Out on DVD: Rockers, indies and two queer classics

This week's new DVD releases include a documentary about a groundbreaking queercore combo, some of last year's most acclaimed gay independent films and reissues of two seminal classics. All this, plus Title of the Week!

Read on!

Pansy Division has been rocking their asses off since 1991, and the queer punks tells their own story in the documentary Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band. Director Michael Carmona takes fans behind the scenes through the band's history, from its legendary tour with Nirvana to the 12 drummers that have come and gone over the years.

Three very different titles from queer distributor here! make their DVD debuts after getting theatrical playdates last year. Probably the best known of the trio is Holding Trevor, a romantic dramedy about 20-something Trevor (screenwriter Brent Gorski), who ditches a toxic ex (Christopher Wyllie) and hopes to find a healthier and longer lasting relationship with a doctor-in-training. Shortbus cutiepie Jay Brannan co-stars as Trevor's best pal.

Then there's the Korean import No Regret, the sexy and tragic love story about a closeted rich guy and the hustler he can neither have nor abandon. This star-crossed romance was a big hit at gay film festivals last summer.

And let's not forget Cthulhu, which puts a very queer twist on horror-meister H.P. Lovecraft. Added bonus: Tori Spelling!

Two queer classics get brand new DVD reissues this week. Un Chant d'Amour marks the one foray into filmmaking by notorious and controversial gay novelist Jean Genet. This silent love story about prisoners in adjacent cells, and the repressed guard who envies their love, was a direct influence on Todd Haynes' Poison. (And probably on every movie where Jeff Stryker goes to prison, but that's another story.)

Wong Kar-Wai's haunting queer romance Happy Together, starring Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung as volatile ex-lovers stuck in Argentina, gets a brand new Special Edition release. Features include a remastered image and the title's first 5.1 Surround release (which Wong supervised), as well as an hour-long making-of documentary and a 2008 interview with Wong taped at the Museum of the Moving Image. (Fans of Wong Kar-Wai should also note that there's a special edition of Fallen Angels hitting DVD shelves this week as well.)

And finally, Title of the Week can be none other than Fatty Girl Goes to New York, a comedy about a zaftig Italian radio announcer who goes to an Empire State fat farm run by none other than Anita Ekberg before going home and getting revenge on the smoothie who knocked up her younger sister. Abbondanza!