La Rivière

Short

A very powerful short animated film on what it means to be a queer person in a cisheteronormative society.

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From the tormented little mermaid to the fulfilled woman she is today, Gigi tells us about her gender transition with humor and sensitivity.

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During the summer, three friends meet on a wild Mediterranean island. Maxime is madly in love with Yann. Carried by this consuming desire, Maxime throws himself in an intense romantic quest, swaying between dream and reality, at the risk of losing himself.

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This morning, Marina has an appointment with Charlie to sell her a mattress. This evening, she will cancel her plane for Reunion. But they don't know that yet.

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An African musician meets a charming courtesan in a small French seaside town for a rare and secret moment of intimacy.

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A short queer history of violent police raids on queer bars between the 70s and 2000s, and the rise of LGBTQ+ communities fighting back. Tribute to Joe Rose.

Documentaryvirtual exclusive

Is intimacy coordination censorship? Does it kill the magic? In France, where having an intimacy coordinator is the exception, Paloma Garcia Martens is helping creators to privilege process as much as results. Together, striving for feminist content where “bodies, breath, touch” lead to connection, not exploitation. Scenes of intimacy are a stunt like any other, capable of great danger and lasting harm. But intimacy coordination requires precious hours, and even those on board can feel tested by the process. Edith Chapin’s documentary is a searching portrait of the profession, featuring a wide array of women in the TV/film industry—everyone from the director and actresses of the queer TV show Split in Paris, which features a particularly novel squirt scene, to the intimacy coordinators of Sex Education and Bridgerton in London. These women listen to and debate with one another about what’s being transformed because of their influence and what’s changing far too slowly. Leading the push for an industry with fewer “weird stratagems” and outright lies, and more modesty garments, more consensus. Hoping to shape not only how bodies are filmed, but how we, as a society, see them. Also in this programme : SPLIT/ ÉPISODES 1 + 2 IRIS BREY | FRANCE | 2023 | 37 MIN | FRENCH EST On the set of a film, Anna, a 30-year-old stuntwoman, falls in love with the star she is body double for. Will Ana—who thought she was happy in her relationship—have the courage to come out of her heterosexual shell to confront this overwhelming desire?

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PART OF THE PROGRAMME: LA RÉVOLUTION DES COORDINATEURS D'INTIMITÉ (SEX IS COMEDY) On the set of a film, Anna, a 30-year-old stuntwoman, falls in love with the star she is body double for. Will Ana—who thought she was happy in her relationship—have the courage to come out of her heterosexual shell to confront this overwhelming desire?

Featurevirtual exclusive

This homage to Bollywood spectacle and intergenerational bonds is a time-hopping, candy-coloured crowd pleaser that induces huge smiles and big laughs while also tackling the resonant themes of enforced gender roles, passive racism, and the seismic shifts of growing up. Azra (a stunning Amrit Kaur) lives in cohabitating sexual bliss with her girlfriend in Toronto in the VHS-popping 90s when she receives news of her father’s death. One voltaic match cut later and she’s on a plane for the funeral in Pakistan with her brother (Ali A. Kazmi), where her mother (Ms. Marvel’s Nimra Bucha) nitpicks and her culture shuts her out of the mourning process. Then another and we’re in 1969 Karachi, swept up in the whirlwind romance of Azra’s rule-breaking mother (also played by Amrit Kaur, underscoring mother-daughter parallels) and dashing father (Hamza Haq) before their tough transition to 1989 Nova Scotia. Each temporal hop peeling back another layer of how Azra’s family dynamic came to be. The Queen of My Dreams is itself a moviegoer’s dream, chock-full of eye-popping visuals, high production value, and fantastic fashion. Revealing how salvation can come in unlikely ways from unlikely sources.

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Jaya and Fatima, two women in love, are separated because of Jaya's marriage arranged by her conservative father. Helpless, Jaya is about to give up, when life suddenly brings her to a strange crossroad.

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The filmmaker aka Tranie Tronic tells the tale of the incident that inspired their latest album Transgression and brings awareness to the potential dangers of dating men online.

Feature

After Nino shows Iva the ropes, the two cable car drivers woo one another in increasingly ingenious ways. Day after day, the young women pass high above a quiet Georgian valley twisted with mist, cherishing each moment of connection. But when sweetness slides into sensuality, where will it send them? A man has died, his coffin carted above the village, and Iva (Mathilde Irrmann) inherits his crooked home and high-flying occupation. At first, villagers treat her with an enigmatic disdain, and she spends her days transporting customers and goods back and forth in disquiet, stealing glances at Nino (Nini Soselia). The flirtation grows as intense as their ongoing chess game, set to the rhythm of the rusted gears and their little kindnesses. Together, they will take on a surly widow (Niara Chichinadze) and lecherous boss (Zuka Papuashvili) as their courtship reaches new heights. Auteur Veit Helmer’s Gondola has the raw intensity of silent cinema and the enchanting whimsy of Amélie. Impelled by its beguiling leads and breathtaking cinematography, the film is a love letter to the countryside and those who live there, and an invitation to let your heart soar.

Featurevirtual exclusive

Small towns are no place for secrets. Among the churchgoing folk of a Newfoundland fishing village, Eliza leads a double-life: exploring transgressive photography while managing an unspoken romance with a shunned woman and the insistent advances of a married man. Hearsay only two steps behind. Sneaking around the neighbours, Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky) stages increasingly revealing photoshoots in locations both remote and close to home—perhaps too close. With every new post to her 318K Instagram followers, she imperils the careful balance she’s cultivated between her coexistence with fellow villagers, her burgeoning romance with Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), and the married man (Peter Mooney) whose desire for her titillates as much as it terrifies. As a church fundraiser she’s helping to organize approaches, so too does a blaze of gossip, and choices are made that could leave her forever shattered. By turns kinky and kind-hearted, Melanie Oates’ second feature explores our wildest selves with a complexity that continues to deepen through to the final striking frame. All the while, embodying a true sense of place, depicting the rough shores and spirited personalities of one of the most isolated—and spectacular—of Canadian locales.

Short

An African musician meets a charming courtesan in a small French seaside town for a rare and secret moment of intimacy.

Short

A very powerful short animated film on what it means to be a queer person in a cisheteronormative society.