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Festival coverage

Outfest Los Angeles

13 August – 22 August 2021

Firstness
Firstness

OutFest Los Angeles returned in 2021 with a blended programme of in-person events and online screenings, bringing you some of the best of LGBTQ+ cinema from all over the world.

Other years (4)

Latest reviews

  • Sediments
    Review preview for Sediments

    In its quiet, observational way, Sediments gets closer to the experience of what it means to be trans than any number of more direct interrogations.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Just as the Earth is, our inner selves are made up of many layers that make up our identity and tell the story of our existence.
  • Homebody
    Review preview for Homebody

    A tender-hearted comedy with a deep understanding of what it feels like to be a child.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Nine-year-old Johnny sends his spirit into his babysitter Melanie and gets to be a woman for a day.
  • The Novice
    Review preview for The Novice

    This is a stunning first feature.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A queer college freshman who joins her university’s rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost.
  • Invisible: Gay Women In Southern Music
    Review preview for Invisible: Gay Women In Southern Music

    Like the best country songs, it uses a simple format well, and it’s the sincerity, charm and good humour of its contributors that carries it.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    This documentary explores a group of gay women songwriters who have successfully navigated the male dominated country music genre and have written number one hits for some of country music's greatest stars.
  • Lady Buds
    Review preview for Lady Buds

    For a documentary directly focused on the money side of the cannabis industry in California, Russo finds poignancy in the roots of the plant’s history.

    Stephanie Brown · 4 out of 5
    The story of six women who come out of the shadows of the cannabis underground to enter the new commercial industry in California.
  • Boy Meets Boy
    Review preview for Boy Meets Boy

    Frequent close-ups build on the chemistry between the actors to capture that feeling when one individual suddenly seems bigger and brighter and louder than everything else in the world.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A brief encounter in a Berlin nightclub changes the course of two lives.
  • Everybody's Talking About Jamie
    Review preview for Everybody's Talking About Jamie

    Creative licence has been taken with Jamie's story, of course, but the essence of it - and particularly the emotional beats - have a strong ring of truth.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A teenager overcomes prejudice to fulfil his ambition of becoming a drag queen.
  • Knocking
    Review preview for Knocking

    Molocco’s performance is excellent and will make viewers feel for Molly even if they have no experience with this type of situation.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    When Molly moves into her new apartment after a tragic accident, a strange noise from upstairs begins to unnerve her. As its intensity grows, she confronts her neighbours – but no one seems to hear what she is hearing.
  • We Need To Do Something
    Review preview for We Need To Do Something

    Something extra is needed and fortunately this film has that.

    Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
    Trapped inside their bathroom for days after a tornado ravages their home, a family of four struggles to keep their composure. That’s nothing, however, compared to what’s coming for them beyond the bathroom’s walls.
  • Potato Dreams Of America
    Review preview for Potato Dreams Of America

    Quirky and a little uneven but appealingly sweet.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A true story about a gay boy growing up in the collapsing USSR, his courageous mail-order bride mother, and their adventurous escape to Seattle in the Nineties.

A–Z of Outfest Los Angeles 2021 reviews

Features

  • All or nothing
    Lauren Hadaway on obsession, self harm and shooting The Novice
  • Raising their voices
    TJ Parsell on Nashville, misogyny and Invisible: Gay Women In Southern Music
  • Bowled over
    Lyle Kash on creating new narratives and making Death And Bowling
  • At close quarters
    Sierra McCormick on pandemic filmmaking and We Need To Do Something
  • First contact
    Brielle Brilliant on forming connections, becoming more free, and Firstness
  • Five must-see films at OutFest LA
    LGBTQ+ films breaking the mould
  • Three's company
    Marion Hill on queer identity, polyamory and Ma Belle, My Beauty
  • A natural thing
    Park Kun-young on A Distant Place and the ongoing struggle for acceptance in South Korea
  • Between two women
    Mari Walker, Pooya Mohseni and Lynn Chen discuss getting real in See You Then