FESTIVALS: *IN-EDIT Music Documentary Film Festival (Barcelona, Spain) * Tempo Documentary Festival (Stockholm, Sweden) * Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece) * BAFICI (Buenos Aires, Argentina) * Milano Film Festival (Italy) * IndieLisboa (Portugal) * New Horizons International Film Festival (Warsaw, Poland) * Filmfest Hamburg (Germany) * Tartu Love Film Festival (Tallinn, Estonia) * Brighton Film Festival - CINECITY (UK) * Beat Film Festival (Moscow, Russia) * !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival (Turkey) * Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (JIMFF) (Seoul, South Korea) * Open City Docs (London, UK) * Florence Queer Festival (Italy) * Queersicht - lesbisch-schwules Filmfestival (Bern, Switzerland) * OutView Film Festival (Kalithea, Greece) * Brisbane Queer Film Festival (Australia) * Vox Feminae Festival (Zagreb, Croatia) * Mix Brasil (Sao Paulo, Brazil) * Melkweg - PLAY Film+Music Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) * Melbourne Queer Film Festival (Australia) * Distrital Film Festival (México D.F., , México) * Divergenti International Transgender Film Festival (Bologna, Italy) * Kaunas International Film Festival (Kaunas, Lithuania) * Mardi Gras Film Festival & QueerDOC (Sydney, Australia) * Melbourne International Arts Festival (Australia) * Chéries-Chéris - festival de film gay et lesbien de Paris (France) * No No No! (Leipzig, Germany) * POP Montreal (Canada ) * Slovak Queer Film Festival (Bratislava, Slovakia) * Poolinale Music Film Festival (Wien, Austria) * Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève (Switzerland) * Centre for Urban Culture Kino Šiška (Ljubljana, Slovenia) * Eye Tunes (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) * Kino SOKOL (Zakopane, Poland) * SoundTrack_Cologne (Germany) * FICBA - Festival Internacional de Cine de Barichara (Santander, Colombia) * XPOSED International Queer Film Festival (Berlin, Germany) * MICGénero (Mexico, DF, Mexico) * Viennale (Austria) * Cinema & Kurbelkiste (Münster, Germany) * Przegląd Piosenki Aktorskiej (Wrocław, Poland) * Airpsace Projects (Bronte, Australia) * Ghent International Film Festival (Belgium)
AWARDS: * Jury Award - Chéries-Cheris Film Festival
Turning with Antony & the Johnsons
Category |
Arts & Culture, Music, Sexuality
Year |
2012
Country |
USA / Denmark
Running time |
82’
Format |
Production |
Turning Film LLC, Lucy Sexton Film, Beofilm
Director |
Antony , Charles Atlas
Turning takes the viewer into the world of Antony and the Johnsons as they tour their astonishing live concert/performance work, “Turning”. At its center are a series of intimate interviews with the women who performed this extraordinary show with Antony. Their stories combine with Antony’s mesmerizingly emotional songs to create a powerful journey of struggle and hope.
The Turning live show was a critically acclaimed concert/performance piece created by singer/composer Antony and video artist Charles Atlas. The show sets Antony and the Johnson’s singular music against Atlas’s hypnotic full stage live video images. Onstage, 13 performers, described as “beauties”, pose, one at a time, on a rotating platform. The women explore femininity and identity by their simple presence as Antony sings his hauntingly beautiful songs of alienation and transcendance. The women are, like Antony himself, not easily definable personas. Whether they are androgynous, transgender, covered in makeup or bare skinned, what is important is their hard won humanity. They come from the fringes where the struggle to be oneself is a revolutionary act.
The film’s intimate interviews with the performers give us a glimpse of that struggle. With humor and affection, the company talks about their lives and histories. The film showcases Antony’s rawly emotional singing in unprecedented stage footage, and its loving and intimate portrait of the company is captivating, heartbreaking, and ultimately hope-filled and joyous.