Genres: queer

  • Skin Deep

    Skin Deep leads us into worlds where people are never what they appear to be. It is a riveting psychological drama about obsession, relationship and sexuality. As Alex Koyama prepares to shoot an exploitation film about tattooing and the culture of pleasure and pain, the world around her exists only to serve her film. She initiates a dangerous and threatening game when Chris Black responds to her ad in a tattoo magazine. For Alex, this is living research, and she ignores the fact that Chris is deeply disturbed and gender-disoriented. This denial escalates into a psychological battle between Alex and…

  • MAN MADE

    MAN MADE, a repurposed narrative of a boy who gets introduced to the wonders of life by a beautiful shining trumpet. But the struggle to be oneself has only begun. Utilizing found 16mm footage and both digital and analog manipulation techniques, Mikkola pierces conventional masculinity with a transformative queer gaze.

  • Good Citizen: Betty Baker

    ‘Good Citizen: Betty Baker’ follows a civic-minded housewife as she tracks the missing Prince Phillip. This madcap chase takes our heroine Betty from our neighbour’s trash, to a strangely exciting all-girls bar, to the arms of a handsome lady golfer. Cherry pie never looked so good.

  • Arrival 1, Arrival 2

    This experimental essay film springs from the final days of December 2020 when I moved from Chicago to Toronto. The film documents my move and then continues on alternate paths, weaving through the liminal spaces of borders, sickness, interpellation, and dreams. Content Note: This film contains extended discussions about fatphobia and disordered eating. Specifically, this film contains descriptions of food restriction, idealization of thinness, and intense emotional and physical pain after eating. After 11:41 there is no direct discussion of disordered eating. Flashing lights throughout. Loud noises throughout.

  • The Birth of a Beautiful Butch

    “The Birth of a Beautiful Butch” is a story about Alex, a gay high school senior, caught between who she is and what she’s supposed to be. On the day of her school pictures, Alex feels struck with an appearance that doesn’t fit right with her body. When she retreats into her mind, she is able to imagine the person she wants to be. Ultimately, she transcends the judgement of others through fashion in an authentic expression of herself.

  • Grace of God, The

    A dark yet humorous psychological journey about the filmmaker’s efforts to reconcile his socially awkward and sexually naive past with his mature present. Putting himself in front of and behind the camera, L’Ecuyer has forged a stunning hybrid of fiction and documentary. “The Grace of God” crackles and gleams with L’Ecuyer’s aesthetic innovations and his impressive gifts for story telling and directing. “The Grace of God” is a labour of love, comprised of scenes gathered sporadically over a ten-year period. The resulting stream-of-consciousness film takes us on a metaphoric train ride home that slowly reveals the time-worn truth that moving…

  • Music is my Boyfriend

    The Hidden Cameras burst onto the Toronto music scene in the early 2000s with an irresistible combination of pop and queer sensibilities. Via songs ranging from haunted, aching ballads to foot-stomping anthems, the band’s outrageous stage shows packed sweaty dance bars, art museums and even churches. Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the ensemble continues its musical provocations to this day, with Berlin as its centre of gravity. MUSIC IS MY BOYFRIEND chronicles the early days of The Hidden Cameras. Combining interviews with original members, behind-the-scenes footage during a recording session and rarely-seen 16mm film of two of their legendary live…

  • GANGBANG

    GANGBANG takes place in a bedroom that resembles a gay porn set. Six male models occupy the space, surrounding an empty bed, staring at you. They’re shirtless, wearing blue jeans. We move closer to the group and watch each face dissolve over each other in a series of close-ups. The models never break their seductive smiles, which is all the intimacy they offer. Based on the setup, we anticipate that someone will eventually make the first move. But unlike the stimulating title, GANGBANG denies the viewer of sexual gratification; instead, time freezes – the boys pose together but never make…

  • The Expanding Horizon

    A 16-year-old wants to buy weed from his drug dealer classmate, but he has an unusual request.

  • Boys of My Youth

    Through eerie iPhone photographs of empty high school hallways and dimly lit locker rooms, an unknown narrator reflects on his teenage sexual repression.