GLAAD, the world’s Lgbtq media advocacy organization, announced the nominees for its 28th annual GLAAD Media Awards today. Taking a strong stand for inclusivity, only two films were nominated for Outstanding Film — Wide Release, both featuring non-white gay characters: “Moonlight” and “Star Trek Beyond.”
Similarly, in the Outstanding Film — Limited Release category, three films with non-white characters were nominated: Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” Jay Dockendorf’s “Naz & Maalik,” and Andrew Ahn’s “Spa Night” were nominated. Chris Kelly’s “Other People” and Joey Kuhn’s “Those People” round out the bunch.
Read More: Gay and Lesbian Critics Association Honor ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Jackie’ with Dorian Award Noms
“At a time when progress is at a critical juncture, it is imperative that Hollywood tell more Lgbtq stories that reflect the community’s rich diversity – and build understanding that brings all communities closer together,” said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis. “This...
Similarly, in the Outstanding Film — Limited Release category, three films with non-white characters were nominated: Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” Jay Dockendorf’s “Naz & Maalik,” and Andrew Ahn’s “Spa Night” were nominated. Chris Kelly’s “Other People” and Joey Kuhn’s “Those People” round out the bunch.
Read More: Gay and Lesbian Critics Association Honor ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Jackie’ with Dorian Award Noms
“At a time when progress is at a critical juncture, it is imperative that Hollywood tell more Lgbtq stories that reflect the community’s rich diversity – and build understanding that brings all communities closer together,” said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis. “This...
- 1/31/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
In today's roundup: An interview with Jay Dockendorf (Naz & Maalik), previewing Sundance and Slamdance, the ways Todd Haynes frames Carol, Quentin Tarantino as a movie blogger, "10 essential films" by Federico Fellini, 12 Japan Academy Award nominations for Hirokazu Koreeda's Our Little Sister, Pat O’Neill in New York, reviving an unrealized film by Christoph Schlingensief, news of forthcoming projects from Andrew Haigh, Andrea Arnold and Oren Moverman, Jennifer Lawrence's next movie, William Gibson on Chris Marker—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/21/2016
- Keyframe
In today's roundup: An interview with Jay Dockendorf (Naz & Maalik), previewing Sundance and Slamdance, the ways Todd Haynes frames Carol, Quentin Tarantino as a movie blogger, "10 essential films" by Federico Fellini, 12 Japan Academy Award nominations for Hirokazu Koreeda's Our Little Sister, Pat O’Neill in New York, reviving an unrealized film by Christoph Schlingensief, news of forthcoming projects from Andrew Haigh, Andrea Arnold and Oren Moverman, Jennifer Lawrence's next movie, William Gibson on Chris Marker—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/21/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
The stakes feel lower than they should, but as a portrait of youngsters in a tough familial and social position, this is compassionate and engaging. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Maalik (Curtiss Cook Jr.) and Naz (Kerwin Johnson Jr.) are high-schoolers and best friends in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and this day-in-the-life is about what you’d expect from two smart, ambitious guys their age who know each other well: they goof off, they try to make a little money for college (they buy and resell lottery tickets, among other small things), they argue over philosophical matters, they just hang out. But the stakes on this day — as depicted by writer-director Jay Dockendorf, making his feature debut — feel very low indeed, when they are, it would appear, anything but. See, Maalik and Naz are black. And Muslim.
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Maalik (Curtiss Cook Jr.) and Naz (Kerwin Johnson Jr.) are high-schoolers and best friends in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and this day-in-the-life is about what you’d expect from two smart, ambitious guys their age who know each other well: they goof off, they try to make a little money for college (they buy and resell lottery tickets, among other small things), they argue over philosophical matters, they just hang out. But the stakes on this day — as depicted by writer-director Jay Dockendorf, making his feature debut — feel very low indeed, when they are, it would appear, anything but. See, Maalik and Naz are black. And Muslim.
- 1/21/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
"For the longest time I couldn't put a name to who I was. I didn't have an image to who was like me. It was torturous," Jane Lynch notes in Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, the savvy documentary from 2006 by Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades.
A few minutes after Jane lets loose, Todd Haynes, the director of Carol and Poison, adds, "I think films do make a difference. They get under people's skin, and they reflect our lives and our experiences back to us."
But if you're gay and don't check off Caucasian on various surveys, you have had a harder time finding yourself on the big screen. There's been Pariah (2011), The Watermelon Woman (1996), Brother to Brother (2004), and a handful of others of varying delight. But if you are a gay, black, Muslim teenager residing in Brooklyn and are in love with another gay, black, Muslim teen, where will you get media support?...
A few minutes after Jane lets loose, Todd Haynes, the director of Carol and Poison, adds, "I think films do make a difference. They get under people's skin, and they reflect our lives and our experiences back to us."
But if you're gay and don't check off Caucasian on various surveys, you have had a harder time finding yourself on the big screen. There's been Pariah (2011), The Watermelon Woman (1996), Brother to Brother (2004), and a handful of others of varying delight. But if you are a gay, black, Muslim teenager residing in Brooklyn and are in love with another gay, black, Muslim teen, where will you get media support?...
- 1/21/2016
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Mainstream cinema has a diversity problem. As the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominates 20 white actors and actresses in the 20 available acting award nominations (for the second straight year), and the five filmmakers thrust in the Best Director category are men, one would imagine that cinema as a whole is simply a collection of white, male filmmakers telling stories of white men and women. However, if one digs a bit deeper than your local mall-connected megaplex, one sees that with films like Tangerine, independent cinema is continuing to push boundaries and challenge viewers to enter the world and lives of people of various races, creeds, sexual orientations and genders. And 2016 is going to be no different.
From director Jay Dockendorf comes Naz and Maalik, an intimate slice of life drama that looks at one day in the life of its two titular stars. Based on interviews Dockendorf had...
From director Jay Dockendorf comes Naz and Maalik, an intimate slice of life drama that looks at one day in the life of its two titular stars. Based on interviews Dockendorf had...
- 1/21/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
A day-in-the-life look at the unique experience of being young, gay, black, and Muslim in Brooklyn, “Naz & Maalik” starts off with a relaxed, laid back approach, but sly moments of high-stakes drama and import imbue the otherwise chill vibe with a sense of creeping dread. Anchored by lead performances from newcomers Kerwin Johnson, Jr. and Curtiss Cook, Jr., writer-director Jay Dockendorf’s film is intimate, authentic, and feels decidedly relevant in today’s current context. Naz (Cook) and Maalik (Johnson) are two best friends kicking it around their hood, hustling selling lotto tickets, prayer cards, and other items, trying to make a little scratch. They bop around, going to prayer, wandering through the park, chatting, philosophizing about life. There are two complications though: Naz and Maalik are sleeping together, which they have to be highly secretive about, and due to a weird encounter with an undercover cop, are being surveilled...
- 1/19/2016
- by Katie Walsh
- The Playlist
Naz & Maalik
Directed by Jay Dockendorf
United States, 2015
Philadelphia Film Festival
Naz (Kerwin Johnson, Jr.) and Maalik (Curtiss Cook, Jr.) are gay and Muslim – the latter alone a recipe for suspicion from an FBI agent (Annie Grier), and the former enough to stoke that apprehension. The two teenagers walk the streets of New York on a summer day selling lottery tickets, talking about coming out to their families, and encountering a cast of eccentric characters.
A lot of the performances in Naz & Maalik falter, but Curtiss Cook, Jr. is a light as Maalik. He’s magnetic and energetic, with a wolf in sheep’s clothing smile. He’s slightly secondary to Naz and that’s a shame. Scenes where director Jay Dockendorf prefers to follow Naz would have been stronger if the focus had been opposite.
At times Naz & Maalik comes close to satire. The FBI snare – attempt to sell...
Directed by Jay Dockendorf
United States, 2015
Philadelphia Film Festival
Naz (Kerwin Johnson, Jr.) and Maalik (Curtiss Cook, Jr.) are gay and Muslim – the latter alone a recipe for suspicion from an FBI agent (Annie Grier), and the former enough to stoke that apprehension. The two teenagers walk the streets of New York on a summer day selling lottery tickets, talking about coming out to their families, and encountering a cast of eccentric characters.
A lot of the performances in Naz & Maalik falter, but Curtiss Cook, Jr. is a light as Maalik. He’s magnetic and energetic, with a wolf in sheep’s clothing smile. He’s slightly secondary to Naz and that’s a shame. Scenes where director Jay Dockendorf prefers to follow Naz would have been stronger if the focus had been opposite.
At times Naz & Maalik comes close to satire. The FBI snare – attempt to sell...
- 11/3/2015
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
It isn't often you get a movie centered on two, young Muslim teens. It's even more rare to have one that dips into themes of religion, homosexuality, and the war on terror, but "Naz & Maalik" is clearly no ordinary film. The debut feature from Jay Dockendorf offers a glimpse into a unique slice of New York City life, and today we have the exclusive trailer. Starring Curtiss Cook, Jr., Kerwin Johnson, Jr., Annie Grier, Anderson Footman, Bradley Custer, and Ashleigh Awusie, the film follows the titular, closeted Muslim teens as they hustle lotto tickets, talk, make out, all while being trailed by FBI surveillance. Premiering at SXSW, our critic Katie Walsh called the movie "intimate, authentic, and...decidedly relevant in today’s current context." "Naz & Maalik" also won Best Lgbt Film at the Nashville Film Festival this year. Wolfe Video will release the film on DVD and across digital platforms in January 2016. Watch.
- 8/25/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "Naz + Maalik" Tweetable Logline: Two closeted Muslim teens have their Friday afternoon ruined by FBI surveillance. Support this story of secrecy, trust, and l-o-v-e. Elevator Pitch: Two first-generation African-American Muslim teens — close friends, classmates, business partners and something more – have their Friday, and potentially their entire lives, ruined by surveillance as their ambiguous and secretive relationship sets off flags among the relentless bureaucrats still fighting the War on Terror in the far-flung outpost of Bed-Stuy. Production Team: Written & Directed by Jay Dockendorf: Jay is a New York-based director who has written/directed music videos and short films. His first short, Dr. Fuchs (2012), tells the story of a psychiatrist losing his grip when.
- 11/19/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
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