mid90s

It's been one year since Xander was dealt a sudden and tragic loss - the loss of his friend Tobin. Now, he must confront the people from his life he has since pushed away.

At only fourteen years old, Paula hates her body. In an attempt to express what she feels, Paula creates a blog and becomes part of a large virtual community that shares her problems. Shelter in anonymity, she uploads content recorded with her cell phone, exposing her friends and family. The feeling of belonging blinds Paula, who begins to walk a lonely path in which bulimia and anorexia lurk as alternatives in the search for self-acceptance.

In times of strife it's important to have someone by your side. Whether it is a shoulder to cry on or a source of confidence, an imaginary friend or a distant lover, these six tales from Mexico, Brazil, France, the UK and the Netherlands prove that the search for companionship is a journey worth taking. The short films are: My Mother's Lovers [Los novios de mi madre] (2020); Bootyful (2019); Only What You Need to Know About Me [Apenas o Que Você Precisa Saber Sobre Mim] (2018); Junk (2011); High Tide [Stille Dorst] (2018).

Raised in the South African township of Zamelda, Johannes 'JoJo' Radebe faced prejudice as a young boy who was captivated by dance – and Barbies… rather than football and rugby, as was the norm among his peers. With the support of his mother, sister, and a dance coach who spotted his gift, he became a champion ballroom dancer and popular celebrity. Having been one of the professional dancers on the South African Strictly Come Dancing, he has appeared on the British version of the show since 2018.

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work – made famous by his signature ‘Tom of Finland’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.

Two different moments in his life. The first love and the real love. Traumas from the past stick like chlorine in water.

This is the story of death and survival, exclusion and hope told by those who lived through it. 40 years ago an HIV infection seemed like a death sentence.

1983 — A young biologist returns home from studies abroad and feels something wrong with his body. This is the start of the AIDS crisis when the first wave of the epidemic hit Brazil. Lives will change, friends will be lost and the future is uncertain.

A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves India to study in New York. On her journey of self-discovery, she unexpectedly falls in love.

17 year old Pauly is a closeted high school kid who wants it all. His dad wants him to make the track team, his mom wants him to do well in band, and Pauly just wants to get closer to the new student teacher doing the school play.

Being gay-bashed and left in a corn field in rural America takes an unusual turn when one of the bashers returns with remorse and a secret.

Conrad Veidt plays a famous musician who is blackmailed for being gay. Eventually he stands trial and is convicted. At the end the film pleads for the abolition of §175 (the paragraph which punishes homosexuality).

Son of a viscount and a Roma prostitute (both deceased), Serge is intelligent, sweet, talented, and alienated by his family due to his heritage. Upon being sent to his new school, he rooms with Gilbert Cocteau, a gorgeous loner of a boy who sells his body for reasons unknown. Serge's attempts to reach out to Gilbert fail spectacularly, and yet there is something in both of them that attracts them to each other.

Nineteen year old Imri, a handsome ex-soldier, suffers from “Yellow Fever”. He was born in Israel but yearns to live in Japan.

For the first time since taking possession of the family cabin, Vaughn has invited his best friends up for a winter weekend of hunting and drinking. But the arrival of unexpected visitors turns a simple getaway into two days of life-changing turmoil.

Chuck and Buck are childhood best friends whose lives have taken very different paths. While Chuck moved away and now has a real life, Buck stayed behind and developed a dangerous fixation—on Chuck's life.

Just as the young members of the swimming team spend another day training in the pool, the cusp of early puberty threatens to turn innocent friendship and camaraderie into something much more. Sixth-grader Yu-Hsuan has a closely guarded secret, but this tide of feelings inside is brewing into a storm…

Jakub takes his last bus to school in the nearby town to get the results of the secondary school leaving exam. His ultimate visit to school marks the end of one stage in his life and the beginning of another.

In the cold light of his computer, a young man makes dozens of nude photos of desire and sends them to anyone, in order to share his body and his solitude.

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge, he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Quentin arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Quentin soon learns that there are clues, and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Quentin gets, the less he sees of the girl he thought he knew.