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It’s All About Frankie from BEACH RATS

Director Eliza Hittman and star Harris Dickinson discuss the character of Frankie in BEACH RATS.

Frankie doesn’t really know where he’s headed or what he wants, but he does know what kind of behavior is off-limits in the heteronormative culture he’s grown up in. The web is his only real outlet to explore his attraction to other men. As Hittman describes it, “Frankie’s testing the waters. He’s thinking of the internet as being his channel to a world that might exist a few subways stops away, one that is more adventurous and progressive.” After his father’s passing, Frankie takes the next step and begins hooking up with some of the men he meets online.

Meanwhile, Frankie’s relationship with Simone progresses in fits and starts. Simone, who is also 19, is cut from different cloth than Frankie’s regular companions, Alexie, Frankie and Nick. She has a regular job and is conscientious about her responsibilities. She perceives and empathizes with Frankie’s emotional pain and is willing to forgive his faults, up to a point. “Simone is more aspirational than the men in film; she has a sense of purpose,” says Hittman. “She might want to make it work with Frankie, but in the end she’s capable of letting it go.”

Hittman didn’t write BEACH RATS as a coming-out narrative or a story about someone coming to terms with their sexuality. “Frankie’s an inarticulate 19-year-old who is slowly coming to consciousness about who he is,” she remarks. “For me, what was at the crux of the character was that he kind of knows but doesn’t know. He’s clinging onto his indecision; His answer for everything is ‘I don’t know.’ I think that’s very typical for a guy that age who is kind of incapable of saying anything about how he’s feeling.”

In trying to navigate his competing desires, Frankie makes decisions that lead to unintended and ultimately terrible consequences. Hittman was careful to show that when violence does erupt, it is spontaneous, a long-brewing fury that has found its escape valve.

Hittman spent approximately two years developing and writing the screenplay for BEACH RATS after receiving a fellowship from the nonprofit film foundation Cinereach (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, TEENAGE, SALERO), which had previously helped support the distribution of IT FELT LIKE LOVE. To the production executives at Cinereach, Hittman’s screenplay affirmed the promise shown by IT FELT LIKE LOVE and they decided to take on the project as a Cinereach original production. Says production head Andrew Goldman, “Eliza is a bold and insightful filmmaker. She has a unique ability to create a cinematic world wrought with complexities and nuances that few storytellers can capture on film. BEACH RATS is a big leap forward for her and we’re so thrilled to be part of her continued growth and success.”

Brad Becker-Parton and Drew Houpt joined Cinereach’s Goldman and Paul Mezey to produce BEACH RATS and began the casting process in the spring of 2016. The role of Frankie was not an easy one to cast, given the film’s psychological subtlety, sexual candor and frontal nudity. The production found its Frankie in a young English actor, Harris Dickinson, who makes his feature debut in BEACH RATS.

Dickinson says his interest in BEACH RATS was piqued by the email from his representatives in Los Angeles. “They said that screenplay was a bit rough-and-tumble and I might not like it. Those are usually the scripts that I want to read, because they’re unconventional,” he laughs. “I started reading and I loved it straightaway. I felt the tone of it, I felt the pace. The character jumped off the page for me — I was feeling it and reading as Frankie. It’s rare when something like that happens and it makes you really enthusiastic about the project. You want to be that character and you want to tell that story.”

He appreciated the observational nature of the script. “It’s not a typical problem-and resolution narrative. It’s an honest and raw look at a period in someone’s life,” the actor remarks. “We start the film and we’re introduced to the fact that Frankie’s father has cancer. It’s a time for Frankie where nothing is secure, nothing is solid in his own head. His father dying is a weird thing for him. He doesn’t really show much emotion in the script or in the film, he doesn’t react to it in the traditional way. A lot of the time, someone is a closed book and there are these brief moments where the book opens for a slight second and you see the underlying sadness, the underlying hate and fear and insecurity.”

Dickinson wasted no time making an audition tape, which made a powerful impression on Hittman. “The first thing that stood out to me was his very deep voice. But then he had this sort of gangly, teenager body and very intriguing eyes,” she recalls. “Harris’ acting was very subtle and didn’t telegraph anything that was internal. He didn’t transform, he didn’t take it to melodrama. He had a natural sense of rhythm and understanding of the dialogue. It was clear that he was a leading man and that he could carry the weight of the film on his shoulders.”

Dickinson’s upbringing in suburban London gave him a certain insight into the environment he would inhabit as Frankie. Says Hittman, “Harris is from the outer edges of London, which is not that different from the outer edges of Brooklyn and Queens and there are a lot of similar class issues. He understood the world perfectly. It was like he knew these guys without ever having been to New York,” she comments. She also felt affinity for his approach to acting. “Harris is very intuitive. He doesn’t want to talk in depth about the character. He wants to focus more on the behavior. He understands that acting is an act of doing. He’s a very serious and thoughtful young actor, very mature and focused.”

Read about the origins of BEACH RATS here.

Maysaloun Hamoud director of IN BETWEEN

Born to communist parents in Budapest where her father was studying medicine, Maysaloun grew up in Dir Hanna, a village in the North of Israel.

After a Masters in History of the Middle East at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Maysaloun’s interest shifted towards cinema. In 2012, she graduated from the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv. She has been living and working in Jaffa for the past nine years.

From 2010 to 2013, Maysaloun was in charge of communications at the Tel Aviv based NGO SADAKA, which promotes political and social change.

Since 2009, she is a member of the group PALESTINEMA, a group of young filmmakers whose objective is to promote Arab culture by organising screenings of films in Israel and Palestine

Maysaloun Hamoud, July 2017 Tel Aviv Yaffo.

Maysaloun Hamoud -photo by Anne Maniglier

Maysaloun Hamoud in conversation with Haggai Matar – +972 Magazine

Is Tel Aviv the condition for freedom? Could this happen elsewhere, or is the Jewish hegemony in which the story is set needed for the girls’ feminist liberation?

“The movie takes place in Tel Aviv, because I wanted the imagery to be within a hegemonic space, but the scene in which they live is in Jaffa. The essence of the scene is Jaffa-Tel Aviv, and the plot-lines draw a lot of inspiration from what happens around me and from real characters in my own life…

Tel Aviv is a city, and that’s what a city does. It challenges. The same things would likely happen in Beirut or Amman…Tel Aviv is not the Berlin of the Middle East. It’s just the city that’s here. The scene here is unique because it’s Jewish-Arab, with a lot of mutual influence. Most young Palestinians in the city believe in a shared life, while the Jews [in this particular community] are left-wing and anti-Zionist, which is like a glue that creates mixed couples.”

The difference between religion and the religious

… “The atmosphere of the Arab Spring didn’t skip Palestine/Israel, we were all with them in spirit — in the opposition to oppression, patriarchy, chauvinism and the perpetuation of the old system. This generation can no longer continue playing around with obsolete codes. We have to put everything on the table, because as long as we keep sweeping our fears under the carpet, the carpet will rise and we will stumble. Fundamentalism is a serious disease, and if we don’t shake out the carpet it’s likely going to be too late.”

Now that the film has been commercially released, what response are you expecting to these sentiments, which are also at the heart of the movie?

“Some people will want to hang us in the town square, for sure. The conservatives. The film does something very clever: I don’t say a single bad thing about religion. Everyone has his own faith. That’s not what the religious say, but even among them there are no ‘bad guys.’ There are characters you fall in love with in conservative society as well. Nour wears a hijab; she isn’t leaving the faith. Yes, she’s searching for a place of liberation in her own world — the religious, believing world — and that’s the place I’m searching for. So I’m very curious as to what the religious will pick up from the film.

The film doesn’t let liberals off the hook. It holds up a mirror to them too. We all know those families, Christian or Muslim, that are terribly open, but in moments of truth everyone falls in line behind the same traditions. It’s not just Nour’s family from Umm al-Fahm — it’s also that of Salma, the Christian. And the film doesn’t go easy on Jews, either. Maybe they’ll say, ‘Hey, it happens among us too, how great,’ but they need to address the fact that they always leave Arabs out. It’s a case of not here, not there. But the essence [of the film] is the intra-Palestinian conversation.”

InBetween5_ImagebyYaniv_Berman small web

Drugs and alcohol are a significant part of the film — marijuana, MDMA and more. What does that mean to you?

“First of all, during the first party in the film they’re taking Ritalin, and that’s intentional, because the parents watching the movie are themselves giving their kids Ritalin. Coke generates more antagonism, so I didn’t put an emphasis on it.

But there’s more to say beyond that. We want to say that the current period is like the Sixties of the Arab world, and in an underground which you don’t want in the Middle East, everyone is taking every drug. It’s integral to the scene, and it influences identity, politics and culture. If we’re already doing it, why not show it?”

Balls in the face of BDS [The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.]

Success aside, In Between also sheds light on the complications of politics and identity faced by many Palestinian citizens of Israel who are filmmakers. For example, Hamoud put together a soundtrack featuring original music by artists from different countries in the region, whose names she could not publish and who couldn’t be credited in the movie. The movie also features music by DAM, a Palestinian hip-hop group from Lod, who wrote a dance song especially for the film. “They were amazing collaborators and I love them so much,” Hamoud says.

Other artists who saw earlier versions of the movie wanted to collaborate, but ultimately felt that their reputation would be in danger if they worked on a film funded by Israeli government institutions.

One day, Hamoud met a musician in Ramallah who was especially enthusiastic when he heard the movie’s plot and watched some of the rushes. “So I told him, yalla, we’ve put ourselves on the line for this movie, put yourselves on the line and say, ‘We’ll be the first people to look at the complexity, at the Palestinians who are inside [Israel – h.m.].’ But in the end they refused, despite knowing that they were contradicting themselves. There’s no link between the synchronization among us and the separation that reality has created.

“Yes, the state is giving me money, because I deserve to make films from the money I pay [in taxes]. I’m not ashamed, and I deserve even more. And still, I would have taken money from elsewhere in order to lift the cloud of a boycott, but there’s nowhere else. So I took from the state, and the film will be screened as an Israeli-French movie, despite it being mostly Arab-Palestinian.”

InBetween11_Yaniv_Berman small web

Bitter candy

“People in the Israeli cinema world have never worked with the Arab community. They don’t know what it is. Arabs don’t go to the movies much, because there aren’t cinemas in their communities, they watch Hollywood films at home and there are no local movies they want to see. Now all of a sudden they have a reason to go out, and we need to make use of this swell in order to bring other people into the industry.”

But the most important thing of all for Hamoud is her dream that her movie will open up a “new era of representation of women in Palestinian cinema, in which the woman is at the center and not behind the male character,” she says.

“In most Palestinian movies the political story dominates the plot, and so [women] are generally represented as victims. Even in my early movies [filmed when she was a student – h.m.] I told women’s stories via men’s heroics. The women I want to show are all around us but are invisible in the movies. Gender, activism and liberation from the patriarchy can be feminist, even if that word doesn’t necessarily define the women themselves. One way of telling this complex story of women, and the weighty issues that accompany it, was to wrap the whole tale in simple cinematic language, almost American. It’s also the women’s internal language in the film. They are burdened by the outside world, but they see themselves in the same image we are accustomed to seeing in the cinematic output of a liberated and vibrant society. The film’s producer, Shlomi Elkabetz, calls this “bitter candy” — something wrapped in flamboyance and beauty. You get into the film, and then get kicked in the stomach.”

Translated from Hebrew by Natasha Roth.

Tom of London?

In an exclusive interview with Durk Dehner, co-founder and president of the Tom of Finland Foundation, we heard plenty of insightful tales about the gay icon where it was revealed he even came close to becoming Tom of London. By the late 1960s Tom (real name Touko Laaksonen) had made plenty of visits to the UK capital and thrown himself into the emerging underground leather scene, one which he had heavily influenced through his erotic art. Along with friend and leather club entrepreneur Felix Jones, he embraced a fetish flourishing London and was close to permanently sharpening his pencil in the big smoke. However, restrictions in the British postal service proved too invasive and would have called a halt on the artists already well established homoerotic mailing operation.

Touko was distributing his work way before the internet, PayPal or buy-with-one-click even existed. He would create a printed catalogue with around 40-50 of his recent drawing and distribute around the world to an established and trusted network. Replying with a list of their selected prints, clients would include payment often in their own currency leaving the artist to act as Bureau de Change. But it worked; his macho fetish drawings were making their way across the globe, almost on an unconscious mission to start revolution and influence gay culture.

Dehner first clasped his eyes on a Touko drawing in a leather bar called The Spike in New York City and like most reactions to the stimulating art, it hauled his attention. Whilst working as a male model, being photographed by no other than Bruce Webber, Durk wrote a fan letter to Touko which was the origin of a yearlong pen pals friendship with the pair eventually meeting in 1978 just before the artist’s first US exhibition. Through building a treasured relationship which crossed boundaries from professional, personal and intimate, together spread the fetish word, steadily building the Tom of Finland brand which today lends its name to condoms, oven mitts, bath towels and coffee (oh and cock rings, nipple clamps and handcuffs).

We’re sure there’s plenty more stories which we’ll never know about the man behind the giant graphite gentiles but we’re certainly more educated than when we first caught a glimpse of those fine Finnish exports.

Tom of Finland is released UK wide from 11th August, book tickets http://www.tomoffinlandthemovie.co.uk/

50 Years What to Watch

50 Years What to Watch. It’s proving to be a Summer of Love for the LGBTQ+ community. Not just with this being pride season across the country, but also this being a significant year for LGBT history being the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act established in 1967, which legalised sex between two consenting men above the age of 21 in England and Wales.

Queer lives have been reflected on our screens over the decades in both positive and not-so-positive lights. This anniversary is the perfect opportunity to watch the groundbreaking films and TV shows that presented queer lives in all their glory over the past 50 years and beyond. BBC and Channel 4 have also commissioned a range of fascinating documentaries and drama series centred around the 50 year anniversary. Keep reading for a run down of what’s on this summer and 50 years what to watch suggestions;

BFI: Gross Indecency

The BFI is screening a series of classic films, TV and archive material throughout July and August that address the more problematic on-screen relationships with queer portrayal on British film and TV. This includes The Leather Boys, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Edward II.

Picturehouse Cinemas: Criminal Acts A Charged Past

Launching with The Naked Civil Servant, Picturehouse have programmed a season of landmark British film including Andrew Haigh’s Weekend on 18 July. Since Peccadillo released it in 2011, it has become a modern classic, winning many awards and international critical acclaim, as well as launching Andrew’s meteoric career along with his two leading men, Tom Cullen and Chris New.

Channel 4: 50 Shades of Gay

At the forefront of LGBT programming in the 80s and 90s, Channel Four has a series of documentaries available on All4 that look at the social and cultural changes of the past 50 years including Rupert Everett presented 50 Shades of Gay.

BBC: Gay Brittania

BBC ONE: Man in an Orange Shirt – Broadcasting soon

A two-part drama about two gay love stories from across generations written by best-selling novelist Patrick Gale and directed by Michael Andrews. It Stars Julian Morris, David Gyasi, Tommy Bastow, alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Frances De La Tour.

Accompanying this are a documentary on Patrick, What Gay Did For Art which looks at the contribution of LGBT people to British culture and Is It Safe To Be Gay in UK? a hard hitting investigation into the alarming rise in homophobic attacks.

BBC TWO: Against the Law – 26 July

Against The Law,starring Daniel Mays, Charlie Creed-Miles and Mark Gatiss, tells the true story of Peter Wildeblood’s affair with a handsome serviceman that led to him being jailed during the 1950s. The drama is interwoven with real-life testimonies from men who lived through those pre-1967 years, experiencing jail and even subjected to aversion therapy.

BBC THREE: Queer Britain

Presenter Riyadh Kalif, delves into issues that still face the LGBTQ+ such as faith, body image, homelessness, porn and racism in thisbreezy BBC Three series. Available on iPlayer.

There’s plenty to entertain, stimulate and provoke your viewing pleasures this summer, far more than we could fit on this list of 50 years what to watch, so if you have anything else you think we should include get in touch on Facebook or Twitter

Girls on Film 2

It’s time for Girls on Film 2.

Here at Peccadillo we really believe in supporting independent cinema in all forms and one of the many ways we do this is through our short film collections like Girls on Film 2. This year we set ourselves the challenge of re-launching this the sister of the incredibly successful Boys of Film series and given that the first Girls on Film was released in 2014, a three year hiatus was quite enough.

For Girls on Film 2 our agenda was simple, we wanted to find the best lesbian and feminist shorts that were out there and our search took us across the globe. We have vengeful dolls from Germany, Algerian teenage rebels, tennis court tantrums from Iceland and romantic swimmers from Australia. It’s an eclectic mix of drama, documentary, animation and horror, and look out for Rebecca Henderson (Appropriate Behaviour, Miss America) in Jeremy Hersh’s Actresses where a young fan comes face to face with her idol.

UK talent comes from Silly Girl, by Hope Dickson Leach, director of the recently released feature The Levelling and co-written by Game of Thrones’ Ellie Kendrick; Rob Savage’s chilling Dawn of The Deaf featuring Emily Bevan (TV’s Doc Marten, Grantchester); and Max Disgrace’s erotically charged Crystal Clear

The process of collating a collection like this takes many many months, reviewing hundreds of short films until we pull together a shortlist. Once we lock in our final choices, we get cracking on marketing campaigns, promotions, graphic design specifications and social media plans, all to make sure our audience is excited and ready for the big release (which is 24^th July, go on…get the diary out…write it down).

We definitely wanted to make Girls on Film 2 a selection that is reflective of our diverse audience whilst also show casing the brilliant creativity of filmmakers and we’ve certainly succeeded in that mission. In fact, this year we watched so many excellent films, there was too many to pick from (so Girl on Film 3 will soon be around the corner) but for now, dive in and enjoy this incredible line up.

Girls On Film 2: Before Dawn is released on DVD and On-Demand 24 July

Amazon UK – http://amzn.to/2u9X9vD

Tom of Finland – A Friday to remember

One week on and we’re still feeling the amazing vibes from last Friday, a night to remember with Tom of Finland. If you were there, lucky you, if you weren’t; sit down, feet up, pour yourself a drink and we’ll tell you a story….

Once upon a time (also known as the 30^th June) there was an event called the East End Film Festival (EEFF). People came from across the capital, with dirty smiles on their faces and dressed in their finest LEATHER! This could only mean one thing, it was the UK premiere of TOM OF FINLAND THE MOVIE.

We knew early in the week tickets had sold out so to say we were excited was an understatement. All glammed up and raring to go, Peccadillo HQ headed up the road to the Hackney Picturehouse.

The night began with our dear friends Spirit Cartel serving up some amazing cocktails made with their delicious Tom of Finland Organic Vodka. Once the glasses were dry it was time to head into screen one (the biggest screen we’ll have you know) and get settled but not before an inspiring introduction from the film’s director Dome Karukoski.

As the lights went down the audience were treated to two hours of fantastic cinema and the fun didn’t stop there, as the credits went up Alex Karotsch from Fringe Film Fest was joined by Dome for a Q&A but we had one big surprise up our sleeve! After two questions Dome was joined on stage by no other than Durk Dehner, co-founder of The Tom of Finland Foundation. Fresh off a flight from LA, Durk dressed in full leather was greeted by a roar of cheers from the London crowd. He went on to talk about Tom as his friend, the history and future of the foundation and the collaborative process between him and Dome to bring this iconic story to the big screen. It really was such a treat to have both of them there, something which we’ll cherish for a long long time.

We finished the Q&A with a few questions from the audience but then there was no time to waste, an after party at THE GLORY was calling our name and boy did they do us proud. This was a party to remember, we even had leather Go-Go dancers which certainly got the crowd hot under the dog collar.

The bash was a real celebration of freedom, pride and love. We even got slightly watery eyed when some party goers shook Dome & Durk’s hands to thank them for making this film and described how much Tom and his work means to them.

As the night came to a close, there was only really one last thing to do…give out the prizes for best dressed. The competition was fierce but there can only be one winner however, big shout out to all of you who got your gear on and did Tom proud.

If you missed all that we can only imagine your devastation but we have some good news, TOM OF FINLAND THE MOVIE is out in cinemas on 11^th August UK wide so make sure you visit www.tomoffinlandthemovie.co.uk to find a venue near you.

Losing our Satellite Virginity to This Lot

We had an incredible night last Sunday (April 2nd) thank you for that. We woke up on Monday aching and tired but it was worth it, you took our satellite virginity and it was amazing.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, who missed the adverts, interviews, reviews, posts, tweets, trailers and posters (where have you been?) this weekend we broke new ground.; we held not just our first, but the UK’s first live cinema event ever for an LGBTQ+ film.

At four o’clock on Sunday our brilliant film WHO’S GONNA LOVE ME NOW? played to audiences in over 40 cinemas across the country, followed by a live Q&A hosted by the wonderful Julian Clary and a performance by the London Gay Men’s Chorus. If you haven’t heard about it, WHO’S GONNA LOVE ME NOW? is a documentary that is in equal parts heart-wrenching and heart-warming. Read more about it here.

The heartwarming Q&A with director Barak Heymann, producer Ali Bodin Saphir, and the stars of the film Saar and Katri was received brilliantly by the crowd. According to Adam in Brighton there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Watching where Saar and Katri had started, and seeing how far they’ve come and how close they’ve grown is truly inspiring, they are very special people.

We finished our broadcast with a spectacular performance from the London Gay Men’s Chorus, but the show wasn’t over yet, oh no! After Saar joined the choir once more for a beautiful rendition of ‘Only You’, Julian invited all the cinemas to end the show with a sing-a-long to the classic musical number ‘I Feel Pretty’

It was a brilliant end to a wonderful night that evidently stayed with people long after. Later that night, producer Ali received a text from a friend informing him that, in the Ladies loos of Showroom Sheffield, she could hear a lady singing a chorus of ‘I Feel Pretty!’

If you weren’t able to catch our special event of WHO’S GONNA LOVE ME NOW? last weekend, never fear! It opens on general release and VOD tomorrow, you can find your closest screening here.

I wanted to end by saying a BIG thank you to the Barbican, the London Gay Men’s Chorus, the Heymann brothers and Saar and Katri. I also wanted to highlight the great work of our local choirs Sing Out Bristol, Reading Phoenix, the GMDC Choir in Clapham, the SWGMC in Cardiff and Northern Proud Voices at Tyneside.

The Levelling – Making a Trailer

THE LEVELLING – making the trailer

Mike Tang

A trailer is about 90 seconds. Sounds easy right? Nope.

Trailers are hard – which is why we hand the work off to our super-talented editor Claire! (Joking aside, we here at Peccadillo do have some input…) So, to take you into the magic of what goes on here, this is a quick rundown on how we do it and some of the thoughts that go into it.

Watch the film
It always starts with the film. We watch it, watch it again and then again.

This lets us decide on the direction we want to take it in terms of marketing. Is there anything there we’d like to highlight and show off in a trailer? Lines of dialogue, scenes, getting the tone and emotion spot on. We’re trying to set the appropriate tone and feel that will show the film off at its best.

Editing, editing, still editing…
Then we call in our editor, Claire. (Fans of lesbian film and culture, you really have to take a look at her work.)

We give her our take on the film and she can add her input. Claire stitches together the scenes and music that puts our vision into 90 seconds. It’s not a quick process and we may work through several versions before we’re happy.

For THE LEVELLING, the film’s a stunning drama powered by the towering performances of Ellie Kendrick (Game of Thrones) and David Troughton (The Archers). We wanted to highlight that. The mood, the beauty of the film, the interplay and inherent drama between Ellie and David’s characters, the feelings we had when we first watched the film.

In the edit suite to finalise the trailer.

Finishing touches
We add in some strong review quotes for the film. Why? Well, we think our films are pretty good and so we’re going to shout about it.

Next is the sound. It’s here that we sometimes work with a sound studio. For THE LEVELLING, the wizards at Tamborine have been working their magic. They work on effects, the dialogue, the music – anything that you can hear, they can work on and improve. It’s about creating the mood to match the video, to fit the mood and direction that we want.

We took a trip to Tamborine’s studio to review their work and the difference it makes is incredible. As any cinephile will tell you, sound adds a huge dimension of atmosphere to images on screen.

Harder than it looks
Did you notice a theme? One word: we. It’s a team effort, both from technical and creative standpoints.

The trailer for THE LEVELLING is out now. Hopefully, you’ll have an insight into what we were thinking when it came to putting it together.

In the meantime, keep up with news on THE LEVELLING on Facebook and Twitter.

Blimey, this was a bit long-winded
Just wait till I write about how we do posters.

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Ellie Kendrick

Our Top 10 Bestselling DVDs of 2016 & Interview with Tom

What a dramatic year 2016 was for films, dramatic in other ways too, but we’re going to focus on the films. To get an industry insider’s perspective we’re bringing you an exclusive interview with our MD Tom Abell to get his take on a wonderful year of films and the changes affecting our industry.

But first; to celebrate a bumper year at Peccadillo Pictures we’re taking you on a tour of our top 10 bestselling DVDs of the year. We searched the world to bring you the most thought-provoking, entertaining and captivating films possible. Whether they were hidden gems like GIRLS LOST or global behemoths like EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, each DVD is etched with our passion, love and care. Enjoy.

10 THEO & HUGO

The steamy French romance that was ‘too sexy’ for most cinemas, careened into tenth place despite being one of our last releases of the
year.

09 CLOSET MONSTER

A beautiful 21^st century “coming of age” tale complete with teenage angst, a thumping electronica score and an Isabella Rossellini-voiced Hamster.

08 The GIRL KING

Our captivating drama based on the scandalous life of Queen Kristina of Sweden, and her “royal bed-warmer” Countess Ebba Sparre.

07 CHEMSEX

A brave and unflinching journey into the hidden world of modern, urban gay life. Told through the eyes of ‘slammers’, survivors and the health workers fighting to protect them.

06 BOYS ON FILM 14: WORLDS COLLIDE

Once again the powerhouse that is Boys on Film has been a top seller this year, worlds collide in more ways than one in this stunning collection of award winning short films.

05 BOYS ON FILM 15: TIME & TIED

A sensation as always, the latest Boys on Film collection is our hottest to date. Between a time traveling closet, a 1976 trouser bar and a “zombie infested” sauna, it will have you re-examining your concept of time, age and the ties that bind us.

04 HOLDING THE MAN

The powerful true life story of a forbidden high school romance that was to last a lifetime. Holding the Man will have your heart plunging and soaring. Australian gay cinema has never been so strong.

03 DEPARTURE

An intimate film about love, loss and moving on that charts the beginning of the end of a mother’s marriage, the coming of age of her sexually confused son and an awakening that will make or break their new, unfamiliar family. Juliet Stevenson soars in this beautiful British drama set against the stunning backdrop of southern France.

02 THE GERMAN DOCTOR

A lonely 12-year-old girl unknowingly becomes friends with one of the world’s most terrifying Nazi war criminals in this dark, intense thriller. Based on true events, THE GERMAN DOCTOR will have your skin crawling and heart pumping all the way up to it’s dramatic, final minutes. This “Mesmerising and haunting” Argentinian film was a huge success across the board, particularly in stores.

01 EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

Karamakate, a warrior shaman and last of his tribe, transcends the worlds of men and seeks truth through their dreams. Based on the diaries of Theodor Koch Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes, the only known accounts of many Amazonian cultures, this extraordinary “Oscar nominated” film was destined for our top spot.

So, which ones have you seen? Which titles do you need to see? Get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know!

We’re immensely proud of our top 10, and the contribution Peccadillo Pictures has brought to the film world. Our Managing Director Tom Abell, he’s been in the business a “long time” and knows it inside out. Tom’s taken some time out of his very busy schedule to give us a quick interview about the past year at Peccadillo Pictures, the changing face of Film Distribution and our biggest hit of 2016.

Did you have any idea how successful EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT was going to be?

TOM: We thought it was going to be successful, we knew that it would do well but no, its actual success was far greater than we expected. It was a wonderful surprise that the audience in the UK and Ireland took to the film as passionately as we had.

You’re passionate about finding new ways of getting films out there, what has been your most exciting distribution project?

TOM: Well, our most amazing campaign was for cinema release of EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT – most definitely. Every aspect of our promotion and marketing of the film worked perfectly in every single area. I can honestly say that in hindsight there isn’t one single thing that we would change, and it’s not often you can say that.

I think it’s the best campaigns we’ve ever done and we won the Screen Award specifically for that campaign. Getting that recognition from the industry itself was one of the highlights of last year.

Are there any films that you think were unsung heroes of 2016?

TOM: GIRLS LOST. It’s a very special film with lots of important social and sexual commentary, but at no point is it overbearing or preachy. Every country in the world has had problems marketing it, because it’s difficult to define a single audience for it – do you target a gay audience, a lesbian or trans audience or do you market it as a Disney film with a dark side?

It took us a long time, but I do think we got the tone spot on. Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet translated into sales, despite great acclaim from critics like Mark Kermode. It’s a little gem that many people still have to discover.

Peccadillo Pictures will be seventeen years old this year, how has the industry changed in that time and what have been the most dramatic shifts?

TOM: It’s changed enormously, the biggest change has been the move from 35mm to digital for projection in cinemas, and whilst it was supposed to make things more diverse it’s done the opposite. It’s made it much harder for smaller films to get into cinemas and now allows most of the cinemas to play the same films, which is not just pointless its tragic.

Obviously some screens do offer a more diverse selection of films and we applaud those cinemas who are still supporting non-Hollywood films.

How has VOD (Video On Demand) changed the way you distribute home entertainment?

TOM: While our VOD side is growing considerably year on year, it hasn’t yet replaced the revenue we were getting from DVDs. While we’re maybe not making as much money from it as we were in the good old days of DVD It is growing well and I’m quite confident that our success with VOD will continue to grow. For example we’re one of a handful of film distribution companies who have their own own page on iTunes, we have our own Peccadillo Player which is powered by Vimeo and every quarter our VOD sales on Amazon are increasing considerably, so the VOD side is really moving upwards for us.

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Kaurismaki’s – The Girl King

We’ve started the week in regal style with the release of THE GIRL KING now available on DVD and VoD. You can now explore the controversial world of Queen Kristina and find out about her royal scandal from the comfort of your own home.

Typically for the idiosyncratic Kaurismaki, who spent over a decade bringing the film to the screen, THE GIRL KING, is not a straightforward period film. It is not intended as a traditional costume piece but as an intense, actor-centred psychological drama about one of the most interesting an mysterious personalities of all time, explains Karuismaki. Queen Kristina was a revolutionary thinker, a connoisseur of art and science, a precursor of the feminist movement and a strong and visionary politician, a new European.

This historical epic set in 17th century Sweden is very much a modern tale of a young woman fighting for her freedom and desires. Raised as a prince under a conservative Lutheran court, Kristina began to rule at the age of 18, quickly challenging everyone’s expectations in an all-male court by taking the lead and fearlessly rejecting its conservative rules. When faced between her country, a male suitor and her religion, Kristina caused a scandal when she chose not to marry and instead anointed the alluring Countess Ebba Sparre as her “Bed Companion”. With a love for the philosopher Decartes, Kristina embarks on a journey of self-discovery in which her authenticity and bravery outshone the many obstacles that came her way.

Directed by the renowned Mika Kaurismaki and led by rising star Malin Buska as the fearless monarch, the film is a powerful story about the importance of staying true to yourself and as Kaurismaki explains: “I hope young people can identify with this film as many are in a similar situation to Kristina and they don’t know what they want to do with their lives. They want to have the freedom to make the right decisions. It is a universal story about how you want to live. It is as resonant today as it was 500 years ago.”

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