Out (EN)

CompetitionShort

Albert and Sixten are getting married. Today. The only problem is that if they were completely honest with each other, they shouldn’t even be a couple anymore.

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DUTCH • FRENCH ST | Capturing the recklessness of youth and the excitement of newfound sexual liberties in sensuous black-and-white cinematography, Dennis Alink’s Out offers up a vivid and tender tale of being young and gay. Tom (Bas Keizer, in a star-making performance) and Ajani (an effervescent Jefferson Yaw Frempong-Manson) are closeted secondary school sweethearts who yearn for life outside of their small-minded, rural community in the Netherlands. Their solution is Amsterdam, where the queer scene is thriving and they can work at their dreams of becoming filmmakers. Quickly falling into the Dutch capital’s gay nightlife offers the pair some initial thrills: cheeky games of Never Have I Ever, limo rides across the city, eye-opening trips to the bathhouse. But the challenges quickly follow, pushing them to separately question: “Who am I, and where do I fit in?” Recalling such classic monochromatic films about wayward youth as The Last Picture Show and Gus Van Sant’s Mala Noche, Alink and his queer collaborators present a lived-in, piercing portrait that proves coming out isn’t just a pronouncement of one’s sexuality, it’s a simultaneously joyous and heartbreaking journey of self-discovery.

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Determined to breathe new life into the queer stock character of the sex worker, budding writer Max (masquerading as Sebastian) becomes a “digital hustler” while bathing in the words of Bret Easton Ellis. What starts out as novel fodder becomes a high-stakes balancing act between liberation and exploitation. Close-lipped and leery of scrutiny, even the publicness of social media, “wholesome boy next door” Max (Ruaridh Mollica) is able to act out his “desire to taste everything” in London bedrooms. First with older men, including the kind and curious Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde), then with more daring configurations. But when shame unexpectedly creeps into his initial, unfettered view of the sex trade, Max finds everything from his book proposal to his very sense of self tested. Before he lets his obsession with how he’s perceived subsume him, he must decide what kind of writer he will be, what kind of lover, what kind of man. His finger on the cultural pulse, Indiewire’s LGBTQ+ Filmmaker on the Rise Mikko Mäkelä (A Moment in the Reeds, I+N31, 2018) pits the coldness of market forces against the beating of a warming heart to see which—in the 21st century—will endure.

CompetitionFeature

SPANISH • ENGLISH ST | Argentinian filmmaker Matías is an intense perfectionist struggling to shape his autobiographical film as the past wriggles from his grip. Is Alexander—a dashing fabulist from Sweden he met in Italy as a boy—the lost love of his life? Or just a lovely, bittersweet dream? At the United World College of the Adriatic, with its diverse, exuberant student body, young Matías (Santiago Madrussan) finds a freedom he never knew in Argentina. There, he is befriended by Alexander (Oscar Morgan), whose rousing stories and bedroom eyes make the world more magical, and whose family’s vast holiday home becomes a memory palace for all that was left unsaid. In his 40s, Matías (co-writer/director Juan Pablo Di Pace) looks back at this time and, with a festival deadline looming, tries to fathom the sizzling closeness and coded interactions. A key piece of evidence lying dormant for when he least expects it. With its meta intrigues and captivating sweep, Duino is an elegiac masterwork crackling with swoon-worthy chemistry. A film that asks: how far are we willing to go for a proper conclusion, and what, in the end, remains voices in the wind?

Documentary

Tegan Quin (of Tegan and Sara fame) has been the victim of identity theft and an ongoing catfishing scam for over 15 years. While investigating, she shares for the first time how she was ensnared in toxic fan culture that revealed the dark side of fame. As one of the most influential queer indie rock bands of their generation, Tegan and Sara worked hard to cultivate an inclusive and passionate fanbase around the world. Fans were drawn to the duo’s beautifully confessional lyrics and found within the community a safe space be queer during a time when few bands would declare allyship, let alone celebrate their own queer identity. But Tegan and Sara’s world turned upside down when Tegan’s personal files were hacked in 2011 and weaponized by a bad actor in a complex catfish scheme to ensnare members of this community. Told through Tegan’s own voice, the voices of deceived fans, a trove of communications between fake Tegan and their victims, and the visual history of the band’s behind-the-scenes archive, this documentary feature is a thriller, a caper, a whodunnit, and an intimate personal journey rolled into one.

CompetitionShort

One afternoon, three high school students sneak out of their all-girls Catholic boarding school. Sunny, the new girl, has gone for a swim in the river. Sarah is eager to join her, even though Clémence disapproves.

Feature

Alexis Langlois’s ambitious debut feature is a phantasmagoric musical drama. A tale of how fame twists and transmutes, following a Britney-like pop icon, her secret punk lover, and an invasive stan through 2000s stardom and its messy aftermath. When the pop industry gives Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) a straight-edged polish after her Starlettes en herbe win, underground sensation Billie Kohler (Gio Ventura) feels pushed aside by her girlfriend. In the words of the crazed leader of the Mimi Army fanclub, Steevyshady (influencer Bilal Hassani channeling Perez Hilton on acid), this is “the love story that shook French pop.” A spiraling controversy that pits pop against punk, glittery industry darlings against “pumped up chicks.” Les reines du drame has the thrust of classic musicals with the irreverent edge of Hedwig and the dazzling, exuberant romanticism and tragedy of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, and runs gleefully riotous with pop culture easter eggs. Madonna-level physical transformations, Batman Returns-era Catwoman, Drag Race shenanigans, and many nods to the legendary Miss Britney Spears—they’re all here, along with lovingly crafted earworms from the likes of Yelle. A bonafide cult classic in the making.

Made au CanadaCompetitionShort

A traditional Maritime image: three generations of P.E.I. women wash dishes after holiday dinners. Their after-dinner conversations become revealing when one of their own begins his transition.

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Andrea Caulfield preys on talent. An influential curator, she digs her claws into Lex, an anonymous digital artist. She flirts. She flays. Though Lex, who is strung out by stress but fiercely attached to her craft, might be the wrong mouse for this cat. Under the Influencer is an audacious, jittery thriller full of dark surprises with much to examine and upend about the extractive nature of art and art purveyors. Anchored by her tireless assistant (Joy Sunday), Andrea Caulfield (Erin Matthews) is able to paint a lucrative face on anything, and is all about unconventional and abusive methods under the mantra that suffering and sacrifice breeds the best—and most saleable—art. Is she uplifting female and non-binary BIPOC artists or capitalizing on their narratives? Lex (Lauren Neal) believes in Andrea, trusting that she will help take her away from her thankless call centre job and into the art world’s upper echelons. Or maybe her lust for the older woman is clouding her judgement. When one of Andrea’s business tactics explodes Lex’s nerves, Lex’s mother (Margo Carre) advises her to stand up for herself—a permissive prospect for a woman coming unhinged.

Made au CanadaCompetitionDocumentary

Spoiler alert: chances are if you were watching television in spring 2016, you witnessed the startling peak of the Bury Your Gays trope. LGBTQ+ females from Buffy’s Tara to The 100’s Lexa have gotten the axe and this wry exposé investigates the dismaying trend and ensuing sea change. Bouncing back and forth from Toronto to culture hubs like L.A. and London, Bulletproof unfolds like the plot of a great mystery. There are the victims: queer female characters. The murderers: harried television writers, showrunners, and producers who, for a myriad of reasons that the doc unpacks, have chosen to kill off fan-favourites. And then there are the detectives: a “rainbow network” of journalists, media psychologists, fan community leaders, and many more who dissect the catalysts and impacts of shifting queer depictions. Not to mention the documentarian themself, “gay as hell” TV junkie Regan Latimer on year six of what was supposed to be a one year project, uncovering personal, societal, and scientific revelations alongside their wise-cracking on-screen surrogate, Lindy Zucker. Through clever references and animation, Bulletproof proves that representation has life-or-death stakes and fantasy can be as essential as reality.