Muses

Short

Twitch is an ode to overcoming dark energies that lie within; confronting fear and the journey to self-acceptance.

Short

Betty, driven by fear of rejection, lives isolated at home among her miniature figurines. When she meets a woman she can’t stop thinking about, she faces a difficult choice: remain in her safe, private world or step outside and risk vulnerability for a real connection.

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Set around a single dining table, a son struggles to reclaim his sense of normalcy as his mother’s delusions tighten their grip. Through quiet tension and buried longing, this intimate psychological drama exposes the fragile warfare of a mother-son relationship trapped between love, denial, and control.

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One is the Loneliest Number places a universal hero in the shoes of the heartbroken. Céline, Jon, Britney and Stevie couldn’t have said it better!

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“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

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A trans woman dies on the operating table during facial feminization surgery, but death is no match for a determined transsexual.

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When her childhood best friend falls in love, nostalgic teenager Dodo struggles to let go of the past and goes to increasingly dangerous lengths to secure her affections, threatening to spoil their idyllic lakeside holiday.

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I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.

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A portrait of the legendary Madame Simone, shot in the early nineties by an undergraduate student.

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In the near future, Dove, a gender fluid person, discovers the powers and perils of their Inkwo (Indigenous medicine) while defending the living against a horde of ravenous monsters, testing their courage, resilience, and connection to the Earth.

Feature

A stroke upends 76-year-old Vicente’s recently charmed life in the Canary Islands, forcing him to trade his queer eden for a restrictive care home in San Sebastián—and to consider how essential his sexuality is to his identity. Among the nude forms dotting the Maspalomas dunes is Vicente (Jose Ramón Soroiz), a young man giving him pleasure. After 50 closeted years, this sensual existence is to be his reward. But three months later, he finds himself in a long-term care facility with neither income nor his beloved dog, minded by his estranged daughter (Nagore Aranburu). Paired with a motormouthed roommate (Kandido Uranga) with far right sympathies. Anonymously messaging his carer Iñaki (Kepa Errasti) but rejecting him in person. Camera sweeps and choral flourishes encapsulating a world that moves while he sits still. Then, a new manager brings changes just as he’s assimilated to the pale ghost of his days, dangling the hope of a “real home.” Taking us from 2018 Pride to the 2020 pandemic, directors Aitor Arregi and José Mari Goenaga honour those affected by health crises and the inexorable fact of time’s passage, which alters us in unpredictable ways.

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I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.

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One is the Loneliest Number places a universal hero in the shoes of the heartbroken. Céline, Jon, Britney and Stevie couldn’t have said it better!

FeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

Karun, a kindly border guard, finds himself in “paradise” among Bandipora’s soaring peaks, though religious and cultural resentments simmer and scald. Jolted by Faheem’s gorgeous face revealed from behind a helmet visor, Karun is drawn into a romance with indelible repercussions in this first queer film in the Kashmiri language. Wooed by an apple and a warm ripple of attraction each time Faheem (a subtle yet potent Mir Tawseef) passes his checkpoint, Karun (Akash Unnimenon) ventures into Gurez to seek out further encounters. Gurez, a remote Kashmiri village near the border between India and Pakistan, speaks with the voice of soft lullabies and bleating sheep, of a flowing river indifferent to divisions, though that tranquility is soon replaced by distant gunfire. Determined to drop the veil of shame that partitions their lives, Faheem and Karun’s restless hearts pine for one another from a distance, the two praying to separate deities but sharing an equal desire. Wanting, so passionately, to be one. When terrorist infiltrators and a homegrown street gang make a volatile situation worse, can love bind as society breaks?

Short

Another spectacular output from Montreal’s DJ Frigid.

DocumentaryVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE

In the '70s and '80s, there were over 230 feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses throughout the United States and Canada. Bloodroot, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is now the oldest and longest-lasting of those spaces, in continuous operation for over 46 years. A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot is a documentary that explores this feminist, queer, vegan restaurant and bookstore, and illuminates the legacy of its pioneering proprietors, Selma Miriam and Noel Furie. The film shares the history of Bloodroot, its place in the landscape of American feminist thought, and the impact it has had on the local community. It follows the restaurant’s founders, Selma and Noel, as well as the staff and customers, who reveal why Bloodroot is much more than just a restaurant. Audiences get an intimate look inside these women’s 46-year working partnership, along with how they navigate sexism, homophobia, and the reality of getting older. Despite challenges, Bloodroot has endured as a beloved space for generations of feminists, vegans, and queer people who keep coming back.

Documentary

In Muslim-majority Malaysia, a queer punk band led by a transman are outliers of the system —carving out spaces to exist through their music while challenging conservative traditions and religious extremism. Brash, defiant and wickedly funny, punk rockers Shh…Diam! are an underground sensation in Kuala Lumpur. An all-queer band led by charismatic trans man Farris Saad, they’ve won devoted fans with playful anthems like “I Woke Up Gay” and “Lonely Lesbian.” Even their name (“Shut up!” in Malay) is a joke, poking fun at those who’d rather queer folks just kept quiet. Malaysia’s harsh laws are no laughing matter, however, and they put Farris and his bandmates at real risk of state persecution. Filming over six years, director Yihwen Chen follows them to practices, gigs and protests, capturing their irreverent advocacy amid a spate of anti-LGBTQ+ raids and arrests. She also documents major developments in their personal lives and relationships, including Farris’s preparations for his surgical transition. Both an iconic portrait of fearless activism and an intimate chronicle of chosen family, Queer as Punk is an instant entry in the queer cult canon.

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“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

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In a rigid manor where everyone conforms, a woman receives an orange, a fruit she has never seen before. This discovery transports her into a forested world of sensual fluidity where she must choose between returning to her old life or embracing a new, transformative way of being.