Six short films from two programs are among the highlights of the last four days of the 30th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
Worldly Affairs The idea of queer youth as the ultimate outsiders binds together this remarkable collection of global short films.
Still (director: Lucky Kuswandi, Indonesia/USA) Guy is a gay Asian teenager looking to resolve his loneliness, and broken ties with a domineering father, through sex. The filmmakers grafted this visually haunting, dialogue-free story together with stories from their lives. The digital photography — an empty train platform, a forlorn bathhouse — conjures up a surprisingly entertaining sense of angst and desolation.
The Bath Director Sachin Kundalkar's astonishingly sensual tribute to his Indian city's army of male sex-workers begins with the ordeal of a handsome young rural man's efforts to pick up a few rupees to send to his farmbound, desperately poor family. While telling his mom that he's holding down an office job, the young man actually occupies a station almost below that of the untouchables. He shares a roach-ridden room, a primitive shower runs dry just as he has soaped up, clients treat him roughly and have to be constantly reminded to use a condom. Finally, just when he's resigned to one more awful trick, his luck changes, and a frumpy, middle-aged man gives him a very hands-on bath. Beginning with a washing of the feet as might be done by the Pope ministering to the poor, the bath becomes a sublime exercise of an almost unsullied love of the flesh that unites the flesh with the spirit.
Two Nights Rolmar Baldonado orchestrates a split-screen evocation of two profoundly different dates that a Chinese-born rent boy undergoes in a big Australian city. The beauty of the cute young white Aussie who won't kiss finally pales in comparison to the courtly culinary hospitality offered by a love-hungry, aging Greek immigrant.
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A scene from Bugcrush, part of the Crush program. Photo: Frameline |
David An unemployed Mexican businessman's chance encounter with a handsome mute youth becomes a ravishing lunch-hour matinee that neither is soon likely to forget.
Daddy's Boy Director Tristan Hamilton dedicates this very amusing slapstick account of a videostore erotic tape mix-up to his own recently deceased poppa. (Castro, 6/23)
Crush A strong program highlighted by a truly amazing entry into the little-explored subgenre of erotic horror.
Bugcrush Carter Smith devilishly leads us astray in this seemingly familiar tale of a good boy sniffing out a wild night out with his high school's very bad boy. This one could be the pilot episode for a very creepy queer cable show. (Roxie, 6/23)