the film stars Michaela Cole and Anne Hathaway as past collaborators and lovers, fashion designer Sam and pop idol Mother Mary, who are drawn together again by a haunting presence to create one final piece for Mother Mary’s career-ending performance.

consider throwing me a little coin

incredibly emotional dancing and expressions from the actors. cole and hathaway’s performances were so alive. Particularly cole, her unique choices created a depth to the story that I don’t know was on the page of the script necessarily. Together though they are magnetic and fascinating opponents. An entertaining watch if you like to gaze at melancholic pretty things, and enjoy jack Antonoff and charli XCX.

the plot and the title and how I felt while watching it coincide in a way that feels intentional. its tragic glamour takes an ethereal highlight and constrasts it with a dark uncertainty in form and content. but Mother Mary walks a line of symbolism and vacousness, like pop stardom, which who better to represent that than the titular egregore, so it feels really organically part of the story in that way. though the flick shares a stage with existential pop-star films Vox Lux (2018) and Queens of Drama (2025), or even fashion film Neon Demon (2016), it doesn’t contain the same biting commentary. I don’t think the director’s films usually do. Its more so a story about the erotic and at times terrifying nature of collaboration, the spirit of the muse, Creation and Destruction, creator and creation, and destiny or soulmates.

do NOT call it a fashion film. even though one of the lead characters is a fashion designer, the plot directly involves items of clothing, plot is revealed through fabric, do not call it a fashion film. it does not meander ENOUGH for it. At the same time, fashion films expanding in prevelance and definintion is interesting I think; is it because fabric will be on planet earth longer than us? i think By Design (2026) and even I Love Boosters (2026) are versions of evolving fashion film too. I feel like Julio Torres would have something to add to this…

📌 Field Notes From The Los Angeles Festival of Movies

KISS ME I’M CONFUSED –

last month I had the pleasure of being invited to review for Currant Jam, ‘a publication dedicated to cultivating foraged and found fruits (and by fruits, they mean independent art!)’

“From the blur of handheld camera and sound of cooing doves over Bedroom Trap, I emerged sanctified by the intimate meandering of Jillian Frank and Avalon Fast’s debut collaborative feature Drinking and Driving[…]

📌 You Can Read It Here

Mother Mary is interesting to me because it is at the center of the thematic venn diagram q.f.c. is focusing on, which I guess is really about socialized desire, which queerness definitely relates to, as our desire is inextricably linked to cultural sentiment. the somewhat combative or contrasting film series I’ve been hypothesizing around, ITS MY RELIGION, has this part 2 that points to pop music and the era of celebrity idol worship, joining its parent American religiousity as another dying mythos amongst the generation of today.

because this other film also features Mary Magdalene herself FKA Twigs, like Mother Mary, the series includes The Carpenter (2025) featuring Nicolas Cage?! you cannot make this up. notable mentions for films that fall into the venn diagram include Superstar (1999) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).

I think for a more nuanced and likely entertaining take on violent histories and the psychological trauma of living, see Is God Is in theatres, featuring Vivica A. Fox as God herself.

which of these should become a screening and performance event?

consider throwing me a little coin

but q.f.c. thematic film map starts with the belly button of punk.

the ancestors have been pointing me to this little discussed truth: my fellow generation is the last to know life before podcasts.

inspired by that exsquite distraction, I started watching listening and watching more ‘podcasts’ (CAN WE CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE NOW?), for example fashion neurosis, created by the great grandchild of freud. guest stephan jones and host regailed me with stories of their iconoclastic tastes and radicalizations in academia and art school with Vivienne Westhood and pals, artists who are attributed in the aesthetic of punk making it to the mainstream marketplace. of course, this brings to mind spiralic time, ripple effect of culture, access and visibility et al. i also asked because lately i want to touch the belly button of the epoch; a way to engage with something in the present through the time-space-veil…to be continued…

Until next time,

The next q.f.c. event is happening on March 19th!

Watch and converse with the curious and critical about queer indie media of the last 30 years and the zeitgeist of today. Q.F.C presents VAGINAL DAVIS: AN INTERVIEW (2013) in which the artist reflects on her initiation into the punk rock and art scenes of Los Angeles during the 1980s and 90s. The intervi…

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Unión del Barrio Community Patrol Info

We are living under outright facism right. My reaction to the evidences lately tells me I have not yet tangibalized rebellion. The channel is switching without my control between reality and nonreality, what is the poltergeist? I revisit Dreams of Black Revolt sometimes w…

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At this time of year

I am in darkness more than not. I’…

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but it feels like there is a hole in the market of queer centered media institutions and festivals in LA1. Since the heartbreaking fall of the Outfest Film Festival, known for being the hub of new queer independent film in LA, some colleagues2 and I have been fantasizing about what we’ll see take form in its place. There’s a lo…

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lately, the future of independent film is uncertain. it would not be a stretch to say that films like these (personal first time features from diverse directors with high quality production value but little mainstream star power) are rarely made anymore, let alone distributed. IMO, it is partly why it’s important to revisit them as milestones in queer m…

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i have been really contemplative around the 2024 season of qfc.

disclaimer/reminder: QFC uses cinema to contextualize / analyze media through queerness, to witness the collective consciousness as an extension of our experience, and to contemplate acceptance or refusal of these experiences. and, by its very nature …

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“Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live” - bell hooks

Media literacy quick lesson (repost from ’s substack):

Take it one step further:

1. Sign this op…

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the theme of august is centered around queer creators who embody a character in self- scribed films, a final puzzle piece in the season’s programming that investigat…

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Almost to another end, what we’ve learned is to keep going

Queer, definitively, is the Other. Defining ‘Other’ means defining ‘Self.’ In this, Queer becomes crucial. Queer is everywhere. But, Queer, definitively, cannot be described through what is constant. Queer even rejects definition all together. Queer is everywhere. 

QUEER FILM CLUB (QFC) is an inte…

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