Pierre is a young tailor who lives with his younger brother in a room of a gay club. He works in a textile microenterprise in order to raise money and move elsewhere. After being fired, Pierre turns to Omar, a young prostitute who usually visits the club and the duo feel some kind of kinship/love. Pierre tries his best to make an honest living but constant rejection leads him to the path that he never wanted for himself. Heart breaking with an extremely cute lead.
A reminiscence of the director’s gentle awakening to sex before he loses his virginity. A voice. City images. Old memories about exploration of sexuality. And the feeling of well known. A story about early years and meetings and secrets and occasions and desire. Told us through random visuals of small town, I personally was able to connect to almost everything that the guy talks about right from twins in the bus, to thighs touching, to porn rental, to a possible cruising work in theaters etc.
The reminiscence of a night spent walking the streets of Rome, the eternal city, following the steps of two young men: Vlad a street kid from eastern Europe and Cosimo the new boy in town. Both of them wander the city from side to side seeking redemption, deliverance, or may be just a hideout. They will find that they’re looking for is the feeling that bonds them together.
A married couple - the man a closeted homosexual, the woman bed-ridden - struggle with their relationship. This short film came back in 1974 and looks at what it means to be trapped – in a body that has desires it can't consummate; a sexuality that can't be expressed; a marriage that serves neither partner – the need for intimacy and understanding characterized with deep empathy.
Santiago Gonzalez IV, a first generation Mexican-American, struggles with the tensions between his sexuality, nationality, and religion as he prepares for his college graduation. We meet his boyfriend Austin, whose family is ok with I'm being gay abut also very clear that they will never welcome Santi in their house. A beautiful heartwarming real life documentary about the side of gay love from a religion perspective that we don't get to see much of.
An aging porno director makes a commentary in 2022 for the DVD of an underground 16mm film he made in 1972 and was recently rediscovered. As the beautiful stud in the film undergoes a series of erotic reveries, the director laments his doomed love affair with his protagonist. The director packs kitsch erotics with intense emotion into this saucy, shimmering short.
An older Brazilian man is seeking new experiences while he visits New Zealand. In young local Levi, he discovers the perfect boyfriend. We are never really told what binds the two together but there is something about the older guy that draws younger Levi towards him. A nice interesting story.
The Ueda family and Yutaka have come on a trip to celebrate Tane's birthday, but Minoru suddenly sees a message on Yutaka's smartphone in the dressing room and things started to be awkward between the two of them. They misunderstand each other's words and actions and interpret them negatively. Can they clear up the misunderstandings? I missed the characters and was soooooo happy to see them again.
When one of the guys of the gay couple is going through depressions, his partner does everything that he can to bring him joy and happiness in his life by being there for him. A minimalist story about using love to find joy of living again.
A farmer picks a rose from the beast's garden, but when he finds out, he becomes furious and demands something beautiful as compensation. When the beast sees his "prey" get delivered to his door, what kind of relationship will develop between the two? A weird tell-all in old school style telling where tonight’s program has been composed by and for grown-ups who are children at heart. I thought this was an old old film, but it came out in 2021.
I loved this short film. Excited for a night out on the town, flamboyant and confident Lewis is suddenly cautious and uncomfortable when a friend asks him to pick up something from his dealer, Daniel. On arrival, he’s confronted with an invitation, and an unexpected connection. So well acted and you feel the connection and tension in the air. Wonderful!!
At the age of 21, Nicolás decides to get his first HIV test. The uncertainty about the disease will affect the relationship with his family and his sexual life during the weekend he awaits the results. He can't even perform sexually with a hookup that he decides to do one night. A well directed and acted film, it shows the stress that this event can have on you.
Roberto, an older widower, and Félix, a young photographer, explore a complex attraction between them. In seduction, they face the anxiety, the fear of abandonment and the emotional paralysis (philophobia) that drowns them. I don't know why I thought this maybe a thriller, but was quite happy to see that it was a love story of two men being ok with being vulnerable with one another.
A closeted gay man in his 60s has been living with HIV for 10 years. His monotonous life takes a sudden turn when he receives an old vinyl record from his dead ex-lover. He visits a local vinyl record shop to get the vinyl fixed and in the process an ambiguous but interesting relationship develops between the two.
St Pelagius the Penitent (UK)
Released in 1998, this short documentary film is about five trans, intersex and genderqueer friends and a medieval saint. A queer retelling of a story of a medieval saint paralleled with interviews of five friends at the forefront of deconstructing gender in the 90's.
Comments
"Our Dining Table" special episode was soooooo lovely and nice addition to the series itself. The family trip to the countryside was a good choice for the background and the location sort of created all the conversations so everything was natural and just lovely. Especially the lines written on Tane's birthday cake.
Btw, there's a new Chinese BL "Stay With Me" that has two high school boys and a little girl as protagonists, and that girl is pretty much like Tane, speaking up and making things right. It's going to be 24 episodes, 35 minutes each and 4 episodes per week (2xFriday, 2xSaturday), so it's going to be a while until the finale. So far 8 episodes have been aired and I'm already considering buying Kleenexes in bulk, it's so overwhelmingly touching.
I guess I shud take it with me on a long flight tow watch . lol
Is it actually a gay themed show? or Chinese version of such shows which means basically nothing!