Erotic Shorts.

The shorts of Antonio Da Silva combine elements of pornography, narrative and the art film. He talks to Michael Langan about poetry, porn and how in touch with his audience he is.

“The moments I select in my editing are the ones where the person forgets the camera is there. If I see ‘acting,’ I won’t use that. That’s why in some of my films I show people leaving the moment after having sex, I’m interested in that afterwards moment.”

Reality Go-Go.

Cory Krueckeberg talks about Getting Go: The Go Doc Project and the ways in which we look not for the real but the ideal in a culture dominated by social media.

“It’s crucial to maintain your own identity so when I say I want to bridge the gap between queer and mainstream cinema I want to gay stories with a gay point of view but make them something the mass audience will want to see and not just a gay audience.”

[rating=4]
Cert: 18 • France: 100 min • Les Films du Worso • February 21, 2014

Alain Guiraudie’s ‘L’Inconnnu du lac (Stranger By The Lake)’ is an elegant, provocative, genre-crossing film. It’s also eye-poppingly explicit.

“Stranger By The Lake might have the feel of a particularly classy porn flick were in not for the diverse bodies it presents, and for the director’s careful attention to the nuances of all aspects of the men’s conduct and contact.”

At Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios

Deep Desires & Broken Dreams is a week-long season of gay film, including premieres, previews, Q&As.

[rating=5]
US: 13.50 min • Independent • 1947

The first film from Kenneth Anger, Fireworks remains essential viewing, and a key document in queer cinema.

“A group of sailors gang up on him, wielding chains. In glee, they strip him, brutalize him, and then begin ripping out his organs, finally dousing him with a white, milky substance.”

An Interview with João Ferreira.

João Ferreira, Queer Lisboa’s Festival Director, talks about how queer cinema is changing and how it remains a culture founded on desire.

“The idea was to have a very diverse programme that doesn’t look at gay or queer cinema in a narrow way but finds narratives and aesthetics that could also be called queer. We try to forget the labels and look for queerness in all kinds of films.”

[rating=4]
US: 71 min • Naked Sword / Peccadillo Pictures • June 28 2013

A small but significant as well as moving film about real gay men of all shapes and sizes.

“There isn’t even a sub-plots involving mobile phones, a miracle in itself. It’s the anti-city that capitalism forgot and which is rarely portrayed, especially in a ‘gay’ context.”

[rating=4]
Cert:15 • Spain: 90 min • El Deseo S.A. • May 3 2013

Pedro Almodóvar’s Los Amantes Pasajeros (I’m So Excited) is possibly his campest film to date.

“It’s a stylish, glossy cartoon of a film by someone at the absolute peak of his powers with nothing really to prove, so here he’s doing exactly what he wants, which is to delight and amuse.”

[rating=5]
Cert:18 • US: 32 min • Kickstarter • April 13 2013

In Their Room London. The series is an fly-on-the-wall, verité style to show gay men in their private spaces at private moments. Insightful.

” They eat and wash and groom and wank (not necessarily in that order) and talk about aspects of their sexuality, from what they like in bed to their dreams and desires regarding relationships.”

Queer Spaces.

Barbara Hammer talks queer cinema, marriage equality, and the importance of real diversity in life and art.

“We finally have the foundation of a culture, we have traced our histories, let us not make marriage and human rights erase us into a vast homogenization of the human race.”