LifeStories: Steve Burdick

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

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.

Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.

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

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.

An award-winning cynical journalist, Lloyd Vogel, begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write an Esquire profile piece on the beloved television icon Fred Rogers. After his encounter with Rogers, Vogel's perspective on life is transformed.

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

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.

Two lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.

The true story of Kurt Warner, who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman's experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.

Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it.

A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.

Kenneth Feinberg, a powerful D.C. lawyer appointed Special Master of the 9/11 Fund, fights off the cynicism, bureaucracy, and politics associated with administering government funds and, in doing so, discovers what life is worth.

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.

Having been gone for three years, closeted advertising executive Adrian returns to his Texas hometown and struggles to reveal his dire circumstances to his conservative family.

Film anthology that assembles stories about heartbreak, friendship, first love and self-love involving modern and complex relationships in Mexico City, where different young and old people go through different stages of personal growth in a magical, loving, toxic and sometimes even surreal city, where it is just as easy to run into other characters who live similar situations, as it is to meet the love of your life.

KKUME is an anthology film composed of three interconnected episodes, each capturing a different facet of YOUTH, PASSION and the hidden SECRET that bind the all episodes. YOUTH - Under the night sky of Seoul, three friends share beers and stargaze, drifting between laughter and longing as they navigate the uncertainty of their twenties. PASSION - Two aspiring actors engage in a candid conversation about the struggles, hopes, and disillusionments of working in the film industry. SECRET - A hidden secret emerges, subtly threading the previous stories together.

Veteran drag queens Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson take novice Chi-Chi Rodriguez under their wing on a madcap road trip across the country to compete in the Drag Queen of America pageant in Los Angeles.

Something Like Summer traces the tumultuous relationship of Ben and Tim, secret high school sweethearts who grow over the years into both adulthood enemies and complicated friends.

An attorney is terrorized by the criminal he put away years ago when he was a cop.

The anthology consists of 4 short feature films: "Postscriptum", "His Father", "The Gift" and "The Black Garden".

After breaking up with her girlfriend, a nightclub singer, Jane, answers a personal ad from Robin, a real estate agent with AIDS, seeking a cross-country travel partner. On their journey from New York City to Los Angeles, the two stop by Pittsburgh to pick up Jane's friend Holly, who is trying to escape an abusive relationship. With three distinct personalities, the women must overcome their differences to help one another.

First, the tale of a doctor who hides the accidental death of his son. Second, the story of a sculptress who kills and makes a sculpture out of a habitual sex offender who breaks into her home. Third, the story of a detective who administers euthanasia to satisfy the wishes of a terminally ill younger brother. Last, the tale of a young girl who develops psychological problems after her mother is killed by her abusive father

Tally Atwater has a dream: to be a prime-time network newscaster. She pursues this dream with nothing but ambition, raw talent and a homemade demo tape. Warren Justice is a brilliant, hard edged, veteran newsman. He sees Tally has talent and becomes her mentor. Tally’s career takes a meteoric rise and she and Warren fall in love. The romance that results is as intense and revealing as television news itself. Yet, each breaking story, every videotaped crisis that brings them together, also threatens to drive them apart...

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

After his young lover, Gitone, leaves him for another man, Encolpio decides to kill himself, but a sudden earthquake destroys his home before he has a chance to do so. Now wandering around Rome in the time of Nero, Encolpio encounters one bizarre and surreal scene after another.

When his boyfriend shows up unannounced, Elias' religious family learns their son's darkest secret.

Jamie and Allie are amateur sleuths whose grandfather runs a small security business. One afternoon, while digging around on their own, they accidentally stumble onto a major case.

When Michal finds out her husband Meir is having an affair with a man, her world collapses. Not only is she is forced to deal with sexual rejection from Meir, she also has to endure social rejection.

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.

An anthology of tales from Hong Kong.

When Chris arrives at the village of T'boli in lake Sebu, South Cotabato, he thought he has left his dark recent past behind. He is working on commission as a video documentarist to make a profile on the women T'boli and their changing views on multiple marriages. The most affluent men, called Datu, marry more than once and each time pays dowry to the family of the women they marry. When a young T'boli woman, Ngapon, tells Chris that she wants to be free from a marriage that was set by her parents and to go to Manila, Chris begins to confront waht he left in the city. Like the proud Datu with many wives, Chris has Denver, a bronze skinned lover in Manila, who is proud of his relationships. Denver lives with Chris in an apartment as partners yet he still goes into sexual and emotional relationships with other men. Ngapon's quest for freedom becomes Chris journey to a very sad dark past. - Written by Anonymous

When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he announces to viewers that he will kill himself during his farewell broadcast. Network executives rethink their decision when his fanatical tirade results in a spike in ratings.

Shibata and Tategami are Japanese journalists hiding out in the Lost City Night Club to elude the triads. Shibata falls in love with the club's hottest singer, Cora, but is hampered by his disguise - as a woman. She in turn loves Tachikami, who is gay, and desires Shibata.