for us, an essay (2024)

Wildhood

Link and his brother flee their abusive father and embark on a journey where Link discovers his sexuality and rediscovers his Mi’kmaw heritage.

The 24th Day

Tom and Dan's one-night stand turns into an intense power-play between captor and captive.

Better Than Chocolate

Not long after moving into her own place, Maggie finds herself with two unsolicited roommates: her recently divorced mother, Lila, and her young brother. The timing is especially bad, considering Maggie has fallen hard for an attractive woman, Kim, only hours before they move in. What could be a nonissue becomes increasingly complicated -- since Maggie's family is unaware of her sexual orientation, and Maggie is not open to sharing that information.

Saving Face

A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.

Zorro, The Gay Blade

In 19th century Mexico, legendary swordsman Zorro has passed on his weapon and his sense of duty to his noble son, Diego, a dashing swashbuckler like his father. But after an injury sidelines Diego, he is forced to hand the mask over to his twin, Ramon.

Loving Annabelle

Annabelle is the wise-beyond-her-years newcomer to an exclusive Catholic girls school. Having been expelled from her first two schools she's bound to stir some trouble. Sparks fly though when sexual chemistry appears between her and the Head of her dorm and English teacher, Simone Bradley. Annabelle pursues her relentlessly and until the end the older woman manages to avoid the law.

3-Day Weekend

Long-term couple Simon and Jason, along with daddy-ish Cooper and his boy du jour, escape to a mountain cabin for a three-day weekend away from their hectic city lives. Looking to spice up this long-standing tradition, they add a special twist to this years retreat - each of them must invite one attractive single friend to their mountain getaway.

Were the World Mine

If you had a love-potion, who would you make fall madly in love with you? Timothy, prone to escaping his dismal high school reality through dazzling musical daydreams, gets to answer that question in a very real way. After his eccentric teacher casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he stumbles upon a recipe hidden within the script to create the play's magical, purple love-pansy.

Summer Lovers

Michael Pappas and his girlfriend, Cathy, are enjoying the white sand beaches of a Greek island as well as the freewheeling nature of the locals. When Michael meets Lina, who is in Greece from Paris doing archaeological work, he is enamored with the beautiful foreigner. Cathy, unhappy about Lina getting close to Michael, confronts the woman -- only to be unexpectedly wooed by her charms as well.

The Laramie Project

"The Laramie Project" is set in and around Laramie, Wyoming, in the aftermath of the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard. To create the stage version of "The Laramie Project," the eight-member New York-based Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming, recording hours of interviews with the town's citizens over a two-year period. The film adaptation dramatizes the troupe's visit, using the actual words from the transcripts to create a portrait of a town forced to confront itself.

Dilution

Dilution is an experimental short film that explores the transit between resistance and (di)ssolution, between holding and releasing and a path towards obsessive repetition. They are layers, exposed pores, matter that oscillates between remaining or disappearing. The sound is not a background, but a puncture: friction, tearing, water that drags what still persists. A sensorial testimony of what refuses to vanish completely.

Purebred

During a heatwave in Belfast, transgender man Owen returns to the flat of his on-off-again lover Seán after taking a pregnancy test.

Twinless

Two young men meet in a twin support group and form an unlikely friendship. Roman and Dennis both search for solace and an identity without their other halves and soon become inseparable outside the group.

Sebastian

Alex is an Argentinian student in Toronto for just one week. They both know that the relationship ends when he catches his flight back home. But they’re falling for each other and it’s the kind of relationship that changes them, unlocks things hidden deep inside.

Dog Tags

Raised in a single parent family by his mother Nate Merritt, develops a friendship with a gay man whilst on leave from the US marines.

100m Freestyle

Polo and Domingo spend their last days together between Ciudad Mendoza and Cordoba, in Veracruz, Mexico, before Domingo moves to another city for college. Domingo has to say goodbye to his girlfriend, Mina; while Polo deals with his feelings towards his best friend in the little time they have left.

Sex, Party and Lies

A youth group is preparing for what will be the summer of their life, including secrets, lies, sex, confusion, evenings and holidays.

A Frozen Flower

A historical drama set in the Koryo dynasty and focused on the relationship between a king and his bodyguard.

A Love to Hide

A young Jewish girl, Sara, is looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain by a smuggler who betrayed them while attempting to escape to England. Terrified, she is sheltered by her childhood friend Jean, a homosexual in a clandestine relationship with his lover Philippe.

Ciao

A man learns that his late friend had a secret online lover who is on the way from Italy.

The Man I Love

This is a combination coming out and first love story. The swimmer and diver Lucard is interested in attractive Martin. The film follows the characters' coming out with all its difficulties, the bitter-sweet pleasures of first love and the dreadful moment when one comes down to reality and realizes that one's beloved friend has a hard way to go yet. The positive message the film tries to transmit is the somewhat common motto "Live each day of your life as if it were your last."

I Saw the TV Glow

Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.

Happy Together

A gay couple from Hong Kong takes a trip to Argentina in search of a new beginning but instead begins drifting even further apart.

Neon Purple

Estrella, an emerging drag queen, confronts anxiety and challenges on the pivotal night of her artistic life.

Shower

A man enters the shower after his workout, but is soon sidetracked by a noise he cannot identify. He decides to seek out the source of the sound, and enters a situation that will leave him completely exposed.

East Side Story

Diego is a gay but closeted Hispanic chef living in East Los Angeles who works in the restaurant operated by his grandmother. Frustrated by the secretive lifestyle he shares with his similarly closeted lover, Pablo, Diego finds himself attracted to Wesley, one of the openly gay Caucasian men he feels are gentrifying his neighborhood. Their relationship pushes Diego to consider the possibility of a life he had never imagined.

ErOddity(s)

ErOddity(s) is a collection of four exceptional short stories set in the world of erotic fantasy. In "Forever Mine", a confused boy seeks a love that will last him a lifetime. A teen's long forgotten past leads to his short lived future in "A Mind of Their Own"; proving some things should remain in the closet! A Christmas present, in the hands of a young voyeur, leads to a holiday tale of woe in an "Unsolved Christmas". And finally, in "The Way To a Man's Heart", an abused lover gets his revenge from beyond the grave.

A Home at the End of the World

Three friends form a bond over the year, Johnathan is gay, Clare is straight and Bobby is neither, instead he loves the people he loves. As their lives go on there is tension and tears which culminate in a strong yet fragile friendship between the three.

Yossi & Jagger

A sociological study of two men in the Israeli army who are lovers. The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away, as a snowy and desolate outpost is guarded from attack.

Poster Boy

The gay son of a conservative senator who is also the poster boy for his father's re-election unknowingly befriends a gay activist bent on destroying the hypocritical campaign.

As Good As You

Jo's world is thrown into utter disarray when her wife Amanda passes away and she starts chasing a dream that she and Amanda had once shared - starting a family together. Jo asks her late wife's brother, Jamie, to be her sperm donor and craziness ensues.

Go Fish

Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?

Happy Birthday

Life can be frustrating for a 14-year-old boy in Denmark, where the age of consent is 15.

The Greatest

Inhibited by his conventional life, a man named Jay is forced to confront his darkest secret when having to choose between a life of normality and authenticity.

Where Love Blooms in the Sky

The man feels nostalgic when he sees the coastal townscape he hasn't seen in a long time, and when he heads to the beach, his ex is waiting for him. Although he is a model now, he was still in his infancy at the time, and it was thanks to his lover, a government official, that the fire was ignited...but that lover was also demoted and there was no sign of him looking back...

Broken Gardenias

Jenni, an orphaned semi-savant, and a street hustler named Sam, steal a car and head to Los Angeles to find Jenni's father whom she hasn't seen or heard from since she was six years old.

About Us But Not About Us

A literature professor meets his student at a restaurant and, over the course of one meal, secrets and lies will be unearthed and the sinister connection to a tragedy will be revealed.

The Cakemaker

Thomas, a young German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin. When Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking for answers regarding his death. Under a fabricated identity, Thomas infiltrates the life of Anat, his lover’s newly widowed wife, who owns a small Café in downtown Jerusalem. Thomas starts to work for her, creating German cakes and cookies that bring her Café to life. Thomas finds himself involved in Anat’s life in a way far beyond his anticipation. To protect the truth he will stretch his lie to a point of no return.

The Unsure Masseur

Trapped in our gig jobs economy, an aspiring masseur learns the sacrifices required from an experienced massage therapist.

Eden

Eden is the queer re-tale of Adam and Eve’s story in modern times. A visually striking story about first love situated in Berlin.

Mädchen in Uniform

A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.

My Summer of Love

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. To seal their friendship, Mona introduces Tamsin to her born-again Christian brother and helps her spy on her adulterous father. Bound together by their secrets, the two girls see their friendship deepen and enter into dangerous waters.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.

The Passion of Remembrance

Co-directed by Blackwood and Julien, the first full-length feature film by Sankofa Film and Video offers a radical and necessary interrogation into what constitutes 'post-colonial' identity at a time of political and social restlessness in Britain. Set within an isolated desert landscape contrasted with recognizable scenes of the intensity of family life, this vanguard work demonstrates the richness and variety of the black experience; it is a poetic and hard-hitting commentary on the complexities of race, gender and sexuality.

Việt and Nam

In the depths of the underground coal mines, where danger awaits and darkness prevails, Nam and Việt, both young miners, cherish fleeting moments, knowing that one of them will soon leave for a new life across the sea.

Feed Your Head

Torn between the desire to protect his little brother in a violent world and the longing for the utopia of a queer community, Hector (23) embarks on a journey between reality and fantasy to reflect on his own experience of violence and to find closeness to his brother again.

THINGS ARE GOOD

University project based on a pre-written script. This is an extended "directors cut" version re-edited by Scarlett J. Stribley. Two estranged friends reunite and reminisce on the bridge where they first met.

The Switching Division

A short film about a telephone engineer and his son as they both attempt to understand the past and the future.

All the Crows in the World

18-year-old Shengnan is invited to a mysterious party by her cousin. Upon arrival, Shengnan finds herself surrounded by greasy middle-aged men, with the exception of Jianguo, who is different. Shengnan and Jianguo decide to bail on the party, embarking on a night of adventures in the adult world.

Manivald

Manivald is a fox in his early 30s. He is still living at home with his mother. One day a young hot wolf called Toomas comes to fix the washing machine. A love triangle develops between the three of them. Things get out of hand and Manivald realizes that it is time to move out.

When Night Is Falling

Camille is a professor at a Protestant college and is in a long-term relationship with Martin, a respected minister and fellow professor. When Camille meets Petra, a bold and flamboyant performer in a circus troupe, she is inexplicably drawn. Pursuing Petra, Camille throws her whole conservative life into disarray.

The Page Turner

Mélanie Prouvost, a ten-year-old butcher's daughter, is a gifted pianist. That is why she and her parents decide that she sit for the Conservatory entrance exam. Although Mélanie is very likely to be admitted, she unfortunately gets distracted by the president of the jury's offhand attitude and she fails. Ten years later, Mélanie becomes her page turner, waiting patiently for her revenge.

Broken Youth

Bullied and outed at school, Li Yang faces cruelty from peers and teachers—until Feng Xiaoao’s friendship becomes the light pulling him out of darkness.

A Sentença

Plot unavailable

Summertime

In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.

Kissing Drew

Inside a drab middle school in 1992, a sexually-confused eighth-grader attempts to regain his dignity after being bullied by a sex-obsessed 'cool kid' whom he privately fantasizes about.

The Beautiful Summer

Seventeen-year-old Ginia leaves the countryside in search of a new life in Turin. Restless and seeking adventure, Ginia soon finds it in the beautiful, enigmatic Amelia, whose sensuality and confidence embolden her to begin modeling for the bohemian artists in their circle. A whirlwind affair ensues, and the young seamstress finds herself swept up in an unfamiliar and exciting world of discovery.

The Danish Boys

In a Copenhagen motel, a politician's hookup doesn't go to plan. Meanwhile at a nightclub, a mother and son are connected via song. Whereas in the suburbs, a football team prepares for the big outing - of one of its players. The 5 short films are: Hotel Boy (2018); Poz (2016); Young Man's Dance [Ung mands dans] (2014); Swans [Svans] (2016); Ladyboy (2011).

Lazarus Come Out

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

Lightning Bugs in a Jar

When a mother and son with a caustic history reunite to pack-up their old house, sparks fly as long-buried secrets are revealed, and it might fall upon the shoulders of the son's boyfriend to help heal old wounds.

Patrik, Age 1.5

Göran and Sven have been cleared for adoption and they have a possibility to adopt a swedish orphan, Patrik 1,5. But when Patrik arrives he turns out to be someone else, not the little boy they were expecting. A comma had been misplaced, and in comes a 15-year-old homophobic with a criminal past.

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway

Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.

Bathory: Countess of Blood

Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to men’s aspirations for power and wealth.

I Carry You with Me

An epic love story spanning decades is sparked by a chance encounter between two men in provincial Mexico. Based on a true story, ambition and societal pressure propel an aspiring chef to leave his soulmate and make the treacherous journey to New York, where life will never be the same.

The Kite

A short coming-of-Age film about two boys, first love, and a kite that reunites them 20-years later.

Because of a Boy

When Vincent finds himself a victim of outing in his high school, he must accept to live with the drastic changes it provokes, and redefine his relationships with his friends and family.

Debut

Ivan has just scored a goal and rushes to kiss Marko.

We All Lie My Darling

Five Sydney-based youngsters navigate life, experience friendship, seek love, delve into their sexuality, and face the challenges of being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Connected

"Connected" is a about two lonesome people who find each other via a chance encounter on a subway train. They experience happiness in one another for a brief moment in their lives until circumstances out of their control rip them apart. However their paths may once again intersect down the line.

The Prelude of Mary Beaumont

A mother flees her home with her infant child, only to run into her brother in the process.

What Grown-Ups Know

Teenage boy Roy and his ailing mother Elizabeth live an aimless life on the road, shuttling between gas stations, temp jobs and cheap motels. When they end up at a desolate caravan park, fractures begin to appear in Roy's relationship with his mother as he starts to fall head over heels for park manager Maurice.

Boychick

In sunny suburbia, a loud-mouthed Jewish mom incessantly nags and humiliates her shy gay teenage son, who she calls her 'Boychick'. Meanwhile, in the classroom, Boychick can't stop ogling a hunky classmate. If only Boychick had the courage to face up to his desires. As if by magic, along comes his idol, pop star Ashley Hart, to give him the hip-strutting, hair-flicking confidence he craves.