Philippe Vallois

Johan details the director's quest for an actor to play his titular lover, the real deal having been incarcerated just prior to shooting on charges of petty theft.

Between 1975 and 1983 a new kind of film could be seen in French cinema: home-grown gay pornography. They were essentially the work of three production companies: Les Films de La Troika (Norbert Terry), AMT Productions (Anne-Marie Tensi) and Les Films du Vertbois (principally Jacques Scandelari). The genre met an untimely end with the advent of video, the last being made in 1983 'Mon Ami, Mon Amour (My Friend, my Lover)'.

In the mid-nineties, a young writer, victim of AIDS, wants to ensure from the beyond that his lover receives a camera with supernatural powers, hoping that this will revive his lover's will to live and connect with him.

As Gerard is shooting a documentary in Marrakesh, he turns his camera toward a young Moroccan boy: Saïd. A love story starts and it will bring Gerard all over Morocco. Through encounters, love adventures, youth's memories, Gerard tries to define his destiny so tied to Morocco.

Francis, a former gigolo, and Sofiane, a young undocumented prostitute, go to the Morvan to spend a week there on vacation. The day after their arrival, an unforeseen event completely questions this stay.

Between 1975 and 1983 a new kind of film could be seen in French cinema : home-grown gay pornography. The films were shot in 16mm and most of them were passed and given certificates by the CNC (National Cinema Centre). They were screened in a small number of Parisian cinemas dedicated to gay pornographic films : Le Dragon, La Marotte and Le Hollywood Boulevard as well as several in the provinces. They were essentially the work of three production companies : Les Films de La Troïka (Norbert Terry), AMT Productions (Anne-Marie Tensi) and Les Films du Vertbois (principally Jacques Scandelari). The genre met an untimely end with the advent of video, the last being made in 1983 "Mon ami, mon amour (My friend, my lover)". Since then, gay pornography has not been screened in French cinemas. This film is the result of five years of painstaking research and investigation. It features extensive interviews with the directors and actors illustrated by numerous extracts from their films.

Beirut in ruins in 1994, a presbytery in the heart of a French forest, a stopover in Morocco... A man destroyed by his lover's death tries to get on with life, helped by meeting a man he helps to come out.

Marc, owner of a pretty mansion in Normandy, suffers from a form of dementia: he loses the meaning of words and he travels in his imagination to Asia where he had his professional life. His wife entrusts him for a while to a neighbor who tries to unravel the mysteries of his past.

Clement, a 60 years old teacher, retires and live alone with his Cat Zeus. One night, the cat becomes a man to entertain Clement in his loneliness and to help him accept his true sexual attraction.

After the death of his mother, during a stay in Morocco, the director takes again his own archive images in connection with the important moments of his life.

Upset by his friend's death, the film-maker, central character in this film, decides to get in touch with the hereafter by means of a camcorder. Thus begins an initiatory voyage that is both amusing and moving. The camcorder has the power to surprise people in their authenticity, to interfere in destinies, to give access to higher states of consciousness. Where does fiction begin and end?

May 1973: By coming back from the Cannes film festival, a young hitch-hiker, lost at nightfall, finds refuge in a farm where a old man, claims his homosexuality and pretends to come from the future.

Thanks to his collection of personal material, Philippe Vallois tells us the story of Johan, a film inspired by his beloved; what, in 1975, was considered the first French gay auteur film.

May 1973: While hitchhiking home from the Cannes festival, Jean-Jacques, a young heterosexual man, rather homophobic, gets lost in the Cévennes mountains. He finds refuge with an elderly gentleman who not only admits his homosexuality, but claims to be Jean-Jacques decades later.