A Year of Hope 2017
1h 24min | Documentary | 18 November 2017 (Netherlands)
Storyline:
A Year of Hope is about life on the streets of Manila. You will hear the horrible stories of Pablo, Justin, and some of the other boys. Thankfully their lives change during their year in Stairway Foundation. It’s an NGO located on an island in the Philippines far away from Manila. They’re there to get a proper education, eat nutritious food, have fun, and be introduced to new things. But sadly even in a place like Stairway, the gruesome streets of Manila are still lurking in the backs of the children’s minds.
How to Die Young in Manila 2020
12min | Short | 16 April 2021 (USA)
Storyline:
“How to Die Young in Manila” was made as a short pitch teaser to Petersen Vargas’ full-length feature, entitled “Some Nights Feel Like Walking.” It’s about a young boy who braves the streets of nighttime Manila to meet an anonymous hookup. Thinking one of them is a hookup, he trails a pack of young hustlers who then draw him into their strange world of death and desire. This short film questions and explores the possibility of an urban life, of human connection in the city, for those not protected by privilege from the cruel policies of this government, which kill young men everywhere. It’s a film that imagines and situates queer desire within a city determined and shaped by politics.
The Night Train 2020
Nattåget (original title)
15min | Short, Drama | August 2020 (Italy)
Storyline:
Oskar is on the night train, heading home after an interview in Stockholm. With a long night ahead of him, he makes eye contact with Ahmad. For the first time he meets the gaze of someone who feels the same desire as he does.
After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets.
On the Fringe of Wild 2021
1h 23min | Drama, Romance | 2021 (Canada)
Storyline:
A 2000s “Romeo and Juliet” type romance between two teenage boys, set in a small Ontario town, where love does not win, but the surviving players grow to accept themselves as members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Reflections Of Youth 1975
1h 2min | Adult | July 1975 (USA)
Storyline:
With a partial 1950’s soundtrack, the excitement of young lust and the innocence of growing up, this seems to be a test run for Ross’ “Crusin’ 57”. The film opens with a view of a high school baseball game as we then follow a young blonde haired student approaching the new kid on campus. The two strike up a conversation as the blonde begins to talk about some of the local gossip around town. The film then goes into five different vignettes as they are introduced by the two talking students. The first is about another students gay sex affair, the second is about how the blonde watches the gym teacher masturbate, the third goes into explicit detail about the sex lives of a gay couple that live on Clayton Street, following with the fourth, which is about how one of the Clayton Street lovers seduces his straight friend while his partner is away. The blonde then concludes with the story of two Junior high students sexually experimenting with each other. The film closes with a sex scene between the blonde and the new student as they start in the school showers and then make their way to the locker room. After they get dressed, they walk away together as another school day is finished.
Confessions of an Invisible Girl 2021
Confissões de uma Garota Excluída (original title)
1h 31min | Comedy, Drama | 22 September 2021 (USA)
Storyline:
Tetê doesn’t feel accepted either at school or at home. When her unemployed parents must move in with her grandparents to their home in Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro, the 16-year-old girl must start over at a new school. She will try everything not to be bullied again, and maybe make friends and have a social life.
