For the first episode of the Longtime Companion podcast host Daniel Theophanous talks with poet & writer Richard Scott about 2013 French queer thriller Stranger By The Lake, where a tucked away gay cruising spot becomes a scene of a curious murder.

Stranger By Lake was directed by Alain Guiraudie, and stars Pierre Deladonchamps and Christophe Paou. 

Available to rent on the BFI Player https://player.bfi.org.uk

Music: Avant Garde by https://soundcloud.com/tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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Avant Guard

EPISODE  1 - STRANGER BY THE LAKE - Interview with Poet/ Writer Richard Scott

For this episode we discuss the recent proliferation of the lesbian period drama genre. Along with writer and essayist Kira Deshler, we disucuss whether such period films are more palatable way for a straight, mostly white audience to digest gay stories. 

Please find links to films and writings mentioned in the show below.

Kira Deshler's work include:
Substack: https://kiradeshler.substack.com
Video Essay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfSEDi8_03E

The films talked about in today's episode include:

Portrait of A Lady On Fire https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8613070/ 

Summerland: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6841122/

Desert Hearts: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089015/

Ammonite: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7983894/

Music: Avant Garde by https://soundcloud.com/tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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Avant Garde

EPISODE 2 - LESBIAN PERIOD DRAMAS - Interview with Essayist/ Culture Critic Kira Deshler

For this episode we talk to Romanian director Eugen Jebeleanu about his upcoming debut film Poppyfield. A tightly constructed drama about an anti-gay rally told through the imagined perspective of closeted policeman Cristi (played by Conrad Mericoffer). 
Poppyfield explores the conflicting intersectionalities of LGBTQI+groups and religious groups and the psychological impact of growing up gay in a conservative society.

LINKS:

Poppyfield https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11768008/ 

BFI Flare https://www.bfi.org.uk/flare  

Article about Bucharest The Kids Are Alright screening: https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/you-kids-are-alright/ 

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 3 - POPPYFIELD - Interview with Film Director Eugen Jebeleanu

For this episode we invite LGBTQI+ film and culture critic Ben Walters to talk to us about film Moffie. Released in 2020 and directed about a young, white soldier Nicholas Van Swart whose sexuality burgeons amidst the horrors of conscription in the early 80s, in apartheid South Africa. 

We discuss the film's themes of brutality, shame and degradation, as well as Hermanus directorial flair and his previous film Beauty. 

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/moffiefilm

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 4 - MOFFIE - Interview with Film Critic Ben Walters

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

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

For this episode we talk about recent release ‘Great Freedom’ (Grosse Freiheit) starring Franz Rogowski as Hans, a German gay man who under punitive laws finds himself in and out of incarceration from post-World War 2, late 40s all through to 1968 when homosexuality was finally legalised in Germany. In prison, a slow and surprisingly delicate relationship between Hans and his straight cell mate Viktor begins to develop.

To talk to us about the film we invited Diego Semerene, Assistant Professor of Queer and Transgender Media at University of Amsterdam and film critic for Slant magazine. 


LINKS: tinyurl.com/GreatFreedom

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 6 - GREAT FREEDOM/ GROSSE FREIHEIT - Interview with Film Critic Diego Semerene

We dedicate this episode to this year’s BFI Flare, the British Film Institute’s (BFI) annual LGBTQIA+ film festival, currently running from the 16th to 27th March 2022. Full details of the programme can be found here: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online/default.asp 

We had the privilege to speak to one of the longtime film programmers Brian Robinson to tell us about this year’s programme of films but also about his own incredible vast experience of programming the festival over four decades. We recorded the episode in an open corner at the BFI, so you may hear some of the hustle and bustle around us. 

I would also like to express my apologies, as during our conversation we mention a couple of films which in the moment we were unable to remember their titles. I have since located the names of the films and I have included links to them below. 


LINKS - tinyurl.com/272dura7


Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 7 - BFI FLARE 2022  - Interview with BFI Programmer Brian Robinson

It is now over 50 years since the release of German director Rosa Von Praunheim's ground-breaking gay classic  ‘It Is Not the Homosexual who is Perverse but the Society he Lives in’. Part sociological essay/ part gay manifesto, the film is said to have pronounced the rebirth of the Berlin gay scene in the 1970s from its heyday under the Weimar Republic of the 20s. 

For this episode we talk with film critic Călin Boto about the film and its brilliant director. 



LINKS -  https://tinyurl.com/y4u8f3z5

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 8: IT IS NOT THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO IS PERVERSE.... - Interview With Calin Boto

For this episode we will talk with film programmer and critic Alex Davidson about British director Terence Davies latest film, Benediction. 

This is Davies second filmic ode to a poet, following 2016 A Quiet Passion about Emily Dickinson. Davies's beautiful interpretation of Siegfried Sassoon uncovers a colourful if melancholic life tinged with unhappiness. We discuss in depth Sassoon’s sexuality, his gay relationships, his subsequent marriage to a woman and conversion to Catholicism. 

Further looking at the director's past work, putting into context his own public struggles with his sexuality.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/mv3kmnxz

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 9: BENEDICTION -  Interview With Film Programmer & Critic Alex Davidson

For this episode we will be talking about Queer East, an LGBTQ+ film festival that showcases rarely seen queer cinema from East and Southeast Asia and seeks to amplify the voices of Asian communities in the UK. Now in its third edition, the festival will run from the 18th -29th May 2022 at venues throughout London.

LINKS: https://tinyurl.com/QueerEast 

Music: Avant Garde by @tinymusic_aka_florianseraul

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EPISODE 10: QUEER EAST - Interview With Festival Programmer Yi Wang

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 

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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 

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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

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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

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

Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

This episode is once again horror themed episode where I am joined again by Jonny Long, a visual artist and filmmaker, to discuss and dissect possibly one of the queerest horrors ever, Nightmare on Elm Street2: Freddy Revenge.

The film is the second installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise  and features  antagonistic figurehead Freddy Kruger, a malevolent spirit of a child killer who usually plagues and kills people in their dream. His signature burnt face, red and green stripe jumper and trademark metal-clawed, brown leather glove has become the symbol for 80s horror.

A film very characteristic of this golden decade horror, but not just in its horror but also in the setting of the high school and the subsequent stereotypical high-school dynamics, depicting teenagers as high highly sexualized. Yet simultaneously inadvertently or maybe not so inadvertently as we will discover, Freddy’s Revenge is a very gay film, with a copious examples of examples not so subtle subtext, touching upon anxieties present in the time of release in 1985 in the backdrop of the AIDS crisis and a Republican conservative America

Links: substack.com/daniel-theophanous

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

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EPISODE 21: Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge - Interview With Visual Artist Jonny Long

Martyr (2018)

When I attended BFI Flare a few years back, I came across a Lebanese film by filmmaker Mazen Khaled called Martyr which left quite an imprint on me. I was taken aback by its beauty and its meditative pace which along with its deliberate experimental flourishes created an immersive drama which subtly commented on Lebanese society and further contemplating ritualistic traditions, specifically around tragedy and death.

Mazen’s choice of mise-en-scene in some moments is reminiscent of a renaissance painting, filtered through a Middle Eastern lens, telling the story of disenfranchised young man Hassan from Beirut, who sees an abrupt end to his life when in act of peacocking, jumps into the Beirut corniche, the city’s rocky seaside promenade. And what follows is a continuous, flowing montage of transporting Hassan’s dead body from the water through the city to his parents’ house.  

In retrospect I feel what captured my attention was the film’s tantalising homoerotism even if its subject matter isn’t necessarily queer. With copious amounts of explicit male flesh, predominantly of Hassan’s body, as well as his friend’s and an abundance of scenes of non-sexual physical intimacy between them. I felt that Mazen boldly queerizes a traditional Islamic tradition yet simultaneously highlighted my own affected Western gaze, which is perhaps narrow-minded in its view of male intimacy.I had the privilege  a few weeks back to chat with the director himself, now based in Florida, over zoom. Where he filled me in on the whole process of making Martyr, its unintentional queerness and the meaning of martyrdom in Islam. 

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

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EPISODE 22: MARTYR - Interview with filmmaker Mazen Khaled

Greek Pete (2009)
Dir. Andrew Haigh

Greek Pete is a documentary /mockumentary drama released in 2009. It is the debut film by British director Andrew Haigh, who’s camera gains unfettered access into the day-to-day existence of gay male escort Pete Pittaros. Filming him over a prolonged period time, documenting all aspects of his life. From the interactions with clients, his relationship, his friendships, his ambitions, his contradictions, his work ethic, to his family and his immigrant background. 

Without it ever being exploitative or judgemental, Haigh’s first feature is a bold, in-depth character study which highlights the life of an individual who functions very much in the periphery. The film is indicative what is to become Haigh’s signature style, a reserved observing style which simultaneously feels very intimate. In Greek Pete he zooms in on the mundaneness of Pete’s life in equal measures as the more extraordinary moments. Scenes of Pete doing house chores muster the same sensation as a full-on explicit sex scene with a client. Further having Pete at points, just ramble on at the camera, he manages to capture what lies beneath the muscled, sexed-up, ambitious bravado, which is a sensitive, young, immature soul, still trying to make sense of his life.

Joining me on this episode is film critic Gary Kramer who boldly agreed to talk to me about the film. Gary has extensively written about queer films and his writing can currently be seen in Salon.com, Gay City News, San Francisco Bay Times, Philadelphia Gay News, The Queer Archives etc

Thank you for listening.

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

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EPISODE 23: Greek Pete - Interview with film critic Gary Kramer

Paris 05:09 Theo and Hugo (2016)

Dir. Oliver Ducastel and Jacques Martineau

For this episode will be talking about the film Paris 05:09 Theo and Hugo. Released in April 2015, Theo and Hugo is directed by French director duo and real-life couple Oliver Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. 

The film stands out for its striking with its 20-minute opening scene which takes place in a Parisian gay sex club, where we are privy to a continuous un-simulated orgy. Visuals which feature copious amounts of naked male flesh and erect penises in all manner of sexual positions. What is most interesting, despite the scene's explicitness it never feels gratuitous, exploitative, or unnecessary. Theo and Hugo explores ever so delicately the boundaries of what is deemed pornographic in the context of arthouse cinema.

Once out the sex club, the film takes a romantic trajectory but one with a twist as the protagonist couple traverse through the Parisian night. The revelation of Hugo’s HIV status complicates matters for the new-found lovers, but in doing so brings forth vital discussions around HIV and gay relationships in the modern world of pep and prep, scarcely explored cinematically elsewhere.

For this episode, I invited back on film critic Gary Kramer. I hope you enjoy our discussion as much as I did. Thank you for listening!

Music: James Jones @james-jones-music

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EPISODE 24: Theo & Hugo - Interview with film critic Gary Kramer

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

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