The 22nd Outshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Goes Virtual Week #2
As a reminder, the 22nd edition of the OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival, a bi-annual film festival whose mission is to unite the community through social events and LGBTQ+ media that inspire, entertain, and educate, is going virtual!
Here is a list of some of the films showing during the second week of Outshine 2020.
Thursday, August 27
Los Fuertes – Director: Omar Zúñiga; Runtime: 90 minutes; Chile, 2019; In Spanish with English subtitles; Drama
Lucas travels to visit his sister in a remote town in southern Chile. In front of the ocean and fog, he meets Antonio, a boatswain in a local fishing boat. When an intense romance grows between them, their strength, independence and adulthood become immovable in front of the tide. The Strong Ones is a beautiful, staggering and tender story of love and bravery between two men in search of their own freedom at the end of the world.
Official Selection – Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival
Official Selection – Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Rialto – Director: Peter Mackie Burns; Runtime: 90 minutes; Ireland, 2019; Drama
Colm is in his mid-forties, married with two teenage children. Still grieving the death of his father, a destructive figure in his life, Colm struggles with his relationship to his own son while a recent takeover at work threatens his job. Unable to share his vulnerability with his wife, Colm’s world is falling apart around him. In the midst of this crisis, Colm solicits sex from a young man named Jay. This encounter and his growing infatuation have a deep effect on Colm. He finds comfort in Jay that no one else can provide.
Nominee – Best Film – Venice Film Festival
Official Selection – BFI London Film Festival
Friday, August 28
Give or Take – Director: Paul Riccio; Runtime: 98 minutes; USA, 2020
When a disillusioned New Yorker’s father dies, he goes home to Cape Cod and prepares the house for sale. Making the situation all the more difficult, he is forced to come face to face with his old friends, his old life and his father’s late-in-life, live-in boyfriend. With nothing to separate them, they are forced to negotiate how to remember Starring Tony Award Winning Broadway veteran Norbert Leo Butz (Rent, Cabaret, Wicked, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Louis Cancelmi (Boardwalk Empire, Billions, The Irishman), and Emmy Nominated Saturday Night Live star Cheri Oteri, this touching, funny, raw, and honest film is a snapshot of empathy and understanding we could all use.
The Acrobat (L’Acrobate) – Director: Rodrique Jean; Runtime: 134 minutes; Canada, 2019; In French, Russian and English with English subtitles; Drama, Suspense, Thriller
Montreal is snowed under. While the downtown cranes dance their hypnotic ballet, two strangers meet randomly in an unfinished apartment. Their chance encounter leads to a violent attraction and a dependency beyond reason. One man is a Russian-born muscled, professional acrobat whose future is jeopardized by a broken leg. The other is a buttoned-down, well-groomed man of few words. Which one dominates? Which one manipulates? As it turns out, love is painful and human relations are complex. For his dreamy, meditative sixth feature, Rodrigue Jean trains his singular lens on a story both mysterious and sexually explicit.
Official Selection – Vancouver International Film Festival
Official Selection – Festival du nouveau cinéma
Minyan – Director: Eric Steel; Runtime: 118 minutes; USA, 2020; In English/Hebrew/Yiddish and Russian with English subtitles
Seventeen-year-old David, born into a Russian immigrant family, regularly helps out at his synagogue in New York’s heavily Jewish Brighton Beach. His father, a former boxing coach, his mother and his beloved grandfather all take this for granted. But David, who is just starting to apprehensively explore life in the 1980’s East Village gay scene, gradually begins to question the strict rules of his community and befriends two elderly gay Jews. Sensitive Minyan unobtrusively and with quiet humor depicts how one young man squares social attributions – immigrant, Jew, homosexual – with his own feelings and learns to define them anew.
Nominee – Best Feature Film – Berlin International Film Festival
Saturday, August 29
Free Community Screening Transformations – Trans’ Shorts Package
Making Samantha – T Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper, 10 mins, USA, 2020
Vuelta el Sol – Judith Corro, 7 mins, Panama, 2020
Goodbye Rebecca & Eileen – Sarah Hill, 13 mins, USA, 2020
Butterflies in Berlin – Monica Manganelli, 30 mins, Germany, 2019
Steelers: The World’s First Gay Rugby Team – Director: Eammon Ashton-Atkinson;
Runtime: 80 minutes; UK, 2020
In 1995 in a pub in London’s King’s Cross, a group of friends discussed the idea of a gay rugby club and the first gay rugby team was born – the Kings Cross Steelers. Twenty-five years later, there are 60 clubs worldwide. Eammon Ashton-Atkinson’s heartfelt documentary travels to Amsterdam as the Kings Cross Steelers attempt victory at the Bingham Cup. Along the way, we meet some of the team. There’s Drew, prop by day, drag queen by night; Simon, who found a much-needed support system at the club; and lesbian head coach Nic, who is very proud of her “boys.” Steelers is an inspiring testament to the power of teamwork and friendship.
Where The Men Are! Shorts – Total Runtime: 107 minutes
There will be a Q&A with all the filmmakers after the screening
Last Summer with Uncle Ira – Directors: Gary Jaffe & Katie Ennis; Runtime: 13 minutes; USA, 2020
Polter – Director: Álvaro Vicario; Runtime: 10 minutes; Spain, 2019; In Spanish with English subtitles
Short Calf Muscle – Director: Victoria Warmerdam; Runtime: 13 minutes; Netherlands, 2020; In Dutch with English subtitles
Blow Job – Director: Jeffrey Braverman; Runtime: 40 seconds; USA, 2020
I Bleed (Sangro) – Directors: Tiago Minamisawa & Bruno H Castro & Guto BR; Runtime: 7 minutes; Brazil, 2020; In Portuguese with English subtitles
Skin – Director: Daisy Stenham; Runtime: 12 minutes; UK, 2019
Chigualo – Director: Christian Rojas; Runtime: 18 minutes; Ecuador, 2020; In Spanish with English subtitles
Our Place Together – Director: Clay Marshall Pruitt; Runtime: 18 minutes; USA, 2020
Netuser – Director: Eric Rosen; Runtime: 15 minutes; USA, 2019
Nowhere – Directors: David and Francisco Salazar; Runtime: 87 minutes; Colombia, 2020; In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Adrian and Sebastian live an openly gay life in New York as Immigrants. When Sebastian’s visa is rejected, the two must decide whether to return to Colombia where they face rejection and persecution for their sexual orientation or do whatever is necessary to stay in the United States. Either way, the thoughts and discussions associated with the decision will have a profound effect on the couple. Hitting upon hot button issues Nowhere places its characters within the context of the difficult immigration situation in the US and furthering a sense of homelessness and lack of belonging for the main protagonists.
Cicada – Directors: Matt Fifer and Kieran Mulcare; Runtime: 93 minutes; USA, 2020
Drama, Romance
After a string of unsuccessful and awkward encounters with women, Ben goes “back on the dick” (as his sister enthusiastically exclaims). Cicada follows Ben as he comes out to the world and develops an intense relationship with Sam, a man-of-color struggling with deep wounds of his own. As the summer progresses and their intimacy grows, Ben ultimately gains the strength to face a childhood trauma he has long suppressed. Co-director Matt Fifer wrote the film based on his own experiences, giving Cicada an authenticity rarely seen in independent cinema.
Sunday, August 30
Cured – Directors: Bennett Singer and Patrick Sammon; Runtime: 81 minutes; Sweden, 2020
This powerful, new documentary illuminates a pivotal yet largely unknown chapter in the struggle for LGBT equality: the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1973. Incorporating a trove of newly unearthed archival material, much of it unseen for decades, Cured takes audiences behind the scenes of this riveting narrative to chronicle the strategy and tactics that led to a crucial victory in the movement for LGBT rights. The people involved and their belief that they, and not psychiatrists, were the experts on their own lives propels the story and forms the backbone of the film.
Closing Night Film
Single Street (Singel 39) – Director: Frank Krom; Runtime: 87 minutes; Netherlands, 2020; In Dutch with English subtitles; Comedy
Monique is a successful cardiac surgeon, but she’s at an age when everyone around her has kids or is starting a family. For her, career always came first, and she never really thought of having children. But when a new neighbor, extroverted Max, moves in, they seem meant for one another. Max is sexy, fun, attractive, single, gay and more than anything else wants to start a family. Monique and Max may be very different people, but they are destined to change each other’s lives forever.
Official Selection – Nederlands Film Festival
Official Screening – Golden and Platin Film, Netherlands
For a full list of the films showing in the second week or more information, go to: Outshinefilm.com
