Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution

So here's the latest HBO Documentary project that should be on your radar.  Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution follows the crusade of Mariela Castro, Raul Castro’s daughter (and Fidel Castro’s niece), to establish equal rights for LGBT Cubans, and examines the cultural and institutional homophobia that gay men faced throughout much of the Cuban Revolution, when they were often put into work camps. 

Emmy winner Jon Alpert (HBO’s Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq) directs and the film premieres in late November.

Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures, Premieres April 4th on HBO

“Look at the pictures,” said Senator Jesse Helms, denouncing the controversial art of Robert Mapplethorpe, whose photographs pushed boundaries with frank depictions of nudity, sexuality and fetishism, igniting a culture war that rages to this day.

More than 25 years later, the HBO Documentary Films presentation MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES does just that, taking an unflinching, unprecedented look at his most provocative work. From acclaimed filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (“Inside Deep Throat”; HBO’s “Wishful Drinking” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), and produced by Katharina Otto-Bernstein (“Absolute Wilson”), the first feature-length documentary about the artist since his death, and the most comprehensive film on Mapplethorpe ever, debuts on April 4 on HBO.

As The J. Paul Getty Museum and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art prepare landmark Mapplethorpe retrospectives (both opening in March), the film goes inside the preparation for the exhibitions as a jumping-off point to tell the complete story of his life and work for the first time, and explore the interplay between his personal and professional lives. MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES reveals a controversial artist who turned contemporary photography into a fine art.

With complete and unprecedented access to The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, the documentary draws upon archival materials and features never-before-seen photographs and footage. “Even his most shocking and forbidden images are included without blurs, without snickers – in other words, exactly as the artist intended,” say Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Mapplethorpe himself is a strong presence, telling his story in his own words with complete honesty and often shocking candor through rediscovered audio interviews.

MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES follows his early beginnings as a young artist in New York City through his meteoric rise in the art world to his untimely death. In 1963, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he studied drawing, painting and sculpture, and soon met his first girlfriend, Patti Smith, one in a string of profoundly influential lovers. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was taking Polaroid photographs of friends and acquaintances, and was determined to make it, which meant being recognized as an artist and becoming famous.

Almost all of the people from key relationships in his life are present in the film, including Sam Wagstaff, David Croland, Lisa Lyon, Marcus Leatherdale and Jack Walls. The documentary also features almost 50 original interviews with family, friends, co-workers and colleagues, including Mary Boone, Carolina Herrera, Brooke Shields, Helen and Brice Marden, Fran Lebowitz, Bob Colacello and Debbie Harry.

Rounding out this portrait are the recollections of Mapplethorpe’s older sister, Nancy, and youngest brother, Edward. An artist himself, Edward assisted his brother for many years and was responsible for much of the technical excellence of his photography.

The duality of black-and-white work reverberated in his life. He often mounted two shows simultaneously: An uptown exhibition might include society portraits and delicate flower still-lifes, while his sexually explicit photographs were on view downtown. Mapplethorpe’s most controversial work — which he considered his most important — chronicled the underground BDSM (bondage, dominance and submission, sadomasochism) scene of late 1970s New York City, sparking a national debate over public funding of art some deemed offensive or obscene.

Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, when the illness was still a death sentence. He spent the remainder of his life working more feverishly than ever before, not only pursuing perfection, but also striving to secure his legacy after his death. In 1988, a few months before Mapplethorpe’s passing, The Whitney Museum of American Art mounted his first major American museum retrospective.

The man who lived to be famous became even more famous after he died. Before his death, he designed one final show, The Perfect Moment, which bought images of flowers, S&M pictures and male African-American nudes together in a museum setting for the first time. As he himself predicted, the combination proved to be too much. In 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. canceled The Perfect Moment after Senator Helms took aim at Mapplethorpe. In April of the following year, protests were held when the traveling exhibition arrived at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, resulting in obscenity charges against the CAC and its director, Dennis Barrie. After a dramatic court battle, both were ultimately found not guilty.

When the hit HBO series Girls hit the scene last year, it became an almost-instant hit. Following that show’s success, it seemed logical that someone would try their hand at a gay version of Girls. It looks like that person might be Andrew Haigh, the little-known director of the critically acclaimed 2011 gay indie-romance film Weekend. HBO ordered eight episodes of Haigh’s dramedy Looking about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco and starring Jonathan Groff, Frankie Alvarez, and Murray Bartlett. Haigh and Groff spoke with writer Christopher Glazek for the February 2014 OUT magazine cover story.

Looking follows three gay friends living in the Mission-Castro district of San Francisco as they navigate relationships, careers, and friendships. None is an heir, a genius, or a supermodel. Each has a lot of feelings. They aren’t trying to date celebrities or become the voices of their generation. “Our show is less about people at the beginning in their 20s figuring out who they are,” Groff says, “and more about people stepping into their lives in their 30s and 40s and finding their place in the world.”

From Haigh’s perspective, he didn’t want “hyper-successful” characters. “All the characters are from different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities – that can happen a lot more readily in the gay community,” says Haigh. “What you connect to initially is your sexuality, not your age or where you’ve been to school.” The characters in Looking, he says, are “not aspiring to be rich. They’re not aspiring to have lots of sex. They’re aspiring to have happier lives, more fulfilled lives.”

Haigh insists he wanted to create a story about his characters’ “journeys.” “I’m not interested in angry, bad people. I like stories about nice people. They get left out sometimes,” he says. “It’s always hared when you make a show about gay people because you just cannot – no matter how hard you try – represent every gay person in the world. Because there’s so little out there, everyone wants it to reflect their own experiences. All you can do is focus on a set of characters and who they are.”

Looking premieres January 19, 2014, at 10:30 p.m. EST on HBO.

HBO tops GLAAD'S Network Index

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today released its third annual Network Responsibility Index, a report that maps the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks was evaluated as well as original primetime programming on 10 of the highest-rated cable networks.

HBO scored the highest rating of the 15 networks evaluated with LGBT characters on shows including 'True Blood', 'The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency' and 'Entourage' that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of the LGBT community. Of HBO's 14 original series, 10 included LGBT content and 42 percent of the network's total programming hours included LGBT representation.

See more results and a link to the full report after the jump.


"This year programming was not only inclusive of LGBT people, but networks like HBO are beginning to reflect the broad diversity within our community," said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. "With upcoming fall programming and new storylines there is a tremendous opportunity for networks to share the stories of all members of our community including lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as well as LGBT people of color, all groups which continue to be underrepresented across all networks."

GLAAD reviewed a total of 4,901 hours of primetime programming for inclusion of LGBT characters or issues on the five major networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC) from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009. GLAAD also examined 1,212.5 hours of original primetime programming on 10 highly-rated cable networks. Each hour was reviewed for on-screen LGBT representations. Based on the quantity, overall quality and diversity of these representations, a rating was assigned by GLAAD's Entertainment Media Program to each network: Excellent,Good, Adequate, or Failing.

Additional findings from the GLAAD Network Responsibility Index:

Good
- HBO and Showtime received grades of Good, with HBO leading with 42 percent of programming hours featuring LGBT representations.
- ABC, with shows including Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty, again received the highest ranking of the five broadcast networks, earning a Good grade with 24 percent of their primetime programming hours including LGBT representations.
- The CW also received a grade of Good, with 20 percent of their primetime programming hours including LGBT representations.
Adequate
- While Fox received an Adequate, rising from last place and a Failing grade in 2008; 11 percent of its programming hours were LGBT-inclusive, yet some of those hours included problematic content.
- Among cable networks evaluated, TNT showed the largest growth, jumping from one percent of LGBT inclusive primetime programming hours last year to 19 percent. FX posted the sharpest decline, dropping 32 percent over the previous season. Both were graded
Failing
- NBC and CBS received Failing grades, for their 8 and 5 percent, respectively, of programming hours with LGBT images. CBS moved down from third place in last year's GLAAD Network Responsibility Index to last among the five major broadcast networks.
- A&E, Sci Fi and TBS received grades of Failing.
"Television shows that weave our stories into the fabric of the series present richer, more accurate representations and are the kinds of images that help Americans understand and embrace their LGBT family members, friends and neighbors in a more meaningful way," said Robinson.

The third annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index was delivered to programming executives at the 15 graded networks, and GLAAD's Entertainment Media Program will continue discussions with them to advocate for improvements in the quality, quantity and diversity of their LGBT representations.

The Executive Summary and full report can be viewed online at www.glaad.org/nri2009.




Out on DVD: 'Little Britain U.S.A' and 'Summer Heights High'

Whether it’s across the pond in Mary ol’ England or down under the covers with the boys from Oz, gay humor is often better executed with an accent.

HBO has been wise to the phenomenon for some time, but it was last year’s lineup that solidified its place in the world of gay comedy. Both 'Little Britain U.S.A.' and 'Summer Heights High' drew in appreciative audiences. The American version of the hit British comedy didn’t fare well with critics, but a few of the new Little Britain USA characters are outrageously funny, like the homo-erotic bodybuilders Mark and Tom (pictured). Still, openly-gay Matt Lucas and hetero-humorist David Williams make this little show a big hit.

But if you prefer going down under, the 'Summer Heights High' DVD might be more to your liking. Everything the last few Christopher Guest films haven’t been, the Australian series follows three characters (all played by Chris Lilley) in sidesplitting mockumentary form.

'Little Britain USA' and 'Summer Heights High' are both available now at the HBO store.

Ted Haggard on HBO tomorrow - blah, blah, blah

Still don't have your Haggard fix yet? The documentary about him airs on HBO on Thursday. Rocky Mountain News' Mike Pearson calls it an "opening argument for redemption."

But that was before all this new stuff became public knowledge.