The beauty of Screenwriter Ryan Walker-Edwards’ intimate hook-up short Man>Code comes in the form of its humour and playfulness. The story follows Lucas, a computer techie who invites another man named Theo over for a hook-up, which is then complicated when his ex-girlfriend arrives at the home unannounced. This isn’t a romantic story shrouded in seriousness or a depiction of a formative traumatic experience. Instead, Walker-Edwards uses lightness and wit to portray an encounter with an honesty that usually doesn’t accompany queer relationships on screen, let alone Black queer relationships. With the film embarking on festival screenings across the globe over the next few months, Dn joined up with Walker-Edwards to discuss his journey as the writer, originator, and co-star of Man>Code, the collaborative process he built with Director Adrian Gardner, and the importance of working with an Intimacy Coordinator to foster a safe, supportive on-set atmosphere.
- 8/2/2024
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Director Steve Read and producer-narrator Robert Douglas take viewers into the ring with their documentary “In the Company of Kings.” Released in 2024, the film presents a tribute to the sport of boxing through the words of those closely involved.
Douglass guides us into the rich but rough world of the game, sharing how it shaped his journey from Liverpool to Philadelphia. We’re introduced to young boxers finding purpose at an inner-city gym, putting in rounds to stay on their feet.
The film moves between memorable figures who graced the sport, like Bernard Hopkins, and those who knew The Greatest, Muhammad Ali. Read complements these portraits with vivid glimpses into gyms and urban streets.
Despite taking detours, its mosaic emerges compelling. We see boxing as a complex force, rewarding challengers who confront hardship in and out of the ring.
Origins in the Ring
Robert Douglas takes us into the world...
Douglass guides us into the rich but rough world of the game, sharing how it shaped his journey from Liverpool to Philadelphia. We’re introduced to young boxers finding purpose at an inner-city gym, putting in rounds to stay on their feet.
The film moves between memorable figures who graced the sport, like Bernard Hopkins, and those who knew The Greatest, Muhammad Ali. Read complements these portraits with vivid glimpses into gyms and urban streets.
Despite taking detours, its mosaic emerges compelling. We see boxing as a complex force, rewarding challengers who confront hardship in and out of the ring.
Origins in the Ring
Robert Douglas takes us into the world...
- 7/11/2024
- by Naser Nahandian
- Gazettely
Freewheeling documentary presents a compelling if somewhat rambling portrait of the hardscrabble roots of many contenders
Admittedly, their freewheeling boxing documentary is a little rambling and understructured, but nevertheless director Steve Read and producer-narrator Robert Douglas (both Brits) end up making a compelling and illuminating mosaic about the sport by focusing on an eclectic range of figures, some interviewed on screen. The opening sequence, narrated by Douglas, starts with his personal recollections about how much watching boxing meant to him, especially as a biracial kid from the roughest parts of Liverpool. He ended up living in one of Philadelphia’s seamiest neighbourhoods where he felt right at home, and this leads into a portrait of young boxers at an inner-city Philly gym where training and competing have opened up whole new worlds for young men who otherwise might have been sucked into the violence of the streets.
Then the film...
Admittedly, their freewheeling boxing documentary is a little rambling and understructured, but nevertheless director Steve Read and producer-narrator Robert Douglas (both Brits) end up making a compelling and illuminating mosaic about the sport by focusing on an eclectic range of figures, some interviewed on screen. The opening sequence, narrated by Douglas, starts with his personal recollections about how much watching boxing meant to him, especially as a biracial kid from the roughest parts of Liverpool. He ended up living in one of Philadelphia’s seamiest neighbourhoods where he felt right at home, and this leads into a portrait of young boxers at an inner-city Philly gym where training and competing have opened up whole new worlds for young men who otherwise might have been sucked into the violence of the streets.
Then the film...
- 4/23/2024
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...
- 7/5/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Broadcast News' with Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter: Glib TV news watch. '31 Days of Oscar': 'Broadcast News' slick but superficial critics pleaser (See previous post: “Phony 'A Beautiful Mind,' Unfairly Neglected 'Swing Shift': '31 Days of Oscar'.”) Heralded for its wit and incisiveness, James L. Brooks' multiple Oscar-nominated Broadcast News is everything the largely forgotten Swing Shift isn't: belabored, artificial, superficial. That's very disappointing considering Brooks' highly addictive Mary Tyler Moore television series (and its enjoyable spin-offs, Phyllis and Rhoda), but totally expected considering that three of screenwriter-director Brooks' five other feature films were Terms of Endearment, As Good as It Gets, and Spanglish. (I've yet to check out I'll Do Anything and the box office cataclysm How Do You Know starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson.) Having said that, Albert Brooks (no relation to James L.; or to Mel Brooks...
- 2/7/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Joan Fontaine movies: ‘This Above All,’ ‘Letter from an Unknown Woman’ (photo: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’ publicity image) (See previous post: “Joan Fontaine Today.”) Also tonight on Turner Classic Movies, Joan Fontaine can be seen in today’s lone TCM premiere, the flag-waving 20th Century Fox release The Above All (1942), with Fontaine as an aristocratic (but socially conscious) English Rose named Prudence Cathaway (Fontaine was born to British parents in Japan) and Fox’s top male star, Tyrone Power, as her Awol romantic interest. This Above All was directed by Anatole Litvak, who would guide Olivia de Havilland in the major box-office hit The Snake Pit (1948), which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod. In Max Ophüls’ darkly romantic Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Fontaine delivers not only what is probably the greatest performance of her career, but also one of the greatest movie performances ever. Letter from an Unknown Woman...
- 8/6/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Your weekly fix of great movies made before you were born that you should check out before you die. All this month, Old Ass Movies will be celebrating the 103rd anniversary of Bette Davis‘s birthday. The iconic film star acted in far too many movies to care to count, but it seems as though she’s been reduced to a pair of eyes in popular culture. She’s the subject of a 80s pop tune, not the star that she should be recognized for being, and that needs fixing. This is our last week of exploration, and even though we’re not ending on the last film in Davis’s career (or even her last iconic role), we’re ending on the last time a character matches the actress. She would go on to such triumphs as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Hush…, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Return to Witch Mountain (seriously), but Bette Davis playing...
- 4/24/2011
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Here! nabs 'Eleven' for N.A. screens
Here! Films has acquired North American distribution rights to director Robert Douglas' Icelandic soccer dramedy Eleven Men Out. Written by Douglas and Jon Atli Jonason, the film centers on a soccer star who comes out and joins an amateur team of gay players. Here! Films sister company Regent Releasing will release the film theatrically in the summer.
- 3/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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