The Male Gaze: Hide and Seek (2021)

People in the Summer Night

A story set over one night in a small rural community we watch various relationships and actions among local people; these include birth, death, and conflicts fuelled by alcohol. The fates of various characters become interlaced over a long and light-filled summer night in the Finnish countryside. Lumberjacks, a deer-eyed young man Nokia, a family of poor farmers, a young girl and her lover. New life is born, old life dies, man is slain in his prime, and his widow continues her life.

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Bye Bye Victor

Friendship between two old men becomes love. Slightly-unkempt, tired, and frail, Philippe Lanctot moves into a rest home. The administrator says she wants him to be happy, but that seems far from his mind: he's waiting to die. Then, into his room, unannounced, rolls the voluble Victor Laprade, who draws out Philippe over the next few months. Victor gives Philippe the gift of experiencing the moment. In return, the well-heeled Philippe organises field trips to dinner and to a botanical garden, and, unknown to Victor, becomes the man's benefactor when Victor's children get stingy. The openly-gay Victor also pushes Philippe to acknowledge feelings he's always kept suppressed.

Dear to Me

A 27-year-old Indonesian, Tim, is having a family vacation with both of his parents on a remote island far from the city, where they learn about the myth of a reincarnated deer that exists somewhere along the beach. Island locals believe that seeing the deer is a sign of meeting one’s soulmate. Tim is the only one who secretly hoping to discover the deer, hiding his desire from his very devout Christian parents.

In from the Side

Mark, a new and inexperienced rugby club member, finds himself drawn to Warren, a seasoned first team player. When a series of happenstances at an away fixture lead to a drunken encounter, Mark and Warren unwittingly embark on a romantic affair they struggle to hide from their partners and teammates.

Just Charlie

Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.

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.

All About My Mother

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Bad Education

An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.

Brokeback Mountain

In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.

Antonia's Line

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

Irreversible

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

Desert Hearts

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Against the Law

United Kingdom, March 24, 1954. Ten years before the decriminalization of homosexuality, journalist Peter Wildeblood and his friends Lord Montagu and Michael Pitt-Rivers are convicted and imprisoned for indecency and sodomy.

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 meteorological.

Hello Again

Ten lost souls slip in and out of one another's arms in a daisy-chained musical exploration of love's bittersweet embrace. A film adaptation of Michael John LaChiusa's celebrated musical, originally based on Arthur Schnitzler's play, La Ronde.

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.

Pulse

A gay disabled teenage boy changes into the body of a beautiful woman, so that he can be loved.

I Love Hooligans

A football hooligan feels unconditional love for his club. However, being gay, he has to hide his identity in order to survive in this world that is so precious to him.

Hello, Stranger

Arthur is a single dad, struggling with the care for his seven-year-old son Max and the combination of his secret life as a drag queen.

Naked

A message from Javier's boyfriend changes his family situation and causes them to reconsider their relationships.

Skeletons

A heart attack moves a Pulitzer winning journalist to leave NY for the peace of a small New England town, but he soon finds himself pulled into a case of a man accused of killing his gay lover with the blade of a shovel. Wanting to keep the case quiet, the town turns against the journalist and his family when he begins digging into its secrets, until finally the accused man is found hanging in his cell and the truth comes out about more than just the killing.

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.

Maybe... Maybe Not

The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of living with gay men even though they are attracted to him and when his girlfriend wants him back he must make a tough decision.

The Third One

After meeting in a chat room, Fede (22) arrives at a downtown building to have an intimate encounter with a gay couple older than him. As the night unfolds, Fede has an intense and telling experience. The next morning finds him different, as if suddenly he had found a new possible way to love.

Pornomelancholia

Lalo is a sex influencer: he posts photos of his naked body and homemade porn videos for his thousands of social media followers. Lalo directs his own life, but in private, when out of character, he seems to live in constant melancholy.

(Nie)znajomi

A group of seven friends come together for dinner. What starts out as a normal evening, evolves into something else when they decide to play a game and read all text messages aloud and answer all phone calls on speakerphone...

Green Light

A male escort has an odd encounter with a mysterious John that he picks up.

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 Last Romantics

Two young men share different points of view of the same sexual encounter in a public space.

Félix and the Fish

Félix finds a young man lying unconscious on the beach and realizes he has scales on his back. Félix takes him home and takes care of him.

8 Years

How to overcome true love? Jose considers David the man of his life, but when he suddenly breaks up with him after 8 years together, Jose is haunted by memories of their past relationship, which bring home to him that their life together wasn't as ideal as he once thought.

No More We

Boyfriends Hampus and Adrian are in a destructive relationship. When Hampus finally works up the nerve to call it quits, he finds himself relieved. Adrian, however, is not quite ready to say goodbye. Examining the final week of a gay love affair, award-winning short film director David Färdmar begins with the end.

Faces

Ryan meets Nathan and they fall in love over the course of their first date. It's only later, as their relationship progresses, that Ryan starts to wonder: is my boyfriend who I thought he was? Am I who I thought I was? They experience joy and pain together, trying to overcome the painful fear of whether or not you can truly know another person.

Louder Than Words

A young musician named Ansel has an unexpected encounter with Niall, an endearing, deaf dancer.

Just Me

Scott gets a visit from Connor which brings his past back to haunt him, but will it change his future?

Beyond Plain Sight

Ryan is a popular member of his community. He’s charming, helping and a social butterfly but Ryan has a secret.

Like Father

A Jewish New Yorker is bedridden patriarch dying of lung cancer, confesses for the first time to son that he was always attracted to men. Despite his long-lasting marriage and faithfulness to wife.

Neon Skin

Two young men - one sighted, one blind - see the world and their bodies in different ways. Unexpectedly, they find a connection beyond the visual in the collision of taste, touch and sound. The connection is sensual, and within it they each find something new.

Glamour Dolls

This is the story of two male prostitutes who want to become professional actors and how they struggle to get into show business.

Hey You

When two men arrange a hook-up, is who's top or bottom all they should be worried about? Hey You exposes how, with the convenience of social media and dating apps, our hard-fought rights and freedoms can be taken for granted and how, for many others, that fight isn't over.

All Good Things

Road trips usually signify a beginning but for Isaac and his partner Levi, this is their last chance to spend time together before they part ways. As they drive closer to their destination, Isaac finds that maybe he isn't as prepared for his first breakup as he had thought.

Dominant Chord

Country music star Adam has to choose between damaging his career by coming out in the closed-minded world of country music or losing his long-time partner Brian.

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.

Bully

A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Kent, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.

Along Came Wanda

A memory jogged by a teapot from an old lover quickly turns into an adventure of discovery for Mary Beth Higgins and her new found friend Wanda as they hit the road in Wanda's RV/Soup Truck.

Darker Than Midnight

Davide is different from the other teenagers. Something makes him look like a girl. Davide is fourteen when he runs away from home. His intuition leads him to choose Villa Bellini, a park in Catania, as a refuge. The park is a world in itself, a world of the marginalized, to which the rest of the city turns a blind eye. But one day the past catches up and Davide has to face the most difficult choice, this time alone.

Alfa

Alfa, a famous porn actor, must deal with his fears, insecurities and memories when he begins work on a new film without Yerry, his former partner in life and porn. On his first day of shooting without him, Alfa tries to act as in the past but can things be like before? Javier Ferreiro's short film reflects on the difficult decision of letting someone go to move forward. ALFA is framed in the context of gay porn cinema in Cuba where pornography is banned but, little by little, it's growing up an underground industry impulsed by foreign tourism.

The Pollen of Flowers

Se-ran, the mistress of Hyeon-ma, lives in a massive traditional-style house called "Blue Mansion"in the suburbs of Seoul with her sister Mi-ran and their maid. One day, Hyeon-ma comes to the house with his newly-employed handsome male secretary/secret lover Dan-ju.

My Beautiful Laundrette

A Pakistani Briton renovates a rundown laundrette with his male lover while dealing with drama within his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.

The World According to Garp

A struggling young writer finds his life and work dominated by his unfaithful wife and his radical feminist mother, whose best-selling manifesto turns her into a cultural icon.

Satyricon

After his young lover, Gitone, leaves him for another man, Encolpio decides to kill himself, but a sudden earthquake destroys his home before he has a chance to do so. Now wandering around Rome in the time of Nero, Encolpio encounters one bizarre and surreal scene after another.

Peeping Tom

Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.

Mysterious Skin

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Kinsey

Kinsey is a portrait of researcher Alfred Kinsey, driven to uncover the most private secrets of a nation. What begins for Kinsey as a scientific endeavor soon takes on an intensely personal relevance, ultimately becoming an unexpected journey into the mystery of human behavior.

Chicken

Mick and Kev, teen Irish lads, are at the shore, throwing rocks at empty cans, drinking cider. Mick's the pushy one, engaging Kev in a game of mumbly peg, his hand on top of Kev's, fingers splayed. As Mick moves the knife between their fingers, a train is heard approaching. What's Mick's purpose?

The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet

Take a trip on the wild side with these six daring short films from Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, Spain and France that uncover the power of nature and mysticism, family ties that bond yet suffocate, the vagaries of same sex attraction, the pain of memory, the thrill of what's to come. The 6 short films are: Memory of An Afternoon On the Roof [Recuerdo de una tarde en la azotea] (2022); Afternoon Sun [À Tarde, Sob o Sol] (2020); Sweet Water [Água Doce] (2023); Cor Petit (2023); Haiku (2022); The Boy Who Wanted to Fly [El niño que quería volar] (2018).

It Is in Us All

A Londoner returns to his ancestral homeland of Donegal in the west of Ireland and is drawn in by a teenage boy who almost kills him in a car crash.

Uncle Frank

In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover Walid.

Heat

Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.