The films in this section explore identity, sexuality, and gender across diverse stories, narratives, and places, finding and creating complex communities where we can be with each other. The concept of ‘Queer’ has multiple interpretations, and this is an approximation of the various meanings we can find for it.

These seven short films range from finding something more than sex in a hook up app to reimagining 19th-century portraits from the Levant Region. They portray love and sex within a trans community in the United States, a trans woman running a phone scam in Chile, a queer family facing eviction, a lesbian migrant love story in conservative Hungary, and a failed film rehearsal exploring queer identities in Korea.

In a world that is facing the rise of fascism once again, these films remind us of how we have resisted and will continue to do so.

IGNACIO JURICIC – CURATOR

LOVE FROM THE SHADOW

by Ale Gálvez – Chile

Marta works as a telephone fraudster in her improvised office under a bridge, where she lives all alone. On Mother’s Day, Marta contacts her daughter Laura, but she doesn’t want to have any contact with her, so she lies to her about an illness, and they agree to meet. Marta waits until nightfall, her daughter does not arrive. Finally, she takes out her cell phone and continues to scam.

SHAME

by Hadi Moussally – Lebanon

In the 19th century, in the Levant region, Salma Zahore, along with her parents and neighbors, participated in a photoshoot using a long exposure technique. At the end of it, Salma decided to take off her coat, revealing her body. Unaware of the chaos this gesture could cause within her circle, she did not know it could lead to shame (عيب).

DON’T LET THEM RUIN YOUR LIFE

by Vozko Ramirez – Chile

METHOD ACTING AND TRUE LOVE

by Sungbin Byun – Korea

During the rehearsal of the short film God’s Daughter Dances, Hae-Joon faces difficulty on his first acting session, and Woo-kyeom is having a hard time playing his gay role.

SWALLOGING DUST

by Achille Bocquier – France

A young man drives aimlessly searching for someone to spend the night with, carrying with him the fires and smoke of past summers. But he is not alone; from his bedroom window, he can see a tree, the only witness to his wandering.

AUTOGYNEPHILE

by Iona Hart – USA

Autogynephile documents a trans lesbian culture which may or may not have existed in America during the late 2010s. What does trans culture mean, and how do we learn to desire one another within or without such culture? Testimony is taken from women involved in the filmmaker’s life.

LIGHT UP

by Elissa de Brito – Hungary/Brazil

In contemporary Budapest, a city enriched by immigrant culture but simultaneously immersed in conservatism, Zsófia, a young Hungarian and Luiza, a Brazilian with temporary stay in the country, build a safe space of love and connection between their two worlds. a seemingly irrelevant incident reveals the chasm between their different origins. Both will be forever changed by this intense love story.