Christophe Honoré’s (“Dans Paris”, “Love Songs”, “Man at Bath”) new film is an autobiography, and for the first time brings the director’s story to the big screen.
“Winter Boy” comes to the TLVFest after its international debut at Toronto Film Festival and following the win for Best Actor for the rising star Paul Kircher in the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Lucas (Paul Kircher) is going to a boarding school, far from the small town where his parents live, and has a boyfriend, a fellow student. Lucas has endless joie de vivre and he can’t wait to graduate and join Quentin (Vincent Lacoste), his older brother, in Paris. A sudden tragedy turns Luca’s world upside down and everything he took for granted is suddenly taken from him. Lucas is filled with sadness and despair, lost in his own pain. His mother Isabelle (Juliette Binoche in a very moving role) doesn’t really know how to help her young son. Lucas joins his older brother in Paris, but Quentin is not emotionally available to support his young sibling, and so 17 years old Lucas has to find his own path, looking for solace in the cold wintery Paris, through dating apps and problematic sexual encounters.
Paul Kircher is perfect as Lucas, a blunt young man who cannot express, contain or release the enormous pain he’s carrying. His scenes with Juliette Binoche create intense and heartfelt complexity.
“Winter boy” gives us an intimate glimpse into the world of a teenager on the cusp of adulthood and the journey of that boy to try and find his way back to hope.
Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque
Born in Israel, raised in Manhattan, and living in Los Angeles, Orly Ravid is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Film Collaborative (TFC) and the Associate Dean of the Biederman Entertainment & Media Law Institute at Southwestern Law School.
She was an Of Counsel entertainment attorney at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP (MSK), and Senior Counsel at Tubi and now has her own firm Creative Arts Legal.
Orly has over 20 years of experience in independent film as an acquisitions and business affairs executive, and she started doing and publicly speaking about VOD distribution and splitting rights in the early 2000s. Orly launched TFC’s Digital Distribution Guide and other distribution related educational resources as part of Distripedia which the organization offers for free.
The Gesher Multicultural Film Fund (GMFF) believes in the power of film to bring about change. By bringing stories to the screen we strive to illuminate unfamiliar cultures, remember forgotten communities and stimulate respectful cultural and social dialogue about identity, values, and getting to know the Other.
Based on the experiences of director/screenwriter Henrika Kull, one of the more interesting queer filmmakers in Germany today (her film “Bliss” was screened at the TLVfest 2021). This time her movie is set in Israel.
In “Salty Water” Kull describes the sexual tension between Anna, a young woman visiting Israel from Germany and Nuri, an Israeli man that she had just met through a mutual friend. For the last decade, until she met Nuri, Anna’s partner had been a woman. Feelings begin to emerge between the two as they decide to take refuge in Nuri’s parents’ deserted house in the mountains between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, in the middle of a military operation, when missiles are being launched at Tel-Aviv by the Hamas. The young couple spends two intense days by the pool protected by the ‘Iron Dome’, two days where feelings and secrets will be revealed.
Director Goran Stolevski (“You Won’t Be Alone”) had won a Special Mention award at the 2018 TLVFest for his wonderful short film “Would You Look at Her”. This time he brings us a moving, universal and different piece on motherhood and family.
Dita (Anamaria Marinca, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”) never wanted to be a mother, but life forces her to raise her partner’s daughters – Mia, the youngest, is a trouble magnet and Vanessa is a rebellious teenager. In order to keep custody of the girls Dita must marry her gay roommate and get help from his young Roma boyfriend who found refuge in this unstable house. Now all those very different people will have to learn how to be a family together.
The film was shot in Cinéma vérité style and watching it feels very realistic, with an intense and dense atmosphere that tells the story just as much as the plot.
Macedonian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards
Despite its name that suggests a relaxed and quaint piece, “Birder” is the perfect late night erotic thriller.
Kristian Brooks invades a queer nudist camp on the shores of a remote New Hampshire lake. While not wearing much, he makes friends with the locals, and his flirting disturbs the commune’s dynamics. When he seduces the naked men around him, they’re about to experience a lot more than they imagined.
“Birder” explores the behavior of a serial killer and takes his audience on an unexpected journey. Director Nate Dushku provides a queer piece that celebrates diversity of nudity and tests the limits.
Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content, nudity and violence.
After the screening, Q&A with the director Nate Dushku and the screenwriter Amnon Lourie.
A particularly rowdy comedy produced by Will Farrell.
Summer starts and the best young talents from all over the USA gather for a summer camp in upstate New York, a camp that is entirely dedicated to theater. The kids that have their soul deeply embedded in musicals and dream of a career in the limelight aren’t aware that the camp is bankrupt. Camp’s legendary founder (Amy Sedaris) is in a coma in hospital and the running of the camp falls to her irresponsible son. Together with the children come the regular eccentric guides – a bunch of not very successful actors who are supposed to train kids that are much more talented than they are. The goal, as every year, is to create an original musical for the end of camp.
This is the first full length feature for actress Molly Gordon (“Shiva Baby”) and Nick Lieberman, and it celebrates the world of theater in a very authentic way. The kids and guides are in love with the magic of theater but need to find their own confidence from time to time.
A winning comedic ensemble, limitless creativity, crazy characters and plenty of wild and absurd situations will leave the audience crying with laughter – this is one summer camp you do not want to miss!
Following the disappearance of her sister, Jax – a woman with Native-American roots, kidnaps her niece from her white grandfather’s house, and together they embark on a journey to reach a traditional Native American dance ceremony where Jax’s missing sister used to dance.
The leading role is portrayed by Lily Goldstone, who is starring with Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s new film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. In “Fancy Dance” she plays a queer woman investigating the disappearance of her older sister while trying to convince the authorities to let her raise her niece according to their Native American culture rather than hand over the child to her estranged white father.
Erica Tremblay’s moving film incorporates several complex issues and manages to bring them to the silver screen in a very respectful and inspiring manner. She weaves into the family drama topics like queer identity, ethnic identity, women’s friendship and the fight for Native Americans rights in the U.S.A. This film also raises awareness of a very disturbing phenomenon – the disappearance of Native American women in the reservations.
Director: Jorge Cadena
Script: Jorge Cadena, Li Aparicio Candama
Producer: Yan Decoppet, Gabriela Bussmann
With: Eudes Rosado, Leon David Salazar, Rubén Barrios
Switzerland, 2022, 15 min, Spanish with English subtitles
Festivals:
SXSW Film Festival 2023 – Special Jury Award Narrative Short
Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2023
Locarno Film Festival 2023
In the north of Colombia, a group of queer activists use extravagant performative actions to denounce the disastrous exploitation by the country’s largest coal mine.
