Image: bbc.com
“Whenever my children travel outside of Italy, me being trans is revealed and our privacy is violated”.
Egon Botteghi is a transgender parent who shared his story, about travelling freely in the EU, in a recent report by Transgender Europe (TGEU), ‘Stuck on the swing’
My name is Egon, and I’m a transgender parent living in Italy with my two kids. I have carried, given birth to, loved, and cared for both my children. I also changed the gender marker on my documents from female to male, when my kids were still small.
I didn’t know that as a trans parent it would be very hard for us to travel without our privacy being violated. We’re EU citizens, and we should be able to move and travel freely. So I’m sharing my story, alongside other trans parents, to try to achieve that. Continue Reading »
Image: Teen Vogue
Hate crimes against LGBT+ people increased by 36% in Germany in 2020, highlighting an increase in homophobic attacks and politically motivated violence in the country in recent years, the government and campaigners said on Tuesday.
A total of 782 crimes targeting LGBT people were reported last year, about 150 of which involved violence, police data showed. Continue Reading »
Sapir Berman, an Israeli transgender referee, at a soccer match between Hapoel Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem, Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa, Israel, May 3, 2021 – Image: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
(Reuters) – Sapir Berman made sports history on Monday, officiating at a soccer match in Israel’s Premier League, for the first time since coming out as transgender.
“This is the first step in a long and wonderful journey. Sapir, we are proud to do it with you,” the Israel Football Association tweeted, as she took the field for the contest between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Haifa. Continue Reading »
UB40 Announce new album ‘Bigga Baggariddim’ – Out 25th June 2021
An album of reggae collaborations with artists spanning four continents and seven decades of recording experience, featuring House of Shem, Tippa Irie, BLVK H3RO, Inner Circle, Pablo Rider, KIOKO, Gilly G, Slinger, Winston Francis, Leno Banton and General Zooz (Reggae Rajahs)
“UB40 are regarded as legends here in Jamaica. They keep their hearts close to the people and especially the community they come from, and I love how they stay on that path, just trying to uplift people.” – BLVK H3RO
Following 2019’s critically acclaimed original album, ‘For The Many’, on 25th June UB40 release Bigga Baggariddim, an incredible celebration of the genre they love, and a seminal reggae collaborations album. Continue Reading »
Review By Frances Winston
Directed by Eoin C Macken – Starring: Dean-Charles Chapman, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Travis Fimmel, Conleth Hill
Available on VOD Now!
A TV famous cast bring this movie about teenage angst and toxic masculinity to life.
Like all good coming of age stories, the tale kicks off with the graduation of the main characters, Matthew (Chapman), Kearney (Cole) and Rez (Walsh-Peelo) who celebrate by trashing their teacher’s car. And it’s all downhill from there, as they soon witness a young girl being hit by a car, and dying in front of them. This is something that we are obviously supposed to associate as a triggering factor in the characters’ future behaviour. Unfortunately, the scene itself isn’t that affecting, and the characters were not well-established enough beforehand for the audience to notice any discernible changes to their temperament. Continue Reading »
Review By Frances Winston
Directed by: John Patrick Shanley – Starring: Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Jon Hamm, Dearbhla Molloy, Christopher Walken
Available on VOD Now!
I don’t usually start a review like this, but if you are Irish, and don’t want your blood to boil, then avoid this film like the plague. Treat it like a Coronovirus super-spreader, that you don’t even want to be in vicinity of, because this is Paddywhackery on an astonishing level. Even the truly awful Chasing Leprechauns was less patronising than this movie. Continue Reading »
Review by Frances Winston
Directed by: Mike Rianda – Starring the voices of: Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Eric Andre, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, Conan O’Brien, Charlyne Yi, Sasheer Zamata, Mike Rianda, Olivia Colman
Available on Netflix Now!
Like so many other movies, this has been in somewhat of a CoronaVirus ether, until it was finally removed from distribution schedules, and sold to Netflix. This family friendly computer-animated offering sees aspiring filmmaker, Katie (Jacobson) about to leave for college. But things are strained with her and her father, Rick (McBride) so, desperate to reconnect with his daughter, he cancels her flight to college, and announces that they are doing a road trip, to drop her off with her mother, Linda (Rudolph) and younger brother, Arron (Rianda) tagging along to make it a family affair. Unfortunately, as they are en route, one of the most popular AIs on the market, PAL (Coleman) – think Alexa with more attitude – turns on her creator, and orders robots to overtake humanity. Continue Reading »
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Review by Frances Winston
Directed by: Chloé Zhao – Starring: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Bob Wells, Linda May, Swankie
Available on Disney+ now
Hot on the heels of its Oscar triumphs, this film, based on the 2017 non-fiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder, is finally available to audiences here. Award winning director, Zhao, has taken the factual tome and woven a fictional tale around it. However, she has cleverly employed many real life nomads as supporting cast, with McDormand and Strathairn being the only professional actors featured, giving this an authenticity lacking in so many similar offerings. Continue Reading »
Review By Frances Winston
Directed by: Stefano Sollima – Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Luke Mitchell, Jack Kesy, Brett Gelman, Colman Domingo, Guy Pearce
Available to stream on Amazon Prime from April 30th
I was about half an hour into watching this movie, when it struck me that it felt very dated. Thinking that perhaps it was an older movie that was only hitting streaming now, I looked it up to double-check. And while it is indeed a brand new film, the Tom Clancy source material was written in 1993, and the movie has been in development hell pretty much ever since (with a big screen offering originally slated for a 1995 release) which certainly explained a lot. Continue Reading »
