Gay Short Films : 14

Kampvuur (Belgium) [Campfire]
A coming out story summarizing itches of love, pain and relationships. A young boy falls in love with his best friend who reciprocates one night in camping but things take 180 degree from there. The friend totally ignores him and things at the camp become very awkward. The guy's "girl" friend is the only one who supports him at this time. (5.5/10)

Matroos (Belgium) [Sailor]
A teenager adores his sailor friend. He dreams about the exotic countries, starry skies and the inevitable homesickness that would bring his friend back to him. In a colorful series of referential images, his fragile dreams get so unreal, that the enthusiasm for seeing his friend again turns into anxiousness. Weirdly shot film. I honestly did not get it. (1/10)

Diccups (USA)
What happens when you dick gets hiccups? Extremely funny short short film just for the concept alone. (7/10)

Le Marais (France)
A young male customer finds himself attracted to a young printshop worker and tries to explain that he believes the man to be his soulmate, not realizing that he speaks little French. I saw this film as part of 2006 anthology film "Paris, je t'aime". It is quite a short film but nevertheless interesting. (5/10)

Stay (Canada)
Sam and Eric are a young, gay, Chinese couple, seemingly happy but have never shared a night together in the same bed.  One night, after Eric asks his boyfriend to stay and Sam refuses, their relationship suddenly comes into question. Will Sam select his love over what he thinks his responsibilities are towards his parents? This is a simple, short and very sweet film. (6.5/10)

Triple Standards (USA)
An ex basketball player is gay but is in closet. When his boyfriend of 5 years cannot take anymore of his hateful and homophobic comments for others, he gives him an ultimatum. The star need not come out of closet but he has got to stop the harsh comments and look down upon others. WIll things change? The film was very good, except that sometimes it was very hard to understand what the boyfriend was saying because most of his dialogues were in a whisper. You had to pay hard attention. (7.5/10)

Amour, toujours (French) [Love, Always]
A silent black and white gay film already wins half the battle for its novelty. A sweet story of boy meets boy, love at first sight for one, spend the entire day together and end the day with the kiss of love. I just absolutely loved the idea of silent film with written commentary. Such a novel idea for short film. Fantastic! (8/10)

Action vérité (French) [Truth Or Dare]
Two girls and two boys, probably about 14 or 15 years old, play a game of truth or dare. The questions and the challenges deal with sex; it's innocent and harmless, but at each turn, each youth tries to raise the ante. Then, Paul gives a dare to Rose, and the result brings on a sudden and complete silence. It was a mix of disgust and shock with the end but a decent short film. (5/10)

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Little Ashes (UK/Spain)

Following the lives of the famous trip of Spain; artist Salvador Dali, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca. this film takes us back to the early 20s in Madrid when it was a ripe time to live at the Students' Residence in Madrid and study at the School of Fine Arts. The film focusses on Dali and his unconsummated attraction towards Lorca and how Dali started to confuse sexuality with artistry.

In 1922, Madrid is wavering on the edge of change. Salvador Dali arrives at the university; 18 years old and determined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhibitionism attracts the attention of two of the university's social elite - Lorca and Luis Bunel. Salvador is absorbed into their youthfully decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis and Federico become a formidable trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However as time passes, Salvador feels and increasingly strong pull towards the charismatic Lorca - who is himself oblivious of the attentions he is getting from his beautiful writer friend, Magdalena.

The film constantly mixes different subjects: the tense, suffocating love between Lorca and Dalí, their complicated relationship with Buñuel, the political situation of the country and their artistic flashes of genius. We get to a point where we don't know whether the action and dialogue on screen pertains to a political or romantic subject. These three men are geniuses, and they all have a complicated personality that constantly clashes with each other's art and political views. It's not that kind of film where you either love or hate the heroes and villains; everyone is both a sweetheart and a monster, everything has a good side and a bad one to it. And that's why the film is absorbing but not compelling. Most of its action is inward. The more we know about the three men the better. No one would have imagined Robert Pattison as Dali but there is something raw about his performance that I really liked. And I was glad that at least the guy is trying to break away from his twilight image by doing something so drastically different.

Overall, the film is a little bit of this and a little bit of that but nothing substantial to hold on to. It had all the elements to make it a potential timeless masterpiece, but it remains at the level of a 'pretty good film.' (5.5/10)

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Magnifica presenza (Italian)

I have greatly loved and admired Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek movies and look forward to them. Hence my expectations for this film were also pretty high. I feel so sad to say, that unfortunately they were not met. There’s a lack of genuine narrative motivation that leaves this very promising film without oomph and substance. More on that later.

Pietro is an aspiring gay actor and moves in a big house when he gets lucky with the pricing of the house. Pietro moves in and his life is going in order when he starts hearing strange noises in the apartment. He feels presence of people, whom he can see and feel. It turns out that the house in inhabited by a group of ghosts all dressed in from the 40s. Initially scared to death, Pietro soon realizes that all these ghosts are good souls and they are just stuck in a time-wrap. What can Pietro do to help? He listens to all the pieces of advice they give. To help these people move on, he will have to find out who gave them away during the war time and ultimately have their souls released. The only gay aspect of the film is that Pietro happens to be gay and one of the actors from the theatre ghost group is also gay. They form an unlikely love bong but both knowing very well that their love will never be fulfilled.

Technically the film is brilliant like all of the previous films by the director. All the characters are very lovable and they deliver with passion and great devotion but like I Said above it fails to leave either emotional or dramatic mark like his pervious films. There is some humor in the film that saves it. Also acting from Pietro is first calls and to the mark. The soundtrack of the film was also very good. Its hard to understand what was the film really about? Is it about art, friendship, betrayal, aspiring actor? I was a little confused and honestly, a little disappointed.

I am sure Ozpetek could do and will do better. I am waiting. (6/10)

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