RKS 2024 Film: Toronto’s 2SLGTBQ+ Inside Out Film Festival: “Local Heroes” Short Programme and Ruth has a Brand-New Bag!

In the short “Ernesto’s Bag” Ruth (Bea Santos) works at a bridal salon. It has been three years and she has had enough of smiling and mumbling platitudes accompanied by crying mothers, radiant brides and the popping of cheap bubbly lubricating the wardrobe selection process. It is above her. The soon to be brides are mindless twits trapped in the bridal industrial complex. Being above all this triviality Ruth prepares a letter of resignation which baffles her boss as why not an e-mail. Her boss mutters, “What a wierdo!”

Well after work with her pal sipping cocktails in enormous plastic glasses Alice (Jenny Raven) announces she is marrying Tim who Ruth equates with a Golden Retriever. Ernesto the nonchalant chef at the restaurant El Gato Negro beside the bridal salon is a man of few words but seeing Ruth is upset with some issue offers her a bag of mushrooms, not Creminis, Oysters or Shitakes if you know what I mean. Ruth accidentally dumps the entire bag of champignons in her smoothie.

Alice arrives for a fitting and the shrooms take Ruth on a little “trip” to the extent that Alice looks like the creature from “Alien”. Is Ruth willing to accept the near inevitability of marriage? After all if James Brown has a brand new bag can Ruth’s bag of shrooms bring her a brand new outlook on marriage?

Directed by Isabelle Deluce and Giulia De Vita.

RKS 2024 Film: 86/100.

For more information about the Local Heroes Short Programme showing in theatre 30May2024 and virtually 31May2024 (Canada only) check out insideout.ca.

RKS 2024 Film: Inside Out 2LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “All Shall Be Well”

Angie Wang (Patra Au) and Pat Wu have been in a lesbian relationship for some thirty years. They live together in a spacious upscale Hong Kong condo. They do what many couples do, eating together, shopping together and entertaining. Both are in their sixties and retired although Pat has dreams of opening a Senior Fashion Line and is taking a course on online commerce to further her dream. Angie and Pat at one time owned a textile factory.

After a dinner party at their condo with Pat’s family, Pat dies in her sleep. Pat never finalized her will so her death is intestate hence her family under Hong Kong law is legally entitled to all her property including the condo. In addition to not having a will Angela’s name was never placed on title.

Angela is prevented implementing Pat’s wishes her ashes be scattered in the ocean as the family “fortune teller” Master Yu says it would be bad luck for Pat’s descendants suggesting a niche in a columbarium would be more appropriate and a niche is what she gets. At the internment ceremony Mr. Yu asks Angela to step to the back behind the family as “friends” should be behind family. Perhaps if someone had the courage to explain the nature of Pat and Angela’s relationship Angela might have been afforded the dignity and recognition she deserved. Even Angela’s parents refuse to acknowledge their daughter’s lesbian status despite being told of it by Angela.

Pat’s draft will clearly gave Angela the condo but a draft will is but a draft. So the struggle continues with Angela being supported by a bevy of her lesbian friends.

Unfair you may say. You might also say very poor and selfish planning by both Angela and Pat bringing this preventable and unpleasant situation about.

One moral of the story is if in a gay common law relationship and you seek to protect the survivor upon your death know the legal rights of the survivor. Many jurisdictions give a survivor, gay or not, rights to property accumulated during the relationship. Even better have mutual wills executed!

Ray Yeung is the director.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9SLP5J7X8I&t=7s

The film shows 26May2024 in Toronto.

For more information about the festival see insideout.ca

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 69/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Join the Club”: Politics/Cannabis/AID’s Cali Style All with Retrospect Stupidity: Canada’s Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

If you reside in a legal recreational or medicinal cannabis consumption area perhaps you should take a moment to contemplate how “all those dope stores” you hear in frequent negative snippets of conversation may have ended up on the corner. It has been a mighty struggle to legalize both medicinal and recreational cannabis. Many have suffered and died in the struggle to legalize medicinal cannabis which until 1937 was legal in the United States where it was widely used in home remedies in patent format that totalled over a hundred. Then in 1937 The Marijuana Tax Act in the United States criminalized marijuana possession and Big Pharma thrived which has “invented” synthetic cannabis to peddle.

Dennis Peron (1945-2018) is one man that propelled Californians to approve Proposition 215 legalizing medical cannabis in the state of California.

Peron served two years in Vietnam and as a Bronx Italian gay not content with the troops using booze as a forgetful drug smoked cannabis for the first time in his life changing its trajectory. Bringing three pounds of cannabis back from Vietnam to his new home San Francisco the rest was history.

An openly gay man in San Francisco Peron established a small pot shop after his return from Nam. Then escalated to a more commercial Cannabis Buyers Club (CBC) in San Francisco selling cannabis with enormous success. All that was required was a physician’s note describing your illness. CBC was an entertainment venue, a party site and a pharmacy. Sort of like a Studio 54 for medicinal cannabis users.

It was the death of his partner who relied extensively on cannabis to combat and assuage the effects of AIDS and the harsh drugs initially administered to control it. Peron pushed forward through prosecution and political wranglings over the years to be an advocate for the use of medicinal cannabis although an investigating undercover detective swears in an affidavit he saw CBC buyers with pounds of cannabis.

Despite Nixon, Regan and Bush as American presidents declaring a war on drugs California approved Proposition 215 legalizing medicinal cannabis on 5November1996.

Peron’s battle is a fascinating mix of politics (many different ways), homophobia and by today’s retrospective analysis sheer, stupidity and cruelty in the era of the “Gay Plague”.

An unanswered question is where did all the money go from CBC cannabis sales? Law enforcement never managed to find it. You may be tempted to ask was Peron a clever entrpeneur or a compassonate crusader or a bit of both?

Directed by Kip Andersen and Chris OConnell.

Showing in theatre in Toronto 25May2024.

For further detail on the Film Festival see insideout.ca

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 89/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Featherstone 2023 Rosé from Niagara Peninsula

Always excellent. Drinkable all year round straight up or with food. Time to try their 2023 vintage.

A blend of Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir.

Aroma: Fully ripe raspberry, strawberry and Thames River Farms sugar babe watermelon. This rosé is what you might call fruit expressive!

Palate: Smooth with some raspiness on the back palate. Raspberry, cotton candy grapes and dragon fruit. Short finish with a little hot.

Personality: I fall in line with many Ontario rosés in the sense that I am world quality.

Food Match: Lightly creamed smoked salmon sauce over bucatini. Sublime with roast ham.

Cellarbility: Will hold nicely to 2025-year end.

Price: $17 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 93/100.

(Featherstone 2023 Rosé, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Featherstone Estate Winery, Vineland, Ontario, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS 2024 Film: “Tish”: Memories of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”

Watching the documentary “Tish” about British photographer Tish Murtha the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” are most appropriate. “A working-class hero is something to be.”  Although the late Tish Murtha now has a permanent exhibition of her photos at the Tate Museum in London she never reached the status of a working class hero instead dying in poverty of a brain aneurysm on 13March2017 one day before her 57th birthday.

Tish grew up in Elswick, Newcastle a dying industrial centre full of derelict buildings and high unemployment. Not only was Elswick dying a slow death the entire working class of Britain was dying despite the pious moralism and hackneyed work schemes of Thatcher and Tony Blair’s New Deal.

Tish’s daughter Ella takes us a journey of discovery about her late mother through interviews with curators, photographers, friends, teachers, family members and her handwritten captions on the back of her printed photos. Tish was a fiery and highly determined documentary photographer at a time when commercial photographers ruled the roost. She focused not on “posh history” but on the working class which was before her eyes and was the reality that she lived in.

Her story is sad if not tragic as she was penalized by her focus on working people and issues related to their class whether it be the red-light district of Soho, working class marching bands, the closure of the Vicker’s ship building yards, pub life and working-class degradation. The story is a fascinating one but the rich texture of pictures, particularly those of children say more than a photograph’s intrinsic beauty. Tish had a goal in taking her photographs which was to make a statement in the hope that it would improve the life of the British working class.

Ella Murtha has published three volumes of Tish Murtha’s photographs.

The documentary is directed by Paul Sng.

You may watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/933326555.

Limited theatrical release in Ontario commencing 17May2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 94/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Limbo”: Outer Planetary Experience

The Australian film “Limbo” is an outer planetary experience.

Filmed in black and white in opal mining territory of the Australian outback. The terrain, mining “holes”, abandoned equipment and vehicles and caves with howls of dingos and cries of birds in the distance create an otherworldly setting for “Limbo”.

Heavily tattooed murder detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) is not your ordinary detective. In the opening scene and in some subsequent ones Hurley drives to his destination listening to evangelical Christian tapes. He arrives at Hotel Limbo, cooks up his dope and shoots it collapsing on the bed. One child in a scene says to Hurley he looks more like a drug dealer than a cop.

The plot in “Limbo” is the usual murder detective stuff namely finding the murderer. Hurley is working on a cold case concerning the disappearance and possible murder of a young aboriginal child Charlotte who twenty years ago in Limbo disappeared. Suspects were interviewed by police and some railroaded and bullied too. Hurley patches clue after clue in his quest to find the murderer investigating grief stricken forever altered family members, suspects and townsfolk. All well done and written. It is obvious the police are both racist and incompetent. Charlotte is a “black” seemingly a common name for Australian aboriginals so why would the police take the matter seriously.

Most riveting about the film is its dabbling in noir cinema. Shot in black and white in extra-terrestrial like scenery with careful angles and lighting could this be a question of spectacular cinematography stealing the show?

Why the term “Limbo” ? As Hurley enters the church in Limbo he hears a recording explaining what limbo means in Christianity. Pay close attention to this recording and contemplate if Hurley is not only on a criminal investigation but a Messianic one as well.

Written and directed by Ivan Sen.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1632487193/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1

VOD/Digital release 21May2024.

RKS Literature: A Twit Pontificates on Aristocratic Blood (Charles Dickens)

‘Oh you know, deuce take it’ said this gentleman, looking round the board with an imbecile smile,’ we can’t forego Blood, you know. We must have Blood, you know. Some young fellows, you know, may be a little behind their station, perhaps, in point of education and behaviour, and may be a little wrong, you know, and get themselves, and other people into a variety of fixes-and all that-but deuce take it, it’s delightful to reflect that they’ve got Blood in ‘em! Myself I’d rather at any time be knocked down by a man who got Blood in him, than I’d be picked up by a man that hadn’t!’

Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield”, 1850.

RKS 2024 Wine: German Pinot Noir: Attractive Price But Quality?

At $21 the 2021 Ruppertsberger Imperial Pinot Noir Trocken is at an attractive price but its quality?

Aroma: No doubt this is a Pinot Noir or as they say in Germany Spätburgunder! Raspberry, cherry and a tad of strawberry jam.

Palate: A jolt of kirsch mixes it up with raspberry. The fruit is a bit late in reaching the palate but when it does it is worth the wait. Lightly tannic with a short spicy finish.

Personality: I am a good price and for my price let’s not get too fussy.

Food match: Creamed lobster pasta over tagliatelle.

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $21 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 88/100.

(Ruppertsberger 2021 Imperial Pinot Noir, Pfalz, Ruppertsberger Weinkeller Hoeberg, Ruppertsberg, Germany, 13%, 750 mL).

RKS 2024 Film: Toronto’s Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Dalton’s Dream”

Jamaican Dalton Harris wins the 2018 X Factor UK “talent contest”. He had been preparing for an X Factor UK appearance for seven years winning several Jamaican talent contests including “Rising Star”. Now translate the X Factor UK win into stardom, fortune and fame! Pictures circulate showing Dalton hugging a man and sitting on the lap of an X Factor UK contestant. This is not well accepted by a homophobic Jamaica where gay men (batty boys) are attacked and beaten if not murdered. Still on the books is an original British colonial law over 150 years old criminalizing sex between men.

Dalton receives death threats and all manner of insults from many homophobic Jamaicans. The documentary “Dalton’s Dreams” chronicles Dalton’s struggle with homophobic elements, mental illness a traumatic childhood with a physically abusive mother and openly admitting his homosexuality which he finally does near the end of the documentary.

The homosexuality is a minor component of the documentary and what is more compelling is what an anticipated rise to fame involves. Dalton is surrounded by record company executives, record producers, agents and a troop of technicians trying to mould him into what they interpret a star to be. Endless pats on the back and compliments that are forgotten when he fails to replicate his X Factor UK moment of fame. A public dispute with his mother causes even more stress.

Some three years after his X Factor win Dalton “comes out” and makes peace with his abusive mother that beat him as a child until he bled and locked him out of the house for days.

Watch the documentary and you may be surprised by his thankfulness for winning X Factor UK and it isn’t what you think. I suppose it might how you define success.

This British documentary is directed by Kim Loginotto and Frank Murray Brown.

In person showing in Toronto on 24May2024 and virtually in Canada only 25May2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 68/100.

For more information on Festival films check out insideout.ca

RKS 2024 Wine:  Jean-Maurice Raffault Chinon from the Loire  

Ontario is a province in Canada producing excellent Cabernet Franc in Niagara, Lake Erie North Shore and Prince Edward County so theoretically there is no need to look to Chinon in the Loire for good Cabernet Franc but to escape being labelled as unadventurous one may wish to try a French version of Cabernet Franc from the Loire.

Grapes were cultivated in limestone and clay soils with a layer of pebbles on the surface. Aged 12 months in 3–7-year-old oak barrels.

Aroma: Think of black cherry, blackberry and milk chocolate. The blackberry is not a characteristic of Ontario Cabernet Franc.

Palate: The tannins are also moderate and just a tad heavier than one might expect from an Ontario Cabernet Franc. Influence of black fruit and kirsch gives the wine a richer profile than an Ontario equivalent. It hides much of its fruit giving the wine a brusque taste profile. The kirsch gives this Cabernet Franc somewhat of a distinct character and becomes more prominent if the wine is decanted.

Personality: I am a full-bodied wine with fruit presently partially restrained by my tannins. I am built for food at this point but will soften over the next 5 years if you can wait that long.

Food Match: Grilled flank steak that has marinated in ginger, garlic, honey and soy sauce.

Cellarbility: Dink now or hold until 2029. It will improve with age as it sheds some of its brusqueness.

Price: $25 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 91/100. Robertparker.com 93.

(Jean-Maurice Raffault 2018 Picasses Chinon, AC Chinon, France, 14%, 750 mL).