Tag: Gay Shorts

2024 Entry #50 07-06-24 “Break Me” (aka “Knus meg”) is a 15 minute 2018 dramatic short Norwegian film which was directed by Irasj Asanti (“Inkognitiv”, “Eyewitness” / “Øyevitne”) who co-wrote the film with Nina Anderson. The story concerns young kurdish immigrant and closeted homosexual cage fighter Mansour (Ravdeep Singh Bajwa) who must choose between his head and his heart (Fredrik Skogsrud as Andreas) after his father discovers the truth.

Short and to the point, at turns sexy and heartbreaking, this is one of those shorts that walks a fine line.

2024 Entry #38 04-12-24 “Chaperone” is 16 minute 2022 short film which was written and directed by Sam Max which stars Russell Kahn & openly gay actor Zachary Quinto (“Six Feet Under”, “Star Trek”, “American Horror Story: Murder House”, “American Horror Story: Asylum”, “Star Trek Into Darkness”, “I Am Michael”, “Star Trek Beyond”, “Hannibal”, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, “Big Mouth”, “The Boys in the Band”, “American Horror Story: NYC”, “Down Low”). The story concerns Zachary Quinto’s mysterious chaperone who picks up his client (Kahn), accepts his money and after checking to see if the client has followed his instructions, takes him to an out of the way house where the client does drugs, has sex with the chaperone (via a toy) and when ready, is taken into the countryside where he takes a pill which seemingly fulfills its intended purpose and kills him. The chaperone covers everything up. The audience is not privy to why the young man wanted to die or why he went to such great lengths to do so. And the thoughts and feelings of the chaperone are suggested but remain a mystery.

Interesting, dark and well made. This is the kind of short that usually has a slew of comments from gay men who are pissed that it was included in a collection of gay shorts (“Boys On Film 23”) – the same ones that tend to rant about any inclusion of HIV related stories. Yet the tale being told is definitely queer. I like variety so I was pleased. And though I doubt I’ll ever watch this again, it was entertaining & creepy – and I like both.

2024 Entry #37 04-12-24 “Eden” is a 17 minute nearly silent 2020 short film which was written and directed by Sven Spur (“Tom and Niel”, “Hot Water”, “Follow Me”, “Burn”). The film follows a central character played by Mustaf Ahmeti, who is credited as “Wolf” in the film, though this name is never said. He spends time hooking up with several men in several different places.

I thought this was a bit disappointing. I had seen the poster before seeing the film and though it was obviously sexy, I had thought it rather evocative of several possible avenues for exploration, but it ended up being mainly just some sex scenes strewn together – which may have well been the point, but it is a point that may have been achieved various other ways which I would have found far more interesting. As it stands, I like the poster far more than I like the film, which isn’t good.

This short is available in the 2023 gay short film collection “Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know”.

2024 Entry #36 04-12-24 “Budapest, Closed City” is a 13 minute 2021 Hungarian short film which was written and directed by Máté Konkol. The story concerns Péter (Péter Dániel Katona) as he takes his British friend Adam (Adam Wadsworth) on a personal but political tour around Budapest. After getting drunk in an underground club, Adam kisses Peter but things don’t go as expected.

This was fine. It’s not great. It’s not horrible. Some of the activity was reminiscent of the short “No Strings” which I watched just days ago…and this film suffered by that comparison, because this one feels far more staged and much less natural – though I’m sure they were both staged. Lol There was nothing for me to get lost in here. Perhaps if it had been a longer film.

This short is available in the 2023 gay short film collection “Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know”.

2024 Entry #35 04-12-24 “My Uncle’s Friend” (aka “O Amigo Do Meu Tio”) a heartbreaking and deeply personal 9 minute short 2021 documentary which was written and directed by Renato Turnes and stars Vicente Concilo as himself as he narrates imagery from old videos his father recorded between 1987 & 1993.

I wasn’t expecting this to be quite so affecting, so unabashedly honest and thoughtful. This is a really excellent piece about a child who was gay and what he felt and thought with much of it documented on camera. This is powerful stuff.

This short is available in the 2023 gay short film collection “Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know”.

2024 Entry #012 01-07-24 “If Only You Were Mine” is a 23 minute 2017 Slovakian short romantic drama film which was directed by David Benedek (“Together”), who co-wrote it with Jakub Spevák (“Together”) & Ján Stiffel. The story follows a young graduate named Dominik (Jakub Jablonský), who is experiencing his first relationship with a man named Adam (Peter Martincek). Dom struggles with his complicated feelings and an eating disorder. The relationship doesn’t last as Dom expresses love for Adam who is in a different place emotionally – which hurts Dominik, though he quickly rebounds.

Another short collected in “The Male Gaze: Hide and Seek”, This was difficult for me to watch. I suffer from disordered eating myself, though it’s very different from what Dominik experiences – it was close enough that it hurt me. While too brief to really sink its claws in, I appreciated that this was a story with a lot to say about various aspects of life, and I could relate to much of it. I also appreciated Dominik’s relationship with his mother (Judita Hansman).

2024 Entry #008 01-04-24 “Stanley” is an 18 minute 2017 Brazilian short drama film which was written and directed by Paulo Roberto.

The story follows a young man who kills birds for his family to eat, plays David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” on his guitar, then goes to a club where he and another young man dance with a woman. After leaving the bar they share a motorcycle ride to a lake where birds feed. The young woman sleeps, one of the guys swims and later the other guys fucks him. They talk afterward and you learn they went to the same church when they were little though only one of them remembers this. The one who remembers asks the other about his brother Stanley, whom he was friends with when they were young and it is revealed that Stanley killed himself. And that’s that.

This was okay. I actually thought I would like this one more than I did as I tend to love Brazilian films – I love the sound of Portuguese, and I had read an excerpt of dialogue from it which served as a description of the short, which I liked a lot. Sometimes a short feels wholly satisfying on its own with no need for more. Sometimes a short is great but you want more and would welcome a feature length version. And then there are ones like this, which feel like a fragment of something larger, which are not horrible, but are also not completely satisfying on their own. It’s not bad; there are several elements that work very well, and yet none of it feels like it matters in the end.

This short was in the same collection as the previous two. I’ll likely watch the rest of them soon, but not tonight.