With everything going on in the world, it seemed like a good time for us to make some recommendations to help bring us together and let the art of cinema and television be a tool for good in these troubling times. As this show went to air, this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival was in full swing and alongside a stream of historical titles throughout the program, MQFF also presents a joyous and uplifting array of new films including the fantastic Aussie documentary ‘Isla’s Way’ which was...

It is no secret we love a good film festival at Out Takes so for this program we looked at two coming our way this November. First up we discussed the 2023 Cunard British Film Festival which is presented by Palace Cinemas and is a showcase for many new and retrospective British films. Two of the fantatsic new features on offer were the Noel Coward documentary ‘Mad About Ther Boy’ and ‘Pretty Red Dress’, the brilliant debut film from London based writer/director Dionne Edwards. We enjoyed both...

For this Out Takes, we got nostalgic for the gay golden days of Hollywood by looking at a new documentary and book that both explore many of the films and stars of 20th Century cinema and their impact on our community, then and now. Our first guest for this program was Stephen Kijak, the director of ROCK HUDSON: ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWED, a wonderful new documentary that is an intimate portrait of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated leading men of the 1950’s and ‘60’s and an icon of Hollywood’s...

It’s one of our favourites that we cover each you so for this program we were excited to bring you all the latest news on our local LGBTIQA+ film festival and what they have in store for 2023. The 33rd annual Melbourne Queer Film Festival a.k.a MQFF is back from November 9 to 19 with the provocation ‘Rewind to Fast Forward’. The festival is looking to celebrate all queer histories, past, present and future, informing the now and shaping the future. Alongside a stream of historical titles...

After an extended break, the Out Takes team is back on the airwaves and in your ears so for our first show back we took a trip to France to look at two new films that are in cinemas now and highlight the strong LGBTIQ representation in French cinema. We were joined by French director and screenwriter Olivier Peyon who’s latest film ‘Lie With Me’ is an adaptation of Phillippe Besson’s worldwide best selling semi-autobiographical coming of age novel of the same name, which rose to international...

Ciao! The Out Takes team is taking a well-deserved break until mid-October but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight the St Ali Film Festival which is back in Australian cinemas from September 19 to October 25, Celebrating its 24th year, this festival favourite in bringing the best films from contemporary Italian auteurs and filmmakers alongside retrospectives and many special events to Italian film lovers right across Australia. For this Out Takes Extra, we spoke with the...

It is no secret that we love a documentary at Out Takes and we’re excited to welcome back one of our favourite local annual film festivals that turns the spotlight on new documentaries with many from a queer perspective. The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival is back in cinemas and online throughout July with an incredibly diverse and eclectic mix of Australian and International films. Our special guests for this show were Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett, the co-directors of ‘Finding Her...

With a new documentary coming to Netflix this July and to acknowledge what would have been his 60th birthday, we dedicated this program to the  legacy and impact of Wham! and George Michael on queer and pop culture.  From their friendship as children through to their early start in music and on to George’s mega super stardom as a solo artist, these documentaries paint a picture of the opportunities and challenges they faced including George’s very public coming out and how he used his...

For this Out Takes, we were joined by special guest Alaisdair to look at some Winter Warmers, a.k.a. our recommendations for some new television shows and films to get in to during these long cold days and even chillier nights. From must-see sitcoms and queer stand up specials to a very queer reality show plus that short film from Pedro Almodóvar starring Pedro Pascal as a gay cowboy and the new raunchy feature film starring Jennifer Lawrence, there is literally something for everyone. We...

There is nothing better than getting into a cosy cinema in winter and enjoying some quality queer films so we took this program as an opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic films and festivals to check out in Melbourne this June. We caught up with Palace Cinema CEO Ben Zeccola about this years Spanish Film Festival which is bringing a 32 film strong line up of diverse and quality cinema from Spain and Latin America across Australia into mid July. Celebrating 25 years in 2023, this...

*Language warning* – this episode has a bit of colourful language in it from us and the TV show itself 🙂 For this Out Takes, we turned our attention to ‘Deadloch’, a new Australian original series from the absurdly funny and clever minds of Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney on Amazon Prime Video that takes the crime genre, mixes in a huge dash of comedy and bad language, the beautiful Tasmanian landscape along with an incredibly diverse and talented cast and turns it into one of the most...

Disney is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and its latest live action adaptation of one of its most popular animated films ‘The Little Mermaid’ has just hit cinemas so we took this opportunity to explore our relationship and experiences from a queer perspective to their extensive catalogue of films and television. We brought in experts Dr Lauren Rosewarne, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, academic, writer, commentator and broadcaster on sex, gender, pop culture,...

This week on Out Takes we turned the spotlight on two iconic Melbourne film festivals and looked at the the importance of local film festivals that tell stories by us, for us and about us. Our guests were the newly appointed program director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival Cerise Howard and St Kilda Film Festival director Richard Sowada.  St Kilda Film Festival is back in person and online from June 1 – 12  and supports the Australian film industry by turning the spotlight on...

It’s no secret that we love a good film festival at Out Takes, so we were excited to take a look at the South African Film Festival which returned to Melbourne and around Australia this May. For this show, we took a closer look at three films that showcase the diversity and talent of LGBTQ film makers and content coming out of South Africa that are featured in this years program. We were joined from South Africa the incredibly warm and talented creative duo Bonnie & Philani Sithebe to...

We loved bringing these interviews to you the first time around so here they are again for an encore presentation a.k.a. Out Takes Encore: The Interview Edition part 2. First up was our interview from July 2021 with director-producer Aaron Bear who’s poignant documentary ‘Yes I Am – The Ric Weiland Story’ has enjoyed much success on the film festival circuit and will be released on May 16 through Virgil Films;  pre-order the film right here and now. Later in the show, we revisited our...

JOY’s annual fundraising drive (a.k.a Radiothon) was back live from the Victorian Pride Centre for 2023 and for this show we were too, broadcasting live in the studio for the first time in a long time! The theme for this years Radiothon is ‘Together We Thrive’ so we took this opportunity to look at the intersection of community and film. Just as JOY is about community, so too is queer film. Both mediums look to reflect the voices of our diverse communities and give us opportunities to be seen...

To acknowledge Earth Day 2023, we took a look at a new Australian documentary and U.S. produced docu-series that deal with environmental issues from a queer perspective and the impact they have on our community. First up we spoke with Rachel Antony, one of the co-directors of ‘The Giants’, a wonderful hybrid documentary that explores the intertwined fates of trees and humans in a poetic portrait of environmentalist Bob Brown and the Forest. From a seedling to forest elder: the film draws on...

This year feels like it is flying by so for this show we pumped the brakes and revisited four of our favourite interviews from the past 12 months. First up was our chat with award winning director, content creator and newly published author Hannah McElhinney to discuss ‘TransAthletica’, the 17-part documentary series that focuses on the trans experience in a world of gendered sports and features the voices of leading transgender athletes and activists. Recently the team behind TransAthletica...

This year, we’ve been enjoying covering national film festivals, industry events and local LGBTIQ+ television. Hpwever, with a long weekend on our doorstep, we decided to look at some of the latest queer and LGBTIQ-adjacent television we’ve been enjoying recently and that we think you’ll enjoy too a.k.a. Out Takes Recommends: April 2023 edition! For this show, we looked at two fantastic new Australian releases (Wellness, Class of ’07), a genre defying series from the genius mind of Donald...

We talk about representation a lot on Out Takes but it always deserves revisiting. For this show, we took a deep dive into women’s representation on screen and behind the scenes  This ties in with the Being Seen on Screen Conference at Melbourne’s ACMI on April 5 which is presented in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, one of the world leaders in research and advocacy for representation of women on screens. Actors, activists, writers, directors, academics and...

‘Of An Age’ is a beautiful Melbourne-made film from the incredibly talented writer / director Goran Stolevski that tells the story of Kol (played by Elias Anton), a Serbian Australian teenager who enters a brief but intense romance with Adam (played by Thom Green), the brother of his ballroom dance partner Ebony. Their story plays out over a very long day in 1999 as they get to know more about each other and develop a brief but intense connection before going their separate ways. They are...

For this program, we turned the spotlight on to two new programs that explore Australia’s broad, diverse and in some cases, very hidden and heartbreaking queer history. First up we reviewed the highly anticipated new Aussie series ‘In Our Blood’ which premiered Sunday March 19 at 8.30PM on ABC TV, with all episodes then available to binge on ABC iview. This captivating four-part musical drama series is set in the 80’s, has an incredible cast with a fantastic selection of music from the time...

It’s all over for another year hut we can never let the Academy Awards pass without celebrating this iconic film event and give our picks for what will take out the big awards (spoiler alert: we agreed on some of them, disagreed on quite a few and got the winner of Best Film right for the first time in ages!). For this, the 95th Academy Awards, we not only cast our predictions for which films would nab the top awards of the night, we also revisited our chat with Australian icon Catherine...

Have your pride flags at the ready! With World Pride taking over Sydney, Australia and the World, we’re celebrating by looking at films from around the globe that make us PROUD. We looked at some of our favourite pride films and television from across the world and were joined by Moroccan film maker Maryam Touzani, whose delicate new queer film THE BLUE CAFTAN was the official Moroccan entry into the Academy Awards this year. We also spoke with Onir, the groundbreaking Indian director behind...

For this episode of Out Takes, we looked at three new films that look at grief, loss and what comes next for those left behind. We kicled off by talking about the show and a episode of ‘The Last of Us’ that tackled these themes head on, caused a huge buzz around the world and was hailed by the Guardian as “the single best episode of television that will be broadcast this year” and keep in mind, it’s only February. The first film we looket at was ‘Spoiler Alert’, based on Michael Ausiello’s...