Fear and Survival: Being LGBTQ in Iraq

Best Years

June 2024 •English

Heartbroken, listening to Enya, and making Mickey Mouse pancakes in his underwear, the last thing Brooklynite Troy wants to do is welcome new neighbors. But when he sees Abel’s captivating smile, his hope for a rekindled romance with his ex-boyfriend Chance gets officially placed on the back burner. As Troy and Abel’s tender getting-to-know-you dates start to progress, Troy finds himself caught between the allure of new love and a long-fought-for second chance with the one who got away. Troy’s roommate Pat is a maybe bisexual activist trying to kick off a political career; Billie, their somewhat intrusive landlord by proxy can’t seem to find her place…. literally; and Lee, an insightful yoga instructor, is trying to heal and channel her inner goddess. As these late twentysomethings navigate their anxieties, life choices, and passions, they find there’s no problem that a night of pizza and wine with friends can’t help fix.

The Fishbowl Girl

November 2024 •Chinese

Wei, a young lesbian, goes to Thailand on a graduation trip. After witnessing an intimate interaction between the girl she fancies and a male friend, she goes to a Thai massage parlour, but the experience isn't as beautiful as she envisioned.

Chabuca

April 2024 •Spanish

The story of Ernesto Pimentel’s life, raised humbly after losing his mother, inspires him to create the iconic character La Chola Chabuca, an Andean figure who captivates all of Peru with her colourful skirts and high spirits.

Truth

July 2013 •English

After a chance encounter online, Caleb meets and falls head over heels for Jeremy. Soon the line between love and lies blur. Struggling to keep his past a secret, including his mentally ill mother, Caleb slowly succumbs to his darker side. A sudden turn of events finds Jeremy held captive, until Caleb's quest for the truth is revealed.

Vampires: Brighter in Darkness

January 2011 •English

After a disastrous relationship, Toby Brighter is set up on a blind date by his sister, Charlotte. Toby's date, Lucas Delmore, is charming, charismatic, and physically flawless. He is everything Toby could have wished for--except that Lucas is a 1500 year old vampire. Before long, Toby is plunged into the dark world of demons, black magic, and the supernatural, where nobody is safe and nothing is what it seems...

Punks

January 2000 •English

The life and times of a group of twentysomething black gay men living in West Hollywood.

AFTER SHOCK: 2000 A.D

May 2024 •English

It's 1999. The Y2K bug is set to destroy society as we know it. Damon, Graham, Malcolm and Micky must prepare for the apocalypse, before it’s too late…

Perfect Words

February 2024 •English

A dying knight struggles to complete one final letter.

Jesus Is Dead

August 2017 •Tagalog

When Iyay, a single mother, learns that her estranged husband has died, she drags the entire family on a road trip from Cebu to Dumaguete to attend the funeral.

The Dress

April 2022 •Spanish

Marta has found a dress that is not hers in her boyfriend Fer's room, all the trust she has placed in him over years of relationship is shaken.

On the Go

September 2024 •Spanish

To be, or not to be a mother, that is the question. A road movie where music, sexuality and contradictions accompany the main characters on a trip through southern Spain in a '67 Corvair. Milagros stretches a carefree youth in her last years of fertility while Jonathan seeks solace in Grindr in order to overcome abandonment issues.

Lowlifes

April 2024 •English

The survival instincts of a road-tripping family are put to the test when they have no other choice but to stay the night at a remote homestead.

Normal

October 2013 •English

Jim - a lonely, troubled young man who works as an apartment superintendent, is replaying his tortured past. Through a series of flashbacks, and interactions with the mysterious tenants he is surrounded by, we not only learn of his dark secrets, but also what it means to be normal. The answers he finds in his journey will shatter not only his perceptions of the past, but also his fragile grip on reality.

Wife's Woman 2

Invalid date •Korean

The Wall

May 2017 •English

An American sniper and his spotter engage in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with an Iraqi sniper.

OK

August 2007 •Portuguese

Two twenty-something boys in a public restroom. They sniff coke, talk about sex, get dirty. But the film takes on another tone as they reveal what it is that they really want.

Romeo's Kiss

November 2007 •French

How do we fall in love? While rehearsing the love scene between Romeo and Juliette, Cécile, Thomas and Jérémie, barely twenty years old, each bring, in their own way, an answer to this question.

Now

January 2003 •Danish

A man and a woman meet in 1960. They marry because that's what you are supposed to do. But something goes wrong on their wedding night. They have no idea what to do with each other. Sexually. Emotionally. The husband meets a man who knows what to do with his sexuality. Suddenly a hand can do something no hand has done before and lips something no lips have ever done. The two men have a secret love affair. But there is a problem: The woman. And she has something up her sleeve. Will she act? Yes, she will. What happens? Nobody knows. Until now.

A Date for Mad Mary

September 2016 •English

"Mad" Mary McArdle returns to Drogheda after a short spell in prison for something she'd rather forget. Back home, everything and everyone has changed. Her best friend, Charlene, is about to get married and Mary is maid of honor. When Charlene refuses Mary a 'plus one' on the grounds that she probably couldn't find a date, Mary becomes determined to prove her wrong.

Robert Mapplethorpe

March 1988 •English

The Robert Mapplethorpe documentary, from 1988--one year before he died--is an excellent examination of one of the most controversial of American photographers. British documentarian Nigel Finch does an outstanding job fusing interviews with Mr. Mapplethorpe himself, with critic and author Edmund White, and with several of Mapplethorpe's subjects as well, with numerous shots of the man's work. Mapplethorpe, gay, did not hesitate to photograph what he wanted to without fear of reprisal or censorship. Indeed, a good number of his pieces were not shown in the documentary at its original airing on PBS with the comment, "Considered Unsuitable for Viewing On This Transmission." His openly sexual work can at times be more than shocking, but it is always powerful and direct; as critic Lynn Davies says in the documentary, he did not pose people but photographed them doing what they would normally do in the course of their lives.