NQV Media bounces back with new compilation of gay shorts, THE MALE GAZE: HIDE AND SEEK

Five different countries are represented in the excellent new group of GLBT short features from NQV Media, THE MALE GAZE: HIDE AND SEEK -- in which the "closet" figures ever so strongly in all but one of the films. (In that one, it is pretty much laughed at and refused even so much as a discussion.) 

This is yet another grouping of smart, subtle shorts in which NQV seems to specialze, and it's a nice comeback from the last grouping, which was "all American" and as obvious and one-note as you might expect from that location.

The first of these short films is actually spoken in English (it's a German/Brazilian co-production), and it's both charming and refreshing. LOLO, directed by Leandro Goddinho and Paulo Menezes, tackles the idea of too-gay vs heteroflexible, in its tale of rather young schoolkids coming to terms with coming out. This 14-minute charmer ends just at the moment that a further story is about to unfold, but it seems the perfect ending for this short, nonetheless.

THE DEN is among the darkest of the NQV shorts I've so far seen, as its Italian director Lorenzo Caproni details in just 15 minutes what happens when old flames Luca and Christian meet again after some years have passed. Bondage, S&M, and graphic sex pile up, and the film proves as ugly and sad as Lolo was appealing and sweet. Unfortunately it is probably a bit more believable, as well.

In Portuguese from Brazilian director Paulo Roberto, the titular character STANLEY is one we never see. What we do view are two hunky young men and their closet/beard female who take off on a motorcycle for a lakeside trip during which she falls asleep and the two guys have hot sex. TrustMovies must admit that the early scenes of plucking fowl did not fully integrate for him with the rest of the film. Still, the use of suggestion, the mix of memory and present moment and the realistic performances go far in making this 20-minute movie work surprisingly well.

Slovakia represents Eastern Europe in this compilation, but director David Benedek's IF ONLY YOU WERE MINE seems to me to be the least of this lot. Beautifully shot and well acted, its story, however, has been told so many times already that there's not much new to explore here, as a young man's first love turns out to a player and a user. Soap opera-like, the film also reduces the poor, smitten young woman who clearly cares about our hero to, as usual in far too many gay films, near-nothing status.  

In the London-set NO STRINGS, another theme we've seen quite a bit in both straight and gay romances -- the hook-up that just might turn into something more --  is given a most interesting workout via the pertinent and sometimes succulent details we learn about the two men involved, one from Wales, the other from Ireland. Director Eoin Maher draws wonderful performances from his two leads, and visually his 23-minute film is consistently alive and a pleasure to view.

The Male Gaze: Hide and Seek makes its debut from NQV Media this Friday, January 22 -- available worldwide on Amazon Prime Video and Vimeo. Click here to view the trailer, and here to learn more information.

Vital, joyous and as important as life: Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos' BENDING THE ARC

What a thrill, a joy, an unexpected amazement it is to see a new documentary that addresses (other than global warming) one of the most important subjects in our world today -- the right to health care for all human beings -- and does this is a manner that first makes you sit up and take notice and soon has you glued to the screen in wonder, and then in tears -- of thanks -- for the good work the people you've met have done and are continuing to do. If you can sit dry-eyed through BENDING THE ARC, I shall be very surprised. Boy, do we need this movie now!

As directed by the team of Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos (shown above, with Kos on the right) and written by Cori Shepherd Stern, the documentary covers some 35 years, during which its protagonists -- we begin with just three of them; today there are many more -- who've formed a group called Partners in Health (PIH) slowly bring some decent health care to the general populace of Haiti and then go on to Peru, where they help solve the problem of Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, eventually help bring relief from AIDS to developing countries, and finally move to post-genocide Rwanda, where we watch and marvel as a fine health care system is developed.

The three (then) young people who form this group are (shown above, from left to right) Jim Yong Kim, Ophelia Dahl and Paul Farmer. We see the steps along the way in each of the situations they encounter and so become aware of, not simply the problems -- plenty, of course -- but how each is tackled and (in some form) surmounted. Initially we may find ourselves thinking, "Oh, some more do-gooders," but soon the good that they are doing countermands most other concerns. It's real. And it counts.

When the movie becomes the most personal, showing us individuals suffering from TB and then AIDS, along with what happens to them, it also hits hardest and strongest. Also powerful and anger-provoking are the near-constant attempts by academics, politicians and the medical profession, as well as the powers that be, internationally (initially, The World Bank is one of these), to undermine the PIH accomplishments, rather than embracing them and helping foot the necessary bill.

The documentary is full of excitement, suspense and surprise, as well as peopled with memorable  characters whom we grow to care about and hugely appreciate, especially some of the patients (shown above and below) to whom PIH ministers and saves, or not, along the way.

Unlike the very lightweight and close-to-embarrassing doc that opened last week, Prosperity, Bending the Arc makes no claims that its protagonists can save the world. It simply shows us what can be accomplished by smart, caring people who keep trying. What happens to these three is interesting, of course, but in the case of Mr. Kim, it is rather amazing and thrilling -- bringing a much-needed change to one of the world's most powerful organizations.

The titular "Arc" here is that metaphoric "arc of justice," which philosophers of the kindly sort tend to see bending very slowly toward justice for all. While it is difficult, under current American (not to mention much of the rest of the world's) leadership, to even remotely believe in this possibility, Bending the Arc, against all odds, will convince you that this is indeed happening.

My one caveat with the movie is that nowhere does it mention the probable problems that crop up when dealing with dictatorial governments in places where your group needs to provide help. What special arrangement had to be made, for instance, and what was "skimmed off the top"  by government officials? Of course it would not prove helpful to further endeavors to even bring up this subject, I suppose. Just as this sort of thing becomes the price of "doing business" in a corrupt country, it is undoubtedly also the price of doing good. Still, one can't help but wonder how the negotiations worked.

From Abramorama and running 102 minutes, Bending the Arc -- a shoo-in, I would think, for an Oscar nomination -- opens this Friday, October 6, in New York City at the Village East Cinema,and then the following Friday, October 13, in Boston (Sommervile Theater) Los Angeles (Laemmle's Monica Film Center),and Washington DC (Landmark's West End Cinema). On Friday, October 20, it hits San Francisco (Landmark's Opera Plaza) and Berkeley (Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas). If you're interested in arranging a screening for your community, click here then scroll down.

The 48th New York Film Festival closes with OLD CATS, REVOLUCIÓN and HEREAFTER

Another year, another fest, another prime line-up of films from around the world -- only eight of which TrustMovies managed to see (though he did a lot better this year than last).  The festival closes tomorrow with Clint Eastwood's HEREAFTER -- which is perhaps the only Eastwood movie I have liked without caveat (well, maybe a few small ones).  I'll have much more to say about this film when it opens next week.  Meanwhile you can catch the 10pm showing tomorrow, to which there are still some tickets remaining.

OLD CATS is the new film co-written and -directed by Sebastián Silva, director of last year's success The Maid, and Pedro Peirano. This is an equally fine film -- funny, pointed and moving about old age, family and unhealed wounds -- which plays at 2:45 this afternoon, but will, I am told, be released theatrically early next year. At that time I'll have a lengthy review, coupled with an excellent Q&A that the two filmmakers offered, post-press screening. You can check out the ticket situation here.

More important, by far -- because there may not be other opportunities to see it -- is the new film from and about Mexico, REVOLUCIÓN, which, for me, proved the highlight of this year's festival. A ten-part/ten-director omnibus commissioned to commemorate the centenary of the Mexican Revolution, it's about exactly what its title proclaims: revolution (in its many meanings) and what this has meant and continues to signify for the country of origin. The film -- the sections of which have been ordered in a perfect fashion so that our understanding of and appreciation for the concept burgeons as the movie progresses -- is thought-provoking and greatly moving, particularly for those who have acquaintance with Mexico's history.

Each episode works surprisingly well, though some are stronger than others.  But because each makes it point with feeling and economy, and sometimes wit, as well, the film grows into a wonderful comment on Mexico and its history -- as well as, in a couple of episodes, on the USA's relationship with its southern sister.  The film opens with a sweet but dark piece, The Welcome Ceremony (above), by Fernando Eimbcke (of Lake Tahoe), in which a local band from a hinterland village rehearses a song in honor of an upcoming arrival. While we get a slice-of-life of the band's tuba player (shown at center) and his family, this opening piece shows us just what revolution has resulted in, historically, for Mexico.

Patricia Riggen (La Misma Luna) provides via Beautiful and Beloved (above), a pointed story of a Mexican-American woman, her father, relatives, a lawyer and a funeral director -- and their relationship to both the US and Mexico. Funny, smart, sentimental and moving, Riggens' film speaks volumes in few minutes. With Lucio, Gael Garcia Bernal tackles the relationship of religion and revolution, as well as how revolutionaries are made. Tightly focused and beauti-fully filmed, this is a strong little movie and, along with his earlier Déficit, indicates that Bernal may yet become a director of note.

The Hanging Priest (above), from Amat Escalante and filmed in black-and-white, takes us to what appears to be a historical time, as two children on a donkey come upon a very odd sight in the desert. Well-played, the little film works as symbolism -- about the church and Mexico's next generation -- even as it suddenly brings us face to face with now, and what is next.

The most brilliant piece in the bunch comes from a filmmaker about whose work I've been rather "iffy" till now: Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light). His This Is My Kingdom section of Revolución, however, is so stunning that I'm in awe. The filmmaker simply shoots, documentary-style, the gathering of a horde of people from what looks like upper-middle class to lower, on some sort of holiday (Day of the Dead, maybe?) and catches snippets of their conversation. As day goes to night, activities grow crazier and the talk turns ugly. By the end, you may have quite a different notion of what revolution could bring.

In The Estate Store by Mariana Chenillo, whose award-winning Nora's Will open theatrically in NYC this coming week), we get (along with Ms Riggens' film) the most plot-heavy tale, and it's a good one. A love story blossoms in what looks like a fairly typical supermarket (think Gigante), but which, if the title is any indication, is actually owned in such a manner that its workers exert less control over their lives than the owners. Initially full of promise, joy and budding love, by the end, the tale has tuned into something darkly socio-economic in which the personal is political in a pointed, nasty way. Revolución, indeed.

R-100, which I guess is a particular Mexican highway (which probably will have its own immediate ramifications for Mexican viewers, but which escape this gringo), by Gerardo Naranjo (I'm Gonna Explode), is a short tale in which one member/level of society uses another, uses another, uses another. It's ugly, and the fact that we know almost nothing about any of the characters shown may be the point.  Faceless, useless, and users all, they prey -- out of necessity. The graffiti on the wall of the bridge maybe be a bit unsubtle but it makes its point.

The title of 30-30 evidently comes from a revolutionary song which has found its way onto beer and other commercialized uses, and this is the point of the film by Rodrigo Plá (La Zona), one of the richest and perhaps the longest of these short films. Here, the now-aged grandson of a revolutionary (I think it was Pancho Villa -- or maybe Emiliano Zapata) has been asked by the government to take part in ceremonies all around the nation. He does, and what he observes is a not-unexpected media circus. But given the history and continuing downward trend of this country, it's particularly depressing. Real estate, con artists, emigration and family unite in Pacifico, the fine contribution of Diego Luna (actor, producer, director and now writer) to this collection, in which a man trying to find a paradise for his family, comes to a sad but important realization. 

In 7th and Alvarado, directed by Rodrigo Garcia (Mother and Child), we are back in Los Angeles again, in the film that closes Revolución on a note of exquisite beauty and sadness. With no dialog, and using some stunning visuals, Garcia joins the Mexican-born population of this particular area of L.A. to its own past in a manner that, as this very short and elegiac movie draws on, is heartbreaking in its refusal to say more than simply this:
Watch, remember, and understand.

I hope that Revolución will find distribution in the USA, at the very least on DVD.  It plays at the NY Film Fest one time only, this evening, October 9, at 5:30 in Alice Tully Hall.  Check for tickets here.