KT 111: Gay24 Spotlight
Alex Williams takes a look at one of Narrm's pre-eminent film communities.
Gay24 is a “regular Naarm based film club highlighting radical and underseen queer filmmaking, curated by Samantha and Jini. Always free and open to all.” Ahead of their upcoming screening at Flippy’s in Brunswick Alex Williams spoke to curators Samantha and Jini.
Gay24, Wednesday April 30 from 7:30pm:
Tommy Doesn’t Exist Anymore
Ian Munro, 1985
+
Adventures in the Gender Trade
Susan Marenco, 1994
Updates on upcoming Gay24 screenings via instagram.
Words by Alex Williams
It’s a buzzing Wednesday night at Flippy’s Queer Bar on Sydney Road, Brunswick. By the time my partner and I arrive, the couches and fold-out chairs in front of the pull-down projector screen are overflowing, and chatter fills the air in all directions. It looks like we might be part of the standing room until we’re invited to squeeze onto the edge of a padded booth in the left corner. Tonight, the bar hosts its monthly screening event by Gay24, a free film club co-curated by Jini Maxwell and Samantha Eckhardt dedicated to rare and radical queer filmmaking. Announced via the club’s Instagram account, some programs, like this one, are so popular that arriving late means you’ll be watching the film while standing or even looking in from the street. As the first short of the night plays, Christina Petropoulos’s lesbian comedy Between Seven & One (1997), the room vibrates with laughter and surprised delight. Friends and lovers murmur comments to each other; as the protagonist laments the persistence of a delusional crush in direct-to-camera monologue, someone near me laughs softly, shaking their head in self-deprecating recognition.
Gay24 began in a sharehouse with no living room, where Sam and Jini would watch gay movies on a laptop together in their bedrooms. But in order the share the films they’d found on trans history nerd escapades with more friends, they were going to need a bigger screen and a few more seats. For Sam, the film that most tugged at this desire was Spanish documentary Dressed in Blue (1983), which follows the lives of six trans women in 1980s Madrid, exploring their varied experiences of gender, labour, family and sexuality, and affording them a remarkable amount of control over their representation onscreen. Though touring in a recent restoration, it did not screen in Australia – so Sam ordered a Blu-ray online, but didn’t want to watch the film alone: “I was like, we should screen this for trans people because this film seems like it's really exciting and important.” The possibilities inherent in creating their own separate space to watch films “escalate[d]” into a series, forming part of what Sam and Jini call their first season, charmingly entitled “Sam and Jini Screen Gay Movies for Their Friends”.
Gay24’s richly eclectic programming – ranging from realism to avant-garde, queer classics to archival rarities, comedy to pornography – is unearthed through a range of equally eclectic sources. By cold-emailing filmmakers (“hey, you made this movie in 1982 and we found that somebody put it on YouTube. We'd love to show it. What do you think?”) and digging – Indiana Jones style, as Sam puts it – through old film festival programs, books, zines, and archives, surprising wonders rise to the surface and emerge out of obscurity. Sam found Between Seven and One, for instance, by ordering a budget DVD of lesbian shorts produced in the 2000s, a collection of films “dumped” completely devoid of context. Australian filmmaker Jeanti St Clair’s experimental video essay on gender deviance, Crossing Over (1992), was digitised specifically for its Gay24 screening in September 2023 from the only known remaining VHS copy. In this way, Sam and Jini’s work lies at the intersection of curator and archivist, assembling out of these often-disparate pieces a uniting story or “thesis”. Resonances emerge through unusual yet felicitous pairings, such as that of surreal American short Kiss of the Rabbit God (2019) with French realist drama Tomboy (2011), thematically linked by their exploration of queer thresholds, of crossing into deviant ways of being in the world.
In telling a story from the archive, Gay24’s programs allow trans and queer people to connect with our history in a communal context, to recognise parts of ourselves, and to find what feels pertinent now. A recent encore program first played in early 2023 (and one of Sam’s favourites), a double feature of Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too (1993) and Transexual Menace (1996), “fires people up in a way that is really exciting.” Both centring queer resistance groups in New York in the early 1990s, the films’ recording of their demands for respect and visibility offer “hope and direction” for navigating the increasingly hostile political climate we find ourselves in now. Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too begins with a rally in Queens on September 9, 1992 against a school board’s rejection of the ‘multicultural curriculum’ and its objective to foster positive attitudes toward queer sexualities and families. Transexual Menace also opens with protest action: this time outside the mayor’s office in Washington, D.C. in the autumn of 1995, demanding justice for Black trans woman Tyra Hunter, who died as a result of being denied medical care for car crash injuries. Meanwhile, the nebulous cause of ‘children’s safety’ is still leveraged as a justification for malicious legislation like the Queensland government’s recent banning of hormone therapies for trans youth in January 2025. Engaging with the history of our struggle can make it easier to make sense of our present, as well as to imagine ways of moving into the future.
A diverse communal space need not flatten complex identities and histories, and Gay24’s programs make space for embodiments of queerness that are often in tension with each other. To this end, Sam and Jini consciously pursue programming which rejects aspirations of trans and queer palatability to make room for self-representation that is, in Jini’s words, “complicated and messy and ambivalent.” A potent example opened Gay24’s third season in June 2023, Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams’s documentary Shinjuku Boys (1995). Told in cinéma verité style, we follow three transmasculine hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district who entertain a female clientele. The subjects, known as onnabe – trans people assigned female at birth – articulate their gender identities in ways which frequently challenge stereotypically binary conceptualisations of transness. One host, Gaish, is uninterested in either inhabiting a binary gender category or pursuing hormone injections. In a long confessional interview intercut throughout the film, they express an ambivalent – even resentful – relationship with their transness, seeing it as the reason behind their physical and social alienation, at times wishing they’d “never been born”. By bringing less palatable or uplifting stories to the fore, Sam says, we can make space for the messy contradictions permeating trans and queer lives and rebel “against that urge to define us by our most acceptable form.” Jini concurs that “creating an uncompromising space for complicated trans and queer self-representation feels like a very important thing to do right now.”
This project of resisting palatability also involves uncovering films – and, indeed, whole genres – excluded from the canon. “Gay24 Up Late,” a late-night program of trans sex films which screened in collaboration with film collective Static Vision in January 2025 (and one of Jini’s favourites) celebrated pornography as a long-standing and indispensable part of trans self-representation and artistic practice. Among the films screened was two-spirit trans man and activist Christopher Lee’s Alley of the Tranny Boys (1998), featuring trans performers from San Francisco engaged in various sexual acts across six scenes. In the fourth scene, one trans man joins another in a hot tub, where they complement each other’s bottom growth and trade post-transition masturbation tips. The intimacy of this deeply T4T scene – both in terms of what’s on screen and the audience it’s intended for – is undergirded by a charmingly DIY ambience of handheld camerawork and laughing glances into the camera as they splash around playfully. For Jini, the film’s significance lies in its “total and quite irreverent demystification” of transmasculine sexual experience. Each in a varying degree of physical transition, the two men are allowed to enjoy pleasure in the absence of any explanation or justification. While it may not “fit the assimilationist narrative to include [porn]” as part of a canon of trans art, Sam says, “we have to, because otherwise we are robbing ourselves of something.”
As Gay24 has grown in popularity, its curators have eschewed the path of professionalisation to ensure the events remain community-focused, free and social – and in so doing, forming a key part of Naarm’s flourishing subculture of independent and non-standard screening spaces. On the night I spoke with them in the fairy-lit back garden at Flippy’s, Sam and Jini joked that the aim of Gay24 is to “help get gay people laid.” Whilst perfectly genuine on its own, this statement also exemplifies their broader hopes. As much as, or even more than, a screening space, Gay24 creates “a” space, where the conversations – including and especially those involving ambivalent responses to the material – and the connections made are what’s most important. Being free, physically accessible and somewhere their audience feels safe, Flippy’s is, as Sam says, a “queer community space in a way that we don't have a lot of in Naarm.” In an increasingly conservative political climate that has bred a proliferation of transphobia, Gay24 is a space where trans and queer folk can forgo the burden of defending our right to exist and collectively engage, through screen media, with the messy, ambiguous, and confronting parts of ourselves. “That murkiness is vital and exciting,” says Sam, “it's not something to be ashamed of.”
Listings | Thurs 24 April - Wednesday 30 April
Notable Screenings
Artist Film Workshop
7:30pm Tuesday 29 April
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Road, Brunswick.
Sabina Maselli and Melody Woodnutt
Two Artist Film Workshop members who share common visions, mystical inclinations, and expanded views of artist cinema.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024
Screening Fri, Sat, Sun at ACMI
The Blues Brothers
John Landis, 1980
Screening Fri 18 Apr
The Exorcist
William Friedkin, 1973
Screening Sun 20
New Films in Release
The Correspondent
Kriv Stenders, 2025
Screening at most arthouse cineams
Warfare
Ray Mendoza; Alex Garland
Screening at both multi and arthouse cinemas
Focus on Michael Hanake
Lemmings: Part 2 - Injuries
Michael Haneke, 1979
Screening Thu 24 Apr
Funny Games (2007)
Michael Haneke, 2007
Screening Fri 25 Apr
Hidden (Caché)
Michael Haneke
Screening Sat 26 Apr
The Castle
Michael Haneke, 1997
Screening Sat 26 Apr
Happy End
Michael Haneke, 2017
Screening Sun 27 Apr
Benny's Video
Michael Haneke, 1992
Screening Mon 28 Apr
Top Screen
Monday 28 Apr
“This exciting program contains animation, documentary and fiction from the next generation of Victorian filmmakers.”
Matinees
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024
Screening Fri, Sat, Sun
Next screening May 12
7:30pm Tuesday 29 April ($10 tix — more info here)
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Road, Brunswick.
Sabina Maselli and Melody Woodnutt
Two Artist Film Workshop members who share common visions, mystical inclinations, and expanded views of artist cinema.
Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII
Adrian Maben, 1972
Screening Daily
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
George Lucas, 2005
Screening Daily
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Peter Browngardt, 2024
Screening Sat
Alien
Ridley Scott, 1979
+
Aliens
James Cameron, 1986
Screening Sat
Sleep Has Her House
Scott Barley, 2017
Screening Tuesday
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Returning in June
The Capitol Theatre Orchestra plus The Sound of Music (1965)
Sat 1pm — 4pm
The Best Films You've Never Seen
Digger
Georgis Grigorakis, 2020
+
The Forest
Lia Tsalta, 2018
Screening Tue 29 April
We Girls
Xiaogang Feng, 2025
Screening most days
The Way We Talk
Adam Wong, 2024
Screening Daily
Peg O’ My Heart
Nick Cheung, 2024
Screening Daily
Mumu
Sha Mo, 2025
Screening almost daily
No screening this week
No screening this week
Events / Previews
Misericordia
Alain Guiraudie, 2024
Screening Wed
Twilight Saga Marathon
”All five films screened back-to-back”
Screening Saturday
Tinā (Mother)
Miki Magasiva, 2025
Advance screening Fri, Sat and Sun
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (20th Anniversary)
Judy Irving, 2003
Screening Daily excl.
Heat (30th Anniversary)
Michael Mann, 1995
Screening Thu, Fri, Sun
Se7en (30th Anniversary)
David Fincher, 1995
Screening Thu, Fri, Mon, Wed
The Fall (Restoration)
Tarsem Singh, 2006
Screening Fri, Mon
Wake in Fright (Restoration)
Ted Kotcheff, 1971
Screening Sat, Sun, Mon
Requiem for a Dream (25th Anniversary)
Darren Aronofsky, 2000
Screening Mon, Tue, Wed
Eyes Without a Face (65th Anniversary)
Georges Franju, 1960
Screening Wed
Dog Day Afternoon (50th Anniversary)
Sidney Lumet, 1975
Screening Fri, Sun, Wed
Goodfellas (35th Anniversary)
Martin Scorsese, 1990
Screening Mon
Alien
Ridley Scott, 1979
+
Aliens
James Cameron, 1986
Screening Tues 22 Apr
New Release
Crossing
Levan Akin, 2024
Screening Daily
The Correspondent
Kriv Stenders, 2025
Screening Daily
Small Things Like These
Tim Mielants, 2025
Screening Daily
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte, 2024
Screening Daily
Death of a Unicorn
Alex Scharfman, 2025
Screening Daily
Head South
Jonathan Ogilvie, 2024
Screening Daily
The Cats of Gokogu Shrine
Kazuhiro Soda, 2024
Screening Daily
Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh, 2025
Screening Daily
In Vitro
Will Howart, Tom McKeith, 2025
Screening Daily
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis, 2024
Screening Daily
Ange and the Boss: Puskas in Australia
Cam Fink & Tony Wilson, 2024
Screening Daily
Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho, 2025
Screening Daily
Bob Trevino Likes It
Tracie Laymon, 2024
Screening Daily
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024
Screening Daily
The Last Showgirl
Gia Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
Queer
Luca Guadanigno, 2024
Screening Daily
Babygirl
Halina Reijn, 2024
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
The Brutalist
Brady Corbet, 2024
Screening Daily
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Bernard MacMahon, 2025
Screening Daily
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Screening Daily
Last days of every other film, probably, see calendar.
DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: @ Miscellania
No screening this week
FRENCH FILM CLUB
No screening this week
GAY24 (Bar Flippy’s)
Tommy Doesn’t Exist Anymore
Ian Munro, 1985
+
Adventures in the Gender Trade
Susan Marenco, 1994
Updates on upcoming Gay24 screenings via instagram.
No screening this week
LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO
Events
Sculpting in Time: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky
Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979
Screenings Thurs
To see all events, click here.
General Release
The Minecraft Movie
Jared Hess, 2025
Screening Daily
Small Things Like These
Tim Mielants, 2025
Screening Daily
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis, 2024
Screening Daily
Death of a Unicorn
Alex Scharfman, 2025
Advance Daily
The Amateur
James Hawes, 2025
Screening Daily
Novocaine No Pain
Dan Berk, Robert Olsen, 2025
Screening Daily
Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh, 2025
Screening Daily
Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho, 2025
Screening Daily
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
OVA CLUB
No screening this week
MISCELLANIA
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: SCREENING IDEAS
No screening this week
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / MOONEE PONDS / WESTGARTH
Events / Previews
General Release
Tinā (Mother)
Miki Magasiva, 2025
Screening Daily
Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII
Adrian Maben, 1972
Screening Daily
The Minecraft Movie
Jared Hess, 2025
Screening Daily
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis, 2024
Screening Daily
Death of a Unicorn
Alex Scharfman, 2025
Advance Daily
Novocaine No Pain
Dan Berk, Robert Olsen, 2025
Screening Daily
Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh, 2025
Screening Daily
Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho, 2025
Screening Daily
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold, 2024
Screening Daily
Conclave
Edward Berger, 2024
Screening Daily
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024
Screening Daily
Between shows.
No screening this week
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
Continental Divide: The Unflinching Vision of Michael Haneke
Time of the Wolf
Michael Haneke, 2003
Screening from 7pm
+
The Piano Teacher (35mm presentation)
Michael Haneke, 2001
Screening from 9:05pm
Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII
Adrian Maben, 1972
Screening Thu, Sun
Neil Young: Coastal
Daryl Hannah, 2025
Screening Fri, Sat
Alien
Ridley Scott, 1979
Screening Sat
The Minecraft Movie
Jared Hess, 2025
Screening Fri, Sat
Warfare
Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland, 2025
Screening Mon
Gallipoli
Peter Weir, 1981
Screening ANZAC Day
Small Things Like These
Tim Mielants, 2025
Screening Sun, Mon & Wed
The French Connection
William Friedkin, 1971
Screening Sun and Wed
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis, 2024
Screening Fri & Wed
UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ Thornbury Picture House
No screening this week