Dedalus (2018)

Boys On Film 19: No Ordinary Boy

As Boys On Film reaches the end of its teenage years, we take a look at those unique boys who go one step further, who excite, invigorate, and always impress, who break boundaries, shape their worlds and are more than what they appear. Volume 19: No Ordinary Boy includes ten complete films: Scott T. Hinson's "Michael Joseph Jason John" also starring Eric Robledo; Abhishek Verma's animated "The Fish Curry"; Ben Allen's "Blood Out Of A Stone" starring Alex Austin and Oisín Stack; David Färdmar's "No More We" starring Jonathan Andersson and Björn Elgerd; Jannik Splidsboel's "Between Here & Now" starring Francesco Martino and Peder Bille; Amrou Al-Kadhi's "Run(a)way Arab" also starring Ahd and Omar Labek; Dean Loxton's "Meatoo" starring Calum Speed and Warren Rusher; Jake Graf's "Dusk" starring Elliott Sailors, Sue Moore, and Duncan James; Leon Lopez's "Jermaine & Elsie" starring Marji Campi and Ashley Campbell; and Marco Alessi's "Four Quartets" with Laurie Kynaston.

The Private War of Joseph Sargent

Porn Star Grayson Lange along with Addison Graham and Robby Valls star in a film about two mercenaries on a secret mission in the jungles of South America. Once captured, their last night together will reveal dark secrets and create sexual tensions. So much so that it will cause unforeseen collateral damage that stretches well beyond the jungle. This highly provocative and erotic film was part of Eroddity(s) 2. Now re-worked as a stand-alone short the film seems to take on new meaning.

Some More

Dong-su, who is tired of living in the city, takes vacation and breaks his leg while riding long distances. Dong-su finds a farmhouse, wandering around a strange country road, and stays there for a few days with the help of In-pyo. Dong-su and In-pyo are attracted to each other but they are not sure about their feelings...

The Gemini

A secret story of a same-sex love affair between two Myanmar men. After getting into a forced marriage with a rich girl, one of the men is killed in a plane crash. Much later, his wife is approached by a man, a bestselling writer, and soon suspects that he may have been her husband's lover. But now a real mystery begins to emerge as the evidence mounts her husband may still be alive.

Opponent

In the aftermath of a devastating rumor, Iman and his family have been forced to flee Iran. As refugees, they end up in a run-down hotel in northern Sweden. Despite feeling powerless, Iman tries to maintain his role as the family patriarch. To increase their chances of asylum, he breaks a promise to his wife and joins the local wrestling club. As the rumors start to resurface, Iman’s fear and desperation begin to take a hold.

Silver Haze

23-year-old Franky is a nurse who lives with her large family in an East London borough. Obsessed with a thirst for revenge and a need to assign guilt for a traumatic event that happened 15 years before, she is unable to build any meaningful relationship until she falls in love with one of her patients – Florence. They escape to the coast where Florence lives with her more open-minded patchwork family. There, Franky finds the emotional shelter to deal with the grudges of the past.

Tesis sobre una domesticación

A successful transgender actress and her lawyer husband decide to adopt a child, defying the conservative community in Argentina. But their attempt for a domestic happiness is thwarted when they visit the actress's hometown.

I Am My Own Woman

The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.

Labyrinth of Passion

An array of outrageous people, including a desperate nymphomaniac and a terrorist with an acute sense of smell, seek love and happiness in Madrid.

What Have I Done to Deserve This?

A henpecked housewife ekes out a meager existence, surrounded by a host of colorful characters: her ungrateful husband, her delinquent sons, her headstrong mother-in-law, and her sex worker neighbor, among others.

T

Meghna, born as Vishnu, is subjected to abuse for exhibiting feminine behavior. She later turns to sex work in the Kinnar locality to explore her sexuality. After getting a corporate job, Meghna is terminated when her transgender identity is discovered. She undergoes sex reassignment surgery and starts working as India's first transgender taxi driver. Meghna becomes an advocate for the kinnar community and engages in social work to help improve their lives. Despite facing opposition and violence, Meghna remains dedicated to her cause and becomes a leader of her community.

Supernatural

Science fiction about a future Thailand. Futuristic, experimental, homo-erotic and with elements of a political essay. With a richness of themes and impressions that wouldn’t get past the censor in Thailand. The maker doesn’t mince his words and isn’t afraid to look reality in the eye.

NY84

Kate, Anton, and Keith, three young artists in New York's art scene of the early 1980s. An intimate glimpse into the creative and emotional lives of the young and carefree. They party, photograph, paint, sing, and play their way through the clubs and lofts of Alphabet City. The party ends in 1984 when Anton and Keith contract a mysterious illness known as the "gay cancer." As her music career takes off, Kate tries to save her friends.

Naked Lunch

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Two drag queens and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a town in the remote Australian desert. As they head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, the three friends come to the forefront of a comedy of errors, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, whilst widening comfort zones and exploring new horizons.

American Gigolo

Julian makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle, a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's being framed. Meanwhile Michelle begins to fall in love with him.

And the Band Played On

The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.

As Good as It Gets

Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer of romantic fiction, is rude to everyone he meets, including his gay neighbor, Simon. After Simon is brutally attacked and hospitalized, Melvin finds his life turned upside down when he has to look after Simon's dog. In addition, Carol, the only waitress at the local diner who will tolerate him, leaves work to care for her chronically ill son, making it impossible for Melvin to eat breakfast.

End of the Century

Two men meet in Barcelona and after spending a day together they realize that they have already met twenty years ago.

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.

Not Without Me

Finn and Ash are "partners in crime", but when the phrase turns literal, they must evade death by hiding from the bounty hunters who are relentlessly chasing them.

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.

Fanfic

Two high school students form an intense connection as they navigate the challenges of discovering and expressing their truest selves.

Ekaj

EKAJ is a love story between two drifters, a naive teenager and a hustler. Ekaj meets Mecca who takes him under his care. Mecca has AIDS and multiple problems of his own. He is high all day but still manages to be the only voice of reason in Ekaj’s hopeless world. They cruise the city together looking for money and places to stay. Although Ekaj makes some money as a prostitute, he finds himself discarded, and lacking what it takes to survive in the city. Their mutual loneliness leads to genuine friendship.

Hunter

Two friends vie for the attention of a stranger who passes out at their doorstep.

Filip

Seven-year-old Filip admires his older brother Sebastian most of all. They fool around, watch movies and play football together. One evening Filip happens to see something unexpected between Sebastian and his best friend and Filip doesn't know how to handle it.

It Was Yesterday

Giò, a 13-year-old girl living in the south of Italy, is the head of a boys' gang. She's secretly in love with young Paola, and she's ready to compete with male opponents to win her heart. In the last day of summer, innocence ends.

Caught in a Landslide

Through a combination of pharmaceuticals and alcohol, Jay walks through the lost memories of true love. Tonight, he will walk in the wilting greenhouse that was the backdrop to his summer romance and he'll meet his familiar resident ghost.

The Distance Between Us and the Sky

Night, national road. Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station. One has stopped to gas up his bike, while the other is just stranded. Lacking the 22 euros he needs to get home, he will try to sell him the distance that separates them from the sky.

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.

Revelação

A young man faces his inner and outer demons in order to break free.

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.

Jeremiah

An Asian-American high school football player is forced to confront his deepest fears after a strange encounter with a mysterious figure.

Shared Rooms

A romantic comedy that brings together three interrelated tales of gay men seeking family, love and sex during the holiday season.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Pennsylvania, 1993. After getting caught with another girl, teenager Cameron Post is sent to a conversion therapy center run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother, Reverend Rick, whose treatment consists in repenting for feeling “same sex attraction.” Cameron befriends fellow sinners Jane and Adam, thus creating a new family to deal with the surrounding intolerance.

The Mission

When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.

Foyer

A second year film

Glue

Procida, a little Island in the gulf of Naples. Last days of summer. The adolescence of Domenico is coming to an end, just like his tormented relationship with Marcello. Domenico looks for hospitality at Antonio's house, his best friend, but soon he finds himself alone with the thirteen-years-old Antonio's brother, Lallo. A journey of discovery starts, between adolescence and maturity. The meeting with Sara, a transsexual woman, will bring to light the desires of the two young boys.

Beneath the Skin

After his family falls apart Joshua is forced to move to Canada. It is there he meets Jay, a local tattoo artist who fled the violent actions of his parents back home in Alabama. Both young men, abandoned and lonely in their own way, find themselves falling for one another... until a pair of high school brats intrude on the boys' growing relationship.

Together

Elisabeth leaves her abusive and drunken husband Rolf, and goes to live with her brother, Göran. The year is 1975 and Göran lives in a commune called Together. Living in this leftist commune Elisabeth learns that the world can be viewed from different perspectives.

The Last Emperor

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

The French Boys 3

Through the unlikely mediums of dance, graffiti, and elementary school dress-up, these French boys young and old show that whether it's about coming out or getting the guy - you had better do it in style. The short films are: Fairyocious [Féeroce] (2019); The Graffiti [Le graffiti] (2019); Eva (2016); A New Breath [Second souffle] (2021); Masculine (2018); The Tightrope Walkers [Les équilibristes] (2017).

Sign

'SIGN' is a short film that tells, through vignettes, music, and sign language, the story of a relationship between Ben, a hearing man, and Aaron, who is deaf.

Threesome

At a sizable public college, high-minded student Eddy is forced to room with the slovenly Stuart, but the pair strike up a surprising friendship. When attractive co-ed Alex is assigned to live with the two male students because of her gender-neutral name, a roundabout love triangle ensues. Eddy secretly yearns for Stuart, who wants Alex, but she prefers Eddy. The complex situation leads to sexual experimentation and strained relationships.

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.

Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn

In this sequel to Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander's story is told in both the past and the present. Alexander's parents send him away from home for being too sensitive and not helping enough on their farm. He goes to Los Angeles in hopes of going to art school, but when he can't find a job as a minor, he turns to prostitution. After being arrested, he wants to head to Arizona to marry Dawn, but he falls into a lucrative job/relationship with a gay football star.

To an Unknown God

José, a fifty-year-old homosexual magician, feels the need to return to Granada, the place where he spent his childhood, perhaps to embrace the painful memory of tragic experiences, perhaps to bury it definitively.

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.

Little Buddha

After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children — one American and two Nepalese — who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.

Les Biches

A bored bisexual millionaire picks up a young destitute street artist and whisks her away to her villa in Saint Tropez. They meet a dashing local architect and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.

Cavafy

An ailing, elderly poet reminisces about his life of unrest and homosexual urges.

Reflections in a Golden Eye

Bizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.

River Made to Drown In

Thaddeus Mackenzie, a wealthy lawyer, learns that he is dying and decides to sell all of his property and visit his old friend Allen Hayden. Allen is a struggling artist with a passion for life who once survived by working the streets, but now is romantically involved with Eva, a wealthy European gallery owner living in L.A. Thaddeus implores Allen to find Jamie, a young street hustler that Thaddeus had once tried to rescue. Allen returns to the streets to face the dark corners of his past where he must choose between what he left behind and the uncertainty that lies ahead.

Die Beautiful

Trisha, a Filipino transgender woman, suddenly dies while being crowned in a beauty pageant. Her last wish was to be presented as a different celebrity on each night of her wake, but her conservative father wants to bury her as a man.

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.

Not Gonna Bother You

Rebecca needs to finish a home work for college, but Anna, her roommate and best friend, decides to invite some friends to drink at home. What the both of them didn't expect was the friendly party getting out of control.

Ludwig

Historical evocation of Ludwig, king of Bavaria, from his crowning in 1864 until his death in 1886, as a romantic hero. Fan of Richard Wagner, betrayed by him, in love with his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, abandoned by her, tormented by his homosexuality, he will little by little slip towards madness.

Midnight Cowboy

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

Nimby: Not In My Backyard

Mervi is a gay girl living in the hipster quarters of Helsinki. She has been together with Kata for a year, and now they are encouraged by the circumstances to come out from closet. When they do, Mervi realises that she is not the only one in her family with secrets – her parents have been living in an open-bisexual-swinger-relationship for 20 years. On the other hand Kata is pretty surprised that she might be living with a hetero girl that once was dating a neo-nazi. And the ex-boy friend cannot swallow that Mervi is now with a person both of wrong color, and sex. The real threat appears when Kata’s parents arrive from Berlin and the local skinhead chief finds out that a black muslim celebrity politician has arrived to town.

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.