"Performance is resistance"
A glimpse into the ways the LGBTQ+ ballroom community in Miami, Florida use performance as a form of political activism in a state that is currently passing legislation to deny the rights of queer and transgender people.
Social & External
Day in, day out, Mr. Grimm is busy with his job as the Reaper, harvesting people's lives. One day, his monotonous existence is interrupted by the doorbell. It's a little girl. She wants her cat back. Little does she know that she's the next life on Mr. Grimm's list.
Oscar jumps on his subway as every day. But at that morning a side-glance wipes every ritual away...Catherine! Two unknown whose glimpses are coming across in the following weeks. Oscar knows that he would not show the courage to come in contact with her all the more after an embarrassing mishap so he is casting for another way to give her a sign whose uniqueness he is hoping she will understand.
Iara, a girl who is about to come of age, dreams of seeing the ocean, but lives in Rio Grande do Norte's countryside with her mother, a woman who's dreams were swallowed by the waves and who fears of losing her daughter.
A short film written by the AIDES teams in Bobigny on the occasion of the International Day against LGBT Phobias, the film features Lucas, a young man who announces his homosexuality to his mother.
The second volume of an international collection of five short films focusing on men, including: Enter (2018); Free Fall [Caída libre] (2018); Haze [Ocaso] (2014); Mr. Fox [Sr. Raposo] (2018); Twice [Due volte] (2018).
Chen Hao-Zhi lives alone with his Grandmother who has Alzheimers and has suffered from a stroke. In order to pay the bills and his grandmother's medical expenses, he goes to work in a gay massage parlor. At first, it was just work...but Hao-Zhi soon finds that he is attracted to some of his clientele, and gets pulled into a world where he loses control of things he thought he could handle.
This Iranian short film revolves around a young seminary student who moves to a new house encountering his eccentric neighbor with a strange request.
Ali is on his way back to his home town, but can't remember why he left in the first place. Gradually, he pieces together the missing pieces - a love affair with a boy that made him happier than he'd ever been before. But when he remembers the most crucial night of his life, the truth comes flooding back.
Second part of the romance between father and son. In this installment Alex introduces his new girlfriend to Gonzalo, who cannot hide his jealousy.
Some days you want to kill your sister. Other days you'd kill for her. When Abby puts an end to her tumultuous relationship with her cheating boyfriend, she calls upon her little sister, Jen, to help her clean up the 'aftermath' of their big fight.
Three retired women travel by bus on their way to discover Europe. They’ve recently lost their husbands and now it’s time to start living. They’ve heard people talk about the wonders of tourism all their lives and are dying to experience them firsthand.
An intimate and bucolic portrait of a young girl and her role within her family that reconstructs the biblical myth of Judith and Holofernes.
Housewife Eun-ha is busy every day: In addition to taking care of her husband who doesn’t help out at all and her willful daughter and son, she has to care for her nagging mother-in-law, who is nearly bedridden.
The film takes place in a doctor's waiting room where soothing music and the opportunity to enjoy an ice cream brings about an alleviating atmosphere. What could possibly go wrong in a healthcare institution where help is nearby? The cold and ugly sides of human nature reveal themselves as the narrative touches on the cycle of birth and death and the absurdity of life. Let's hope the doctor can help!
A 27-year-old Indonesian, Tim, is having a family vacation with both of his parents on a remote island far from the city, where they learn about the myth of a reincarnated deer that exists somewhere along the beach. Island locals believe that seeing the deer is a sign of meeting one’s soulmate. Tim is the only one who secretly hoping to discover the deer, hiding his desire from his very devout Christian parents.
Oksana (played by Sofia Rotaru) is a young and beautiful Carpathian girl. On the "Donetsk-Verkhovyna" train she becomes acquainted with a young miner from Donetsk called Boris. The travellers fall in love, but are parted when they arrive at their destination. In the Carpathian mountains their paths diverge, but Boris (played by Vasyl Zinkevych, soloist of the instrumental band "Smerichka") discovers where she is staying. The couple meet again and rekindle their love. Their friends invite them to perform in a concert for vacationers at a mountain resort, where they sing about their feelings for each other.
Chema is an expat architect from Spain who lives in Amsterdam. He has built up a new life there as a wind-up toy maker. He creates small pieces of art from recycle items.
The short film introduces a group of 3 dancers as representatives of Afrobeats dance community in Vancouver, Canada and celebrates the passion and vibrance the dance culture brings through inspiration, education and performance.
A deep and introspective analysis of my relationship to the Catholic God I grew up worshipping. Guilt, shame, and repressed desires are the themes explored, specifically in relation to being gay and dealing with the internal conflicts that it caused me.
A man finds a printing error in his Sudoku magazine.
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner agree to put up a false heterosexual front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's conservative parents.
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Gabriel is a young, aspiring musical composer whose life seems stuck in the First Act. When his new musical number gets a critical reception, a theatre colleague, Perry, tells Gabriel that he needs to get a life before he can write about one – so he heads straight for his local gay bar.
An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad auditions to be on Baltimore's most popular dance show - The Corny Collins Show - and lands a prime spot. Through her newfound fame, she becomes determined to help her friends and end the racial segregation that has been a staple of the show.
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
A concert documentary shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! summer 2011 tour, featuring song performances and fans' life stories and how the show influenced them.
Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted.
A closeted boy runs the risk of being outed by his own heart after it pops out of his chest to chase down the boy of his dreams.
Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
Jamie New is 16 and doesn’t quite fit in—instead of pursuing a "real" career he dreams of becoming a drag queen. Uncertain about his future, Jamie knows one thing for sure: he is going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mom and his amazing friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.
A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.
Two gay men are possibly, probably, stumbling towards love. Maybe. They're both very busy.
It is 1984. Frank is a determined English teenager who runs away from high school to find an alternative gay lifestyle in Amsterdam. He finds a home and a job at the "House of Boys", a bar-cum-brothel run by a strict Madame who has an eye for what his punters crave. Frank works his way up from barman to on-stage dancer and falls in love with some of his housemates, Jake. The first intimations of what is described as 'the gay cancer', casts a long shadow over Frank's tight-knit group of friends. Yet despite the troubles that cloud the hopes and dreams of young Frank, his perseverance, along with support from a willing doctor, will carry him through.
Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.