SHORTS: BOY, SO CONFUSING

Sometimes it’s so confusing to be a boy—especially when you’ve got the hots for another boy. A cruising glance in a cinema. The paranoia hidden in lust. The judgment underneath the romance. The melancholy that comes with sex. This shorts program zeroes in on the unbridled excitement, unrestrained urges and disconcerting fear that comes with desiring another body—whether for an hour or a lifetime.

The in-person screening of this shorts program will be followed by a Q&A*



DREAM FACTORY
Dir. Alex Matraxia, 7 min, United Kingdom
Dream Factory is an experimental short that explores the historical role of cinemas as cruising sites, as well as the relations between nostalgia and fetish when navigating queer history, cultural memory, and the tactility of the past.




THE JOB
Dir. Frédéric Moffet, 15 min, Canada/USA
An exploration of the erotic archive of Canadian photographer and entrepreneur John Phillips who worked in the 1990s for gay male magazines in the USA. The film chronicles the impact of the AIDS pandemic on the photographer’s life at the dawn of the digital revolution.




HOT SHEET MOTEL
Dir. Alexandria Lane, 12 min, USA
Two semi-truck driving cowboys cross truck routes in the night; leading to a fateful meeting at a local honky tonk.




COME AS YOU ARE
Dir. LaQuan Lewis, 16 min, USA
A young man grapples with the weight of concealing his HIV+ diagnosis. Navigating the challenges of love, stigma, and self acceptance. In a poignant journey that is brought to a boiling point where he is forced to face reality.




PIGEONS ARE DYING, WHEN THE CITY IS ON FIRE
Dir. Stavros Markoulakis, 21 min, Greece/Netherlands
On the warmest day of the year, two boys meet. A few hours later a pigeon gets trapped with them. During this heatwave, all creatures dream of escaping from the city that’s burning.




THE VARIABLE
Dir. Ezra Li, 9 min, USA
An “ethnically ambiguous” actor struggles to adjust to stereotypes projected onto him during the audition process.




GREAT LOVE STORIES ONLY LAST A FEW MOMENTS
Dir. Raul Perez, 2 min, Brazil
Amidst the tunnels of the New York City subway, two men cross paths in a serendipitous encounter. What begins as a simple boy-meets-boy moment evolves into a captivating exchange of flirtation. Yet, not everything is what you see.




KEYHOLDER
Dir. Christian Hendricks, 16 min, USA
A young man is caught up in a series of strange and invasive events that he can’t seem to escape, but isn’t sure if he wants to.




8 MINUTES 20 SECONDS
Dir. Harris Doran, 9 min, USA
The sun goes out and there are only 8 minutes and 20 seconds of sunlight left on earth. Max must race against time to reconcile with his ex-boyfriend in order for them to be together in the last moments of sun.