Fallen Blossoms (2017)

The Inspection

Ellis French is a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.

Jonathan

A young man struggles with the pressure of caring for his terminally ill father while trying to unlock a secret that his father seems determined to keep from him. The story takes another dramatic turn when Ron, Burghardt’s long-lost friend from his youth, re-appears — and a well-kept family secret is uncovered.

A Wild Heart

Mathan is 17 and struggles with his sexuality and his feelings for his friend François. Over a two summer period, with his friends François and Virginie, he tries to discover his desires, face homophobia and overcome the fear of not being accepted as he truly is.

Uproar

Antoine, twenty-five, does not want to be alone this evening. He leaves in the middle of the night to find a remedy for his loneliness.

Seat in Shadow

Young Ben is having boyfriend troubles again, so his grandma introduces him to Albert, an eccentric Glasgow painter who doubles as an unconventional, Jung-inspired psychotherapist. But their therapy sessions end up revealing as much about Albert as they do about Ben in this twisted, sexual comedy. Filmed on location in Glasgow, "Seat In Shadow" is the debut feature from writer/ director Henry Coombes. The film received its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival and also played Berlin International Film Festival and BFI Flare. This is a witty study of social mores and sexual excess where the boundaries between doctor and patient, artist and muse become increasingly blurred.

Make the Yuletide Gay

The holidays get overly festive as Olaf "Gunn" Gunnunderson, an out-and-proud gay college student, crawls back into the closet to survive the holidays with his parents. But when his boyfriend, Nathan, shows up at their doorstep unannounced, Gunn must put on a charade to keep the relationship a secret. With pressure mounting from all sides, will Gunn come out before the truth does?

Egoist

After losing his mother at the age of 14, Kōsuke spent his depressed adolescence hiding his gay identity in a rural town. Now working as a fashion magazine editor, he spends his free time with his close friends. One day, he meets Ryūta, a personal trainer who works in part to support his aging mother.

We Will Become Better

The two lovers in this stirring new film are separated not only by distance but also by circumstances: Russia’s anti-gay laws and mainstream homophobia mean that their relationship is threatened by violence, and now even the constitution.

I Killed My Mother

Hubert, a brash 17-year-old, is confused and torn by a love-hate relationship with his mother that consumes him more and more each day. After distressing ordeals and tragic episodes, Hubert will find his mother on the banks of Saint Lawrence river, where he grew up, and where a murder will be committed: the murder of childhood.

Maurice

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

The Pillow Book

A woman with a body writing fetish seeks to find a combined lover and calligrapher.

Wrecked

An edgy drama about a gay teen's tumultuous decent into drugs and anonymous sex, Wrecked smashes cinematic taboos while it spins its cautionary tale. Ryan is an earnest 18-year-old trying to develop a career as an actor and getting his life on the right track. This course is quickly threatened with the sudden arrival of his sort-of ex, Daniel, who arrives at Ryan's door wanting a place to stay.

The Sun Will Rise

Omar and Bahri, long-time friends, who share their desires, their sorrows and their love are about to see their daily life upset by the arrival of a student-girl, Sonia, ready to do anything to achieve her goals.

Out

On an average day, Greg's life is filled with family, love and a rambunctious little dog - but despite all of this, Greg has a secret. Today is different, though. With some help from his precocious pup, and a little bit of magic, Greg might learn that he has nothing to hide.

Lost Angel

When a young Dutch tourist gets stranded at the start of his US vacation, he finds help from an unlikely stranger.

Barrio Boy

A Latino barber in a macho world faces a tough road ahead when an attraction develops for a handsome stranger during a hot and sweaty summer in Brooklyn.

Redwoods

Both original and incredibly romantic, Redwoods tells the story of an already-partnered man whose love is tested when a mysterious drifter passes through his small Northern California town.

Scenes of a Sexual Nature

Sex and love. Some seek it, some need it, some spurn it and some pay for it, but we're all involved in it. Set on one afternoon on Hampstead Heath in north-west London, the film investigates the minutiae of seven couples. What makes us tick?

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.

The Breeding

An erotic thriller about a young artist whose obsession with a taboo fetish leads to life altering consequences.

Caravaggio

A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.

Taboo

Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.

Words of Devotion

Ootani and Tachibana have been inseparable since high school. Now that they're in college, they live together, they're happy and everything seems prefect. But their little world is disrupted when they meet an old high school friend, Yuki, who seems to have a crush on Tachibana, making Ootani feel jealous and insecure. Will Tachibana really choose him over a pretty girl?

Tom Clay Jesus

Clay meets Tom. Tom ignores Clay. Tom meets Jesus.

Ideal Home

A couple is going through marital troubles made worse when a previously unknown grandson shows up.

Golden Delicious

When a hot, openly gay new neighbour moves in across the street, high school senior Jake is forced to think about what - and who - he really wants.

The 24th Day

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

Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know

Boys on Film presents ten encounters from across the globe, where the dangerous allure of a risky attraction yields emotional results — proving that the age-old adage of taking the plunge is as relevant — and sexy — as ever before. The 10 short films are: My Uncle's Friend [O Amigo do Meu Tio] (2021); Budapest, Closed City [Budapest, zárt város] (2021); Eden (2020); Chaperone (2022); Break Me [Knus meg] (2018); By His Will [שעשני כרצונו] (2021); Red Ants Bite (2019); Jim (2022); Hornbeam (2022); Too Rough (2022).

Loggerheads

A troubled woman seeks out the child she gave up for adoption; a gay motel owner takes in a handsome drifter; and the wife of a preacher frets that a gay couple has moved in across the street. All of their lives will intersect as Loggerheads subtly draws out their secret losses and desires.

Mulligans

When Tyler Davidson brings his college buddy Chase home for the summer holidays a secret is revealed that threatens to tear his perfect family apart.

Praxis

Praxis peels away the layers of narrative even as Brian, the film's axis, struggles to create his true self. Brian, a writer on the verge of a breakdown, is aided by Joe and an Elusive Woman as he sifts through the fragments of his persona to discover his true core. Fighting against fear and the indifference of society - aptly symbolized by the medical establishment - his quest reflects the classical mythos of Proteus and the human search for meaning in the universe.

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!

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.

Wedding Wars

In the midst of organizing his brother Ben's wedding, Shel, a gay party planner, decides to go on strike for equal rights when he learns that Ben is behind a political speech against gay marriage.

Requiem for a Dream

The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.

A Stormy Night

When a heavy storm threatens the city of New York, two complete strangers –a cynical documentary filmmaker from Spain and an idealist app programmer– find themselves sharing shelter, questioning each other’s understanding of life, happiness and love.

Isaac

Two childhood friends, Denis and Nacho, meet again years after having an intense relationship as teenagers. Now with their respective partners, the couples grow close and end up fulfilling each other's needs while breaking rules to discover their truths in the process.

A Skeleton in the Closet

Manuel goes back to his hometown for his parents’ wedding anniversary, but he actually wants to ask money to move to Denmark with his boyfriend. Last time he saw his family, he came out of the closet. Since then, their relationship became tense. Manuel’s plans get ruined when his boyfriend dumps him.

Contradictions

A transvestite is bedridden in a colorful room. A customer arrives, then a game of hide-and-seek, of pretense and confusion of feelings begins.

First Love

This is a story about coming of age, coming out and a gay marriage that is sprinkled with both love and comedy, at the centre of which is a teenager who doesn’t yet know what he wants.

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.

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.

Copa 181

COPA 181 is the first feature film by Brazilian director Dannon Lacerda. It is a 100% independent production that deals with the relationship of a couple that is affected by the events in a gay sauna. Awarded in several festivals in Brazil and in other countries, the director had the premiere of his film at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival in October 2017.

Salvation Army

Abdellah is a young gay man navigating the sexual, racial and political climate of Morocco. Growing up in a large family in a working-class neighborhood, Abdellah is caught between a distant father, an authoritarian mother, an older brother whom he adores and a handful of predatory older men, in a society that denies his homosexuality.

Coming Out

Yo is a gay college student who doesn't have the courage to come out to his friends and family.

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.

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.

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."

10 Attitudes

A Jewish man discovers his boyfriend of 10 years has been cheating on him, and decides to embark on a dating spree.

100 Days Before the Command

Visually astonishing, erotically charged and emotionally jarring. '100 Days Before the Command' is Hussein Erkenov's courageous and stinging indictment of communism. Five young Red Army recruits struggle for survival against the merciless violence that surrounds them on a daily basis. Their only means of saving their dignity is by preserving the humanity and compassion they share for each other.

Kiss the Bride

In high school, Matt and Ryan were best friends. More than friends, actually. But in the ensuing ten years, they've lost contact. So when Matt receives an invitation to Ryan's wedding he's surprised - especially that Ryan is marrying a woman!

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.

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.

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.

Via Appia

Frank, a HIV infected former Lufthansa steward, goes back to Rio from Germany with a film crew to look for Mario, a young man with whom he had a one night stand. Before Mario departed the morning after, he left a message scrawled in soap on the bathroom mirror: 'Welcome to the AIDS club'. Frank and his director hire a fast talking hustler named José (Guilherme di Padua) to help them to find Mario who seems alway to have just left whenever they arrive. Via Appia is the nickname of a Rio district where male prostitutes hang out...

Foreign Body

Willing to prove his manhood to his handsome buddies, Marko tries to find a girl. In the encounter with a victim of a past sexual trauma he discovers an aggressive part of himself.

More Than Friendship

Mia, Lukas and Jonas always where like one heart and soul since their earliest childhood. Until three years ago when everything changed. Friendship became love that is well beyond all conventions. A Part of the society feels provoked by such kind of companionship and meets them with some lack of understanding to say the least. Even their parents aren't really fond of the situation. Once a year, the trio makes a trip. During which they try to let emotion flow as they come, not having to fear the reactions of others. Now there is the time again for such a trip. And that is where the film starts. After renting a mobile home the journey starts as usual. Only one thing different this time, Jonas was diagnosed with cancer in terminal state a few months ago. The three of them know that this might very well be the last trip they will ever make. Regardless, Mia and Lukas try their best for Jonas not to think of the inevitable. Sadly the vow to spend the last trip only in joy, fails.

Brummi

A cinematic reflection on the lives of two middle-aged gay men and the formative value of personal freedom.

The Gift

A man is hired by a woman as a gift for her husband.

Normal

Jim - a lonely, troubled young man who works as an apartment superintendent, is replaying his tortured past. Through a series of flashbacks, and interactions with the mysterious tenants he is surrounded by, we not only learn of his dark secrets, but also what it means to be normal. The answers he finds in his journey will shatter not only his perceptions of the past, but also his fragile grip on reality.

The Third Sex

Klaus is a young man in post-war Berlin. He is drawn to his friend Manfred and, under the encouragement of their acquaintance, Dr. Winkler, explore the underground world of gay clubs and electronic music. His family begins to learn of his other life and do everything they can to set him straight.

For My Brother

The two brothers Aske and Bastian live with their father, Lasse, in a world of fear, violence and alcohol but the brothers' strong and close relationship means everything. Aske must serve his father's sexual needs, as well as paying customers and his father's friend, Hans. Aske tries everything to keep his little brother out of it all so that he won't experience the same as himself. But one day Bastian is abused by their father. The brothers choose to move to Norway, far away in the beautiful mountains. Their friendship outshines everything! They are together and far away from their evil father...

Boys

Two teen track stars discover first love as they train for the biggest relay race of their young lives.