Film Categories: Portraits

  • What’s the Ukrainian Word for Sex? A Sexual Journey Through Eastern Europe

    “What’s the Ukrainian Word for Sex? A Sexual Journey Through Eastern Europe”, the first-ever Canadian film about East European queer identity, began with the director’s realization that there’s no language for sex in her culture. A humorous montage begins the video, “What’s the Ukrainian word for sex?” We follow the director to Ukraine and see extreme contrasts between family, queer life, and the postcolonial culture of Ukraine. Interviews shot in Vancouver, Toronto and Kyiv tell the story of sexual and cultural changes in the east, and update us on the current troubled situation of queer rights in Eastern Europe. Dramatic…

  • Kaden Later

    The sequel to Harriet Storm’s “Kaden” (2006), “Kaden Later” follows Kaden and his partner, Monika, as they explore life after Kaden’s top surgery. For Kaden, a trans guy in his early thirties, top surgery gave him the body he wanted. Now, as he and his partner plan their wedding, he must figure out how he fits into society, not as female or male but in a space in between.

  • I Want Your Love

    In “I Want Your Love”, two best friends playfully negotiate their way toward having sex together for the first time. It’s a familiar scenario that most gay men can relate to, and one not as uncomplicated as these two friends would prefer.

  • Stick it in

    “Stick it in” is a short sharp visual sting of a heart shattered.

  • Riding Along

    “A month’s wandering, hitch-hiking towards Eastern Europe with a few rolls of 16mm film, a microphone and an old Bolex camera. An intuitive recollection of sounds and images from the journey’s chance meetings and landscapes. One conviction leads me on these roads: different forms of assocation between sound and image are possible. The recording device is at the heart of the encounters as the emotional barometer of an atypical journey. From car to car, the film unfolds and finds its way, slowly drawing a self-portrait.” – Sébastien Demeffe

  • LLOYD ____FEIN MUST DIE

    “LLOYD ____FEIN MUST DIE” is protest porn. Using appropriated imagery from the Internet and Sammy Davis Jr.’s classic signature song ” I’ve Gotta Be Me,” “LLOYD ____FEIN MUST DIE” is a choreographed sexual roundelay about the destructive greed and vanity of a vilified banker. Summoning an orgy of images to relieve anger sexually, the film’s cathartic Freudian release posits a retreat to private joy as a valid response for populations depressed by avaricious powerbrokers in capital economies.

  • Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman

    “Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman” is a stylized and lyrical coming-of-age portrait of Derek Jarman’s artistic, sexual, and political awakening in post-War England. Part biographical narrative, part experimental collage, part personal meditation on the most controversial and important modern British artist and activist, the film finds in Jarman’s childhood the stirrings of creative and individual epiphany that inspired a remarkable life. Written and directed by Matthew Mishory, the film was shot in Super 8 and HD by cinematographer Lili Wilde and features an original score by Arban and Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Glove.…

  • Family Portrait #2

    An ultrasound recording of my first-born’s heartbeat…the intensity of childbirth…a family portrait. Form is altered through lens manipulation, optical printing and hand-processing to elicit the polarities and fragility of life.

  • SEE/SAW

    A film about seeing and having seen. Completely hand-processed and painstakingly edited, ‘SEE/SAW’ is comprised of a series of iris fades – commonly found in silent films to signal the beginning or end of a scene – re-appropriated as a formal approach that frames the desire to see and to remember. Dichotomies surface in the high contrast images – opening/closing, beginning/ending, light/dark – it is also a deeply personal film that faces the imminence of not being.

  • Letters

    “Letters” is a poetic, reflective expression of the filmmaker’s rediscovery of her roots and coming out later in life as a Jewish lesbian. Although this is one person’s story, it poignantly touches the heart of what it means to be Jewish and gay. “Letters” was created as part of the Legacy Video Project, a special multi-generational mentoring program in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival. Three seniors and four youth journeyed together for five months, learning the skills to create short videos that would both challenge and touch us. Selected Screenings:…