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Full-time peacenik and part-time reservist, music store clerk Noam (Ohad Knoller) lives a comfortable existence with his idealistic trendoid roommates, Israeli-Idol addict and restaurant manager Yali (Alon Friedmann), and aspiring fashion designer Lulu (Daniela Wircer). A bevy of naïve, left-wing lovelies, they analyse their romantic dalliances and organize feel-good but toothless anti-occupation raves. Noam encounters the alluring, intense Ashraf (Yousef Sweid) during a casually humiliating checkpoint body search. A mutual longing overcomes cultural and political taboos, igniting a passionate affair. Enchanted with Noam and his Tel Aviv “bubble” lifestyle, Noam and his roommates find their professed liberalism tested while helping Ashraf to illegally remain in Israel. However, Ashraf himself is threatened with an imminent discovery. His mounting family obligations and the political tensions seem guaranteed to burst everyone’s bubble… A gay West Bank Story, celebrated director Eytan Fox (Walk on Water, Yossi & Jagger) merges romantic comedy with political tragedy in this authentic portrait of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An expression for life in relatively peaceful Tel Aviv, image+nation 20’s Opening Night Film, The Bubble compassionately assesses the limits of friendship and political idealism when confronted with formidably harsh realities. – BP

Ambitious, openly-gay orphan Su-Min nurtures dreams of studying art design in Seoul. A factory worker by day and private chauffeur by night, Su-Min rebuffs advances from a drunken Jae-Min – who later turns out to be a factory executive from a conservative and wealthy family. Although Jae-Min manages to save Su-Min’s job from redundancy cuts, he quits in pride – and unwillingly becomes an escort at a gentlemen’s club. Doggedly yet gently persistent, Jae-Min weathers Su-Min’s bracing rejections in their stormy courtship – until unexpectedly – both fall passionately in love. However, their newfound bliss is already imperilled by Jae-Min’s impending engagement and parental objections. As life takes a surprising detour, can they dig themselves out – with no regrets? Out director Leesong Hee-il marries sociological observation to formidable directorial skill in his impressive debut feature film. No Regret has achieved local and international acclaim and box-office success. Characterized by naturalistic performances, revealing subplots and sublime cinematography, No Regret is an unflinchingly erotic portrait of contemporary gay life, an audacious and edgy triumph from Korean independent filmmaking. – BP

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As the brutal institutions and tools of apartheid begin to solidify in Cape Town, feisty Amina’s (Sheetal Sheth) Location Café is an oasis for social outcasts: a black waitress, a “coloured” business partner, Jacob (a nuanced performance by David Dennis) and a white postmistress Madeleine (graceful Grethe Fox). Braving unjust laws and frequent police incursions, Amina is thunderstruck upon meeting a demure, decidedly married mother, Miriam (Lisa Ray of Bollywood, Hollywood, Water). Although Miriam manages to subdue her fascination with unconventional Amina, she finds herself slowly confronting familiar and familial constraints. As Jacob and Madeleine start a tentative affair, Amina begins giving Miriam driving lessons with potentially liberating consequences… A blend of Baghdad Café and Driving Miss Daisy, author and first-time director Shamim Sarif’s assured direction reveals how very little distinguishes familial obligation from political repression and self-imposed inhibitions, without being heavily moralizing or preachy. A film about savouring bittersweet triumphs as one’s personal and public decency and dignity face continuous outrage, The World Unseen reminds us resistance isn’t always futile and is, paradoxically, sometimes the only thing which makes us gloriously visible. – BP

Urban artist, Zach (Boston Public, NYPD Blue alumnus Trevor Wright) finds himself marooned in San Pedro; a short-order cook, he dreams of frying bigger fish. Abandoning his prestigious art-school scholarship to help raise his nephew Cody, he juggles his ailing father, his faltering relationship with girlfriend Tori, and his sister, slacker mom Jeanne’s (Six Feet Under’s Tina Holmes) domestic dramas. Growing up faster than his privileged friends, Zach finds solace in his passion for riding pipelines with his best friend’s gay older brother, Shaun (Brad Rowe, Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss). As Zach slowly but surely succumbs to Shaun’s loving and tender persistence, how will he balance his own ambitions and dream against familial realities? Jonah Markowitz’s directorial feature debut about problems in paradise, Shelter proves that gritty, intelligent drama about class tensions, coming out and family is perfectly compatible with gorgeous boys of summer in (and out of) wetsuits. An steller soundtrack, fluid cinematography and spot-on performances make Shelter another masterpiece of the coming-out genre. – BP

A chance encounter with a young deaf man forces a 41-year-old to face his ambiguous future in today’s youth-obsessed gay world.

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Patriarch Gabriel Stern (Claude Brasseur) has been running “The Blue Parrot,” a nightclub in scenic Nice. Having performed as “Gabriella” for over 40 years, an exhausted Gabriel asks his fellow performer, faded magician Nicky (Gérard Lanvin) to close up the nightclub for him, and goes home. The next morning, Nicky receives difficult news: Gabriel died in his sleep. At the reading of the will, Nicky is stunned when his godchildren by different partners, women’s magazine editor Marianne (Géraldine Pailhas) and guppie accountant Nino (Michael Cohen) inherit The Blue Parrot. Marianne and Nino almost immediately, and despite strenuous objections from Nicky, put the cabaret up for sale. As complex relationships unravel and hidden histories come to light, can hard-luck Nicky, haunted by Gabriel’s imploring ghost, forestall its demise? Thierry Klifa’s heart-warming, sharply-written masterpiece about second chances in stage lives. A radiant Miou-Miou (Simone) and a typically insouciant Catherine Deneuve (Alice) headline this star-studded cast as feuding ex-spouses. Emmanuel Béart’s breathy singing and pouty presence binds an intergenerational melodramedy about families in flux – and where sometimes even the straight people end up being queerer than folk! – BP

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Though guys on the “downlow” have always been around, it’s only recently that a name has been put to their surreptitious activities and a variety of artistic endeavours created to depict them. This trio of sexy, well-acted episodes from a new Here! Networks TV series is a worthy addition to the genre, offering a wide-ranging look at the different ways African-American men secretly engage in homosexual activity while outwardly living a straight life. In episode one, married buppie Wes finds himself drawn to his brother-in-law Trent. In the middle episode, a conflicted man, Robert falls for Austin, a younger guy from Belize, but hides the relationship from the key woman in his life. In the final segment, a playa named Boo slings his stuff around for anything on two legs to discover that promiscuity can have some serious consequences. Taken together, these three provocative storylines – with rich R&B-infused music – effectively delineate the variety of social and class-related situations that lead Black men away from lives of honesty and openness and into the world of the downlow.

It’s the 70s and the look of love is retro. As charismatic, imprisoned Johan awaits sentencing, queer actor-cinematographer Vallois attempts to recreate their once-passionate romance. He desperately seeks a star to replace his jailed lover, at which point his film becomes a meditation on spontaneous, unbridled sensuality, and interracial romance. Vallois’ newly-restored Johan features the obligatory heterosexual presence and gorgeous bodies in pre-steroidal glory. Although Philippe Vallois’ controversial and ground-breaking film was accepted completely uncensored at Cannes 1976, it was rated X by the France’s censorship board. Before its commercial release, he was forced to remove the beautiful erections and hot fisting scenes that are now staples of porn. Casually referencing films like Genet’s Chant d’Amour and Pasolini’s Teroema, Vallois’ Johan : mon été 1975 combines cinéma-vérité with a frank and unapologetically powerful eroticism. Alternately hilarious and refreshingly sexy, it subverts contemporary tastes and trends in commercial porn. Delightfully irreverent and politically incorrect, Johan : mon été 1975 is a rare treat for both connoisseurs of cinematic history – and porn.

A career girl’s adventures in the typing pool.

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Featuring Melonie Diaz (Raising Victor Vargas), Nicole Vicius (Half Nelson) and Daniela Sea (The L Word), Jamie Babbit’s (But I’m a Cheerleader) latest film is a riot-grrrl rom-com with a queer spin and a killer soundtrack. Eighteen-year-old Anna works as a clerk in a plastic surgery clinic and is preparing to be the maid of honour at her sister’s wedding; her girlfriend just dumped her and her college application was rejected. Life is looking bleak… until one night when she catches Sadie spray-painting the clinic on behalf of Clits In Action, a queer feminist direct-action group. Before long, Anna’s standing lookout for the Clits as they righteously reclaim public space. Soon after that she’s also rejecting the institution of marriage, throwing herself into mosh pits, dyeing her hair pink… and falling in love. But Sadie has a girlfriend, the C(i)A isn’t getting enough media attention, and conflicts abound between its members. What’s a freshly minted radical to do? Come up with a daring plan to take over the world and get the girl, of course! – AZ

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Doe-eyed, gorgeous socialite Dorian Gray (David Gallagher, Seventh Heaven) meets artist Basil Hallward, a Bruce Nauman-esque multimedia artist at his Warholian happenings. Dorian becomes the spellbound Basil’s lover and muse. His ingenious electronic video portrait, however, makes Dorian fearful of the ravages of time. Dorian forges a pact with The Devil: As his portrait ages, Dorian himself remains exquisitely handsome. Basil is callously discarded for amoral aesthete Lord Henry Wotton. Dorian, mesmerized by his limitless privilege, is drawn towards betrayal and murder, when angelic Gabriel reappears. Duncan Roy (of AKA fame) dazzles us with his audacious, openly gay interpretation of Oscar Wilde’s classic novella of loss and redemption. His signature visual wit mimics Wilde’s own scalding adages. Hedi Slimane’s elegantly spare outfits complement the minimalist sets, and contrast sharply with a score lush with excerpts from Erik Satie, Wagner and the haunting space-rock of Mogwai. A magnificent companion piece for our deeply shallow times, where the measure of a (gay) man’s worth is merely material – and transitory. – BP

Planet Out Short Film Award winner, SCARRED tells the tale of a young man scarred (literally) by his past has to face the future when he falls for an unusual guy.

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Lesbian lovers and step-sisters. Jews anti-Nazi resisters. Artistic collaborators and survivors. Born in Nantes, France, wealthy and witty Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob) and Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe) adopt masculine attire, gender-neutral names and call it Surrealism. After Hitler invades France, they flee to Jersey Island, continuing their revolutionary experiments with gender, subject-object positions and role-playing. As Nazism darkens their artistic horizons, they redirect their relentless creativity into composing subversive tracts, urging Nazi militiamen to mutiny. Arrested and sentenced to death, both narrowly survive their imprisonment. Cutting-edge filmmaker Barbara Hammer deftly weaves a compelling tapestry featuring interviews with curators and Jersey residents, dramatic re-enactments, and dazzling selections from their body of work. A riveting portrait that they might have made themselves, it is guided by Cahun’s observation “Under the mask is another mask, I will never finish lifting all these faces.” A documentary masterpiece tightly bound by an ethereal score, Lover Other rightfully situates them beside fellow avant-gardistes Bataille and Breton, as the auctioneer’s gavel comes down on these artists and lovers in a dangerous time. – BP

A new kind of family is on the rise : one headed up by gay and lesbian parents who, as homosexual life partners, choose to have and raise children. Our same-sex marriage bill has become law and for the past few years, lesbians have had the option of using fertility clinics and sperm banks. All that is an open door to what some people call a “gaby boom”. But what is it really like to be a gay parent? What challenges lie ahead for homosexual parents and their kids? Here is a societal snapshot of this phenomenon.

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Although Quebec was Canada’s first province to legalize the adoption of children by same-sex couples, many systemic barriers remain firmly entrenched. Mommy Mommy chronicles the extraordinary lengths undertaken by highly successful commercial musicians Linda and Mona (of Falling Grace fame) to have a child. From home inseminations, negotiating with international adoption organizations, battling the Secrétariat à l’adoption internationale (S.A.I.), and filing complaints with the Quebec Human Rights Commission, how ever will Linda and Mona succeed? A frank and touching portrayal of their heartbreak and triumphs, Mommy Mommy is filled with lawyers, social workers - and loving lesbian parents. It offers hope to Quebec’s LGBT families, who face continuing economic and social discrimination around issues of adoption and parenting. Mommy Mommy features interviews with Hélène Zylberszac (who won a human rights case against the Royal Victoria Hospital’s fertility clinic for refusing to inseminate her), and award-winning author and noted wit Anne-Marie MacDonald wryly observing that “Stephen Harper wants me.” – BP

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North American cable and mainstream television is saturated with LGBT characters, images and programming. Attempting to move beyond camp and cult status, how are we to interpret these seemingly positive stereotypes of LGBT people? How reflective are they of the conservative economic and political forces in the U.S.? Assistant Professor at the prestigious Annenberg School of Communication, Katherine Sender’s entertaining and provocative documentary analyzes this exploding media trend. Academics and media analysts deliver invigorating discussions on the roles played by business, class, ethnicity, and market segmentation in this phenomenon. Could the new gay visibility be more about consumerism than human or political rights? Liberally sprinkled with unforgettable moments from hit shows like Ellen, The L Word, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Six Feet Under, Survivor and Will & Grace, it challenges the extent to which such portrayals actually deviate from the straight and narrow. Further Off the Straight & Narrow makes an invaluable contribution to queer media studies, and is a superb documentary companion to Epstein and Friedman’s ground-breaking The Celluloid Closet. – BP

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Set in 1969 Greenwich Village following the Stonewall riots, Lez Be Friends is a wacky, loving homage to the great sitcoms of the ‘70s. Putting a gay(er) twist on Three’s Company, producer Stephen Israel (Boy Culture) and writer/director Glenn Gaylord tell the story of Ricca Pike, a butch lesbian who must pretend to be straight in order to live with her two (inevitably shirtless) gay male roommates, lest she incurs the wrath of their lesbo-phobic landlord, Truman DuBois.

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Stunning dancers with fiery footwear create an atmospheric mix at La Marshal, “the first gay tango hall in all the world” and the Buenos Aires’ hot spot for tangled limbs and smouldering looks.

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A Jonathan and David story gets the British romantic comedy treatment! Ambitious, uptight prize-winning Jonathan (Christopher Colquhoun channelling Hugh Grant) meets David (Stephen Billington), a laid-back, straight-talking pharmaceutical marketing representative during a marketing awards gala. After they get Biblical, awkwardness ensues when Jonathan realizes that David is his client. Aware that his tart and tartan boss Rob enforces a strict policy concerning fraternization between the agency and its client roster, Jonathan puts the brakes on his budding romance – to David’s indignation. A battle of will, willies and wits develops as they wrestle with an undeniable attraction. As happiness and love challenge his ‘commitment issues’, will Jonathan manage a moment of honesty before the launch for the Ecstasy-like Viva? Oh Happy Day is Ian Poitier’s delightful debut, a real upper of a movie at this year’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in 2007. A revealing look at love, rapid-fire one-liners and wicked humour dominate this rich tale of blended and extended families, international romance and office politics. Light, uplifting and frequently surprising, Oh Happy Day is the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down! – BP

Mexican-born filmmaker Téo Hernandez settled in Paris in 1976, where he lived and worked until his death from AIDS in 1993. It was also in 1976 that he conjured his beautiful Salomé, a dream-like re-vision of the religious content, Orientalist iconography, and gender politics of the Biblical legend. The film heralded the emergence of a new movement in French experimental filmmaking, dubbed “l’École du corps” (“the School of the Body”). Comprised largely of gay and lesbian filmmakers working in Super 8, this movement approached themes of the body and desire in lush and original ways. Salomé exemplifies the powerfully operatic quality of many of the films, a quality seldom associated with Super 8 before or since. The importance of Hernandez’s body of work to France’s cultural heritage is now well established, yet his films are seldom exhibited outside of the country. This special screening of Salomé, in a 16-mm blow-up print of the Super 8 original, is a rare opportunity for audiences west of the Atlantic to experience the poetic vision of this eminent filmmaker. Programmer Greg Youmans will be on hand to discuss the film’s history, l’École du corps, and challenges now facing queer work in Super 8.

Attacked by street hustlers, a wounded Hsiao-Kang is rescued by some Bangladeshi workers. Rawang (Malaysian sensation Norman bin Atun), derives consolation from nursing him, sleeping close to him on a mattress retrieved from a dumpster. In a parallel story, disgruntled waitress Chyi (Chen Shiang-Chyi) cares for her female boss’s paralyzed son. As Hsiao-Kang gradually recovers, he finds himself a conductor for the repressed longings of the boss, Chyi and Rawang. A mysterious haze envelops Kuala Lumpur; Attributed variously to immigrants burning garbage inderground or Indonesian forest fires, something is certainly smouldering between our protagonists… Controversial director Tsai Ming-Liang shows us, in gritty details, unsettling truths about bodies in motion and rest. Initially banned in his native Malaysia, his hypnotic, directorial style eloquently captures the plight of displaced minorities with unflinching honesty. A film about unexpected pleasures in unlikely places, it features a rich multilingual soundtrack against a lean script. Abandoned construction sites, and derelict alleys are infused with a subversive, subtle eroticism in this film about the hardscrabble lives of migrant workers suspended between helplessness and hope. - BP

Sometimes even a monster home in the suburbs isn’t big enough to contain the baggage of one complicated couple.

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Get set for another (Platinum) Blonde Ambition Tour! Andrea Meyerson’s splendid anniversary special celebrates a quarter century of disarming, old-school feminist and all-round funny girl, Kate Clinton. Abu Ghraib, dead popes, fashions in menstruation, The L Word and our culture of surveillance, all is fair game for this grande dame of American political and queer comedy. Our kind of senior bush administrator, Clinton’s take-no-prisoners comedic stylings leave us doubled up, as she stands up for our freedom to hoot loudly and proudly. Renowned director/producer Meyerson, (creator of the Laughing Matters series), herself a media pioneer, returns with another inspirational and outrageous show, sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). It features footage of Clinton’s partner, fellow U-Hauler and firebrand lawyer Urvashi Vaid, and an uplifting homage by current NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. Kate Clinton: 25th Anniversary Tour is littered with loving tributes from stars Melissa Etheridge, Lily Tomlin, Cris Williamson and those ultra-dykes, The Kinsey Sicks. Come and experience anew the raw power of women cackling together! – BP

What good is a gun without bullets? Festival favourite Nicolaou (Why I’ll Never Trust you in 200 Words or Less, Interviews with My Next Girlfriend and Show Me) delivers another stunning short about aging, loving and what happens when we get fed up.

Finding your heart can first mean losing it. Anoka feels deep emptiness until she walks into a TV and her heart begins to glow for the ballerina inside in this gorgeous animation.

A pulsating take on The Graduate seen through the eyes of two young Mexican lesbians.

The wanderings of a young girl with a lingering obsession.

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A Bronx teen unsuccessfully juggles multiple identities to please her friends and family in this spectacular award-winning short.

Yorkshire, England, 1952. Ruth leaves the monotony of her work at a textile mill and lives out a secret life.

One quiet Sunday morning, a couple’s argument takes on new meaning when overheard by the downstairs neighbours.