2Bmag online

Montréal videographer, filmmaker and educator Kim Simard has a thing for Icelandic art rockers Sigur Rós. Anyone who has seen the band’s live shows, featuring the surreal bowed electric guitar of crypto-homo front-man Jónsi Birgisson will understand how Sigur Rós inspires more than your average fan videos. We talked to her about the video’s themes, and (wink wink, nudge nudge) how to vote for her project online.

If he were just a normal gay celebrity, we would feel embarrassed by reporting on his every syllable and gesture, but filmmaker Xavier Dolan has become so much more since the Printemps Érable. Today, Dolan issued a two-part rallying cry for Tuesday’s election that we just couldn’t resist sharing: “The question is rather ‘why NOT vote?’,” says one of Dolan’s handsome talking heads in videos released today on Vimeo entitled “ALLEZ VOTER GO VOTE”…

The burden of religious hatred and state repression has weighed heavily on queer people in St. Petersburg, as elsewhere in Russia, especially in 2012. This week, filmmaker Elias Koskimies released a sexy, poetic, and profoundly relevant video testifying to the violence undergone by queer people living under the regime, and the possibilities for triumph.

Two years after the runaway success of their video for “In This Shirt” which featured boys and girls in underwear washing cars and playing with inky substances, the UK-based band is back with a gorgeous new video for their single “Arrow”, released today!

Much-loved queer Montréaler DJ Frigid has released a haunting and superbly mixed single “Cri d’un coeur terrien” (the cry of the earthling heart) on Bandcamp; but most affectingly, his video for the song takes the form of a photo essay on the student strike protests. Beautiful and inspiring music for the build-up to tomorrow’s Earth Day demonstrations…

The Gayest of All Time continues Jonny “The Gay Pimp” McGovern’s journey into the fabulous fairyland where queens rule, glamour is celebrated, every street is a fashion runway and every corner a dance club. New York trend-watcher Benjamin Burtt caught up with McGovern about the cavalcade of hot videos he’s been making, from “Dickmatized” to “Texting on the Dance Floor” (#TOTDF)…

Even though homosexuality is still a capital offence in the troubled country, a gay media outlet in the Sudan has gone live as of Feb 9 of this year. Rainbow Sudan has published over 30 articles on Sudanese culture, as well as the thorny issue of Islam and homosexuality – as well as advice on reconciling the two.

Since 2003, his Rick Mercer Report (RMR) has been required viewing media savvy liberal Canadians, and it’s to these eager ears that he addresses his weekly “rants” against government hypocrisy, conservative bigotry, and one of his favourite targets, the Harper government. Then, in October, 2011, gay teen Jamie Hubley’s suicide prompted Mercer to make the rant that made “It Gets Better” videos look like sentimental greeting cards. Rick Mercer will host Jer’s Vision’s Day of Pink Gala April 11, and pick up an award for being a gay role model.

Set to a remix of “Kitty in the Middle” by Australian techno-hotties The Presets, this cryptic and sexy découpage-inspired video with lots of man-junk and an odd Edwardian scientific/life-drawing aesthetic kept us coming back for more.

The 84th Academy Award ceremony took place at the Kodak Theatre, renamed Hollywood and Highland Center, in Hollywood, California last night. For the ninth time, Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony, which was rich in laughter, surprises, and emotion, with Canada’s Christopher Plummer winning Best Supporting Actor.