DAY ONE
TEN MORE GOOD YEARS
Documentary, USA 2008, 71 mins
Director : Michael Jacoby
“Ten More Good Years” introduces remarkable LGBT Elders who share inspiring stories of their lives and Queer History. It is through these stories that the governmental and social injustices quietly reveal themselves, shedding light on what it is now, and what it will be to grow old and Gay in America. “Ten more good years” also investigates the process and outcome of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA); an event scheduled every ten years to guide national policies on aging.
JUST
Short Film, USA, 12 mins
Director : David Maurice Gil
Starring : Keo Woolford, Edward Gunawan
The 9th PlanetOut Short Movie Award Top 5 Films winner, Just is what happens after the hook-up, as two strangers who met online attempt to get to know each other, only to find that a casual hook-up is anything but…
BELGRADE PRIDE
Documentary, Serbia & Montenegro 2003, 20mins
A touching and intimate introduction to LGBT movement in Belgrade, this film bears witness to the violence faced in organizing the first pride parade in Serbia.
In June 2001 Belgrade lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and trans people organized a Pride event in celebration of the new era of democracy and tolerance that was believed to have come to Serbia.
They were met however with extreme fascist violence when skinheads attacked and beat queer marchers on the street. A touching and intimate introduction to the LGBT movement in Belgrade, Belgrade Pride bears witness to the violence faced in organising the first pride parade in post-war Serbia.
THICK LIPS THIN LIPS
Documentary, Canada 1994, 6 mins
Director : Paul Lee, Language : English
Cast : Takao Kawaguchi, Courtnay McFarlane
Through the meeting of lips, THICK LIPS THIN LIPS explores the parallels between racist and homophobic violence.
Student Jury Award at Czech Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2004
Honorable Mention at University of Oregon Queer Film Festival, United States, 1996
Director’s Citation at Black Maria Filmfestival, United States, 1994
Honorable Mention at Humboldt Film Festival, United States, 1994
Third Prize at Cabbagetown Short Film & Video Festival, Canada, 1994
Silver Award – Experimental at Hong Kong Independent Short Film Awards, Hong Kong, 1994
OUR FAMILY
Documentary, India 2007, 56 mins
Director : K P Jayshankar & Anjali Monteiro , Language : Tamil with English subtitles
What does it mean to cross that line that sharply divides us on the basis of gender? To free oneself of the socially-constructed onus of being male? Is there life beyond a hetero-normative family?
Set in Tamil Nadu, Our Family brings together excerpts from Nirvanam, a one-person performance by Pritham Chakravarthy. It fuses them with scenes from the life of three generations of trans-gendered female subjects and redefines ideas of what constitutes a family.
REMEMBER THE EYES
Short Film, USA 2005, 15 mins
Director – Nathalie Camidebach
Remember the eyes is the story of two women, Kindra and Camille, who trust a smile. One is a martial artist, full of life. The other is a woman struggling to accept herself. Aware of their differences, each looks beyond the assumption and fear of rejection.
PRIVATE LIFE
Short Film, UK 2006, 16 mins
Director : Abbe Robinson Language : English
The early 1950s in the UK. Homosexuality is illegal. How do a factory clerk and her girlfriend cope?
THE BOND
Short Documentary, USA 2006, 6 mins
Director : Michael T Connell Language : English
The father of a transsexual child shares his family’s story of what it was like when his child came out, how their relationship has changed and how their bond continues to get stronger.
LAUNDROMAT
Short Film, USA 2008, 13 mins
Director : Edward Gunawan
Starring : Keo Woolford, Prince Gomolvilas + Jack Ong
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Short at the 18th Reel Pride: Fresno LGBT Film Festival and selections in over 20 international film festivals, Laundromat marks Edward Gunawan’s official directorial debut!. Set in a neighborhood laundromat, Laundromat is a Romantic drama-edy that follows a young gay couple, who after a chance encounter with an older man, realizes that the little things mean nothing and everything when it comes to love.
MALA NOCHE
Feature Film, USA 1985, 78 mins
Director : Gus Van Sant
Mala Noche (also known as Bad Night) is a 1985 American drama film written and directed by the Gus Van Sant, based on an autobiographical novel by the Oregon poet Walt Curtis.
The first feature from acclaimed director Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Last Days, Milk), Mala Noche is a hauntingly beautiful black-and-white meditation on lust, love, obsession, and class. Stuck behind the cash register of a convenience store in Portland’s skid row, young Walt (Tim Streeter) becomes infatuated with Johnny (Doug Cooeyate), a Mexican teenager and illegal immigrant who is willing to reciprocate Walt’s attentions – to a point. Although Walt subsequently turns to Johnny’s friend Pepper (Ray Monge), he is unable to shake his fixation, and finds his crush becoming an all-consuming amour fou.
1987 – Best independent/experimental Film – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
1988 – Won Festival’s Plate – Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Courtesy : Palador Movies
MIDDLE SEX
Documentary, UK 2005, 76 mins
Middle Sex is a provocative and deeply moving study of human sexuality by award-winning filmmaker Antony Thomas. At the heart of Thomas’s programme are the powerful personal testimonies of people of all ages who have suffered because they are ‘different’. As their stories unfold, a radically new view of human sexuality begins to emerge. The documentary features interviews with some of the world’s leading experts in the field and examines what their latest research reveals about the key influences that shape sexual identity and orientation. The conclusions are startling.
IT’S STILL ELEMENTARY
Talking about Gay Issues in school
Documentary, USA 2007, 48 mins
Director : Debra Chasnoff, Language : English
In 1996 a groundbreaking film called ‘It’s elementary’: Talking about gay issues in school’ was released in the USA. It’s Still Elementary is the story of its predecessor, the response it provoked from the conservative right and the questions it raised about the national safe schools movement.
SHE’S A BOY I KNEW
Documentary, Canada 2007, 70 mins
Using archival family footage, interviews, phone messages and hand-drawn animation, She’s a boy i knew begins in 2000 with Steven Hwaorth’s decision to come out to his family about his life-long female gender identity. It is an emotionally charged account of the individual experiences, struggles and stakes that her two sisters, mother, father, best friend and wife brought to Gwen’s transition.
BEAR CUB (CACHORRO)
Feature Film, Spain 2004, 97 mins
Director : Miguel Albaladejo
Meet Pedro (José Luis García-Pérez) a handsome gay dentist who is unabashedly and fondly known as a “bear” – a gay male who is big and hairy. His free-spirited sister decides to take a vacation in India with her shady boyfriend leaving her 9-year-old son, Bernardo (David Castillo), in his care. When mom is unexpectedly detained in India, Pedro is faced with the possibility of raising Bernardo as his own. And to further complicate matters, Dona Teresa (Empar Ferrer), previously exiled from all of our beloved characters’ lives, wants custody of the young boy and will do anything to achieve her goals.
The film is an amusingly touching film about reinterpreting the idea of “family” whether you are gay, straight, bear or non-bear.
2004 Won Golden Zenith –Best Film from Europe – Montreal World Film Festival
2004 Beat Feature – Dallas Out Takes
2005 Nominated for Outstanding Film – GLAAD Media Awards
2005 Best Film – Czech Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
A RING OF THEIR OWN
Documentary, USA 2008 , 49 mins
Director : Michael Penland
A Ring of Their Own features Anne-Marie Saccurato and Angel Bovee, professional female boxers and out and proud lesbians. After a serious car accident at age 18, Saccurato customized a rehabilitation program to rebuild her shattered body. Along the way, she discovered the two loves of her life: boxing and Bovee, a former US Boxing Champion. With Bovee in her corner, Saccurato prepares for the most important fight of her career. Lovers and business partners, the pugilist duo rank among the best professional female boxers in the world. “Out lesbians tend to be on the cutting edge of things,” says Bovee. “We’re used to shaking it up in society, and this is just our way of doing it.”
DAY TWO
ABOUT ELSEWHERE
INDIA 2007, 30 mins
Director : Priya Sen
Language : English, Hindi & Bengali
About Elsewhere seeks to foreground the impossibility of fixing notions of sexuality through ideas of ‘identity’ and ‘language’. As the film moves through various worlds the filmmaker has inhabited, it uses the metaphor of a ‘shell’ as a place of repose and withdrawal from which it is possible to emerge.
THE BATH
Short Film, INDIA 2008, 15 mins
Director : Sachin Kundalkar, Language : English
The film is about a male prostitute who starts his day when the rest of Mumbai is getting ready to sleep. A job where he’s constantly pushed around and when the deed is done, thrown out of the house with some money thrown in at his face. But one particular night, he gets picked up by a client (played by Rajit Kapoor of ‘Sooraj ka satwan ghoda’ fame) and encounters an unusual experience.
SUM TOTAL
INDIA 2000, 5 mins
Director : Sonali Gulati
What does an Indian Lesbian do when her family pressures her to get married? What does her matrimonial advertisement look like? Sum Total answers these questions through a short poetic film that addresses issues of identity, self-representation and hetero-normativity.
DANGEROUS LIVING : Coming out in the Developing World
Documentary, USA 2003 , 55 mins
Director : John Scagliotti
This documentary shares personal stories of love and courage from a half-dozen gays and lesbians struggling against religious beliefs and police repression in countries like Egypt, India, Thailand, Namibia and Honduras. At the centre of these frequently heart-breaking testimonies, Scagliotti recounts the 2001 trial in Egypt of 52 men arrested at a gay night club for ‘debauchery’ and ‘contempt of religion’. Dubbed the ‘Cairo 52’ , their case became an international cause celebre that brought attention to growing anti-gay sentiment in the middle east and Asia.
LOT’S WIFE
Short Film, Turkey 2008, 9 mins
Director : Koray Durak & Harjant Gill
Lot’s Wife is a modern day tale of Sodom and Gomorrah set in a rundown shantytown located on the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey …On one hot summer day, Mehmet’s three uncles and aunt barge into his and his lover Ali’s apartment, threatening to destroy everything he hopes for and had created with Ali. Set against a backdrop of a football match, Lot’s Wife is commentary on nationalist and religious fundamentalism.
PARAGRAPH 175
Documentary, USA 2000, 81 mins
A Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Film
Narrated by Rupert Everett
The Nazi persecution of homosexuals may be the last untold story of the Third Reich. Directed by Oscar winners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Paragraph 175 fills a crucial gap in the historical period and reveals the lasting consequences of this hidden chapter of 20th century.
This epic story is told through personal accounts of men and women who lived through it; the Jewish gay resistance fighter who posed as a Hitler Youth member to rescue his lover from a Gestapo transfer camp, the Jewish lesbian who escaped to England with the help of an older woman she had a crush on; the photographer and loyal German citizen who was arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality, then joined the army on his release because he “wanted to be with men”. These are stories of survivors – sometimes bitter, but just as often filled with irony and humour; tortured by their memories, yet infused with a powerful will to endure.
HAPPY TOGETHER
Feature Film, Hong Kong 1997, 96 mins
Director : Wong Kar Wai
Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Something is wrong and their relationship goes adrift. A disillusioned Yiu-Fai starts working at a tango bar to save up for his trip home. When a beaten and bruised Po-Wing reappears, Yiu-Fai is empathetic but is unable to enter a more intimate relationship. After all, Po-Wing is not ready to settle down. Yiu-Fai now works in a Chinese restaurant and meets the youthful Chang from Taiwan. Yiu-Fai’s life takes on a new spin, while Po-Wing’s life shatters continually in contrast.
1997 — Best Director, Wong Kar Wai – Cannes Film Festival
1997 – Nominee, Golden Palm – Cannes Film Festival
1997 – Golden Horse Award, Best Cinematography – Golden Horse Film Festival
1997 – Nominee, Golden Horse Award , Best Actor (Leslie Cheung) – Golden Horse Film Festival
1997 – Nominee, Golden Horse Award , Best Director (Wong Kar Wai) – Golden Horse Film Festival
1997 – Best Actor (Leslie Cheung & Tony Leung Chiu Wai) – Hong Kong Film Awards
1998 – Audience award for most popular foreign film – Arizona International Film Festival
Courtesy : Palador Movies
SENZA FINE (NO END)
Feature Film, ITALY 2008, 75 mins
Director : Roberto Cuzillo, Language : Italian with English subtitles
Long-term and loving partners, Giulia (Cristina Serafini) and Chiara (Irene Ivaldi) are preparing to have a child. Given that Italian law restricts access to artificial insemination to heterosexual couples, Chiara and Giulia must undergo the procedure in Holland. Chiara, however, discovers an ominous lump in her breast – but resists confiding in Giulia, fearful that her illness may tarnish their candidacy for the artificial insemination programme. As Chiara risks destabilising their relationship, Giulia braces herself for a confrontation with her mother about her prejudices concerning same-sex families and parenting. Supported by Cuzzillo’s adroit use of silence and sound, No End is a brilliant tale about the never-ending challenges that life throws our way.
BREAKFAST WITH SCOT
Feature Film, USA 2007, 109 mins
Director : Laurie Lynd. Language : English
Starring – Cameron Ansell, Benz Antoine, Noah Bernett, Thomas Cavanagh, Dylan Everett
Eric and Sam have been in a committed relationship for four years. Eric’s a former hockey player turned sportscaster and Sam’s a sport’s lawyer. But when Sam’s adventure seeking brother Billy, takes a job in South America, his ex-girlfriend, Julie, is discovered dead from a drug overdose leaving her son Scot (not Billy’s son) to Billy. But Billy is missing in action so Sam is left to pick up the pieces. But the problem is Eric never wanted kids. When 11-year-old Scot arrives and they open his duffel bag, inside they find… one pink musical hairbrush, two plastic containers of beads and faux-gold chains, a pink poodle belt, and four pairs of white sock-ettes with lacy fringe at the top… they realize Scot is more out of the closet then they are even though he does not know it yet. A unique boy in an even more unusual situation, Scot throws Eric and Sam’s life into complete disarray. When Billy finally show’s up to take Scot back to South America – Eric and Sam can’t bear the thought of losing Scot.
SHELTER
Feature Film, USA 2007, 88 mins
Director : Jonah Markowitz, Language : English
Starring – Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe, Tina Holmes, Katie Walder, Ross Thomas
Zach has been pushed into manhood faster than he would have liked. His mother is no longer around and Zach finds himself at the centre, trying to hold the family together. He takes on the responsibility of Cody, his nephew, since his sister is busy trying to keep the guys in her life from leaving. His on again, off again relationship with his best-friend Tori plays in the background as Shaun comes into his life, making him give in to latent desires. As tumultuous as he finds his life becoming, it’s in letting nature take it’s course that Zach finds a way forward.
OUT IN INDIA
Documentary, USA 2008, 81 mins
What would you do if you were a couple with two young children, and one of you received a grant to spend a year in India on a project that could potentially save millions of lives? Would it matter if you were a gay couple with adopted children? Would it matter if many saw the project as marginal and flakey, because you were bringing together painters, puppeteers and artists of every stripe to stop the deathly march of AIDS through a developing country?
If you are David Gere and Peter Carley, you leave behind your jobs, home and friends. You pack up your children and fly 36 hours across the globe, where for the next year you attempt to retain your sanity while pursuing a noble dream.
Out in India is their story: a documentary film about the transforming power of love, and the universal power of the arts. It is directed by award-winning filmmaker Tom Keegan, who worked intimately with the participants in the U.S. and India for over a year.