Wretched Things (2019)

American Fiction

A novelist fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.

Little Ashes

About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.

Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

A group of mourners travels by train to bury a recently deceased artist in Limoges. As they journey, secrets and desires unfold, with relationships shifting, past loves resurfacing, and personal connections revealed. At the funeral and afterward, tensions rise among the group, leading to further emotional complexities at the artist’s family home.

The Israeli Boys

Secrets, lies, surprises and more are explored in this rich selection of gay short films from Israel. The 6 short films are: Three (2018); A Trip to the Desert (2016); Rubber Dolphin (2018); Stav (2018); After His Death (2017); Leave of Absence (2016).

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance.

The Dark Side of Love

Two brothers on different life paths, a gay waiter with a crush on an eligible bachelor and a drug addict in a twisted dependent relationships with his girlfriend, reunite to mourn the death of their mother.

His

Shun and Nagisa first meet and fall in love during their first year of high school. While Shun is graduating from university, Nagisa tells him that he doesn't see a future for them. Despite Shun's strong feelings, they go their separate ways. Years later, Shun is now a store owner, living alone in a rural area. Out of the blue, Nagisa arrives with his six-year-old daughter, Sora. Spending time together, Shun realizes he still harbors feelings for Nagisa. Can Nagisa reconcile with his feelings for Shun, which have been there all along?

Hush!

Naoya and Katsuhiro are boyfriends, new in their relationship. Things are uneven at first—Naoya is open and free while Katsuhiro is cautious and closeted—but nothing compares to the chaos that arrives when Asako, a troubled woman with a history of psychiatric problems, abortions, and casual sex, asks Katsuhiro to conceive a child with her.

Like Grains of Sand

A coming-of-age story. Shuji, a Japanese teen, is falling in love with his friend Hiroyuki, however, Hiroyuki is attracted to Kasane, the new girl in their class.

The Mudge Boy

Chronicling the troubled existence of Duncan Mudge, a 14-year-old misfit who—while vying for the attention of his vacant father—struggles to fill the void brought on by his mother's sudden death.

Otto; or, Up with Dead People

A young zombie named Otto appears on a remote highway. He has no idea where he came from or where he is going. After hitching a ride to Berlin and nesting in an abandoned amusement park, he begins to explore the city. Soon he is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf, who operates the camera. Meanwhile, Medea is still trying to finish Up with Dead People, the epic political-porno-zombie movie that she has been working on for years. She convinces its star, Fritz Fritze, to allow the vulnerable Otto to stay in his guest bedroom. When Otto discovers that he has a wallet that contains information about his past, before he was dead, he begins to remember details about his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf. He arranges to meet him at the schoolyard where they met, with devastating results.

Wild Reeds

As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

Prom Party Massacre

A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!

Anything Once

Both Joey and Mike are faced with breaking boundaries that previously limited them. There's a first time for everything.

Villain

In 1970s London, Scotland Yard orchestrates the downfall of mob boss Vic Dakin after he crosses the line by blackmailing Members of Parliament.

Close The Last Door

After being best man at his best friend's (Saitou Toshihisa) wedding, Nagai Atsushi realizes that he might have fallen for him. Nagai, drowning in his sorrows and hatred for the new bride then meets Honda Kenzou, another guest at the wedding. Honda takes care of Nagai when he was dead drunk and now Nagai can't stop thinking of both Honda and Saitou.

Liz in September

A shocking secret, ex-lovers and the arrival of an outsider shake things up for Liz as she celebrates her birthday at a lesbian-owned resort.

Ponyboi

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.

Change

An African-American teenager grapples with his sexual identity on the night Barack Obama is elected President and Proposition 8 — the California voter initiative to eliminate same-sex marriage — is passed. When one of Jamie's friend group initiates the bullying of an openly gay classmate, Jamie uses his wits to try and prevent it, but when things don't go the way he predicted, he is forced to face his fears head on. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Short Film at Frameline35: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, Change is a poetic and moving film which deftly examines one young man's internal identity struggles within the context of the modern movement for LGBT rights, and a high school experience fraught with peer pressure.

The Tower

André is a broken man, who lives isolated in a forest. The forces of nature embrace his body as he drowns in his effervescent inner world. Between the insomnia and the dreams, André is haunted by his past. He wishes to deconstruct himself, heal his sorrow and take the responsibility from his acts. He puts himself before the abyss where he must embrace his ghosts and change his skin in order to survive.

The Kite

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

Summer of 85

What do you dream of when you're 16-years-old and in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 1980s? A best friend? A lifelong teen pact? Scooting off on adventures on a boat or a motorbike? Living life at breakneck speed? No. You dream of death. Because you can't get a bigger kick than dying. And that's why you save it till the very end. The summer holidays are just beginning, and this story recounts how Alexis grew into himself.

T-Bird at Ako

Stern, intelligent Sylvia, a lawyer, finally met her match. Only that the person is a woman, and was convicted of murder.

Behind the Trees

Paulo lives a troubled relationship with his wife Jessica. After a serious argument, he goes cycling and ends up getting lost in a region known as "The Whispering Forest", a secret place where men meet for sexual purposes with another men. Unhappy in his marriage, Paulo has no idea how much his life is about to change, especially when he meets Luigi, a young boy who exudes sex and freedom and that he will make him discover his true sexuality. It will be an explosive encounter that will force him to accept himself as a gay man.

Happy Together

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

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.

Days of Happiness

Emma, a talented conductor and rising star on the Montreal scene, has a complicated relationship with her father and agent Patrick. She has to face up to her emotions and decide whether she wants to successfully combine her career with her love affair with Naëlle, a recently separated cellist and mother of a young son.

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.

I Love You, I Kill You

German movie set in the future where there is a village existing only to maintain a game preserve for the ruling class and whose inhabitants are kept happy by popping pills. Written and directed by Uwe Brandner, the movie operates on many levels of love-hate relationships, but it is primarily a political parable about fascism and freedom. A young teacher comes to a remote village , which rich gentlemen have chosen as their hunting ground. The residents are happy and nice to each other. Any dissatisfaction that arises is wiped away with freely available drugs or with the clubs of the village police. A gamekeeper who makes sure that the high lords' hunting parties are not endangered becomes the new teacher in the village's first friend. They fall in love, and the gamekeepers gift of love is a gun, which will eventually break their relationship as a confrontation ensues as the teacher starts poaching with his new gun.

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

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!

She Hate Me

Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.

Like It Is

A young, bare-knuckle boxer Craig moves from Blackpool to London, where he falls for a twenty-something music producer, Matt. Trouble ensues when shy, awkward Craig tries squeezing into Matt's glib lifestyle and Matt's scheming boss tries to break up the couple.

Big Eden

Henry Hart is a young gay artist living in New York City. When his grandfather has a stroke, Henry puts his career on hold and returns home to the small town of Big Eden, Montana, to care for him. While there, Henry hopes to strike up a romance with Dean Stewart, his high-school best friend for whom he still has feelings. But he's surprised when he finds that Pike, a quiet Native American who owns the local general store, may have a crush on him.

The End of the Rainbow

Uwe Friessner’s first feature, At the End of the Rainbow, follows the exploits of a West Berlin teenager named Jimmi who ekes out a living through petty theft and part-time hustling, hangs out in punk clubs, and who, for reasons which this film subtly details, is thoroughly unemployable. Drawing on his own experience in trying to help a young runaway who eventually committed suicide, Friessner wrote into Jimmi’s story several older students who attempt to find work for him, and who give him shelter for a time in their commune.

Inocentes

A voyeuristic journey through the homoerotic work of Alair Gomes.

Follow Me

Jasper (20), on the edge of adulthood , wanders around lost in the Port of Ghent. Fragments of a phone call betray a loss.

Swinging Blossom

Elderly Gu Si Jun, haunted by memories of a lost love, meets designer Ma Ming Jin—who looks just like the boy from his past—rekindling feelings he thought long buried.

A Blast

Running away on the highway, Maria is alone in her roaring SUV. Behind her, fire and a case full of money. In front of her, the hopeless vastness of the motorway. Only a day before she was a caring mother, a loving wife, a responsible daughter. Today she has gone rogue.

The Boy Who Couldn't Swim

Two teen boys meet each other in Copenhagen and team up to find one of the boys' mother. Instead they end up finding themselves - and each other.

Fivesixths

Truth, Dare or Lemon is a game played by stupid boarding school kids who don't know what to do with themselves. Before Tim died he was the number one of a close-knit boarding school gang. When the friends engage in a ritual one year after his death a familiar game turns into a sadistic night...

The Apple Tree

When Gabe and Jonathan fall in love in the 1940s, they decide to spend their life together in secret. But when Jonathan unexpectedly passes away years later, Gabe is faced with the fact that many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender elders face when they move into retirement homes...he must return into the closet.

Nobody Knows But Me

An Zi Yan and Mai Ding's love is tested when their family and friends complicate their relationship.

Argentina, Forgive Me

An intricate exploration of football, international rivalry, personal disappointments and the enduring power of friendship that transcends national boundaries.

Whore

This melodrama investigates the life of a sex worker, in a pseudo-documentary style.

The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy

A close-knit group of gay friends share the emotional roller coster of life, relationships, the death of friends, new beginnings, jealousy, fatherhood and professional success. At various stages of life's disarray, these young men share humorous and tragic relationships and always have each other to rely on.

The Outlaw

Newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett is pleased when his old friend Doc Holliday arrives in Lincoln, New Mexico on the stage. Doc is trailing his stolen horse, and it is discovered in the possession of Billy the Kid. In a surprising turnaround, Billy and Doc become friends. This causes the friendship between Doc and Pat to cool. The odd relationship between Doc and Billy grows stranger when Doc hides Billy at his girl Rio's place after Billy is shot.

Far Side of the Moon

After the death of his mother, a man tries to discover a meaning to his life, to the universe and to rebuild a relationship with the only family he has left: his gay brother.

For Dorian

A father fears the sexual awakening of his disabled son, a teenager living with Down syndrome, and struggles with the notion of letting him grow up.

Three Summers

Jørgen lives abroad, but every summer he comes back to Denmark with his wife. He invites, as usual, his neighbours and their teenager son, Thomas, for dinner at his place. Only, this time there is a strange tension in the air between the adults. After dinner, Jørgen and Thomas go to the beach for a walk. They discover that both have secret problems, and the fact they cannot talk about them is creating great stress. As they disclose their secrets to each other, a friendship starts. But through the course of the next two summers their relationship develops in a way they would never have expected.

The Latin Boys: Volume 1

From Mennonite musings on the Amazonian pampas to wild Havana nights and bittersweet Rio love songs, if a roller-coaster of same sex desire is what you seek, The Latin Boys will take you there. The 6 short films are: Unicorn [Unicornio] (2014); The Good Friend [El amigo] (2017); Mila Caos (2011); Pray for Us [Ruega por nosotros] (2019); Carlito Leaves Forever [Carlito se va para siempre] (2018); I Am Yet to Make You a Love Song [Ainda Não Lhe Fiz Uma Canção de Amor] (2015).

Fair Play

Marie and Steven appear to be a happy couple, but Steven's secret relationship with another man begins to threaten his idyllic home life.

My Sorry Life

TV producer Kei and her recently retired comedian boyfriend Yoshi are working to conceive their first child as they consider marriage approaching mid-thirties—a process complicated by the fact that Kei has continued taking contraceptives. Annoyed by Yoshi relaxing into domestic life and slacking off at his part-time job, Kei has finally worked around her male colleagues’ obstruction to spearhead an innovative web series guest hosted by rotating everyday people. She invites Shiori, a young trans man working for her office’s delivery service and moonlighting as a bartender at an LGBTQ-inclusive space, to kick off the program. However, as Kei pushes forward, she reaches a breaking point.

An Angel Named Billy

Mark Anderson, a recent stroke victim who is frail and weak. Also, his best friend Thomas, a classic over the hill drag queen desperate for love and happiness. Mark and Thomas have a master plan, to find Mark's son, James Anderson the love of his life once and for all.

Antonio's Secret

The story about a teenage boy, Antonio, whose emerging gay sexuality alienates him from his friends and family, until his libertine uncle, Jonbert, comes to live with him and his mother.

The Symphony of Silence

17 year-old writer Zach struggles to survive in the 'dog eat dog' world of high school where he is tormented by bullies. There is no chance of finding comfort at home as one of the bullies happens to be his 18 year-old brother, Sean. In order to escape his bullies at school, he resorts to hiding in the restroom during his lunch breaks.

Face 2 Face

Over a series of video chats, a teenage outcast reaches out to his childhood friend, but finds that behind the veneer of popularity and a seemingly perfect life, she hides a disturbing secret.

Blackbird

Seventeen-year-old Randy tries very hard to be a good person. Since his father left, Randy takes care of his emotionally disturbed mother, and he's the kind of friend all of his classmates can depend on. As strong as he seems on the outside, Randy is hiding a secret inner struggle and denial of his true self. It's not until he opens himself up to love that he discovers that becoming a man means accepting who you really are.

You Alone

In their spare time, after their studies or their work, children and adolescents between the ages of eight and sixteen meet at the School of Bullfighting in Madrid to learn the Art of Cúchares: Torear. In their stomachs there is no hunger as in the past, their dreams do not lie in having a farmhouse and being famous. Their only dreams are to be in front of a bull, animal with which death goes, fact of which they are fully aware, as their teachers continually remind them. These, retired bullfighters, some by age, others by force and all with their bodies full of scars produced by the horns of a bull. The nude bullfighting scene is fascinating without being exploitive, and it serves as an analogy for the vulnerability these young bullfighters have when in the ring with the bulls.

In Half

After his twin's wake, James spends an afternoon with his brother's ex-boyfriend, learning more about his brother and more about himself.

Harley

Harley tries to deal with his tumultuous emotions after his gay best friend Lucas is horribly beaten in a hate crime. When Lucas is released from the hospital, Harley discovers his feeling have changed.

Feed Your Head

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

What Grown-Ups Know

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

Stories of Our Lives

Created by the members of a Nairobi-based arts collective — who have removed their names from the film for fear of reprisal — this anthology film that dramatizes true-life stories from Kenya’s oppressed LGBTQ community is both a labour of love and a bold act of militancy.

Who We Love

The story of Lily, a girl with a secret, on the cusp of becoming a young woman. With her best friend, the fiercely loyal and flamboyant Simon, she navigates the treacherous waters of school life. When a misunderstanding with the beautiful and popular Violet leads to a vicious attack, Lily is faced with the greatest challenge of her young life.

In the Name of the Father

The short film depicts the life of a boy who is constantly sexually abused by his father. Leonardo Miggiorin brilliantly plays the role of this boy, who belongs to a poor and unstructured family.

Sergeant Garcia

Based on a story by the same name by Caio Fernando Abreu, it tells the encounter of a young man and a sergeant in the 1970s.

Bumping Heads

Craig is an older, average-looking man who isn't handling aging well. Gary is a hot, blond young stud at the center of attention. They literally bump heads one night, and become best friends. But Craig wants to be boyfriends, while Gary has other issues. They work things out (somewhat) during a night in the emergency room.