The theme of this year’s NewFest LGBTQ film festival in New York City is “Queer Cinema is an Act of Rebellion.”
“We are at a point where we have to make our voices heard,” festival executive director David Hutkoff told me ahead of tonight’s festival opening. “We need to make our presence known. We need to tell the world and those who would try to marginalize us or completely erase us that we’re not going anywhere…I think what festivals like NewFest do is create a space where people can belong to a community, remember that they’re part of something bigger than themselves, and even experience joy as an act of rebellion.”
Indeed, one film that unapologetically represents queer storytelling is “Fucktoys.” Writer/director Annapurna Sriram’s NSFW John Waters-inspired dark comedy follows a stripper and sex worker (Sriram) in a fictional location called Trashtown who tries to scrape together $1,000 to pay a tarot card reader (Big Freedia) to remove a mysterious curse.
“I feel like it perfectly embodies the idea that queer cinema is an act of rebellion,” Hatkov says. “We can march in the streets, but we can also gather 500 queer people in a room and watch a totally raucous movie like ‘Fuck Toys’ and have a good laugh. The laughter that will echo through the walls of the SVA Theater Friday night is rebellion.”
The film stars “13 Reasons Why” star Brandon Flynn as an actor in the area who hires a trans male sex worker (Sadie Scott) for an afternoon of kinky fun.
Flynn’s scenes are not for those clutching their pearls. At one point, he is shown being fisted while wearing a rubber jockstrap and a gold-painted penis extender.
His character’s name is – get ready! – James Francone. “Obviously, there are some well-known names in the industry, but he’s really a combination of several actors that I looked to in developing him,” Flynn says. “One of the actors was starring in a movie that was like an autobiography to him, and he said in an interview that his character’s appendages were bigger than he was. So he was basically wearing things like extenders to feel like he had bigger appendages. I thought, ‘That’s totally insane.’
When it comes to fisting scenes, Flynn explains that he enjoys stepping out of his comfort zone to discover and embrace unexpected performances. But more simply, he says he knows famous actors who are into kinky play. “I happen to know a lot of sex workers who have had to sign NDAs for very high-profile clients,” Flynn says. “I think there was an interesting element of truth to the story that Annapurna was telling, which is this hypocrisy, these dual worlds, these infrastructures and systems that are always rubbing against each other.”
Sadie Scott and Brandon Flynn from Fuck Toys.
Flynn is currently set to star as James Dean in Willie and Jimmy Dean, a biopic about William Bast’s alleged gay college romance. The film, written and directed by Guy Guido, is based on Bast’s 2006 memoir, “Surviving James Dean.”
Flynn didn’t mince words when asked why it took so long to portray Dean’s queer life on film, although rumors of Dean’s queerness have persisted since his untimely death in 1955 at just 24 years old. “Simply put, I think the whole world is really homophobic,” Flynn says. “He really became the ideal male icon. Just like hardcore, James Dean is the real man. But he was also emotional. I think that shakes people up, especially people’s fragile heterosexuality. I think it’s important that we bring these stories to light because Jimmy wasn’t the only one.”
Flynn has been openly gay for most or all of his career. “I can’t imagine living any other way,” he says. “I’m proud to be an actor and sing this song from the rooftops. There’s a tradition to it and a responsibility to it.”
NewFest will be held in New York City and online from October 9th to 21st.
