Inside Out 2011: Harvest & Making the Boys

Harvest / Stadt Land Fluss
Dir: Benjamin Cantu
Cast: Lukas Steltner, Kai-Michael Müller, Karin Butsch
Germany

Harvest / Stadt Land Fluss is a gorgeously shot, beautiful and tender film set on a farm outside Berlin where young apprentices go to train. Following the introverted and contained Marco (Lukas Steltne) whose close to finishing his apprenticeship just as the young and more bold Jacob (Kai-Michael Müller) joins after already trying his hand at other apprenticeships. The who are different in many ways from demeanour to home lives to opportunities, but are both training towards the same possible future and connect subtly along the way. One of the things I love about Inside Out is that I'm often happily suprized by which films are the ones that win me over, and Harvest / Stadt Land Fluss quickly and easily won me over. The naturalistic cinematography and real farm setting serve as a perfect palette for emotional realness between Jacob and Marco that reads beautifully. I was completely absorbed by the beauty of setting, story and fantastic performances from Lukas Steltner & Kai-Michael Müller. I widely & highly recommend Harvest / Stadt Land Fluss, as a stand out film that is not to be missed.

Harvest / Stadt Land Fluss screens at Inside Out on Sunday May 22, 2011 at 7PM


Above Image: Making the Boys

Making the Boys
Dir: Crayton Robey
Documentary
USA

Making the Boys is a documentary on the play, film and effect of The Boys in the Band, touted as first representation of gay people as people. The features a fantastic amount of stock footage as well as extensive interviews with playwright Mart Crowley and numerous interviews with people involved with, reacting to, or not even knowing the relevance of the play from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? playwright Edward Albee, director William Friedkin, actors Robert Wagner, Cheyenne Jackson and Laurence Luckinbill, plus Project Runway designer Christian Siriano, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy host Carson Kressley just to name a few. I loved how transparent Making the Boys is, on so many levels from honest positive and negative reactions from people about the play and what is says and represents, to the challenges of people involved to get work afterwards to more current day reactions and people openly not knowing about it. It's a great film not only from a historical perspective giving the context of the perception of being gay at the time of the play in comparison to now as well as the challenges, struggles and triumphs along the way. It was interesting, honest and engaging throughout which is what you need for and awesome documentary, and an awesome documentary is exactly what Making the Boys is.

Making the Boys screens at Inside Out on Sunday May 22, 2011 at 4:45PM

The Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival 2011 runs from May 19-29, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.