Wicked Queer Film Fest returns

From left to right: Matt Doherty, Aidan Manion, and Carter Nevulis. / Courtesy Matt Berry

Hannah Nguyen

Beacon Staff

In an effort to spread positivity and advocate for the Earth, three Massachusetts college sophomores started a clothing brand.

The Local Brand is a clothing brand founded by long-time friends Matt Doherty, Carter Nevulis, and Aidan Manion. Doherty is a visual media arts major at Emerson, Nevulis is a finance major at Suffolk University, and Manion is an economics/ finance major at Bentley University.

The three went to high school together in Plymouth, MA prior to going their separate ways for college. With a shared interest in sustainability and fashion design, they came up with the idea during summer 2021 to launch their own clothing brand to promote living in the moment and caring for the planet.

“It started with those casual conversations over the summer while we were all in Plymouth together, and we were like ‘Oh, it’d be super cool if we could do something like this,” Doherty said.

With Emerson and Suffolk being in close proximity to each other, Doherty and Nevulis met in person one weekend during the fall, while Manion was on the phone. They decided to move forward with the project at the start of the first semester of their sophomore year.

They found that going to three different schools helped The Local Brand gain more attention instead of hindering the business.

“Instead of just all being at the same school with the same people, we now have three different branches of people,” Doherty said. “There are more people that we can talk to about our brand. From a marketing standpoint, I think it’s been really helpful for us.”

The name was inspired by the idea of being increasingly connected with the community and with yourself.

“We were trying to figure out what can make us more involved in the community and have a positive impact on others,” Nevulis said. “We sat around and thought of this idea of The Local Brand, the name [meaning] you could have an impact on a local community, and also local as in yourself and what it means to like to be present in the moment.”

Doherty creates all of the original designs using Adobe Illustrator. He then sends a sample design to the rest of the team. They try to make it as much of a collaborative process as possible, by asking their friends for their opinions.

“We try something and then we edit it, and then we go back and re-edit it, and eventually we land on something that works,” Doherty said.

Each clothing drop has a theme, which typically offers guidance on the designs. The most recent drop on March 18th focused on sustainability, with a design that said “Love Your World,” and positive mental health, with a design saying “Live in the Moment.” They plan to drop monthly.

A major part of The Local Brand’s mission is to “promote a happy and healthy planet.” With each order, they will plant one tree. They also donate a portion of their profits to four organizations: One Tree Planted, The Ocean Foundation, Climate Reality Project, and Amazon Conservation Team. They used Charity Navigator to determine the kinds of organizations they wanted to support.

The Local Brand had a pop-up at an Afterlife Presents LLC concert at Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub on Nov. 20th, 2021, which helped with promotion.

“People would come up to us and say that they loved our message and they’ve been following our brand for a little bit now, and it was just kind of cool to see because it was outside of our normal domains,” Manion said. “A lot of people [at Bentley] know about [the brand] and always give me feedback and positive comments, but going out to an unknown area and getting some feedback there was pretty cool.”

The founders are hoping their brand reaches as many people as possible. They plan to network with local charities and other communities in the Greater Boston area.

“As of right now, we’re really focused on that strong community in Boston,” Nevulis said. “It’s just taking the next step and [reaching] people that we don’t know in the city. That’s really the direction that we’re going.”

For more information, visit The Local Brand’s website and Instagram. Wicked Queer Film Festival promo poster. / Courtesy Sheen Hui

Wicked Queer Film Festival returns in person

Hannah Nguyen

Beacon Staff

The Wicked Queer Film Festival will return in person from April 7–17 after being virtual for two years.

“There’s nothing that beats an in-person screening,” Executive Director Shawn Cotter said. “There’s something wonderful about sitting in the dark with a group of people. It’s like sitting around the campfire telling stories.”

The Wicked Queer Film Festival is an all-volunteer organization established in 1984 by film programmer George Mansour. He saw a gradual increase of queer representation in movies and decided to put together a film festival with the Museum of Fine Arts to celebrate queer filmmaking.

Due to the pandemic, the festival moved its entire program––both shorts and features––onto xerb.tv. There were virtual parties and Q&As over Zoom with directors from all over the world.

“We had great attendance online and it really was a way to bring the community together during hard times,” Director of Programming Katie Shannon.

Now on its 38th edition, screenings for the upcoming festival will be held at the Bright Family Screening Room at Paramount Theatre, the ICA, and the Brattle Theatre.

Cotter said the best part about being part of the film festival is that it provides a platform to share stories that are familiar to him and also not his own. Small film festivals are more likely to properly represent marginalized communities.

The festival had to split their shorts programs to some in-person and some virtual attendance due to spacing and venue availability. They also had to cut down programming from 50 films to 33.

Wicked Queer collaborates with other film festivals and cultural organizations, including

Boston Latino International Virtual Film Festival and Boston Asian American Film Festival, among others, to reach out to and connect with communities that can play a part in the festival and help diversify it.

“I want Wicked Queer to be for us and by us and by us it means everybody,” Cotter said.

Beyond the festival itself, Wicked Queer embraces its all-volunteer system that provides opportunities for filmmakers to get involved.

“If we went away, what would we be left with as far as representation and screening films?” Cotter said. “A lot of the times, Wicked Queer is the first stop on a filmmaker’s journey because we do show a lot of first-time filmmakers— students, older people who are making films for the first time. We have a lot of program spaces for filmmakers.”

Tickets are available for purchase on Wicked Queer’s website.

hannah_nguyen@emerson.edu

Marcus Cocova

Beacon Staff

Right from the start, Marvel’s Moon Knight is a fast-paced nightmare adventure that cleanses the palate of the formulaic Marvel mold.

The first episode does not explicate upon past events or take a limp shot at tying this series into a larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is said, however, with disappointment inspired by the assuredness that the series will quickly file its way into a grander scheme as Marvel has continued doing since the original Avengers assembling.

Oscar Isaac, who plays the series protagonist Steven Grant, is a delight to watch slip and slide through an unforgiving Britain. This remains true if you can squint past his cartoonish accent.

Isaac, in some ways, overshadows Ethan Hawke’s portrayal of the series cultist villain, Arthur Harrow. Hawke fills the role, but does not have any particular shine with this series start.

The first episode wastes no time, sprinting with stylized jump cuts and a frequent change of scenery. The handholding of the camera adds a sense that things are not quite right with the story being witnessed.

Shots capture the alarm of being haunted by an eight-foot-tall skeleton bird-man that only Grant can see. Those that capture the everyday are nothing more than stock Marvel cinematography.

Style choices are most powerful with Grant’s transition to his alternate personality Marc Spector. The audience is left feeling intentionally confused, though there are some fundamental gaps in what is familiar and what is new to Grant.

Moon Knight surprises its audience by not withholding actions and implications of violence. This gives a full view of the character well known to Moon Knight’s comic book audience, a feat often softened in other Marvel productions with cutaways or discolored alien blood.

The reveal of the newest champion wailing on an anthropomorphic Egyptian werewolf leaves the viewer with the quandary, “What will he beat the s*** out of next?”

With all said and done, the mere premise of Marvel unwrapping a deep cut character offers the studio freedom to try new and interesting things, as has been the case with other former little-knowns like the now-beloved misfits, The Guardians of the Galaxy.

While this is surely cinematic junk food, it is a slightly more exquisite junk food. It may not be very filling, but it is certainly fun.