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Take a moment to think about the last time you saw in a film a man write another man a song as an act of affection.
I sat with this question for a while, and on an Australian film front, I've come up short with any examples of films that feature men acting in a tender and nurturing way with their male partner. Sweetness, affection, adoration, yearning - these feelings and emotions are ones that are often tied to hetero romances, and certainly are feelings that are yet to find space to flourish in the realm of Australian cinema. If we take a moment to think about Australian queer cinema, then we are presented with a catalogue of films that skew towards the tragic or dramatic. These are often queer coming of age stories, tales of trying to grapple with ones own sense of identity and self, or stories skewed with exploration of the impact of homophobia or hate. This is not a slight on their quality, but rather, an invitation to reflect on how queer stories are told in Australian cinema.
It's a question that I further asked myself when I watched Andy Johnston's lovely and tender short film Coming & Going, a tale of two strangers who become lovers - Harry (played by Michael Nikou) and Julian (played by Ilai Swindells) - and agree to be boyfriends for a week before Harry has to head home. It's a narrative that is crafted from a grounded, lived-in perspective, with Andy Johnston pulling from his own relationship experience with a man he met in Canada.
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To quote from Andy's directors statement, Coming & Going is 'a film about Hope. It is a celebration of the intimacy, sensuality and connection present in the queer male experience.' It's that celebration that then gives Michael Nikou and Ilai Swindells the space to explore their own queer identities, while also growing as a couple on screen in a manner that acts as if we're peering into the private lives of two strangers, loving, and living with each other for as brief a time as they have. Andy lets their relationship exist in time in a way that shows its impact. There's a tinge of Past Lives here, or even a glimpse of Before Sunrise too; but those stories are hetero stories, and outside of Andrew Haigh's Weekend, I don't feel that I've seen these kinds of tales told about gay relationships all that often, again, especially from an Australian perspective.
Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that plane' is what Julie Delpy said to Ethan Hawke as she danced in the climax of Before Sunset, creating one of cinemas finest romantic moments. Andy pulls from the echo of that scene, creating the pivotal moment within Coming & Going with a scene that has Harry taking a guitar off the wall and playing a song for Julian, gifting his momentary boyfriend lyrics and a tune that will exist only in that moment and only for him. Moments. They're what memories are made out of. They're anchor points in time which we stare endlessly at as we walk backwards into the future, its impact having forever changed how we form new memories in our present.
And it's the memory of his time with his brief Canadian boyfriend, Anthony Filangeri, that has given Andy the space to explore vulnerability and tenderness in such an intimate and personal way, as he does with Coming & Going. To quote again from Andy's director statement, 'when we feel love, we are simultaneously gripped by the inevitability of losing it.' With Coming & Going, Andy gives space for the memory of his connection to Anthony to exist, and like all memories, it's both familiar, yet different from the reality that it was birthed from.
All of this, and much more, is explored in the following open and generous conversation with Andy, recorded ahead of Coming & Going's world premiere at the Inside Out Festival in Toronto. Andy and I talk through the notion of masculinity on screen, particularly the distinctly Australian aversion to openness, tenderness, and vulnerability. We talk through the way that Andy creates an open space for Michael Nikou, Ilai Swindells, and fellow actor Charles Purcell to be the proudly queer men they are on screen. I couldn't help but ask as well about the importance of Andy's singular diversity hire for one cis white straight fella on set, with the majority of the cast and crew identifying as LGBTIQA+, with all of the films Heads of Department being either female identifying or trans/non-binary creatives.
This is a beautiful conversation, one that's fuelled with tenderness, love for the craft, and love for love. I'm grateful for Andy's time with this discussion, and I look forward to seeing his creative positivity flourish throughout his filmmaking career.
Coming & Going screens in the 'I Know Who You Did Last Summer' shorts package on 29 May 2025 at the Inside Out Festival in Canada. A link is in the show notes for those eager to attend. Keep an eye on Andy's Instagram and his production company, Dandy Films, Instagram page, for future screening details.
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