channel changer and a push-button phone, for example) to make the film's reality level more ambiguous.

The question then becomes: How should one interpret the film? Kalin does not use the argument that society is to blame, that because homosexuality was outlawed, Leopold and Loeb were somehow forced into the lapse of sanity which led to the murder.

This is the kind of movie that inspires discussion afterwards. It is being reviewed as an example of the new "queer cinema," deliberately gay films by openly gay filmmakers, but I am not sure "Swoon" would have needed to be much different if the killers had been heterosexual lovers. I don't think what they did resulted from the fact that they were gay; I believe similar acts throughout history, in tolerant times and repressive ones, have been committed by all kinds of people were born without what we call the conscience (as Loeb was) or without the courage to follow it (Leopold).

Related
The short documentary, Crimes of the Century: Leopold and Loeb

Watch the film "Swoon" and share your comments below:

Written by Matt Mills


(Canada) On Feb 5, 1981, 30 years ago, more than 150 Toronto police descended on that city’s gay bathhouses, arresting more than 300 innocent men. It was part of a deliberate and organized campaign by government and police to push gay baths and bars out of business, to silence the gay press and to remove gay voices from public discourse. Gay people were not new to discrimination in 1975 when Montreal police raided that city’s Sauna Aquarius. But that is really where the story of the 1981 bathhouse riots starts. For at least the next six years, police in various cities across the country steadily increased their harassment of the gay press and gay men in gay spaces.

Gay people had, of course, previously fought police harassment, but the events in Toronto in the first half of 1981 were watershed for the liberation movement in Canada. The activist chops refined then equipped gay people across the country to fight censorship, win partnership and employment rights, demand reasonable treatment from government, face HIV/AIDS, fight homophobic violence and win marriage rights.

Read more at Daily Xtra

Related 

• A Brief History of Marriage & Civil Rights of Gay and Lesbian Canadians 
• A Brief History of Gay: Canada's First Gay Tabloid, 1964-1966

Track Two is a documentary film about the 1981 Toronto bath house raids and riots and the events that precipitated them. It is a rare and unique record of a watershed moment in the gay liberation movement in Canada.

Why are Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor kissing? Well, why not? "Carrey and McGregor are in France to promote their new film, I Love You Phillip Morris," reports Celebuzz. Also, France has honoured both men by making them knights in the National Order of Arts and Letters .

"I Love You Phillip Morris" description via Wikipedia:

"I Love You Phillip Morris" is an upcoming comedy-drama film based on the real life events of con artist, impostor, and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell played by (Jim Carrey). While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his cell mate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times in order to be reunited with Morris.
After original difficulty finding a U.S. distributor, likely due to its homosexual content, the film was re-edited. It was recently announced by Variety that Consolidated Pictures Group has acquired the rights for distribution.

The film was adapted from I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks by Steve McVicker.