Director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer with CLASES DE HISTORIA join OUTstream Film Fest; shorts, episodics, and special panel to LGBTQIA+ virtual film festival

Director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer with CLASES DE HISTORIA join OUTstream Film Fest

OUTstream Film Fest, which debuts next week (June 1-7), announced its lineup of short films, winners of the film festival’s QUEERING THE QUARANTINE Filmmaker Challenge, episodic projects, and a special conversation with CLASES DE HISTORIA director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer that will be part of the first full fledged LGBTQIA+ virtual film festival.

Director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer with CLASES DE HISTORIA join OUTstream Film Fest

Joining the previously announced feature films being offered, these films and special panel will be part of a dynamic and innovative effort to present and celebrate queer cinema from around the world, kick off Pride month, and bring audiences together amid the COVID-19 crisis.

MATT

MATT

INFINITE WHILE IT LASTS

INFINITE WHILE IT LASTS

SOMNIA

SOMNIA

OUTstream Film Fest Co-Founder and Co-Director Ben McCarthy, said, “We are very excited to give each of these filmmakers a dedicated platform to share their work with audiences. There is so much variety among the stories being told, the voices and cinematic vision on display, and yet – as with our OUTstream Film Fest features – there is a commonality, a shared experience, the demonstration of a connection we all have to one another that comes through the collective experience of seeing these films.”

Co-Founder and Co-Director Megan Garbayo, added, “Our sincere hope is that through the virtual reach of this film festival, regardless of whether or not you are sheltering in place in a city or you find yourself in a rural community, these films will be able to remind us all of what connects us.”

SWIPESWIPE

SWEET SWEET KINK

SWEET SWEET KINK: A COLLECTION OF BDSM STORIES

GO GO BOYGO GO, BOY!

OUTstream Film Fest’s shorts programs curated and packaged under themes entitled, #MissedConnections, Famtastic Flicks, Love in Another Language, OUTside the Lines, and TechnoQueer will be available on-demand June 1-7, 2020. As with the previously announced feature films, a portion of the individual e-ticket sales will go directly to the filmmakers. A livestreamed Q&A with several participating filmmakers will take place for each program on the date/time listed with the program.

OUTstream Film Fest’s QUEERING THE QUARANTINE competition challenged filmmakers around the world to create a short film less than 5 minutes in length that would tell the story of their experience handling the shelter in place directive. They could only use equipment and materials they had available in their homes to create the films and were required to practice social distancing on set. A panel of judges selected the best of the best to be offered as a free-to-the-public program.

BANANAS, OUTstream Film Fest

BANANAS

HEART TO HEART, OUTstream Film Fest

HEART TO HEART

THE FAE, OUTstream Film Fest

THE FAE

Rounding out the latest additions to next week’s lineup is a curated package of episodic works. Along with presenting the projects and sharing in the proceeds, OUTstream Film Fest will be encouraging financial support of the filmmakers so they can take the next steps toward producing series based on the pilots being screened.

Director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer with CLASES DE HISTORIA join OUTstream Film Fest

To purchase tickets and passes for OUTstream Film Fest, please go to: www.outstreamfest.com/boxoffice.

KIKO'S SAINTS, OUTstream Film Fest

KIKO’S SAINTS

THE ROGERS, OUTstream Film Fest

THE ROGERS

THE PRESCRIPTION

THE PRESCRIPTION

 

OUTstream Film Fest 2020 panel, short films and episodic projects descriptions

 

FILMMAKER PANEL

 

A CONVERSATION WITH…

Verónica Langer and Marcelino Islas Hernández

Friday, June 5, 2020 | 9:30PM EST

A conversation with CLASES DE HISTORIA director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer. Langer is one of the most well known Mexican actresses, whose work in film, telenovelas and on the stage has earned her critical acclaim, as well as an Ariel, the most prestigious Mexican film award. Marcelino Islas Hernández is writer, director, and producer of CLASES DE HISTORIA and is also known for MARTHA (2010) and CHARITY (2016). The conversation will be moderated by Hebe Tabachnik, Senior Programmer for Seattle, Palm Springs, and Cartagena International Film Festivals and Artistic Director for Cine Latino in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

 

 

SHORTS BEFORE FEATURES

HAUS 

Director. Joseph Amenta

Country: Canada, Running Time: 14 min

Makai is a young homeless queer boy sleeping on the couch of his friend Trevon. As the two prepare for a night of competition at a local Kiki Ball, Makai is forced to reconnect with his disapproving older brother. Yearning for distraction from his tumultuous familial situation, Makai chooses to resist when his new found family is threatened.

(screens before Documentary Showcase presentation of FABULOUS)

 

 

SHORTS PROGRAMS

#MissedConnections

TRT: 79 min

Watch Party: Sunday, June 7, 2020 | 2:00PM EST

Livestream Q&A: Sunday, June 7, 2020 | 3:30PM EST

 

INFLUENCED 

Director. Ari Halevy

Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min

A gym newbie attempts to quell his loneliness by transforming into a muscled #instagay. But after he meets his fitness influencer idol, he discovers he isn’t the only one struggling.

 

MATT 

Director. Ori Ravid

Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min

World-renowned adult entertainer Colby Jansen stars in this coming of age short about a young man’s potential path to daddyhood.

 

NEXT LEVEL SHIT 

Director. Gary Jaffe

Country: USA, Running Time: 11 min

Taylor (Ben Baur) prepares obsessively for the perfect third date with dreamboat Chris (Daniel K. Isaac), but his efforts backfire, sending the relationship spiraling to a whole new level of intimacy.

 

PANCAKES 

Director. Emily Friedman

Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min

Madison wakes up in bed with Leyla, the girl she’s been seeing, only to find out that Leyla’s boyfriend, Tim, is passed out in the living room from the previous night’s party. Madison struggles to hide her feelings and avoid outing Leyla while sharing a joint with Tim.
PUBLIC LIFE 

Director: Matthew Allen

Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min

After befriending his new classmate John, Eric is forced to come to terms with both his sexuality and the tragic death of a friend. This is a coming-of-age film that examines what it is like to struggle with sexuality, depression, anxiety, and loss in high school. The characters in this story must also deal with these issues in the age of social media. A world where everyone knows what you’re doing and where nothing is ever really gone.

 

THE PRESCRIPTION (El Remedio)

Director. Tom Sanchez

Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min

Cecilia’s doctor suggests sex would help her get rid of an ovarian cyst so her friend takes her to a dive bar to “fill her prescription.”

 

 

Famtastic Flicks

TRT: 91 min

Watch Party: Saturday, June 6, 2020 | 2:00pm EST

Livestream Q&A: Saturday, June 6, 2020 | 3:45pm EST

 

THE BRA MITZVAH 

Director: Stacy Jill Calvert

Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min

The Bra Mitzvah is a comedic short about a young teen who is getting ready for her Bat Mitzvah, but her Nana insists that she needs to get a “real bra” first.

 

DRESS UP LIKE MRS. DOUBTFIRE 

Director. William Jian Zang

Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min

We think of it as a San Francisco comedy classic, but Robin Williams’ tour-de-force romp as a kindly English nanny in 1993’s MRS. DOUBTFIRE also marks a turning point in Hollywood’s depiction of drag. “Dress Up Like Mrs. Doubtfire” features insightful commentary from film critics and drag performers on the film’s surprising cultural impact.

 

GO GO, BOY! 

Director. Oriana Oppice

Country: USA, Running Time: 6 min

A young boy discovers his LGBTQ identity when he sets himself free by dancing in his bedroom.

 

HER NAME IS KEYSHA 

Director. Maria Biber-Ferro

Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min

An urban youth engages an unlikely conspirator to fulfill an unexpected desire.

 

HOME GIRL 

Director. Poonam Brah

Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 12 min

Roya is a British Muslim woman whose mother has just died. After the funeral she returns to a home much altered – one without her mother. Roya discovers her relationship with another woman was in fact known about all along.

 

 THE ROGERS 

Directors. Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson

Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min

An intimate glimpse of the first visible group of transgender men in the Pacific Islands – the Rogers of Samoa. From the loneliness of family rejection and homelessness to the camaraderie of church, cooking, and dance, their stories reveal the challenges and possibilities of life in an island society rooted in culture and tradition.

 

TELL-BY DATE 

Director. Sarah Ball

Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min

Ryan gives himself a deadline to tell his son that he’s not his biological father, but it’s easier set than done!

 

XY 

Director. Anna Karín Lárusdóttir

Country: Iceland, Running Time: 15 min

Lísa is fifteen years old and lives with her mother in the suburbs in Iceland. She is different from girls her age, but she hasn’t reached puberty. She is isolated and has a big secret about herself.

 

 

Love in Another Language

TRT: 72 min

Watch Party: Wednesday, June 3, 2020 | 4:00pm EST

Livestream Q&A: Wednesday, June 3, 2020 | 5:15 pm EST

 

INFINITE WHILE IT LASTS (Infinito Enquanto Dure)

Director. Akira Kamiki

Country: Brazil, Running Time: 19 min

After falling in love at a party, Danny and Seiji just want to be together. However, their differences might prove stronger than their feelings. The first fiction film about asexuality.

 

KIKO’S SAINTS (Les Saints de Kiko)

Director. Manuel Marmier

Country: France, Running Time: 25 min

Kiko, a Japanese illustrator in France, gets suddenly overwhelmed by a strange inspiration, while she realizes she’s been spying on a gay couple on the beach. Obsessed by such a vision, she will spy on those men and draw them secretly. This will slowly push her towards an encounter that will change her life and breaks her social rules.

 

RUBBER DOLPHIN (Dolfin Megumi)

Director. Ori Aharon

Country: Israel, Running Time: 28 min

A gay love story set in a one-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv. They meet, they have sex, they fall in love. Will it last until the morning comes?

 

 

OUTside the Lines

TRT: 85 min

Watch Party: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 4:00pm EST

Livestream Q&A: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 5:30 pm EST

 

CHAIR AMOUR 

Director. Patrick Serre

Country: Belgium, Running Time: 9 min

A child who is building his own identity is confronted to the religious fanaticism of his father. This violence reaches its paroxysm the day the father discovers his12 year-old son dressing up as a woman in the parents’ bedroom. This incident has a serious impact on his sexual behavior as an adult.

 

IN ORBIT 

Directors. Soham Chakraborty, Hanxu Chen, Meton Joffily, Justin Polley, Julia Trouvé

Country: France, Running Time: 5 min
In a far future, Sonia is about to be transferred from her space station to a newer one. While everything appears to be going well for her, her mind is elsewhere, disturbed by a past not far behind.

 

ITALY & (THIS IS) WATER 

Directors. Ioan Gavriel, Anja Franziska Plaschg

Country: Austria, Running Time: 5 min

A single day: from the tender break of dawn to the darkest night.  One out of many days to come? Quite possibly the very last.  A long farewell, an ultimate goodbye to a life we have grown to hold dear. Leading to a head-on dive into a new reality, into a new state of being.

 

LOBSTER TITS 

Director. Jessica Lynn Guerra

Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min

Cathy wakes up to discover, to her horror, that there are lobsters attached to her nipples! She calls the ‘Maritime Mishaps Hotline’ for aide, but is it too late to escape these arthropod assailants?

 

SOMNIA 

Directors. Marvin Bogatsch, Peter Neugebauer

Country: Germany, Running Time: 21 min

Two young female friends, Maja and Charly, use a new method to experience lucid dreaming by combining an exotic pill with musical sounds. Maja is excited and looses herself in the other world, because she finds herself and her hidden desires in it.

 

SPEAK EASY, B 

Directors. Becca Park, Jun Shimizu

Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min

Embark on a tender journey inside the desert of the mind, as B breaks through cultural conditioning, past loves, and psychological defenses to arrive at True Self.

 

SWEET SWEET KINK: A COLLECTION OF BDSM STORIES 

Director. Maggie M. Bailey

Countries: USA/Chile, Running Time: 13 min

SWEET SWEET KINK takes a sweet, sweet peek into the kinky world of bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism through stories of intimate connection, consensual exploration, and deep self-reflection.

 

WHEN NIGHT FALLS (Quand la Nuit Tombera)

Director:.Alexandre Lechasseur-Dubé

Country: Canada, Running Time: 8 min

As night falls, creatures with pearl and lace ornaments gather at the center of the forest where is laying an inanimate body.

 

 

TechnoQueer

TRT: 61 min

Watch Party: Sunday, June 7, 2020 | 4:15pm EST

Livestream Q&A: Sunday, June 7, 2020 | 5:30 pm EST

 

CONTENT 

Director. Chris Coats

Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min

When Kevin is asked to model for a professional photographer, he gets more than he bargained for.

 

DON’T TEXT BACK 

Directors: Kaye Adelaide and Mariel Sharp

Country: Canada, Running Time: 14 min

A woman seeks the help of an energy healer to rid herself of a cursed necklace that strangles her every time she doesn’t text back her bad Tinder date.

 

SWIPE 

Director. Jeff Schick

Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min

SWIPE is a comedic short film about the digital dating life of Cheryl, a newly single bachelorette attempting to find love in the Pacific Northwest.

 

TOUCHSCREEN 

Director. Arthur Halpern

Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min

After an unusual online encounter, a lonely man is challenged to step out from behind his computer screen and shatter long-lived inhibitions to claim the touch of another human being.

 

VERT 

Director. Kate Cox

Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 13 min

Emelia (BAFTA Nominee Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Jeff (Nick Frost) are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary by venturing into the virtual reality world of ‘Vert’ together. Vert presents them with a character that is their ‘ideal self’ and what is supposed to be re-awakening for them as a couple becomes the unearthing of Jeff’s secret.

 

 

FILMMAKER CHALLENGE WINNERS

 

Queering the Quarantine

TRT: 32 min

 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 

Director. Ryan Czerwonko

Country: USA, Running Time: 1 min

Intimate flashbacks to what feels like only yesterday, an artist is adapting to a life confined at home.

 

CUPCAKE 

Director. Scott Cullen

Country: USA, Running Time: 4 min

Celebrating your birthday in today’s virtual age can feel quite lonely. But you might as well dance and eat a cupcake because you are worth it.

 

DEAR QUARANTINE DIARY 

Director. Cat Tassini

Country: USA, Running Time: 5 min

Queer thought soup with a side of cute cat videos. Follow this IG story about what it’s like to be queer in quarantine.

 

LET RIP: BODIES LEAN AND RIPPED 

Director. Lee Campbell

Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 5 min

Smash the fads, rip the mags, and break out those daddy bellies!

 

LET RIP: THE BEAUTIFUL GAME 

Director. Lee Campbell

Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 3 min

Balls, sports, and men in shorts! A father and son reflect on a game that they remember quite differently.

 

L’OGNION 

Directors. Alyza DelPan-Monley, Nick Spencer

Country: USA, Running Time: 5 min

You may never look at an onion the same way again.

 

THAT’S WHAT WE DO 

Directors. Lauren Tabak

Country: USA, Running Time: 3 min

Art imitates life in the form of wigs, beanies, and bathwater. Take a dive into the patterns of love in this queeraoke sing-a-long.

 

UPTOYOU 

Director. Daisuke Shimba

Country: Japan, Running Time: 3 min

Cascading collages of camera cuts leave space for you to answer the question: who are you when no one is watching?

 

VIRTUAL LIFE 

Director. Riley Church

Country: USA, Running Time: 3 min

Toss your caps and twirl your gowns. A queer virtual cheers to the graduates of 2020!

 

 

EPISODIC PILOTS

 

Episodic Pilots

TRT: 55 min

Watch Party: Saturday, June 6, 2020 | 4:15pm EST

Livestream Q&A: Saturday, June 6, 2020 | 5:15pm EST

 

BANANAS 

Director. Rachel Anderson

Country: Australia, Running Time: 15 min

A curious and playful look at growing up between two cultures in the Sunshine State, with particular focus on food and family, presented by two Australian-born Asian friends who are awkward, honest, and warm in equal parts.

 

HEART TO HEART 

Director. Lilah Vandenburgh

Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 10 min

A young girl is scared to make the first move. But her heart has something to say about it. Literally.

 

THE FAE 

Director. Nessa Norich

Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min

The Fae is a queer fantasy series that follows Mark, a successful gay Manhattanite hiding his most passionate gift from the world. One fateful night, Mark learns about magical beings called fae – and that he might be one of them!#Missed

 

THIS ISN’T ME.

Director. Adrian Rojas Elliot

Country: USA, Running Time: 20 min

An earnest West Hollywood gay guy with a skewed sense of decorum chases meaning and intimacy, routinely humiliating himself and occasionally stumbling into moments of grace.

Director Marcelino Islas Hernández and actress Verónica Langer with CLASES DE HISTORIA join OUTstream Film Fest