Heart of the Man (2024)

Dir: David Cook | Australia

Fri 15 Nov – 6:15 PM

Session proudly sponsored by Pride Foundation Australia

Queer Australian First Nations filmmaking is still rare in 2024, so this directorial debut of Butchulla man, David Cook, shot in Brisbane and featuring a predominantly LGBTQIA+ and Aboriginal cast, is cause for celebration.

Chris Wundurra (Parker Little) is pushed by his intimidating father, Sammy – played by writer-director David Cook – to train for the national boxing title he didn’t himself attain, a failure connected to tragic events that robbed Chris of his mother and Sammy his wife. Sammy’s obsession with his son following this path encounters resistance, however, when Chris starts to question his sexuality and finds himself more oriented towards pursuing treading the boards at a local theatre than stepping into the ring.

This is Ballroom (2024)

Dir: Juru, Vitã | Brazil

Fri 15 Nov – 6:30 PM

The performance art of Ballroom and the art of shade are alive and kicking in this sonically sensational and visually stunning treat from queer Brazilian filmmaker duo Juru and Vitã. This is an insiders’ gaze into unique blends of voguing culture, from Batekoo Dance and Favela Funk Ball styles, integrating indigenous styles of dance into the local Ballroom spaces to give it a trans-American flavour.

Identity is everything in this intimate and glorious record of the diverse bodies of the Houses of Alafia, Bushidö, Blyndex and more. It’s an immersive vision of the Kiki houses of Rio de Janeiro, as members challenge each other on the floor in dance, beauty and performance categories, blended with discussions on race and gender in a celebration of Black and Brown queer community. Rio is definitely on fire here, pulsating with the portraits of the lives of queer Brazil.

Throuple (2024)

Dir: Greyson Horst | USA

Fri 15 Nov – 8:45 PM

Throuple follows Michael (played by screenwriter-musician Michael Doshier), a lonely gay singer-songwriter who’s lost his voice and his way. Stuck in a cycle of avoiding relationships and relying too heavily on his best friend Tristan and her girlfriend Abby, Michael hasn’t marched to the beat of his own drum, for years. Everything changes when he meets Georgie and Connor, a gay married couple looking for something – or someone – new. A casual hook-up turns into an unexpectedly intimate connection, pushing Michael to confront his fears around love, intimacy and creativity. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Brooklyn’s DIY music scene, Throuple is a raw, captivating exploration of modern love, queer relationships, and the pursuit of artistic expression. Featuring a stellar soundtrack from Dakota Jones, Darlin! The Band and more, Greyson Horst’s debut film showcases how queer artists navigate the triple threat of life, love and music in this semi-autobiographical, full-of-fun film.

Where in the Hell (2024)

Dir: Laramie Dennis | USA

Fri 15 Nov – 9:00 PM

Lesbian prop-master Casey (Cam Killion) is abandoned by her girlfriend after a fight at a run-down motel, at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in California. What’s worse, her girlfriend has taken not only her car, but her dog as well. She teams up with unemployed actor Alan (Joohun Lee) on a road trip to an audition in Canada. Casey is bitterly cynical while Alan is blindingly optimistic, which makes for a hilarious odd-couple road movie. Featuring beautifully shot landscapes, Laramie Dennis’s laidback debut feature film draws on, and queers, the work of Sam Shepard, and will delight fans of offbeat indie comedies à la the ‘90s works of Hal Hartley and Alison Anders.

Out(Look) Shorts

Sat 16 Nov – 6:15 PM

From Myanmar to Germany, Brazil to Iran and on, this fascinating round-the-world ticket offers spectacular viewing for hungry minds set on exploring.

Young Hearts (2024)

Dir: Anthony Schatteman | Belgium, Netherlands

Sat 16 Nov – 6:30 PM

For families frustrated by the Australian federal government’s backflipping on protecting queer kids from being removed from schools on the basis of their sexual or gender identity, seek solace in the sweet-hearted debut feature from Belgian filmmaker Anthony Schatteman. It follows the tentative first steps out of the closet of 14-year-old Elias (Lou Goossens) as he falls head over heels for handsome new neighbour Alexander (Marius De Saeger) despite technically still dating girlfriend Valerie (Sara Rogiers). Garnering a special mention in the Berlinale’s youth-focused Generation Kplus competition and nominated for a Teddy Award, this gently unfurling romance was co-written by Close director Lukas Dhont but won’t leave you emotionally ruined. Instead, it offers a metaphorical hug for the soul with a hint of Heartstopper.

Rivière (2023)

Dir: Hugues Hariche | Switzerland, France

Sat 16 Nov – 8:45 PM

Manon (Flavie Delangle), 17, has hitchhiked out of Switzerland to the French town of Belfort in search of her estranged dad. The hunt leads her to an ice rink and a chance encounter with a group of teens – the boys play ice hockey, the girls figure skating. The gender roles are thus defined, but Manon doesn’t play by these rules, and tries out and is admitted to the Lions, with the guys. Staying at her stepmother’s, Manon is hopeful her father will return and meantime plays hockey and hangs out with Karine (Sarah Bramms), a figure skater who has struggles with addiction. The two get closer and find the few happy moments are with one another. Manon’s dream though is to get to Canada and join a women’s hockey team, but her coach says: “you belong on the ice – the day you realise that, you can play anywhere”. With absent or missing parents, Rivière joins the cinema of generational, teen resilience – not rebellion, but survival – in this moving, queer coming-of-age story.

We Are Family Shorts

Sat 16 Nov – 9:00 PM

Whether navigating sperm donorship, parental responses to transitioning or caring for elderly parents, the beauty of rainbow families lies at the heart of all these shorts.

Reas (2024)

Dir: Lola Arias | Argentina, Germany, Switzerland

Wed 20 Nov – 6:15 PM

One of the most magical movies to berth at this year’s Berlinale – where it was nominated for the Teddy Documentary award – Lola Arias’ form-fracturing marvel is magnificently queer in every way imaginable. This shimmering chameleon of a multicoloured docu-musical features former prisoners depicting not only versions of themselves, but also their jailers. Skipping gaily between the real and imagined, it happily breaks the fourth wall and pulls back the curtain to cheekily include bloopers, script-in-hand. Set in an artfully crumbling, shuttered prison in Buenos Aires that evokes their prolonged captivity in Caseros Prison, a remnant of the rolling military dictatorships of the ‘60s, it’s a surreally neon-hued stage on which this delightfully diverse array of cis women and trans people come together in a fabulous fever dream set to a disco beat replete with smooth Ballroom moves. Emancipation has rarely felt this astoundingly empowering.

One World Shorts

Wed 20 Nov – 8:45 PM

Skipping gaily from a rural Japanese village to a baking hot Athens and following a Hong Kong activist resettled in the US, this collection highlights connection.

Power Alley (2023)

Dir: Lillah Halla | Brazil, France, Uruguay

Wed 20 Nov – 9:00 PM

Menarca filmmaker Lillah Halla returned to the Cannes Film Festival with this electro dance music-driven story about a promising young volleyball player facing down the patriarchy in São Paulo. Sofia (Ayomi Domenica Dias) is on the cusp of making it big, with the Youth Volleyball Contest on the horizon and scouts checking her out. Things are going well with girlfriend and fellow teammate Bel (Loro Bardot), too, when she discovers, much to her shock, that she’s pregnant in a conservative country where women do not have the choice of a legal abortion. Everything spirals from there in this bracing drama that was nominated for Cannes’ Queer Palm, Caméra d’Or, Critics’ Week Grand Prize and won the FIPRESCI Parallel Sections Award.

CENTREPIECE
Gondola (2023)

Dir: Veit Helmer | Germany, Georgia

Thu 21 Nov – 7:00 PM

Lesbian love language has never assumed quite such whimsically creative dimensions before as in Veit Helmer’s unutterably charming, Georgian-set Gondola – never mind that there’s nary a word spoken throughout the entire film! Iva and Nino are cable car attendants, each assigned to an orange cabin suspended high above the Caucasus Mountains, ever passing in opposite directions. Both have to fend off their ogre-like boss’s oafish overtures as they put their energies into devising ever more ingenious ways to advance their mid-air flirtations with one another. While it mightn’t contain dialogue, in any conventional, verbal sense, Gondola nonetheless represents a gloriously cinematic fusion of sound and vision, melding an Amélie-like sensibility and stunning cinematography to winsome music from Malcolm Arison and Icelandic singer-songwriter Sóley. Nino Soselia and Mathilde Irrmann are note-perfect as the two cable-car attendants; their romantic airborne antics will give you all the lift you need too!

Kuch Spane Apney (2024)

Dir: Sridhar Rangayan | India

Fri 22 Nov – 6:15 PM

Co-writer/director duo Sridhar Rangayan and Saagar Gupta return for the follow up to their 2018 breakout, multi-award-winning hit Evening Shadows with this big-hearted, big-songed international melodrama that showcases contemporary Indian filmmaking fused with modern pop. Kartik (Satvik Bhatia) and Aman (Arpit Chaudhary) are in a closeted relationship unbeknownst to their respective families. When Kartik moves overseas to study, he has a fling with an amorous local, Stefan (Theodor Wickenbergh), which sends shockwaves through their relationship. Meanwhile, back in Mumbai, all is not as it seems with Kartik’s family as revelations are soon to surface. Tackling themes of love, family, bigotry and acceptance knows no borders – Kuch Sapney Apne is big on drama, big on songs and, most of all, big on heart.

A House Is Not a Disco (2024)

Dir: Brian J. Smith| USA

Fri 22 Nov – 6:30 PM

This feature length doco by Sense8 actor Brian J. Smith is both a celebration and a meditation of the Fire Island Pines community. Set within the iconic queer beach town located 50 miles from NYC, A House Is Not a Disco presents a vibrant kaleidoscope of intimate stories shared by locals and newcomers who reflect on the island’s rich history and its role as a “homo-normative” haven for self-expression and liberation. Spend time with the edgy to the eccentric who live, work or will pursue a season (or two) of completely uninhibited pleasure. From epic party highs through to the height of the AIDS crisis, Fire Island is a community bonded by joy, sadness, freedom, experience and connection.

Marcello Mio (2024)

Dir: Christophe Honoré | France, Italy

Fri 22 Nov – 9:00 PM

Prepare to enter the multiverse of French and Italian cinema as some of these nations’ brightest stars play alter-images in this metatextual musing from Sorry Angel director Christophe Honoré. Led by mother and daughter duo Chiara Mastroianni and the legendary Catherine Deneuve, the latter gives some dubious advice to the former on auditioning for actor-turned-director Nicole Garcia (From the Land of the Moon). When the try-out goes awry, Chiara’s wigged out by a note to play it more like her late, great father, La Dolce Vita lead Marcello Mastroianni. Taking it to heart, Chiara borrows a suit from her ex-husband Benjamin Biolay, losing herself in the role of a lifetime. Uncannily adopting Marcello’s mannerisms, an encounter with a soldier (Fleabag‘s Hugh Skinner, one of the few performers not playing a version of themselves) goes to fascinating places in this genderqueer musing on what it takes to step out of the shadows of those who made us.

Fragments of a Life Loved (2024)

Dir: Chloé Barreau | Italy

Fri 22 Nov – 9:00 PM

Three decades of videos, photographs and letters are patchworked together, telling the story of French filmmaker Chloé Barreau’s own love life in an honest yet narcissistic style (it could be no other way). The ex-lovers – and there are many – speak openly on camera about their falling for, being in love and falling out of love with Barreau. The director herself is a mere flash of a reflection in the camera. The story being built is as much about those she loved as it is about her. Possibly one of the most blatantly honest of ‘tell-alls’, this visual history’s a chronological countdown of lovers sharing what drew them to her and the experience of loving a woman who would not let herself be labelled. At times a libidinous cad but also a romantic, she affected change in others to embrace being loved and being loving. As one old flame says, “It’s like landing in a new country and saying, ‘Wow, it’s beautiful. Has this been here all the time?’ Love her or not, Barreau’s story will reel you in hook, line and sinker.