Pools of Desire (2001)

The Affair

An ex-seminarian slash communist runs a hotel in Baguio. He then meets a handsome upcoming lawyer. A once-a-year trip to Baguio by the lawyer and conversations with the hotel owner develop into an affair which encompasses decades of socio-political changes in the country.

You & I

Summer in Berlin. Jonas is planning a trip through the little known area of the Uckermark in preparation for a photography project. He invites his best friend, Phillip, to come along. When they pick up a hitchhiker named Boris, the friendship of the two starts to fray. Maybe three’s a crowd after all? By the end of the summer, things between Jonas and Phillip won’t ever be the same again.

Three Times

Mario is home alone. His parents are gone and it will take them a while to return. Enough time for their son to arrange a sex date on the Internet with a total stranger.

Your Name Engraved Herein

In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.

A Holy Mess

A comedy about the new alternative family and how different family situations and relationships come to a head during the premier family weekend.

The Deaf Boy's Disease

Ant starts to wonder about his sexuality when he meets deaf teenager Early. His friend Tremor picks up on Ant's interest and begins to tease him, leading to some very awkward but revealing conversations.

Love & Revolution

Seville, 1977. At a time when homosexuality is a crime, Reme, a traditional mother moved by the love of her son, an adolescent aspiring artist, will become involved in the Andalusian LGBTQ+ movement, paradoxically born in the bosom of the Church.

Dirty Magazines

Set in the 1980's, this short film written/directed by Jay J. Levy follows a teenage boy's relationship with his mother as it takes a wild turn on his 16th birthday when his mother finds all-male adult magazines under his bed.

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.

Fast Forward

Life is too short... no time to waste.

Wild

Nora comes out of prison. She only has one thing in mind: finding a youg neo-punk artist she admires, Léa. Mirror of one another, these two soulmates will get to know each other and rebuild their lives together.

Blazing Men

A hospital in the suburbs of Tokyo. This is a gay hospital. Doctor Goto treats his favorite patient with all his heart, and even takes care of his lower body. On the other hand, he was a bit of a troubled man who gave SM treatment to patients he didn't like...

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Precocious yet sensitive teenager James has a deep perception of the world but no idea how to live in it. Finding no help from his divorced parents nor his older memoir-writing sister, he decides to reject the beliefs adults try to push on him, starting with the college career that is looming over his last summer in New York, and embarks instead on a search for wisdom through nontraditional means...

That's Not Us

Three twenty-something couples, one gay, one lesbian, and one straight, travel to a beach house to enjoy the last days of summer, but what should be a fun and carefree weekend becomes an exploration of what it takes to sustain a healthy relationship.

An Afternoon

Mathias has decided that today is the day, that he'll let Frederik know he is in love with him. But when the time comes, is he ready to make the first move?

Blood & Wine

Nadia, a decades old vampire, wants nothing more than to live a normal life. Things are going pretty well with the human Lucy, but will Nadia be able to keep her secret?

Memories in March

The film is the effective exploration of a situation wherein a bereaved mother comes to terms with her late son’s sexual identity.

Dirty Weekend

During a layover in Albuquerque, work colleagues Les and Natalie discover more about each other than they ever thought possible. Anxious and irritable, Les is drawn back into the city by past experiences he can’t forget (even if he doesn't really remember the particulars of his previous drunken adventure). Natalie, refusing to leave his side, follows along as her own secrets are slowly revealed, leaving her feeling both vulnerable and unbound.

In the Grayscale

Bruno is an architect who has a perfect life: A nice family and a good job. Anyway, Bruno has a deep sense of unease. He decides to leave his wife to be alone and have time to find him self. A business man offers him to build an iconic landmark in Santiago city. Motivated by this professional challenge, Bruno feels he can find a twist in his life by a vocational route. He start working with a young history teacher named Fer who is agile, energetic, captivating and gay. Starts between them an unexpected and intense romance. At this point he must decide his path. The biggest learning: simplicity is the best way to get up again.

Velvet Goldmine

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

A Chorus Line

A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.

Rent

This rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in late 1980s East Village, New York, USA. The film centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a tragedy has made Roger numb to new experiences, Mark begins capturing their world through his attempts to make a personal movie. In the year that follows, they and their friends deal with love, loss, and working together.

We Shall Overcome

A drama about a boy who's inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and challenges repressive school authority in 1969 Denmark.

Hara Kiri

A punk infused love story of two street skaters, August and Beto, and their last day on earth: they're gonna end it.

The Christmas Lottery

The Davenport sisters have drifted apart over the years but when their Dad wins the lottery all he wants is having his girls home for Christmas. Getting over years of resentment proves a big task but it's pushed aside when their mother suffering from dementia loses the ticket. They put aside their differences to help find the ticket and in doing so get over their differences and finally learn to come together.

In Seventh Heaven

Sofiane lives in a high-rise block at the edges of Paris. A violent young man, he tries to be like his gang of friends. However, Sofiane is attracted to guys. Through his contradictions, he embodies the confusion of today's idle young people who have lost their bearings and live withdrawn into themselves.

RosaTigre

This is a story about a Neapolitan guy, Antonello, immigrant in Turin, who, for a living, hooks on the street as Rosatigre. Sasà, a friend of his, tries to bring him back to Naples, but, after a tortured decision, Antonello chooses to come back North and to keep living “on the street”.

Chabuca

The story of Ernesto Pimentel’s life, raised humbly after losing his mother, inspires him to create the iconic character La Chola Chabuca, an Andean figure who captivates all of Peru with her colourful skirts and high spirits.

Transamerica

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

Close

For a music competition, Franz, a young pianist, finds himself in an unfamiliar city. Overwhelmed by loneliness in his hotel room, his solitude takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Andrea, a fugitive on the run from the police.

2 Weeks

When 20-something-year-old Tanya begins to realize she’s asexual, the highly charged sexualized world she lives in as an actress and partner begins to fall apart and feels more and more like an unbearable nightmare.

Something Must Break

A gritty story taking place in Stockholm, about the passionate love between the self-abusive Sebastian who wants to be a woman, and the easy-going Andreas who is certainly not gay.

On the Go

To be, or not to be a mother, that is the question. A road movie where music, sexuality and contradictions accompany the main characters on a trip through southern Spain in a '67 Corvair. Milagros stretches a carefree youth in her last years of fertility while Jonathan seeks solace in Grindr in order to overcome abandonment issues.

Solo

Emerging Montreal drag queen Simon must deal with two impossible loves: a passionate, yet destructive affair with Oliver and a cold relationship with his mother, who's just returned after fifteen years.

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.

7 Virgins

Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts his neighborhood in a section of Sevilla.

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.

When Night Is Falling

Camille is a professor at a Protestant college who is engaged to 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.

Whisper

Anna, a 16 year-old girl from the sticks, trades her military education for life in the big city Running away to Prague opens a whole new world where she drinks her first cappuccino and meets the kind of people she has only seen in movies.

The Blue Caftan

Halim has been married to Mina for a long time, with whom he runs a traditional caftan store in the medina (old town) of Salé, Morocco. The couple has always lived with Halim's secret – his homosexuality – about which he has learned to keep quiet. However, Mina's illness and the arrival of a young apprentice upsets this balance. United in their love, each will help the other face his fears.

Of an Age

A Serbian ballroom dancer experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend's older brother.

Hair

Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.

Far from Heaven

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.

The Latin Boys: Volume 2

Feast your eyes on a second volume of short stories set in South America that explore growing pains, first loves, political upheaval, gay parenting and coming out. The 6 short films are: Seat Belt [Cinturón de seguridad] (2018); Before It's Too Late [Antes Que Seja Tarde] (2019); Ajar [Entreabierto] (2018); Guacho (2018); The Grey Zones [Las zonas grises] (2019); Orizaba's Peak [Pico de Orizaba] (2017).

Aloof

Yariv is a shy photographer charged to take photos at a family birthday. The photographs he takes highlight his problematic relationship with his brother, and increasingly intertwine to his extreme sexual experiences at the gay sauna.

Cabaret

Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.

Water Lilies

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

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.

May

A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.

Beautiful Thing

Set during a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, where three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

The Wedding Banquet

A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.

Much Ado

Hero and Beatrice, cousins and best friends, have very different approaches to love. Beatrice, burned once, is fiercely avoiding her arrogant ex-boyfriend Benedick and has sworn off men in general. Hero, a true romantic, is deeply in love with Benedick's friend Claudio, but too shy to say it. When they get trapped in a house with the entire boys rugby team, they'll be forced to face the questions they'd been avoiding.

Nowy świat

Three stories of immigrants trying to start new lives in Poland: an Afghan traumatised by the war, a Ukrainian lost in her own body, and a Belarusian running away from painful love. The Afghan, Azzam, works as a translator for the Polish army. In his homeland he is treated like a traitor. Having been evacuated to Poland, he is unable to shake off the war experiences. The Ukrainian, Wiera, escapes to Poland to undergo sex reassignment surgery in secret from her family. An unexpected visit from her father and little son will make her face the question of her own identity once more. Żanna, the Belarusian, leaves her husband, a dissident, and lives together with her daughter at her sister’s in Warsaw. She wants to move out as soon as possible and make a normal home. Things get complicated when her husband gets arrested again.

Wilde

The story of Oscar Wilde, genius, poet, playwright and the First Modern Man. The self-realisation of his homosexuality caused Wilde enormous torment as he juggled marriage, fatherhood and responsibility with his obsessive love for Lord Alfred Douglas.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.

Even Lovers Get the Blues

After the sudden death of one of them a group of friends grieves trough sexual encounters.

The Senator

Senator Arthur Alencar leads a double life. In the media and to his constituents, he portrays himself as a family man and a defensor of morals and good values. However, behind the spotlight, he is entangled in corruption schemes and maintains his sexual toy, the young Renan. But everything changes when Renan meets Victor, a daring journalist who will stop at nothing to expose the senator.

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.

Romper Stomper

Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?

The Basketball Diaries

A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.

Le Crime d'amour

To emerge from anonymity, a young man assumes responsibility for a crime he did not commit.

Buddies

David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

The Blind Owl

Ricky is a young man who takes care of his sick mother. His father hovers at the edge of the picture, so Ricky provides for himself and his mom through prostitution, running errands, and acting as a caregiver for a blind man. Through the course of the film, Ricky befriends Janey, a young woman he finds beaten by her ex-boyfriend, and Trenn, a mysterious young man in trouble with the law. The three of them navigate a dark and confusing world. It uses many of the actors who have come to constitute the Dar A Luz company, including Tony Torn, Tom Fitzpatrick, Juliana Francis, and Tom Pearl. It will disappoint those who approach it looking for a film analogue of the “faster and louder” aesthetic that critics have used to characterize much of Abdoh’s stage work. The Blind Owl does use a variety of techniques reminiscent of his stage direction, giving it an unusual theatricality.

In This Moment

“In This Moment” follows Love, a trans woman navigating the complexities of polyamory and self-discovery in a world that often challenges her right to exist. As she unravels what it means to be truly seen and cherished, she confronts the ways love manifests—fluid, unpredictable, and boundless, much like the ocean itself. This story is a testament to resilience, intimacy, and the ever-shifting tides of identity and belonging.

Apt Pupil

One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.

Sequin in a Blue Room

A teenager tries to track down a man he met at an anonymous sex party, trawling through hook-up apps to find him.

What's the Matter with Gerald?

A hypochondriac irks his partner by embracing the advice of an eccentric healer.

4 Moons

Four interwoven stories about love and self-acceptance: An eleven year-old boy struggles to keep secret the attraction he feels towards his male cousin. Two former childhood friends reunite and start a relationship that gets complicated due to one of them’s fear of getting caught. A gay long lasting relationship is in jeopardy when a third man comes along. An old family man is obsessed with a young male prostitute and tries to raise the money to afford the experience.

The Boy and the Wind

A young engineer on holiday gets involved with a boy who has a strange relationship with the wind. Their close friendship arouses suspicion in the small town. When the boy disappears, the engineer is accused of murdering him.

Mädchen in Uniform

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

The Way Things Go

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

Cloudy Clouds

17-year-old Paul likes strange things: stealth trails and abandoned buildings, whispered conversations and left-behind bags. Besides that, he seems to be a young man without qualities. His mysterious nature catches the eyes of his classmate Dala and his art-loving teacher Mr. Bulwer, both seemingly driven by hidden desires. Then a boy’s dead body is discovered in the forest...

Enthralled

An enthralling directorial debut by the phenomenal, biting columnist and broadcaster Chip Tsao. Three elementary school pals, separated during the post-Tiananmen wave of emigration, reunite after 20 years, only to find themselves in totally different places. When each of them gets involved in an unlikely and at times illicit romance, their disparate lives intertwine and take a dire turn. The simmering ennui of post-handover Hong Kong is insightfully captured in this original and hardhitting drama about love, deceit and betrayal.

Olivia

"Olivia" captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress Julie and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Julie and the other head of the school Cara in its final months.