Heart Breaks Open (2011)

In a Violent Nature

The enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness unleashes an iconic new killer after a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower that entombed its rotting corpse.

The Silent Hour

While working a case as an interpreter, a hearing-impaired police detective must confront a group of criminals trying to eliminate a deaf murder witness in her apartment building.

Pimpinero: Blood and Oil

When Juan, a young gasoline smuggler, is forced to work for a mysterious organization in the desert bordering Colombia and Venezuela, his girlfriend Diana embarks on a journey to uncover the secrets that inhabit this no-man’s-land.

Zombie Fight Club

It's the end of the century at a corner of the city in a building riddled with crime - Everyone in the building has turned into zombies. After Jenny's boyfriend is killed in a zombie attack, she faces the challenge of surviving in the face of adversity. In order to stay alive, she struggles with Andy to flee danger.

Florence Fight Club

Intertwined stories from the gladiator/athletes participating to the Calcio Storico Fiorentino yearly championship.

Greedy People

The eclectic residents of a small, picturesque island town must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars, leading to a series of increasingly bad decisions which upend the once-peaceful community.

About Dry Grasses

A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.

Sing Sing

Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

Marching Band

Diagnosed with leukemia, a successful orchestra conductor learns that he is adopted, and his younger brother is in a village marching band. The conductor decides to help them win a regional contest.

Ne Zha 2

Following the Tribulation, although the souls of Ne Zha and Ao Bing were preserved, their physical bodies will soon be destroyed. Tai Yi Zhen Ren plans to use the Seven Colored Lotus to reshape their physical forms, but encounters numerous difficulties. What will become of Ne Zha and Ao Bing?

Zamora

Soccer is an alien world for Walter Vismara, an unfamiliar terrain he's always avoided. But when his job hangs in the balance, he's thrust into the role of goalkeeper by his soccer-obsessed boss. Forced into a relentless routine of practice sessions and taunts, Walter finds himself trapped in a nightmare. His troubles escalate when he discovers his beloved in the arms of his archenemy, adding a personal dimension to his challenges. Determined to prove his worth, Walter devises a plan: to play the fool outwardly while secretly honing his skills. As he navigates this comedic yet challenging journey on the soccer field, will Walter emerge victorious and finally earn the respect he deserves?

Race to the Summit

Fearless alpine climbers Ueli Steck and Dani Arnold enter into a death-defying rivalry to set speed records on the Swiss Alps' great north faces.

Maria Montessori

Set in 1900, Lili d’Alengy, a Parisian cocotte at the height of her fame, flees Paris to hide her “idiot” daughter. There she meets Maria Montessori, who is pioneering a teaching method that may help the child.

Yolo

After an argument with her younger sister, Le Ying moves out on her own. She meets a boxing trainer and starts boxing.

Blue Giant

High school student Dai Miyamoto has his life is turned upside down the day he discovers jazz. Picking up a saxophone and leaving his sleepy hometown for the bustling nightclubs of Tokyo, Dai will find that the life of a professional musician isn’t for the faint of heart, as he must confront what it truly means to be great.

The Champion

Diego has just been voted best young player in Europe and at the age of 20 he is on his way to making his team, Atlético de Madrid, champions of La Liga. But his impulsive and conflictive character makes the club, fed up with his excesses, hire Álex, a withdrawn and lonely psychology professor, to improve his behaviour. The two will have no choice but to learn to understand each other.

Mr. Vampire

The planned reburial of a village elder goes awry as the corpse resurrects into a hopping, bloodthirsty vampire, threatening mankind. Therefore, a Taoist Priest and his two disciples attempt to stop the terror.

Patriots Time

The brothers Sultan and Bekzat Ibrayev are serving faithfully in the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan, and at the same time they are in family disagreement. Sultan is a valiant intelligence officer and Bekzat is a talented fighter pilot. While an international terrorist organization prepares a carefully planned attack on the country's strategically important facilities, the brothers have to face not only a mortal threat, but also face a family confrontation related to their dead father. Circumstances force them to unite in order to save human lives, and the brothers eventually understand that their homeland and family are the most valuable thing they have.

Goyo

A young autistic museum guide lives by a strict routine — until he falls in love with his coworker and must confront a whirlwind of new, intense emotions.

12th Fail

Based on the true story of IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma, 12th Fail sheds limelight on fearlessly embracing the idea of restarting the academic journey despite the setbacks and challenges and reclaiming one's destiny at a place where millions of students attempt the world's toughest competitive exam: UPSC.

Juliette in Spring

Juliette goes back in her hometown to spend some time with her family. She finds herself between a loving but moody father, a New Age mother, a sister in the midst of an existential crisis, and a grandmother slowly losing her mind. Buried memories and family secrets rise to the surface in this sweet, tender and sometimes extravagant family portrait.

September 5

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.

Don't Buy the Seller

Soo-Hyun buys a washing machine on a website for used merchandise. When she receives the washing machine, she realizes that the machine is broken. She becomes angry and leaves comments on the website warning other users about the seller. She receives a threatening message from the seller. Soon, Soo-Hyun experiences creepy things happening to her.

Jokes & Cigarettes

Barcelona, Spain, in the late sixties. Eugenio, a young jeweler who has fallen in love with Conchita, a singer, to the point of learning to play the guitar to accompany her in her performances, will first have to learn to overcome his stage fright.

The Braid

India. Smita is an untouchable. She dreams of seeing her daughter escape her miserable condition and enter school. Italy. Giulia works in her father’s workshop. When he has an accident, she discovers that the family business is ruined. Canada. Sarah, a successful lawyer, is about to be promoted to the head of her firm when she learns that she is ill. Three lives, three women, three continents. Three battles to fight. Although they don’t know each other, Smita, Giulia and Sarah are unknowingly linked by their most intimate and singular bond.

My Name Is Loh Kiwan

After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.

Boudica

Inspired by events in A.D. 60, Boudica follows the eponymous Celtic warrior who rules the Iceni people alongside her husband Prasutagus. When he dies at the hands of Roman soldiers, Boudica’s kingdom is left without a male heir and the Romans seize her land and property. Driven to the edge of madness and determined to avenge her husband’s death, Boudica rallies the various tribes from the region and wages an epic war against the mighty Roman empire.

American Dreamer

In this winsome comedy, an entitled Economics professor pursues a tactic to buy an ailing widow’s mansion for nothing, but he quickly realizes that his seemingly foolproof strategy won’t be as easy as he thought.

Nightbitch

A woman, thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.

Broker

Sang-hyun is always struggling from debt, and Dong-soo works at a baby box facility. On a rainy night, they steal the baby Woo-sung, who was left in the baby box, to sell him at a good price. Meanwhile, detectives were watching, and they quietly track them down to capture the crucial evidence.

Babes

After getting pregnant from a one-night stand, a single woman leans on her married best friend and mother of two to guide her through gestation and beyond.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man

Hellboy and a rookie BPRD agent get stranded in 1950s rural Appalachia. There, they discover a small community haunted by witches, led by a local devil with a troubling connection to Hellboy's past: the Crooked Man.

Plan 75

In a Japan of the near future, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer face choices of life and death.

Crossing

Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.

The Imaginary

Amanda and her imaginary friend Rudger go on thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger finds himself alone, he faces a mysterious threat.

The Nannies

Angèle, a thirty-something from Ivory Coast, always cope thanks to the gift of gab and audacity. To escape from a bunch of dangerous criminals, she becomes a nanny in the uptown Paris, hired by Hélène, the single mom of eight years old Arthur. Discovering the work conditions of her colleagues, she decides to stand up for their rights, thanks to a young lawyer who will quickly fall for her.

Hold Your Breath

In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region's horrific dust storms, a woman is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.

Diabolik - Who Are You?

Captured by a ruthless gang of bank robbers, foes Diabolik and Ginko find themselves facing certain death. While Eva Kant and Altea forge an unlikely alliance to rescue their lovers, Diabolik reveals his mysterious past to the Inspector.

Boys On Film 1: Hard Love

Created by gay directors and actors, Boys On Film features numerous award-winning shorts that deal with all aspects of gay life. Volume 1: Hard Love contains nine complete films: Hong Khaou's "Summer" starring Peter Peralta and Jay Brown; Michael Simon's "Gay Zombie" starring Brad Bilanin, Ryan Carlberg, and Robin McDonald; Jason Bushman's "Serene Hunter" starring Eric Debets, Flannan Obé, and Jonathan Blanc; Timothy Smith's "Le Weekend" starring Omar and Fernando Peres; Jean Baptiste Erreca's "Cowboy Forever" featuring Govinda Machado de Figueiredo and Jones Carlos Fialho de Araújo; Damien Rea's "Scarred" starring Chris Anderson, David Durham, and Lara Cazalet; Tim Hunter's "Packed Lunch" featuring Kevyn Boemia, Chris Sayers, and Steven Quigg; John Winter's "Mirror Mirror" starring Roy Billing; and Maxwell Barber's "VGL-Hung!" starring Marcus Proctor, Jeff Chandler, and Ashley Ryder.

World and Time Enough

Two men--a gay, HIV-positive artist and an adopted garbage collector--struggle in the face of stigma and loss to find meaning in work, love, and family.

The Sea We've Never Seen

David’s friend from college comes to visit him in LA, but his flight back to China has been canceled due to the pandemic. During the time they live together, David has a secret that he doesn’t know whether or not he should tell.

Like Me

Tom, a high school senior who is required by his father to find a new residence within 2 weeks, finds himself in a demanding relationship with a fashion photographer who is older than him, while secretly being in love with his close friend Gilad.

Requiem for a Dream

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Stray

Set in a parallel universe where the sexual bias favors homosexuals, Eric, a struggling heterosexual, admits himself into a straight conversion camp. What begins as a cure to his deviant lifestyle, becomes a journey of self acceptance.

mid90s

In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.

Kinky Boots

Charles Price may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business in Northampton, central England, but he never thought that he would take his father's place. Charles has a chance encounter with the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer Lola and everything changes.

Unfaithful Boys

Two Japanese boys go on a real-life Manga adventure when they discover what a single night in Shinjuku holds for unwary lovers. It’s the night of Gacchan’s birthday and boyfriend Takayuki is waiting at home to celebrate. But Gacchan has not only forgotten about his party, he’s been out playing around. Furious, Takayuki leaves, threatening not to return until he has indulged in some adultery of his own. Remade by the writer as 浮気なぼくら [Naughty Boys] (2002)

The Long Good Friday

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

Beau Travail

Foreign Legion officer Galoup recalls his once glorious life, training troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind.

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.

Johnny Minotaur

Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.

Silent Sparks

Earnest and obedient, Pua helps his gangster boss “handle" all kinds of matters, constantly putting himself at risk in return for a bit of money to help with the family expenses. But deep down, Pua harbors a secret — he has feelings for Mi-ji, the prisoner who took “special care" of him the last time he was incarcerated. When Mi-ji is released from prison, Pua is excited for their reunion, only to find himself neglected, rendering his pent-up desires more difficult to control than any underworld loyalties or obligations.

Head On

Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.

Shake It All About

Jacob is a young man used to getting everything he wants. For several years, he has been living in a happy homosexual partnership with Jørgen, and one night Jacob decides to pop the big question to Jørgen. Jørgen happily accepts Jacobs marriage proposal, but then something happens: Jacob falls in love with a girl, and not just any girl. The girl is Caroline, married to Jørgens younger brother Tom.

Fragments

Chloe, a straight talking film director, tries to convince her friend Sam to be an actor in her next short film. Just after finding out that he once again didn’t get into medical school, Sam meets Alex, a hypochondriac 18 year old. A love triangle forms in these self-reflexive, humoristic fragments filled with sex talk , set in New Orleans.

Turtles

Henri and Thom live together in Brussels and have been in perfect love for 35 years, or so it seems. Since Henri retired as a policeman, nothing has gone right. His days are dull and endless, his feelings are fading and their home has become a battlefield. Still in love, Thom is ready to do anything to rekindle the flame and save their relationship, even if it means asking for a divorce himself.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey, a gay man living in New York City with an overwhelming fear of contracting AIDS, concludes that being celibate is the only option to protect himself. As fate would have it, shortly after his declaration of a sex-free existence, he meets the handsome Steve Howard, his dream man -- except for his HIV-positive status. Facing this dilemma, Jeffrey turns to his best friend and an outrageous priest for guidance.

Required Field

Serial killer 'NO1KNOWS' managed to elude the police for years. In fact they didn't even know he existed until, by chance, his video and audio recordings were found. By examining the recordings police were able to solve a number of murders around the world - although many men featured in the recordings were never found and it is unclear how many other victims there were since most of the video and audio recordings were destroyed (presumedly by NO1KNOWS himself).

Walk on Water

Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country, during which Axel challenges Eyal's values.

Paradise Now

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Body Electric

Elias is a handsome young deputy manager in a garment factory in São Paulo. When he’s not working, he enjoys casual encounters in the big city. The arrival of a young African, Fernando, on the production line piques his interest and Elias finds himself increasingly drawn into socialising with his work colleagues.

Suddenly, Last Summer

The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.

Holding Trevor

After finally breaking up with his drug-addicted lover, Trevor begins a new romance that unexpectedly complicates his other relationships.

Less Than Zero

A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for Christmas at his ex-girlfriend's request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.

Requited

Nicolas, a young man in his mid 20s, struggles to decide whether or not to go to the wedding of his best friend from high school, Aaron, who he's always been quietly in love with. The two had a falling out years earlier after Nicolas inexplicably kissed Aaron's girlfriend. Nicolas clings to an idealized image of his former friend, unconsciously sabotaging his own happiness in the process. The film is a realistic slice-of-life that poses the question "How do you get over something you never had?"

Revolution

A coming-of-age story about Jack, a 16-year old Iranian boy growing up in 1989 Los Angeles. With the 1979 Iranian Revolution a distant memory, the AIDS movement as a backdrop, and a haunting score by Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Jack learns how to stage his own much smaller revolution within the confines of his traditional family.

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.

Mapplethorpe

A look at the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death in 1989.

Land of the Free

David and his gay friends celebrate his 25th birthday with a nightly swim at the park. The good mood quickly changes after two straight couples walk by and laugh. But was the laughter directed at them, or at something else?

Of an Age

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

Tennessee Queer

Religion, politics and gay pride clash in a small Tennessee town when out, proud and living in New York Jason Potts returns home to make life better for the LGBT teenagers.

Gods and Monsters

It's 1957, and James Whale's heyday as the director of "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" is long behind him. Retired and a semi-recluse, he lives his days accompanied only by images from his past. When his dour housekeeper, Hannah, hires a handsome young gardener, the flamboyant director and simple yard man develop an unlikely friendship, which will change them forever.

The Boys in the Band

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

Coming Out

Lewis, a gay writer of romantic novels, writes an article on gay issues under the pseudonym of "Zippy Grimes." The reason for this is that he hasn't come out yet and he doesn't want to alienate his mainly female fan-base. The article is a great success and leads to a huge amount of reactions, mainly from other gay men who are leading a double life. He decides to meet a number of these letter writers and eventually is forced to come out.

Find You in The Crowd

The younger Jing Nian and the older Lu Sheng have been playmates since they were children. After entering university, Jing Nian has been passionately chasing Lu Sheng over the years showing his true love for him. However, Lu Sheng really can't stand it and dares not face his innermost feelings. Emotions, this pair who are born with a tacit understanding, how should love speak out?

Uncut

Circumcision and artistic freedom concern three homosexuals, denied communication during a surreal jail stay.

Philippino Story

Philip and Bastian are lovers. Philip has taken the responsibility to help his older brother’s family in the slums. However, when Bastian pursues painting and can no longer provide for Philip, Philip resorts to hustling in order to help his brother’s family. When Bastian catches Philip being picked up by a gay man in a car, he decides to keep everything inside. Can Philip and Bastian’s love prevail despite the odds?

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?

Campfire

A married dairy farmer travels to a gay campground in rural NE Pennsylvania to search for the man he fell in love with 30 years before -- and discovers the past is not done with him yet. A narrative/doc hybrid film.

Lilting

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

Pools of Desire

The amazing wartime saga of a young American GI who travels to Budapest to find his former companion, a French soldier who told him of the spectacular bathhouses he visited there. The GI explores the fraternal joy of these Turkish baths and loses himself in passion - only to discover his real sexual self!

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.

Esteros

Childhood friends Matías and Jerónimo reach adolescence and experience sexual attraction to each other, before being separated by circumstances. Later, as young adults, they meet again, and the film follows themes of complicated relationships and sexual tensions, as well as issues of homophobia.

Run(a)way Arab

A queer Arab boy, Nazeem, looks up to his Muslim mother with awe. Later in life, it is only through being a drag queen that he holds on to their lost and fraught connection.

The Object of My Affection

A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.

Spokane

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

After Sex

Sex is a background to examine intimacy and vulnerability. Looks at the complexity of modern day relationships told through eight separate couples. Through dialogue and compromising situations, the film takes us from the beginning of a relationship to the aftermath of one, and examines every stage in between seeing humor within the drama, heartache and confusion of it all.

Nuclear Family

Jules, 18 years old, reluctantly spends his holidays in the naturist campsite of his childhood. He is torn between his attraction for the beautiful Karim, a seasonal worker on the textile beach, and the depression of his mother Adèle, who refuses to let him grow up.

Everything Is Illuminated

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Summer Storm

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteor-logical.

Mala Noche

Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in taboo trysts and a tangled love triangle.

Dancing Queens

The story of Dylan Pettersson, a 23-year-old girl from a small island in the Swedish archipelago with big dancing aspirations.

In Between Seasons

When her son gets critically injured in a car accident, a mother discovers that there's more to his relationship with his friend than she had thought.

The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors

In collage sequences, the surrogate of synthetic sensuality takes form and seduces the sailors in the guise of a Hawaiian girl. In ritual punctuation, she distributes deaths which seemingly only the hardy siren Fatality can survive.

The One You Feed

A Stranger (30s) hikes out of town and into the forest. He sets up camp for the night. He hears a deep howling, peeks his head out the tent and gets attacked -- leaving him unconscious. An anonymous Man (25) drags his body to a house, which is nestled in a place that time has somehow forgotten. The injured Stranger awakens in a bed as a Woman (35) nurses him back to health. This Man and Woman play a game with this Stranger, a game that pushes him to the brink of madness.

Papercut

Two closeted actors en route to an awards show argue in a chauffeured limo about how important it is to appear straight.