The 12th-annual HUMP! Festival, created and curated by out advice columnist and activist Dan Savage, is on the road again, coming to Philadelphia May 12-13. Each year the festival presents an evening of homegrown amateur short porn films, which feature a wide range of body sizes, shapes, ages, colors, sexualities, genders, kinks and fetishes.
Sisters are doing it for themselves in the queer-themed Israeli film “In Between,” playing May 1 at the Gershman Y as part of the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival’s “CineMondays” program.
The multi-talented, mono-monikered and openly gay singer/songwriter Laurice will headline a dance party at Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art on April 28. The performer may be unfamiliar to American audiences — perhaps because his music was often deemed “too gay” for airplay — but Laurice has plenty of hits, including “I’m Gonna Smash Your Face In,” “When Christine Comes Around” and “Disco Spaceship.” On the phone from Canada, Laurice chatted with PGN about his upcoming show.
“The Assignment,” opening April 7 at AMC Cherry Hill, has already upset the trans community for its “high-concept” plot about Dr. Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver), performing an unwanted gender-reassignment surgery on hit man Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez).
The uproar, which is not unjustified, concerns two issues: first, that the film’s idea of gender-reassignment surgery is an act of punishment; and second, that the Kitchen character was not played by a trans actress. However, director Walter Hill and co-screenwriter Denis Hamill seem more impressed with the idea of their film than doing any justice to its execution.
Comic Cure: Comedy for a Cause is bringing its Pride Comedy Festival to Philadelphia March 15. The showcase of LGBTQIAP and ally comedians will perform to benefit William Way LGBT Community Center.
