Director: Hao Zhou
Script: Hao Zhou
Producer: Hao Zhou, Bella Tarr, Tyler Hill
With: Yasan Zhang, Wenbo Liu
China, 10 minutes, 2022, Chinese with English subtitles
Festivals:
LesGaiCineMad Madrid LGBTI Film Festival 2023
Beijing Queer Film Festival 2023
Wicked Queer- Boston Film Festival 2023
Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival, Calgary 2023
A sham-married queer woman and queer man live together but have entirely separate lives. Yet, their schedules are linked by a propagandistic program that nudges them toward a single goal.
Director: Julieta Tetelbaum
Script: Julieta Tetelbaum
Producer: Genderless Films
With: Cindy Keiter, Luciana Graso
Argentina, 11 minutes, 2023, English with Hebrew subtitles
The film is a journey through the mind of a 65-year-old working-class lesbian who’s addicted to sugar and can’t stop thinking about her ex-girlfriend from youth. She lives with her partner – a mannequin that she’s built to look exactly like her ex. The tragicomic piece delves deep into moments of intimacy, loneliness, sexuality, joy and the desperate longing to be loved.
Director: Jérôme Clément-Wilz
Producer: François-Pierre Clavel
France, 34 minutes, 2022, French with English subtitles
In a house lost in the middle of the woods, on the edge of a lake, a group invents an ephemeral Eden. Between simple life moments and cathartic rites, they grow together, doing rituals.
Director: Minki Hong
Script: Minki Hong
Producer: Todd A Henry
With: Six anonymous gay men
South Korea, 30 minutes, 2023, Korean with English subtitles
Festivals:
Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBT Film Festival 2023
Korea Queer Film Festival 2023
Jeonju International Film Festival, Jeonju, 2023
San Diego Asian Film Festival
“Paradise” revisits South Korea’s era of authoritarian development (1970s-1980s) through the lens of queer livelihood. Despite the harsh realities of successive dictatorships, compulsory military service, and expectations of marriage and children, six elderly gay men reveal how they converted second-run theaters and nearby bars into popular sites of erotic liberation, same-sex friendships, and romantic encounters. Using rare footage of Seoul’s only extant second-run movie house, visual archives, and historical animation, “Paradise” documents South Korea’s vibrant gay underground before the solidification of democracy and the introduction of the internet in the 1990s. Along the way, it follows the pain and joy of queer citizens, whose stories appear for the first time in this empowering film of self-discovery and community building
Director: Amina Maher
Script: Amina Maher
Producer: Amina Maher
With: Amina Maher, Paolo Lagana
Iran, 11 minutes, 2022, English with Hebrew subtitles
Festivals & Awards:
Chéries-Chéris LGBTQI Film Festival, Paris 2022 – Winner of best Queer Short Award
Reykjavik Feminist Film Festival 2023
Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2023
In the process of honest self-exploration, two friends share the most personal moments and break the silence, seeking to confront unspoken desires.
Every February 2nd, the day of Candlemas, the LGBT community of Naples and nearby cities makes a pilgrimage to the Montevergine Abbey, to pay their respects to the Virgin Mary, locally called Mamma Schiavona (The Slave Mother). In the chapel where her icon resides, the femminielli, neither male nor female, are led by the songs of the performer and shaman, Marcello Colasurdo.
Hebrew with English translation , 20 minutes , 2023 ,Israel
Two men, brought together virtually, grapple with the challenges of forging a deeper connection within the confines of an implausible, predetermined reality.
Director: Gal Primack Najari
Screenwriter: Gal Primack Najari
Producer: Gal Primack Najari
Cast: Ran Duani, Itzik Mahluf
Director: Lisa “Dash” Donato
Script: Jennifer “JP” Parkhill, Damian Joseph Quinn
Production: Tani Page Shukla
With: Jennifer “JP” Parkhill, Damian Joseph Quinn
USA, 14 minutes, 2023, English with English subtitles
Grayson and Alice spend a final weekend together to dismantle their domestic life as Grayson embarks on a journey of gender expansion.
Director: Juan Yactayo Sono
Script: Juan Yactayo Sono
Production: Juan Yactayo Sono
With: Lesly Quispe
Peru, 20 minutes, 2023, Spanish with English subtitles
Festivals:
Lima Film Festival 2023
After being attacked by the police, Katya, a trans sex worker, is offered the opportunity to denounce the violence she suffers on a TV report. She decides not to, despite her desire to bring about a change, to keep her mother from finding out about her real occupation. However, the sudden death of her best friend at the hands of the same police officers changes her decision and she denounces the attacks, completely changing her relationship with her mother.
Director: Pietro Porporati
Script: Maria Porporati
Production: Francesca Zenza, Daniele Vicari, Andrea Porporati
With: Paola Buratto, Anita Caprioli
Italy, 12 minutes, 2023, Italian with English subtitles
Francesco, trapped inside a blossoming female body, harbours a secret he only shares with his mother.
