Film
A Portrait of Trans Masculinity in the Story of a Jazz Musician
The documentary No Ordinary Man is not just a biography of Billy Tipton, but also a critical lens on how culture has depicted trans men.
Caden Mark Gardner
Caden Mark Gardner is a freelance film and television critic from Schenectady, New York. His bylines include Reverse Shot, The Film Stage, and MUBI’s Notebook, among others.
Books
A Writer-Turned-Filmmaker Hits the Sweet Spot of Historical Fiction
With his latest novel Yellow Earth, Sayles showcases his knack for capturing the character of a region and the real-life ramifications of political and social issues.
Film
Powerful Images of Pleasure and Experimentation Celebrate Queer Bodies
MoMA's screening series "Now We Think as We Fuck": Queer Liberation to Activism argues for the inclusion of less respectable films in the queer canon.
Books
A Trans Activist's Memoir Is a Monumental Contribution to Queer History
Lou Sullivan’s diaries, spanning 1961 to 1991, might be one of the most valuable affirmations one can read on the trans masculine experience to date.
Film
A Film's Experimental Portrait of an Art Center's Struggles
A Bread Factory focuses on a town’s struggle to keep its sense of identity, and the importance of capital as much as art.
Film
The Raw, Unshakeable Queer Love in 1951's Olivia
Jacqueline Audry’s powerfully complex film set in a 19th-century French boarding school for girl resonates even today, and it just got a new restoration.
Film
Queer Camp, Religious Kitsch, and Music in the American South
Two new documentaries, The Gospel of Eureka and Gay Chorus Deep South, explore Southern queerness and faith in drastically different ways.
Film
A Small Town Reenacts the 1917 Deportation of a Thousand Striking Miners
The documentary Bisbee '17 deconstructs how we perform our idea of the past as it resurrects an unsavory episode in labor history.
Film
An Overlooked Gem from the New Queer Cinema Wave Imagines John Lennon on Holiday
1991's The Hours and Times, recently restored and now available to stream, is part of a tradition of queer films recontextualizing what we think we know about history.
Film
Classic Films About Drag Pageants and Ball Culture Return to Theaters to Dazzle Again
The landmark queer documentaries The Queen and Paris is Burning have been restored and are back in theaters.
Art
The Caustic War Satire Catch 22 Gets a Dour Hulu Series
The miniseries adaptation of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel fails to capture the novel's wit while thriving in its darkest moments.