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Chicago – Happy Pride Month 2025! To bring us into this proud celebration last week, HollywoodChicago.com presents four reviews of LGBTQ+ themed films, with audio overviews from Editor/Writer Patrick McDonald and guest contributors Lashelle “Cinema Belle” Mikesell, Rebecca Martin of Cinema Femme and Hugo Do Nascimento.

The four are the “Kissing Jessica Stein” (2001), reviewed by Lashelle; “Saving Face” (2004), reviewed by Rebecca; “Do I Sound Gay” (2014), reviewed by Patrick; and “1985” the movie (2018), reviewed by Hugo. Click the name for more highlights or info from each of the reviewers.

Four by Four: ’Kissing Jessica Stein,’ ‘Saving Face,’ ‘Do I Sound Gay?’ and ‘1985’

Photo credit: File Photos

Lashelle ‘Cinema Belle’ Mikesell, when not at the movies … and also known as the “Queen of Muskegon” … is the Marketing Coordinator for Visit Muskegon (Michigan). Rebecca Martin Fagerholm is the Executive Director and Festival Coordinator for Cinema Femme. Patrick McDonald is Editor and Entertainment Reporter for HollywoodChicago.

Most movies based on books — even the massively successful or critically acclaimed ones — will always be considered books first, movies second. However, there are those few films borne from works of literature with stories so perfectly suited to the medium that it’s difficult to imagine the book ever even existed in the first place. The Wizard of Oz is one, and so is Jurassic Park.

Another adaptation that belongs to this rare category is the 1988 Academy Award winner Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Although it was one of the biggest films of the late 1980s, most people don’t know that Who Framed Roger Rabbit began as the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by author Gary K. Wolf. This is in part because Who Censored Roger Rabbit? was never a bestseller. It’s also just hard to imagine that the concept of a hard-boiled detective teaming up with a living...

Production-distribution powerhouse Constantin Film has unveiled the cast for its crime-drama series “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” and the first-look images from the show.

The series stars Filippa Coster-Waldau, Elyas M’Barek and Henry Lloyd-Hughes. Other cast members include Morten Suurballe, Amanda Collin, Set Sjöstrand and Alexandre Willaume.

Elyas M’Barek plays Rahid in “Smilla’s Sense of Snow.”

The series is directed by BAFTA winner Amma Asante. Adapted from Peter Hoeg’s bestselling novel, the show was written by Asante together with Tanja Bubbel, Clive Bradley, Tina Hastings, Rebecca Martin, Julie Nørgaard Jensen, Keith Hodder, Sonya Desai and Pipaluk K. Jørgensen. The book was previously adapted in 1997 as a feature film, directed by Bille August and starring Julia Ormond.

The series is set in 2040 in Copenhagen. Smilla Jaspersen lives in a surveillance state under threat from an impending energy crisis. She is alone and leads a withdrawn life until she meets a...

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is a four-part documentary series that exposes tough working conditions on children’s shows in the 1990s and early 2000s. It caters on shows created by Dan Schneider—the man behind Nickelodeon hits like iCarly and Zoey 101.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV (Image via: Investigation Discovery)

The documentary series sheds light on a toxic environment where young actors and crew members face mistreatment, discrimination, and inappropriate behavior.

The documentary features interviews with past actors and crew members from Schneider’s Nickelodeon series such All That and The Amanda Show. They include Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan, Bryan Hearne, Katrina Johnson, Virgil Fabian, Jenny Kilgen, Christy Stratton, and Alexa Nikolas. They all will share their experiences from working on these shows.

During one of the interviews, Drake & Josh star Drake Bell, also reveals his own troubling experience. He shares...

Warning: The following article contains spoilers from Zoey 102.

Dustin Brooks, Lola Martinez, Nicole Bristow, Dana Cruz, James Garrett, Coco Wexler, Lisa Perkins, Dean Rivers, Malcolm Reese, Firewire, Rebecca Martin, and Kazu were absent in Zoey 102. Some characters couldn't make it due to the actors' busy schedules or personal reasons, while others were not mentioned. Despite the missing characters, the revival movie still captured the nostalgia and humor that made Zoey 101 beloved, and fans enjoyed the long-awaited reunion.

Zoey 102 served as a Pacific Coast Academy reunion, but unfortunately, not every Zoey 101 character could make it to the occasion. A handful of the actors from the original series, including Jamie Lynn Spears as Zoey Brooks, Sean Flynn as Chase Matthews, Christopher Massey as Michael Barret, Erin Sanders as Quinn Pensky, Matthew Underwood as Logan Reese, Jack Salvatore Jr. as Mark Del Figgalo, and Abby Wilde as Stacey Dillsen,...

Chicago – The renaissance for women filmmakers has been a boon for the creative voice in cinema, and in Chicago the conduit of that voice is Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, the founder of Cinema Femme, and festival director for the Cinema Femme Short Film Fest.

The 5th Annual festival will be hybrid, combining in-person events with online access from April 28th-May 4th, 2023. This one-of-a-kind festival emphasizes the importance of supporting emerging female and non-binary filmmakers, and by connecting them to seasoned industry members through the Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Program.

Cinema Femme Short Film Festival Director Rebecca Martin Fagerholm (inset)

Photo credit: CinemaFemme.com

Rebecca Martin is the Managing Editor of Cinema Femme magazine and the Festival Director of Cinema Femme Short Film Fest. She founded her publication in 2018 because she wanted to create a platform and expand opportunities for female and non-binary voices in that film community.

In Part One of...

Exclusive: Ryan Destiny, best known for starring in the Lee Daniels Fox series Star, has been tapped as the lead in Oracle, a psychological horror film that is being produced by Will Packer and James Lopez via Will Packer Productions. Heather Graham has also signed on for the feature, which will shoot in New Orleans.

Daniel di Grado is attached to direct the piece, while Michael Ross and Corey Harrell wrote the screenplay, which is based on an original idea by Jaime Primak-Sullivan, who will serve as an executive producer.

The plot follows a young woman who accepts a job on a property with a traumatic past. Upon her arrival, she soon realizes that the nightmares of her childhood are connected to the evil in the house.

Social media star Baby Ariel (aka Ariel Rebecca Martin), Rebecca Martin (Henry Danger), Olive...

At the end of November, Rio de Janeiro is going to be rocking with horror films from around the world. The festival kicks off on November 29th. Continue reading for more in-depth details. Also in today's Horror Highlights: Haunter Season 2 release details, a look at The Red Mother #1 from Boom! Studios, Megazoic 4-part book series release details, and casting news for The Initiation, featuring Naomi Grossman from the American Horror Story franchise.

Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival 2019 Announced: "The Rock Horror in Rio Film Festival announces the dates and venues of the 2019 edition that brings an electrifying selection of 53 films from 12 countries in the genres horror, suspense, fantasy, sci-fi, and animation. It will be 10 days of fun, cinema, rock, and a lot of screaming between November 29th and December 8th in three cinemas in Rio de Janeiro, the CineStar in the Casa da Cultura Laura Alvim in Ipanema, the...