The Male Gaze: First Kiss

The Male Gaze is a new series of releases from New Queer Visions that showcases short LGBTQ films from across the world. The first instalment, First Kiss, brings together five shorts that are based around men experiencing romantic and/or sexual interaction with other men for the first time. It takes in films from Sweden, Indonesia, USA, Australia and France giving a rounded look at how similar experiences are depicted across the world. The films are: Naked [Naken] (2013); Pria (2017); Walk With Me (2018), One Night Only (2018); Michel's Mouse [Tapette] (2016).

Mysterious Skin

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

Żaklina

Two high school students are fascinated by a mature, attractive woman named Żaklina. The boys' friendship, strengthened by the common passion of filmmaking, seems to be indestructible until both of them try to seduce her.

Ekaj

EKAJ is a love story between two drifters, a naive teenager and a hustler. Ekaj meets Mecca who takes him under his care. Mecca has AIDS and multiple problems of his own. He is high all day but still manages to be the only voice of reason in Ekaj’s hopeless world. They cruise the city together looking for money and places to stay. Although Ekaj makes some money as a prostitute, he finds himself discarded, and lacking what it takes to survive in the city. Their mutual loneliness leads to genuine friendship.

Cairn

Cairn is a dark film on adolescence in which the main character Johan (11) faces a moral dilemma after having started playing a seemingly innocent prank. The story unfolds on a l level in the turbulent transition between childhood and adulthood.

The Wackness

Set in New York City in the sweltering summer, The Wackness tells the story of a troubled teenage drug dealer, who trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist. Things get more complicated when he falls for one of his classmates, who just happens to be the doctor's daughter. This is a coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, music and what it takes to be a man.

The Switchblade Sisterhood

A young woman discovers second-wave feminism, while meeting with her estranged half-sister, as they encounter the grief, rage, jealousy and injustice that govern their lives. The academic and political discussion of women's liberation and feminism (as part of the sexual revolution of the 1970s) draws inspiration from 'The Scum Manifesto' by Valerie Solanas and juxtaposes these passage with country music from the same era; notably 'The Pill' by Loretta Lynn, 'Just Because I'm A Woman' by Dolly Parton and, most centrally, 'Stand By Your Man' by Tammy Wynette.

Falcon Lake

A shy teenager on a summer vacation experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl.

Miss Lonely

Lonely and love-stricken high-school student Hiroki pursues a girl, but another one mysteriously appears in his life. Is she a figment of his psyche, or is she real?

Stealing Beauty

Lucy Harmon, an American teenager is arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to be sculpted by a family friend who lives in a beautiful villa. Lucy visited there four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with an Italian boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted.

Now and Then

Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty, four childhood girlfriends — Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta — recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more.

Beautiful Girls

During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams and desires.

70 Is Just a Number

Seija Kuula is a superstar singer and an ageless goddess with a career spanning decades and decades. Problems start to arise when Seija falls in love with a younger guy and everybody around her seem to suffer from a bad case of baby fever. Seija orchestrates a masterplan to make everyone happy only to realize that one can not play with love. 70 Is Just a Number is a warm and humorous coming-of-age story – at 70.

Caín

Why Is Mother in My Bed?

Following a bet with his friends, Antoine steals a jacket. The life of his parents will be turned upside down.

Sunshine

It follows a young gymnast who discovers she is pregnant on the week of the national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal abortion drugs, she meets a mysterious girl who eerily talks and thinks like her.