Get ready, everyone. There’s a new destination for quality LGBTQI television, documentary and film online. It’s called The Queer Binge and it’s launching just in time for Mardi Gras season on SBS On Demand.
The library on SBS On Demand is already packed with some fantastic TV shows, including:
Gaycation
The wonderful Ellen Page hosts this show, taking viewers around the world to explore the differences in LGBTQI culture from country to country, confronting issues of acceptance. The first two seasons are streaming now:
Eyewitness
The first season of Norwegian crime thriller Eyewitness opens with a young gay couple witnessing a brutal murder, with the teen boys trying to decide whether to reveal their secret in the shadow of a major crime.
Hit & Miss
Starring Chloe Sevigny as a transgender assassin, the UK production is a gripping family drama unlike any other show you've seen before.
But wait, there's more...
Also streaming on SBS On Demad, you’ll also find fascinating documentaries spotlighting queer subcultures and the issues impacting them, as well as a selection of acclaimed movies.
Be sure to look out for When We Rise, one of this year’s most anticipated drama series will be fast-tracked from the US to SBS On Demand from March 1 (screening later on SBS from March 11). Written and created by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk, Big Love, J. Edgar) four movie length episodes tell of the tumultuous journey of the pioneering LGBT men and women of the US gay rights movement. The stunning cast features Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Mary-Louise Parker, The Wire’s Michael K Williams and transgender actress Ivory Aquino. The roll call of guest stars includes Rosie O’Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce in what will be a must see television event of 2017.
Streaming now is the charming fetish drama The Chambermaid Lynn. Vicki Krieps stars in this German film as a hotel chambermaid dealing with a crippling shyness. Her world opens up when she spies a professional dominatrix with a guest, soon inviting her home. This is Ingo Haeb's third feature film, with Variety likening it to a cross between Secretary and Blue is The Warmest Colour, noting that the film "seemingly drifts more toward German fable than toward contemporary mores".
Later this month, an eclectic quartet of movies hits The Queer Binge. In award-winning Mexican mystery/drama Carmin Tropical, transgender woman Mabel (José Pecina) returns to her hometown of Juchitán to investigate the death of a friend amidst a homecoming of nostalgia, love and betrayal. From Mexican writer-director Sergio Tovar Velarde comes Four Moons, a romantic drama featuring four unconnected stories of gay men young and old navigating sexuality and relationships.
From the US, romantic comedy That’s Not Us follows a tumultuous weekend at a beach house where three young couples - gay, lesbian and straight – find their relationships tested in this largely improvised exploration of what it takes to stay in love. And in rom-dram Daddy, an adaptation of Dan Via’s stage play, life gets complicated when an aging stud (Gerald McCullouch who also directs) falls for his much younger intern (Jaime Cepero).
Coming soon are two portraits of drag culture. Oscar-shortlisted feature, the crowd pleaser Viva is the story of a burgeoning drag artist in Havana whose intolerant father re-enters his life. The “dragtastic” documentary Dressed As A Girl sees director Colin Rothbart chronicle over five years of East London’s alternative drag scene and the highs and lows of its colourful characters Jonny Woo, Scottee, Pia, Amber, Holestar, and John Sizzle.
Riley Keough of American Honey and The Girlfriend Experience (oh and she’s the granddaughter of Elvis Presley) and The Hunger Games’ Jena Malone star in the warm-hearted Lovesong streaming from February 21, an intimate portrait of female friendship in reconnection.
Part of SBS Viceland’s Mardi Gras movie season are bookends of Australian coming-of-age queer cinema. Ana Kokkinos’ 1998 classic story of sexual discovery Head On airs February 20, then available on demand and evocative summer-set 2016 indie Teenage Kicks airs February 27 or you can catch up on demand.
Of course, the cherry on the cheesecake is The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade 2017, which live streams on SBS On Demand on March 4.
Head over to The Queer Binge right now.