Saturday Church

Saturday Church (2017) was written and directed by Damon Cardasis. It stars Luka Kain as Ulysses, a young gay African-American man who would like to be a cross dresser. He's tormented and bullied in school, and verbally abused at home by his aunt, who takes care of him.

Ulysses finds Saturday Church, a place where gay men can express their identity, and where most of the members can, and do, cross dress safely. Saturday Church introduces Ulysses to the voguing scene, and the film gives us plenty of music to hear and voguing to watch.

It's discouraging that we still need places like Saturday Church, but at least they are there. (There really is a Saturday Church in NYC.)

I enjoyed this film because of the great performance by Luka Kain. (Performance in the sense of acting, as well as performance in the sense of voguing.) To a certain extent, it opened a window to the world of drag queens. It also reminded me that, even in 2017, in the United States, it still isn't easy being openly gay. I think that all of us need that reminder.

We saw this movie at Rochester's great Little Theatre, as part of the wonderful ImageOut, the LGBT Film Festival. It won't work as well on the small screen, but it's still worth finding it and watching it.

This movie was beautiful. It's a story about feeling right in your own skin, taking risks in your quest for happiness, and finding your people. The moving story of Ulysses coming to terms with his identity in New York City is imaginatively intertwined with song and dance. The music serves as a vehicle to give voice to the hidden world inside the characters. It is enchanting, visually enticing, heartbreaking, and empowering. The cast is also wonderfully talented and deeply connected to this personal story. We rarely get such realistic and rounded stories of queer experience in cinema, but Saturday Church breaks the standard and reveals at its core a story that many unheard voices can relate to.

All the actors do an EXCELLENT JOB.. While it would be great if they had a big budget; this movie can stand on it's own.. The scenes with the two boys was incredibly sweet, and touching. And I felt as uncomfortable watching as Luka appeared in his first adult sexual encounter.. My heart ached for him. Having worked in gay clubs for many years, and hearing stories of boys who ran away or got thrown out of their homes and what they had to do to survive. . I am so grateful I didn't have to go thru that.

The music and songs were decent. Perhaps not the smoothest transition, from acting to singing but in my opinion most musicals have that difficulty

This movie was a real 'slice of life'. And everyone obviously was very into making this delightful movie

I look forward to future productions from Damon Cardasis, and the talent he pulls together. I thought this was excellent.

What a sweet, if at times heartbreaking, story of coming of age and exploring gender.

Beautifully filmed, beautifully tracked, and beautifully cast. Anyone who has any major critiques of this film seems to be homophobic and transphobic. Praying that love enters their hearts!