"Performance is resistance"
A glimpse into the ways the LGBTQ+ ballroom community in Miami, Florida use performance as a form of political activism in a state that is currently passing legislation to deny the rights of queer and transgender people.
Social & External
The people behind it
Joseph is mentally deviated. He is a prisoner of his own flat and always in permanent war with his own mind.
Tattooed hands gently glide over a rock face, probing it with the tips of the fingers. Three women, arms raised to a high boulder, appear to be in prayer. Hidden in a cave, two others stare at their bloody palms. Touching Rocks depicts bouldering as a pagan ritual.
Part of the Wade on 8 collection 'Dreamland' is an arthouse, shot on video short film. Jack returns for university wanting to rekindle his secret romance with repressed Billy.
Tokyo. Kazu and Tatsu are two salary men in their thirties. One night, after work, they get drunk and decide to tell each other their deepest secrets to seal the friendship. Tatsu admits being still a virgin. Kazu reveals that every time he eats an egg sandwich, his body transforms, turning him into a woman. Tatsu doesn’t believe his friend and asks him to prove it...
Huw Stephens presents an exciting selection of short films from emerging artists and film-makers from across the UK. Topics are fresh, varied and thought-provoking, including a behind-the-scenes look at a zoo closing for the night, an honest account of farming the land, and a powerful love letter from a son to a mother who has cancer. Expect to be moved and challenged by these short dramas, observations and dance, made by a new generation of storytellers. Yew; Echdo; King of the Pit; Two B or Not Two B; Lucky House; Everything Is Fine; The Jacket; Cages; It's Always Been; Mary Lost Her Battle; Between the Dog and the Wolf; From His Perspective
Allen O'Clery works for the Time Investigation Corporation. He finds himself in a problematic situation.
With not much to show for in his life, Andre takes his health to extreme measures by attempting an eating challenge at his local diner.
At night there is a cat under a car, it is very calm, until three noisy kids start to play with it. When the game begins to degenerate, the cat calls for an unexpected ally...
Pamela and Ivy is a gritty exploration of the childhood traumatic event that spawned one of Gotham City's most notorious super villains.
Life-long treasure hunter, Weston Giroux is attempting to find an ancient and mysterious relic for the second time. Things don't quite go as planned when his past catches up with him and his new "side-kick" along the way.
Roaming the streets of Ahmedabad on a festive Navaratri night, two young women may have the chance to fall for each other.
A coming of age tale. A young boy, on the outer of the outer, at the edge of the edge, in a nameless place, discovers the faster he goes, the closer he can get to outrunning his loneliness.
A gay teenager desperately attempts to hold on to the only companion he has left. A rough, dirty, and realistic take on the breaking point of a relationship between two boys living on the streets.
Native American Chief Sitting Bull seeks refuge in Canada.
A fluorescent, action-packed romantic thriller where three undeniably remarkable friends move to San Francisco after meeting in protective custody. Despite being free, as a chosen family they find themselves locked in a prison of their own making.
In a culture in which relations of repression are established over the body, the figure of the devil is constantly linked to it, whether through association with sexual freedom or through the idea of control and punishment. In view of this, the show created from the performativity in dance proposes to research the philosophical and experiential developments that this situation can generate in our society. Conceived by the Teatro da Pomba Gira Collective, Demons launches to open his sores and see power in the darkness.
Inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's utopian poetics, who dreamed of a universal language without words that directly touches the senses, Anatomy of the Faun acts at the limits between theater and performance. It seeks to dissect the infernal seasons and illuminations of the contemporary homoerotic scene. The mythological figure of the Faun, removed from his natural environment and placed in a city like São Paulo, is a guiding thread for this journey through the shadows and articular lights of metropolitan nights. Walking from disease to cure, this Faun is guided to the anatomy of a body that overcomes the failures of our humanity you have consumed.
In a post-apocalyptic world not dissimilar to the present, SUGAR, a humanoid robot that can feel, think and dance, is sent out to bring a human touch back to humanity. SUGAR finally encounters a HON (Human Organism Normal), a post-influencer who, in an underground techno cell, poses in a sort of eternal commercial. SUGAR tries to free HON from his prison of routines, speech and movement loops and seeks to build a true encounter – an interaction, a dialogue.
A narrative short fiction film about a queer couple on a roadtrip shot on location during a cross country road trip in the summer of 2013.
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner agree to put up a false heterosexual front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's conservative parents.
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Jamie New is 16 and doesn’t quite fit in—instead of pursuing a "real" career he dreams of becoming a drag queen. Uncertain about his future, Jamie knows one thing for sure: he is going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mom and his amazing friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
A concert documentary shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! summer 2011 tour, featuring song performances and fans' life stories and how the show influenced them.
Gabriel is a young, aspiring musical composer whose life seems stuck in the First Act. When his new musical number gets a critical reception, a theatre colleague, Perry, tells Gabriel that he needs to get a life before he can write about one – so he heads straight for his local gay bar.
An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
Caleb, a South Florida teen, loves his camera, his weed and his grandmother. On the eve of his high school graduation, everything changes when he's exposed to HIV. While he waits three months for his results, Caleb finds love in the most unlikely of places.
Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted.
Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad auditions to be on Baltimore's most popular dance show - The Corny Collins Show - and lands a prime spot. Through her newfound fame, she becomes determined to help her friends and end the racial segregation that has been a staple of the show.
During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of this city.
Gay, alienated Los Angeles teens have a hard time as their parents kick them out of their homes, they don’t have money, their lovers cheat, and they are harassed by gay-bashers.
Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Harold is celebrating a birthday, and his friend Michael has drafted some other friends to help commemorate the event. As the evening progresses, an unexpected guest shows up, the alcohol flows, the knives come out, and dormant and unspoken emotions are unleashed.
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
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.
Mary is a good Christian girl who goes to a good Christian high school where she has good Christian friends and a perfect Christian boyfriend. Her life seems perfect, until the day that she finds out that her boyfriend may be gay — and that she’s pregnant.