A new platform for LGBT cinema arrives, startling revelations about the PULSE mass murderer’s family emerge in court, and iconic martyrs speak from beyond the grave.
The Reel Deal
NakedSword Film Works and Breaking Glass Pictures are launching QReel, a streaming service focused on LGBTQ content.
Billed by the collaborators as “a new LGBTQ video streaming service dedicated to telling the intricate and compelling stories of our lives,” Qreel promises to deliver high-quality content to reflect the diverse interests of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community. Their library ranges from documentaries to film shorts and full-length features. According to a joint statement from the two founding companies, “Qreel provides a vast and constantly expanding library of queer cinema that will make you love, laugh, cry, think, and celebrate the queer world around you.”
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In describing the new venture, Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff said, “We are so proud to be partnering with NSFW on this exciting new venture. Since our beginnings in 2009, Breaking Glass Pictures has been fully committed to the wide spectrum of LGBTQ films. We are always looking for new and creative projects that tell a story and represent every facet of the LGBTQ community. This new venture is poised to be a huge step forward in bringing these stories to a new generation of viewers. Qreel will be the ultimate ‘go to’ streaming site for all things queer.”
Have a look at their trailer:
The PULSE Bombshells
Defense attorneys for the widow of the PULSE nightclub gunman called for her charges to be dismissed or for a mistrial to be declared today, after prosecutors disclosed that the mass murderer’s father had been a longstanding informant for the FBI informant who is also currently under criminal investigation.
Seddique Mateen had been an intermittent FBI source for nearly a dozen years, from 2005 through June 2016, say prosecutors. The revelation came in an e-mail Saturday from Assistant US Attorney Sara Sweeney — a week after the trial was already in motion. The body of the e-mail also revealed that Seddique Mateen, the killer’s father, is under legal scrutiny for money transfers to Afghanistan and Turkey after documents were discovered at his residence — on the day of the Pulse attack in June 2016. As the e-mail states, those transfers were pinpointed between March 16, 2016 and June 5, 2016.
The revelations threaten to throw the case against Noor Salman, wife of the PULSE murderer, into complete chaos. She is on trial for her complicity in the PULSE murders and for misleading investigators. Noor’s legal team now claims that failure to disclose Mateen’s history violates their client’s rights to due process and throws their approach to her defense into disarray.
Liberals Lionized
Robert and Ethel Kennedy console Coretta Scott King after her husband’s assassination in 1968
April brings a pair of documentary memorials to two political icons who died a half century ago this year.
Paramount Network and documentarian Derik Murray will debut a new film on the life and legacy of civil rights giant Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I Am MLK Jr. bows Wednesday, April 4 (9:00-10:30pm ET/PT) on Paramount Network and BET on the 50th Anniversary of King’s murder. Murray’s film tracks King’s life through the pivotal moments of the civil rights struggle he championed.
The film features exclusive interview swith those who worked, traveled and marched with King, ranging from history-changing civil rights-era activists such as Ambassador Andrew Young, to Congressman John Lewis and Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as” contemporary writers, activists and influencers in sports, entertainment and media such as Van Jones, Carmelo Anthony, Nick Cannon, Shaun King, Malcolm Jenkins and more.”
Bobby Kennedy for President begins on Netflix April 27. The documentary will appear in four installments, and is directed by Dawn Porter. It follows the last campaign of the New York Senator, and also tracks his life following the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.
Robert Kennedy remains a subject of fascination, particularly among millennials — who never knew him. He was the tough Attorney General who went after the Mob and helped to desegregate schools in the South, and he became a fierce fighter for the poor and underprivileged after his brother’s death. He pushed for law and order when meeting with Black militants, and stood before privileged white college kids and told them that their draft deferments were an unfair advantage over the poor. When quizzed at a rally by medical students where Kennedy intended to find the money to fund his inner-city clinics program, RFK replied, “From you.”
Last modified: September 13, 2019
