Taps (2023)

Altered Innocence Vol. 1

A vibrant anthology of LGBTQ+ short films and music videos that delve into the complexities of youth, identity, and desire. This diverse collection showcases a range of cinematic voices—both emerging and established—exploring the exhilaration, vulnerability, and confusion of coming-of-age through stories that celebrate queer love, self-discovery, and the breaking of societal boundaries. Blending narrative shorts, experimental visuals, and music-driven pieces, the anthology offers an evocative, multifaceted portrait of innocence transformed.

RedLife

Som, daughter of a sex worker, believes that love will lead her towards a better life. Ter, a young criminal, robs just to buy love that doesn't exist. Redlife explores a world that is broken, ignored, and which offers no escape.

Phonetime

A transcendent tale of love following two seperated lovers as they navigate the difficulties of their past and the possibilities of their future. Peter has dependents and wants to hide away in the countryside with Jacob. Jacob is proud of who he is and doesn’t want a dead-end life, insisting Peter joins him where queer life is not prohibited.

Confusion of the Afternoon

Two boys play poker on a dull afternoon. As one boy inadvertently touches and makes eye contact with the other, it sparks a beautiful, imaginative dance.

To My Star

Actor Kang Seo Joon was once one of South Korea’s biggest and most popular stars, but his career is now in decline. But despite his fall in popularity, he believes he has had a change of fortune when he meets and falls for a dashing young chef named Han Ji Woo.

Sound to Sea

When a closeted middle-schooler befriends the attractive new kid on an overnight biology field trip, he's forced to confront his queer identity, his relationship to his male anatomy, and his uncomfortable niche in the ecosystem known as eighth grade.

Good One

On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.

My Partner

Two high school boys from different social worlds experience romantic feelings for each other. Edmar, a high-performing Filipino student, and Pili, a Native Hawaiian student-athlete, learn that navigating self-growth and teenage love in Hawaiʻi is as complicated as their understanding and love for Hawaiʻi and it’s ever-changing cultural landscape.

Hand Off

A rugby player admits to having a crush on his best friend/teammate, causing a rift. He retreats into a fantasy world with an imaginary friend, as he struggles to confront his real friend, while trying to fit into the macho world of rugby.

Thanks to Her

Millie Blake, a high school senior soccer player, has her life turned upside down after an altercation with an out and proud classmate of hers, Andy Wellick. As punishment, the two girls get sentenced to a month of community service at a local nursing home. As she begins to not only bond with two of the residents, Jade and Pepper, but with Andy too, Millie begins to understand more about herself and becomes more confident in who she is.

Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation

As Sasaki prepares for his college entrance exams, Miyano tries to make the most of their limited time together while grappling with his own emotions.

Dual

The paths of two girls cross one evening in Ljubljana. Tina, a Slovene, and Iben, a Danish girl of similar age, both experiencing some kind of turning point in their lives, open up to one another and soon develop a close bond...

Spokane

Two guys bail on a wedding, head to a strip club, and end up in a hotel room...

Birder

A birdwatcher invades a nude queer campground on a remote lake in the New Hampshire wilds. He wears whatever he needs to ensnare the locals in his dark fetish in this nightmarish erotic thriller. Consent has never been more deadly.

Photographs

Robbie, a college-aged boy, is rekindling an old friendship with Greyson. He needs a model for his portfolio and Greyson needs new photos for his dating apps to get over his ex-girlfriend. Together they explore each other's perceptions of love, friendship, and personal growth.

Hello, Thanks

Filmmaker Andy Blubaugh documents a year spent looking for love in the personal ads.

Bleach

Gay and lonely, Lloyd is on a Grindr-addicted, shame-fuelled spiral into tragedy.

The Way Things Go

A lifetime of loneliness ends when Elise meets a kindred spirit, finally finding understanding and friendship in an unexpected encounter.

Brutal Heat

A massive segment of the Sun has broken off and is heading for Earth, whose surface is slowly heating up to an unbearable level. A strange mood pervades a debilitated world: anything could happen, virtually anywhere, without warning. Even in a sleepy town, where an 18-year-old lad gets stranded on his way to the family cottage. The fact is that no-one knows at what temperature the human character starts to melt...

Close to You

A trans man returns to his hometown for the first time in years. On his journey, he confronts his relationship with his family, reunites with a first love, and discovers a newfound confidence in himself.

Liminal Girl

Amidst the pandemic, a woman embarks on a treacherous journey through the wilderness to reach her brother while grappling with her mental state.

The Prince's Dilemma

Prince Philip, who longing to be with a prince of his own, must decide to follow the traditional tale or forge his own happily ever after.

Cold Water

Set in St Kilda, Australia, an elderly woman’s peaceful retirement is interrupted when her husband takes up a bizarre new hobby.

Sofia Was

Sofia was forced to leave her home and is now homeless. The young woman spends her days wandering the alleys of the University of São Paulo campus, where she offers her services as a tattoo artist. One ethereal night, her wanderings mingle with memories of an unfulfilled love. Wrapped in a dark, melancholy atmosphere, the film contemplates the fragility of a youth left behind. In a story that transcends borders, the life of an impenetrable fictional Sofia is imbued with the experiences of the actress of the same name who plays her. As enigmatic as an oracle, the original Portuguese title evokes the impermanence and ambiguity that haunt Sofia. She is carried away by perpetual motion, her future forever unknown.

Bare: A Pop Opera

Bare, also known as Bare: A Pop Opera, is a coming-of-age rock musical with music by Damon Intrabartolo, lyrics by Jon Hartmere, and a book by Hartmere and Intrabartolo. The story focuses on a group of high school students and their struggles at their private Catholic boarding school.

Where the Friend Zone Ends

Ryan travels back in time to prevent herself from falling in love with her best friend, but soon realizes that fate has other plans.

Between the Temples

A grief-stricken cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. The two forlorn souls develop a special connection.

Fade Out.

Alexander, a young scriptwriter, deals with his family trauma by writing a script about the night he was taken out of the closet. By immersing himself in writing, Alexander imagines an alternate version of that family conflict, finding a way to express himself and heal emotionally.

Perfect Endings

Like the perfect ending of a great film - that is the way filmmaker João describes the end of his 10-year relationship with Hugo. Despite breaking up, they remained best friends. However, reentering the dating scene brought a whirlwind of emotions, revealing that reality can’t be controlled like a movie script.

León

Julia has just lost her life partner, Barby. Torn between her grief and a world that is crumbling without her, she strives to preserve the restaurant they built together and her bond with their son León. A relationship now threatened by a wilful grandmother and the return of an absent father.

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

My Own Private Idaho

In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

Fire

In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.

Carmín tropical

Mabel travels to her hometown to find the murderer of her friend Daniela. A journey through nostalgia, love and betrayal in a place where transgenderism once took on an unusual dimension.

Perfect Obedience

The fictional Father Ángel de la Cruz is based on Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, whose long history of child abuse was not addressed until 2006 and only publicly acknowledged in 2009. But director Luis Urquiza chooses to structure his film through the largely uncomprehending, wondering eyes of 13-year-old Julián, who travels from the arms of his loving pastoral family into the austere, hallowed halls of the seminary. Singling out the boy as his intimate disciple, installing him in his palatial private quarters and redubbing him “Sacramento Santos,” Father Ángel begins Julian’s instruction into the mysteries of “perfect obedience,” whose cardinal rule is: Never question a superior’s actions.

Our Highland Hotel

Ayumi Aizawa is a lonely young man without a family. He works at Forest Hyde Press Hotel as a cleaner. His deceased grandfather Kenzaburo worked at the same hotel. When his grandfather worked at the Forest Hyde Press Hotel, the hotel was well known for its extreme hospitality. Now, the hotel is nothing more than an ordinary hotel. New manager Ryuuya Sawashiro then attempts to bring the hotel back to its glory days.

A Date

Desperate to make some fast cash, Tracy turns to becoming an escort. The money starts to come in as his life takes a dangerous turn. Inspired by true events.

Memoirs of a Geeza

A top lad recollects fights, friends and painting his toenails with his dad.

Two Amongst Many

An outbreak has Esteban confined at home and separated from Alan. From his rooftop bedroom, he tries to maintain their relationship through video calls, but the isolation seems endless and reality catches up with them.

In Orbit

The future, the space. Sonia is about to be transferred from her station to a newer one. Although everything seems to be going well, Sonia's mind is actually elsewhere, haunted by tragic events from the not too distant past.

Ranchlands

The story of a spiritually scarred man whose life changes forever when he must return to his estranged family to help care for a brother who is suffering from brain cancer. With the help of a spiritually enlightened caregiver, he faces the demons of the past and a secret that has haunted him and his family for many years.

Given

Haruki secretly had feelings for Akihiko for years, but Akihiko was still in a relationship with his roommate, the violinist Ugetsu Murata. Haruki, Akihiko, and Ugetsu's love clashes and starts to move forward.

An Evening

Having slept together for the first time, two teenage boys must make sense of their evolving relationship.

Utopia

When two boys from different social backgrounds connect via the internet, they go on an adventure into the suburbs around Paris. Lost among architectural projects from times when the future was still bright, they nourish their own personal utopia.

Stay

When Ash invites his ex-boyfriend on a road trip to the Florida Keys, he doesn't mention that their weekend getaway is actually a dangerous drug deal.

Between Friends

Jorge asks Noah for a special favor that questions the limits of friendship and his identity.

Let People Exit Before Boarding

Jesus and Pablo, two teenagers, are looking for a place to have sex for the first time.

Have We Met Before?

Short docudrama exploring the history of sex in the homosexual community from the 1970s to the present day, and how the internet has changed the way gay men meet forever.

Kiko's Saints

Kiko, a Japanese illustrator on assignment in France, gets suddenly overwhelmed by a strange new inspiration, while she realizes she's been spying on a gay couple on the beach next to the chapel where she's working. Obsessed by such a vision, she will continue spying on those men and drawing them secretly. These drawings will slowly push her towards an encounter that will change her life and break the barriers she created around her.

The Last Romantics

Two young men share different points of view of the same sexual encounter in a public space.

I Know Her

In the afterglow of a seemingly fated hookup, two women realize that perhaps they have a little too much in common.

Mitosis

Kaveh is an LGBT sculptor. He lives in Iran and lives in isolation because of his sexual orientation. He has a lover named Farhad. Their relationship is not very good. It is Kaveh who is not happy with this relationship, he lives in his workshop because of the repression of LGBTs in Iran. He is making a statue when he suddenly realizes that this statue is talking to him. The words of the statue are not clear and are more like chatter. He breaks up his relationship with Farhad like his previous relationships, because something more than sex requires a relationship. He enjoys being alone more, but now he realizes that Farhad has destroyed the only statue they made together. The whispering sound of the statue increases and every moment Kaveh's mental state is more disturbed, to the point that he works day and night to build that statue. The statue is completed as if the statue is the lost lover of Kaveh. By completing the statue of Kaveh, he becomes a statue.

Darker Than Midnight

Davide is different from the other teenagers. Something makes him look like a girl. Davide is fourteen when he runs away from home. His intuition leads him to choose Villa Bellini, a park in Catania, as a refuge. The park is a world in itself, a world of the marginalized, to which the rest of the city turns a blind eye. But one day the past catches up and Davide has to face the most difficult choice, this time alone.

Testosterone

Dean has been stumped for some time in his attempt to produce a follow-up to "I was a Teenage Speed Freak," his incredibly successful graphic novel. His fans expect great things from him and his editor, Louise, is hounding him. Instead of working, however, Dean spends his time searching for his Argentine lover Pablo, who went out one night for cigarettes and never came back.

In Ashes

Christian, a young twenty-something gay man, is trying to get over the heartbreak of his first love. Looking for meaningful connections through online dating apps, he goes through a whirlwind of experiences, passion and obsession on a journey to find new love, and himself.

Distances

Eva and David have a complicated mother-son relationship. They try to reach each other but do not quite know how. One problem is the language barrier, as David is deaf and Eva is not very good at sign language. After moving back to her country of birth, Eva comes to Sweden on a short visit, where she discovers what so many parents do throughout the lives of their offspring - your children never cease to surprise you.

The Ring Thing

When Sarah accidentally proposes to her girlfriend in Provincetown, the mixup turns their loving relationship into a minefield of marital exploration.

Alexander

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.