Heart Breaks Open

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.

A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.

The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

Biographical drama based on the last 20 years of Crisp's life. The literary figure and gay iconoclast emigrated to New York in 1981 and lived there until his death. The film observes Crisp in both his public and private lives, from his seemingly cavalier response to the outbreak of AIDS to his tender relationship with his friend Patrick Angus and his own response to growing old.

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.

The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.

Pennsylvania, 1993. After getting caught with another girl, teenager Cameron Post is sent to a conversion therapy center run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother, Reverend Rick, whose treatment consists in repenting for feeling “same sex attraction.” Cameron befriends fellow sinners Jane and Adam, thus creating a new family to deal with the surrounding intolerance.

MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.

Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.

Sixteen-year-old Clément spends a hot summer evening home alone by the pool. Determined to lose his virginity, he swipes through guys’ profiles on Grindr.

Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.

During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

A married man calls the wrong number for phone-sex and winds up being stalked by a psychotic man.

After running away from an abusive relationship that lasted for 8 years, Alec moves to Ireland to start over and rediscover himself. However, his journey takes an unexpected turn after Jonathan enters Alec's life.

A boy makes a discovery at the seaside.

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

Just out of their teens, young men Liam and Anatole were in the throes of an exciting relationship- until they had fight, and Anatole disappeared. Liam can’t accept breakup. And, since his boyfriend doesn’t reply to his calls and text messages, Liam decides to follow him to a Halloween organized by one of Anatole’s friends to try find him. The wild night that ensues will test boys’ true feelings for each other, as well as force them to confront some hard inner truths once and for all.

A Chinese teenager is left alone in a Community Center where he encounters a handsome man which leads to a discovery that shatters his innocence.

This short film portrays the disintegration of a relationship. When the distance between the couple seems hopeless, facing it will be the only option.

In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

In the heart of Memphis, Tennessee, a determined college student named Ari is on the path to earning a BCBA degree. Regrettably, her world spirals out of control when she meets Chris, a charming yet troubled young man. As their relationship deepens, Ari is caught in a whirlwind of betrayal, drama, and heartbreak, especially when her closest friend, Stacey, turns against her. Through the pain and turmoil, they reveal a powerful truth: ho, Hurt People, Hurt People.

1968. Catherine, Yves and Hervé are twenty years old. They're students in Paris and they love each other. The May student uprisings radically change their lives. Overtaken by communal utopia, they leave the city with a few friends to set up house in an abandoned farm in the Lot region. A desire for freedom and the search for individual fulfillment lead them to make choices that cause them to separate.

Jacob is a young man used to getting everything he wants. For several years, he has been living in a happy homosexual partnership with Jørgen, and one night Jacob decides to pop the big question to Jørgen. Jørgen happily accepts Jacobs marriage proposal, but then something happens: Jacob falls in love with a girl, and not just any girl. The girl is Caroline, married to Jørgens younger brother Tom.

A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!

After taking the College Entrance Exam, Geun-ho, a 20 year old gay man, goes to the gay bar with his friends Yong-woo and Sang-soo. He meets Jun at there by chance and recklessly follows him to Seoul to spend the night at his place.

Mary is a divorced middle-aged mother living in a small English town. One weekend she receives the visit of her closet-emerging son Oscar. How will Mary make sense of her son's coming out and the small-town mentality that surrounds her?

A literature professor meets his student at a restaurant and, over the course of one meal, secrets and lies will be unearthed and the sinister connection to a tragedy will be revealed.

As Noah and Wade prepare to marry in Martha's Vineyard, the personal problems of their friends - and the unexpected arrival of rapper Baby Gat - threatens to permanently end their relationship.