This three-part film explores homosexuality in communist China.
Social & External
Unknown Role
Four gay men and a straight woman who barely know each other find themselves in an apartment in the sky above Paris. They have all been the victim of the same domineering pervert who is locked in a room. That night, they decided to finish it. In turn, they tell each other memories that bind them to this man and enter the room to confront him. But what happens between the monster and them remains their secret.
A young teacher in Zurich in the 1950s falls in love with a transvestite star but is torn between his bourgeois existence and his commitment to homosexuality. He joins a gay organization that is eventually seen as the pioneer of gay emancipation in Europe.
When young art student Ray moves in with his estranged businessman father after years of separation, the two tentatively begin to reconcile their many differences -- including Ray's revelation that he's gay, which his father struggles to accept.
In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.
Three loosely related stories about love, loneliness and desire, held together by one central event (a train accident) that sets these characters in motion. Andrew Lin Hoi is a mainland tour guide who’s stranded in China when the accident happens. He was supposed to pick up his visiting girlfriend Gigi Lai, but instead he gets stuck in a hotel where a Category 3 film is being filmed. There he strikes up a quick connection with the leading lady, who offers him a role in a graphic love scene with her. Meanwhile, Gigi has arrived in HK only to find herself alone with no one to turn to. Depressed and despondent, she takes comfort in the attentions of a lonely older man played by Patrick Tse Yin. The third and most interesting affair occurs between taxi driver Ben Ng and mainland hustler Wong Hei. The two hook up outside the train station and fight and fume in between steamy couplings.
Benjamin, a working class gay man living in Toronto, struggles to obtain expensive healthcare after being assaulted by a stranger.
A man, heavily addicted to Krokodil (a powerful synthetic drug with devastating effects), suddenly finds himself alone in a post-nuclear city, which in appearance is very similar to Chernobyl. Reality and hallucinations begin to mix as the physical decay of man proceeds hand in hand with the internal one.
A self-proclaimed "ex-lesbian," Jill hunts down her ex-girlfriend Jamie to prove to herself that she is no longer attracted to her. "Heterosexual Jill" is a satire about sexuality where nothing is as it seems.
Two former cops start investigating the series of murders that tanked their careers when the killings begin again.
A car crash victim suddenly finds himself turned on by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground sub-culture of like-minded souls.
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.
Ricky is a young man who takes care of his sick mother. His father hovers at the edge of the picture, so Ricky provides for himself and his mom through prostitution, running errands, and acting as a caregiver for a blind man. Through the course of the film, Ricky befriends Janey, a young woman he finds beaten by her ex-boyfriend, and Trenn, a mysterious young man in trouble with the law. The three of them navigate a dark and confusing world. It uses many of the actors who have come to constitute the Dar A Luz company, including Tony Torn, Tom Fitzpatrick, Juliana Francis, and Tom Pearl. It will disappoint those who approach it looking for a film analogue of the “faster and louder” aesthetic that critics have used to characterize much of Abdoh’s stage work. The Blind Owl does use a variety of techniques reminiscent of his stage direction, giving it an unusual theatricality.
The second collection of this hot boys shorts series takes us deep into hidden psyches, revelations of long-held secrets, to boys boarding school for the birth of a love affair, inside an explosive internet encounter, and at the center of a teen party where infatuations quickly turn lives upside down. Includes: Beyond Plain Sight (2014); Like Father (2017); Lost Years (2016); Salt [Sal.] (2016); Sign (2016); Turn It Around (2017).
Charlie is a factory owner struggling to save his family business, and Lola is a fabulous entertainer with a wildly exciting idea. With a little compassion and a lot of understanding, this unexpected pair learn to embrace their differences and create a line of sturdy stilettos unlike any the world has ever seen!
In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with an opera singer, Song Liling – but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.
A love story between a country boy in Beijing to study and a wealthy businessman set against the backdrop of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.
Hired to spy on a philandering husband, Luo Haitao soon becomes entangled in a clandestine affair with the other man. Along with Luo's girlfriend, they succumb to the delirium of drunken nights, but how long can their tryst last?
Three high school students experience the perks and pitfalls of love in director Leste Chen’s sensitive tale of friendship and yearning.
Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
Every few hundred years, the most powerful demon on earth—a snake demon—awakens, and the Yin-Yang Masters are summoned to the capital. Meanwhile, the Princess of the realm has her own plans, as she conspires to claim the demon’s power.
At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.
Two gay men are possibly, probably, stumbling towards love. Maybe. They're both very busy.
In the late 1990s, the arrival of elderly invalid Patrick into Marion and Tom’s home triggers the exploration of seismic events from 40 years previous: the passionate relationship between Tom and Patrick at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
Mabel, Liam and Aaron have been friends since childhood. Their bonds of friendship are tested when, years later, they realize their friendship is the only reason they have made it through emotional hardships and extreme tragedies.
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
How far would you go to get the person of your dreams? With the help of Gwen and Tiffani, Kyle pretends to be heterosexual in order to land Troy, the new guy (and nude model) who's turning the heads of both men and women. He soon finds himself joining the campus ex-gay support group and nabbing a girlfriend! Kyle's ex-boyfriend Marc is horrified at the plan and decides to pursue the confused Troy with his own tactic -- being his "out" gay self. Who will win Troy first?
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.
Two teenage Mexican-American loners in 1987 El Paso explore a new, unusual friendship and the difficult road to self-discovery.
Benjamin, a rising star filmmaker, is on the brink of premiering his difficult second film No Self at the London Film Festival when Billie, his hard drinking publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah.
After an altercation between Alex, the president's son, and Britain's Prince Henry at a royal event becomes tabloid fodder, their long-running feud now threatens to drive a wedge in U.S./British relations. When the rivals are forced into a staged truce, their icy relationship begins to thaw and the friction between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected.
After starting a family of his very own in the United States, a gay filmmaker documents his loving, traditional Chinese family's process of acceptance.
