For this episode we are talking about seminal lesbian film Go Fish by Guinevere Turner and Rose Troche. Featuring fresh, unabashed depictions of the everyday life of young women in a thriving lesbian scene in a Chicago district in the early/mid 90s. 

Released in 1994, shot in black and white, employing a rather loose narrative and a ferocious independent spirit it fitted perfectly with New Queer Cinema movement of the early 90s. 
To talk to us about the film we invited back on the podcast, writer and culture critic Kira Deshler.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/gofishfilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on Twitter @LTCompanion / Instagram @ltcompanion

EPISODE 5 - GO FISH - Interview with Essayist and Culture Critic Kira Deshler

Directed by Chase Joynt and written by Joynt and Morgan P. Page, Framing Agnes uncovers the real-life stories of six trans individuals, including that of trans trailblazer Agnes Torres, divulged from the archives of the UCLA Gender Clinic in the 1950s under a research study lead by sociologist Harold Garfinkle. 

Joynt and Page break the fourth wall throughout the documentary with personal interviews with the actors as well as giving us behind-the-scenes access to the re-enactment scenes taking us on their journey of their directorial decision-making process.

We had the pleasure to speak to Joynt to tell us about the experience of making Framing Agnes.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/LTframingagnes

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 11: FRAMING AGNES - Interview With Chase Joynt

In this episode we talk about Brazilian film, the tongue twisting titled Três Tigres Tristes directed by Gustavo Vinagre. The film won the coveted Teddy Award at this year's Berlin film festival. 

Set in a dystopian Sao Paolo one which is similarly pandemic ridden. We follow three young queer protagonists as they traverse through the city making astute contemplations about the society they live and what the future holds for them, in a Sao Paolo that is bled dry by a memory-easing virus and rampant capitalism.

For this episode we chat to Vinagre, to tell us all about his film.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/LTTresTigresTristes

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 12: TRES TIGRES TRISTES - Interview With Gustavo Vinagre

In this episode we will be talking about the Egyptian film Bashataalak Sa’at, its English title ‘Shall I Compare You To A Summer’s Day’ by director Mohammad Shawky Hassan.

Loosely based on the Arabian folktale 'One Thousand And One NIghts' it also includes a plethora of other Egyptian, Arabic and western cultural influences. 
With a interchanging protagonists incorporating various experimentations of mixed media,  we see the existential contemplations of queer life, threesomes, Grindr hook-ups, love and loss.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/bashtaalaksaat

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 13: BASHTALAAK SA'AT - Interview With Mohammad Shawky Hassan

30 years to the date since the release of director Sally Potter’s film Orlando, a film that it is seen retrospectively as genderqueer. A period fantasy drama loosely based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography.  The androgynous Orlando is played by Tilda Swinton, traversing through time ageless and immortal.

Orlando’s transition from man to woman has been heralded by some as a trans story. On this episode we speak with film critic James Luxford about the genderqueer/ trans themes Orlando put's forward.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/orlandofilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 14: ORLANDO - Interview With Film Critic James Luxford

In this episode we talk about what Hong Kong film Happy Together by director Wong Kar-wai. Released in 1997, Happy Together is hailed as a seminal gay classic. A tale of a tumultuous coupling between gay couple Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai whose relationship appears to be continually in the throes of crisis, seemingly before but mostly after they migrate from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires in a bid to visit the Iguazu Falls.

Its a latter entry in the 90s New Queer Cinema, and one of Kar-wai’s most lauded films. Perhaps for its unabashed portrayal of these queer lives, unvarnished and true to life, as well as a multitude of moments of stunning beauty that one is accustomed to with the director’s films.

For this episode I had the pleasure to have once again have with film programmer and critic Alex Davidson, whose knowledge and insight on the film and Wong Kar-wai’s body of work is truly impressive. 

I hope you enjoy listening….

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/happytogetherfilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 15: Happy Together - Interview With Film Programmer & Critic Alex Davidson

For this episode where I had the chance to chat with Diego Aparicio the founder and festival director of Cyprus’ LGBTQIA+ film festival Queerwave. The festival is now in its third edition and is currently running from 25th of November till the 4th of December in venues around the capital Nicosia showing 16 long features and with over 55 shorts. 

We talked with Diego of how the festival is seeking out its own identity by providing a platform for creative queer voices locally and internationally.

Links: https://substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music:  James Jones  @james-jones-music 

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 16: Queer Wave Film Fest - Interview with Festival Director  Diego Aparicio

For this episode we will be talking about the Greek film Aggelos, a second instalment of what I would loosely call a series focused on films and cinematic themes from Greece and Cyprus.  Aggelos is a melodrama released in 1982 by the director Giorgos Katakouzinos who reinterpreted the real-life events of a murder of a young gay man by his partner, a few years before the film.

I invited Panos Poimenidis talk to me about the film. Panos is the one half of Studio Prokopiou, who long with his partner Phillip, they create photography and art inspired by film, theatre, mythology, the club scene and social media.  

Panos was a able to give me a very personal take on the film. Even if his own experiences growing up queer in Greece is 20 plus year later, he could still see the remnants of the topics addressed in Aggelos still lingering within Greek society to this day. 

Please note there are spoilers in our discussion.


Links: https://substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music 

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 17: Aggelos - Interview with Panos Poimenidis from Studio Prokopiou

We had the chance once again to interview programmer Brian Robinson to talk to us about this year's edition of the BFI Flare, taking place between 15th-26th March 2023.

Links: substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 18: BFI FLARE 2023 - Interview with BFI film programmer Brian Robinson

For this episode we chat with writer/ film critic Marina Ashioti about Greek film Attenberg by director Athina Rachel Tsangari.  

Released in 2010, Attenberg was part of the Greek New Wave or otherwise known as Weird Wave, usually consisted of independent films released mid to late 00s to the early  to mid 10s, reflecting a time of unprecedented economic and political upheaval in Greece. These films were seen to examine authoritarian power structures both at the national and familial level, often through the lens of an alienated protagonist, which is very much the case in Attenberg.

Attenberg's queerness is very much indebted to its unapologetically awkward protagonist Marina (Ariane Labade), who is intrinsically unable to fit into the heteronormative spaces she inhabits. Marina's predominantly asexual nature sees a sexual engagement with both women and men in a manner that's devoid of any emotion or desire. She is going through the motions, taking her mating cues from David Attenborough nature documentaries.

Links: substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

Follow us on T: @LTCompanion/ I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 19: Attenberg - Interview With Writer/ Critic Marina Ashioti

The Haunting (1963)

Directed by Robert Wise, it tells the story of a haunted house, centred around a group of individuals who for a research project gather and spend time at the house in a bid to prove the presence of paranormal activity. It’s a film that has influenced the horror genre greatly, spawning, reinterpretations, and remakes, including a Netflix series. 

Horror is a fertile genre for queer depictions. In the past horror filmmakers visualised queerness and ‘the other’ as monsters or vampires, in a bid to talk about queer topics. Beings that were dangerous and threatening to religious values, the family unit and society in general. Yet, is not the case with the representation in The Haunting, which is now seen as a subtle queer gem

The film's queerness lies with the character Theodora (Claire Bloom) an empowered, modern, independent woman, the antithesis of the usual queer depictions (of the time and since) portrayed either as monstrous or predatory or is these depressed meek individuals. In the podcast we further look at her relationship and possible mutual attraction with the film's protagonist Nell (Julia Harris).

For this episode we invited along visual artist and animator Jonny Long, where we investigate both the film's queer and horror credentials. 

Links: substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

Follow us on I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion

EPISODE 20: The Haunting - Interview With Visual Artist Jonny Long

Longtime Companion is a podcast dedicated to conversations and analysis of queer themes in film.

EPISODE 5 - GO FISH - Interview with Essayist and Culture Critic Kira Deshler

Longtime Companion

Related tracks