Riese’s Team Pick: New Trailer for Pariah

As you may or may not know, I don’t like movies anymore because they suck. But, I’m like obnoxiously excited about Pariah (see also: “Riese’s Team Pick: Kickstart Pariah” and Focus Features Picks Up Black Lesbian Film “Pariah,” Loves Gay People) and made a small noise of glee when I saw Focus Features has released the first trailer for the film, which was a hit at Sundance and therefore got picked up by Focus Features as aforementioned which is special because not only is it, reportedly, “wonderful” (-Rolling Stone), but also it’s a film about a masculine-of-center African-American homosexual woman, which we don’t see very often (if ever) in our Cinematic World of explosions, drunk white guys and vampires.

Also Chelsea from South of Nowhere plays a lesbian and Kim Wayans is in it too! You can read more about the film at their website.

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3182 articles for us.

52 Comments

  3. OMG.

    OMG.
    OMG.

    speechless.
    and i’m tearing up just by the trailer.
    I’m not even religious and I just want to say Hallelujah for this movie.

  5. This trailer left me in tears. I love the poem she’s reading…”I am not broken. I am free.” <3?!?!?!

    • Yes yes this. My parents used to talk like that too. Aggh…all of a sudden, a movie I can relate to that isn’t “Ok, now you’re the talking cat and I’m the dog and SHE’S the hamster…do you see it?” “Kinda.”

  10. there hasn’t been any good movies lately that’s why I decided to visit older international movies. I watching spanish and k-horror movies (I was going to start out with french, but that’s everyone’s first stop). If you’re bored check these out

    loliita’s club ( also lots of skin)

    abre los ojos/open you’re eyes (original vanilla sky, trust me it is amilliontimesbetter!!) this movie was a life changer, forealsyo!

    before the night falls (about reinaldo arena, gay poet and political rebel from cuba)

    death bell (mystery murderer killing off high ranking students in a top private school in a twisted attempt test knowledge)

    voice (all girls school, people die from papercuts and it’s really crazy and bizzar but good. original)

    …anyway, just incase anyone is interested check out the youtube trailers

      • sundance, amazon, search online (sometimes you can find them on youtube, other than that you will have to dig a little deeper), friends,etc.

        i haven’t tried netfilx

    • YES, “Before Night Falls.” Everyone should read the book. Arenas’ sex drive is absolutely astounding (he talks about having sex with trees, chickens, various other animals, cousins, and thousands of men, and it seems like he’s not the only one in Cuba doing that). Also, it’s just a great story.

  14. “and I am not running, I am choosing”. I wish I could say that about my life

    this looks beautiful

  15. Somehow I misread the last sentence of the first paragraph and couldn’t figure out how the hell they had shoehorned vampires into the movie.

    On a more serious note, this looks like it’s going to be an incredible movie.

    • every movie has to have vampires in it to make it nowadays.

      shoot, next season of glee, mercedes finds out sam is really a vampire. kinda makes sense, actually.

      • That would probably be better than most of the plots they will actually have on Glee next season.

  17. this looks fucking incredible, i will see it in the cinema and cry like a baby for sure

  21. Wow, that’s the first trailer to really grab me in ages. I hope there’s some sort of release in the UK (even if it’s limited, i’ll hunt it down).

  22. I need to see this so much! I hope it becomes available online because the liklihood of it getting to my country is slim to nil, looks amazing though!

  23. does this mean it comes out at the next sundance festival in 2012? i can’t wait that long!

  24. This trailer almost made me cry when I first saw it! I can not wait for this because it looks powerful. And I’m glad to finally see a movie about a masculine- identified African -American woman. We need more films like this.

  26. I was reading about the costume design, and this quote sums up my life perfectly.

    “So her character starts out with a lot of browns, tans, and a drab earthy color palette with a “baggy” fit and then transitions to brighter, more pastel colors with a “tighter” fit toward the end when she’s free. Her wardrobe is designed so that she’s literally a cocooned butterfly breaking free.”

  27. I am so excited for this movie, I would seriously take the bus trip to New York to see it if it shows there. Fuck Ilene Chaiken, Showtime and Focus and co. need to be making more shows/movies like this. This looks more “real” than an entire season of the “Real L-word”.

  29. i saw this when it showed at MOMA in april because riese had mentioned it before. The crowd loved it. Definitely worth seeing, I really hope it goes far.

  30. This looks so good! I’m super excited even though I know I’ll have to wait until it’s released on DVD to see it.

  31. I’m going to go and see this if it’s released in the UK, and if it’s not I am buying the DVD and hosting a showing at my goddamn house. And I am going to cry the entire way through. Because that is just how I roll when it comes to truthful, non-exploitative lesbian cinema. FIGHT THE POWER etc etc.

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