StoryCorps Makes Us Cry Again w/ The Saint of Dry Creek

Every once in awhile, StoryCorps features an LGBTQ+ storyteller that either warms or heart or makes us cry. Or both. Here's the synopsis of The Saint of Dry Creek.

Patrick Haggerty grew up the son of a dairy farmer in rural Dry Creek, Washington, during the 1950s. As a teenager, Pat began to understand he was gay—something he thought he was hiding well. But one day, after performing at a school assembly, Pat learned that his father could see him much more clearly than he realized. "The Saint of Dry Creek" online release is presented in partnership with the It Gets Better Project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/)

Just give it a watch. Then watch all of the other animated StoryCorps!

Gay Themed Animated Short Film "Cruise Patrol" Finally Available Online!

Dutch animator Bobby de Groot and the team at House of Secrets finally made their 2013 gay themed, sci-fi animated short Cruise Patrol available to view online for free! I guess they needed to finish up their 2014 Festival circuit that included more than fifty film fests in twenty two countries.

Cruise Patrol was also nominated for some pretty prestigious awards including Grand Prix of Dutch Animation at the Holland Animation Film Festival, Best International Short at Suspiria Fest, Best Short Animated Film at the Shortcutz Film Festival, and more!

Anyway, since the movie is only seven minutes long, I am not going to give away too much of the plot. The only thing I will say is the first couple of minutes you will wonder where this is going. Stick with it. It takes an unexpected turn into craziness!

Watch: Suck-A-Thumb Trilogy by Gay Filmmaker Richard Mansfield

So, if you like fairy tales, if you like over the top campy story telling, if you like dark stories about kids behaving badly, you kinda owe it to yourself to watch Richard Mansfield's animated short film Suck-A-Thumb trilogy. It is a collection of parables warning kids of the dangers of misbehaving told through wonderfully crude puppetry and animation. The first Suck-A-Thumb film was screened as part of the London Lesbian Gay Film Festival (now FLARE). Since then, each of the two follow up films have become more ambitious in scope warning children to mind their Mothers or terrible things will happen.

The stories in the Suck-A-Thumb series are based on the German fairy tale book Der Struwwelpeter by German psychiatrist Heinrich Hoffmann. Mansfield explains:

The original rhyme of Suck-A-Thumb was one of my favourite stories growing up. The story of a young boy sucking seemed perfect to make into a camp horror animation that was both funny and cruel. It was great to be able to expand the story and turn it into a horror series. My dream is to turn the stories into a stop-motion feature film.

I think there is a strong sexual undertone to Suck-A-Thumb, whether it's intended or not by Hoffmann. The story is certainly is often read as masturbation by modern audiences. We played the sexual innuendo from the tale right up making it as rude as possible from the sucking of the thumbs in the first film to the erection-cutting off in the third one! One blog said the films were 'Explicitly homosexual' which we thought was fantastic. 

Richard Mansfield is not alone in this undertaking. He and his husband Daniel, who voices the narrator and Mother in the Suck-A-Thumb trilogy, founded the production company Mansfield Dark in 2011. Together they've put out host of uniquely wonderful movies ranging from the outrageous comedy of ‘Showgirls 3’ to the chilling horror of ‘The Mothman Curse’. Their first official DVD release was LGBT period-drama 'The Secret Path.'  Coming 14th April is gay vampire thriller 'Drink Me'. You can watch 'The Secret Path' below!

If you would like to explore the Mansfield Dark films on your own, we suggest their Website, Facebook, and Twitter! Otherwise, enjoy the trilogy below! And be sure to check out their trailer to The Secret Path!

Trashy and Bootleg as Hell: An Interview w/ Sparkle Hooves!

I have no idea how it took me so long to notice the world's most obscene, over-the-top, trashy homosexual redneck cartoon pony - Sparkle Hooves. Crudely animated, the hilarious Sparkle Hooves video series tackles subjects ranging everywhere from Top 10 Dumpsters To Get A BJ Behind in Atlanta to renting (but not owning) a house haunted by a dead drag queen who was murdered for being bad at lip syncing. Every Thursday at midnight, Sparkle Hooves hears Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman" playing from the great beyond and is forced to hire a psychic to chase the evil spirit out. Perhaps the funniest of all is Sparkle Hooves at last years Dragon Con getting his nerd on. It is a must watch.

Very little is known about the origins of Sparkle Hooves. But, here are a few things we were able to get out of his publicist:

Sparkle Hooves was born in Atlanta, GA.

Age: "A lady never talks about her age".
He loves buffalo wings and getting turnt up.
BJ's are his favorite to give and receive.
He is vers and loves Grindr, but hates limp dicks.
His favorite bar is Marys in East Atlanta.
His mother is Debbie Hooves.

Thankfully, we were able to get a few minutes alone with Sparkle Hooves in a truck stop bathroom off I-85 by tapping our foot three times under the stall. Though disappointed we weren't there for sex, he consented to answering some of our burning questions!

Sparkle Hooves at Dragon Con!


Q: Sparkle Hooves, could you please define the term "Hunty?" It has me totally confused.

Sparkle: OH NO HUNTY!!!! Shit, it's like saying "Gurllll" "Bitch" and "Honey" but in a sexy way. See also Baeshe.

 
Q: You once famously said "the only thing better than a chicken wing is a big ol' ding a ling." Just how big are we talking?
Sparkle: Shitttttt Gurllllll, this little pony can take a lot. If it don't fit in the rear, put it in my mouth my dear. A nice dick can always fit into this world somewhere.

Q: Do you miss your days in the pasture with Sarah Jessica Parker?
Sparkle: Oh nooooo and too true, she is one beat up donkey that needs to be left in the fields to feed alone. Sorry Sarah you are a goddamn messssss.

Q: How do you feel about Justin' Bieber's crotch and chest being enhanced in the recent Calvin Klein underwear ad?
Sparkle: Shit Justin is bitch, but he's a hot bitch and I'm always interested in hot bitches. A pickle is a pickle, honey. I just want to see the real deal, take it out! Big or small it's worth a lick. How many licks does it take to get to the center of that dick? I hope a lot. Also can I buy the underwear that he wore in it? Then I'm interested.

Q:  As a horse, do you feel you have an unfair advantage when hanging out at Swinging Richards strip club?
Sparkle: Hehehe well you knowwwwwwww. The good thing about dicks is that come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. As long as they hard then who cares. As long as you don't come at me limp as a chimp, then we are okay! Cause I will hoof you in the nutz.

Q: So, a weird thing happened. I am being haunted by the ghost of Pete Burns from Dead or Alive's botched plastic surgery. Could you please give me the number to your psychic Miss Aquaphina?
Sparkle: Listen Peter Burns is a goddamn frightmare! You may not survive this, but my friend Miss Aquaphina can shut down any queeny ass ghosts.

Q: Could you tell us about your first sexual experience?
Sparkle: I was upstairs in a huge barn with hay everywhere. I was with my foster cousin, Charlie Horse, and he was older. We were playing hide-and-seek and he said let's go down on each other and before he was done with that sentence I was already down on him. Don't judge, Judy! He was a foster cousin! We weren't related! Shit if we were then I could have gotten it all the time. HEHEHE Also I could have sworn I heard Prince's "Raspberry Beret" playing in the background as I went down.

Q:  How has being an internet celebrity changed your life?

Sparkle: Shit gurlllll, Sometimes it gets me laid, but sometimes the ex's and hook ups coming out of the fuckin wood works. Tragic! It's like kicking a log and spiders coming pouring out! Hook ups are meant to be in the past bitch!

Q:  When are you going to do your 10 Favorite Glory Holes in the Metro Atlanta Area?
Sparkle: Oh My Fuckin GAWD! Shit there are some great ones in Atlanta! Hell the best one is at this little ponies crib. Come over and tap on the hole, then stick it in. I might take a selfie with it. #Sparkleshole

Q: Would you rather fight one horse sized duck or ten duck sized horses?
Sparkle: I'd rather fuck one horse sized dick, and blow ten dick sized horses.

My House Is Haunted Bitch!






View All Sparkle Hooves videos HERE! Visit Sparkle Hooves Facebook Page!

Love, Sparkle Hooves. Bitch!

Watch: "A Good Man" StoryCorps Animation

All aboard the feels train. Wonderful animator Tim Rauch teams up with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to bring a few heartwarming StoryCorps stories to life. The latest animation is the story of Bryan Wilmoth. When Bryan's father discovered he was gay, he drove him into the country in the middle of the night and kicked him out of the car with nothing but a few personal items and $5 in his pocket. Watch/listen as he talks to his brother Mike about reconnecting with their six other brothers and sisters. Bring a tissue.

Watch: Happy & Gay Trailer - The Queer Cartoon Musical!

Check out this really great trailer for Happy & Gay - The Queer Cartoon Musical. It just made it's debut at the New England Animation Film Festival at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, followed immediately by a screening at Magic Lantern Cinemas show Utopic Fantasy/Infinite Gender/Experimental History in Providence, RI.

Here's the synopsis:

Two queer couples go out for a night on the town in a “revisionist history” 1930’s b&w cartoon musical misadventure. The film embeds historical issues of stereotype, representation, censorship and homophobia, and on the way becomes a document that could not have existed at the time it references. 

Animator Lorelei Pepi is an internationally award-winning independent animation artist! She has been recognized with numerous grants, including the LEF Moving Image Fund, Harvard Film Study Center Production Grant & Fellowship, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship and a MacDowell Fellowship. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Illustration, and her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Experimental Animation. In addition, she is also teaching animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Rhode Island School of Design, and has also taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology, California State Summer School for the Arts, and Harvard University.

She wonderfully explains the cinematic history behind the homophobic and  exclusionary practices of Hollywood in great detail on her website. Here's a snippet:

This film's goal as a "revisionist history" work is aimed at responding to acts of censorship, prejudice and stereotype by re-placing a positive representation of gay and lesbian characters into the narrative. I think of this as a document that could not exist at the time it references because of dominant social, cultural, and religious moral codes of the time. 

The 1930’s American Hollywood Hays Code, in collaboration with the Catholic Church's "Legion of Decency" were focused on limiting filmic representation in the name of “morality and good taste.” This activity enforced the erasure of a positive gay and lesbian presence. It was not just about being underrepresented, but was very much about not existing at all in any positive way. Depictions were aimed at profiling a depraved and pitiful creature that was ultimately punished for their unnatural life, and caused anxiety and frustration in their heterosexual counterparts.

Here are a couple of other animation samples from the movie! Look for Happy & Gay at a film festival near you coming soon! Follow the film on Facebook! Or Twitter!