Echo's van Gister

We Are Dancers

Set in Berlin, 1933, We are Dancers is the story of real-life anti-Nazi drag artist Hansi Sturm and his circle of friends in the immediate aftermath of the Reichstag fire, an event that allowed Hitler to become absolute dictator of Germany. Confronted by a former lover, now a Nazi, Hansi must decide whether to abandon his club or stay and face the Fascists on his own terms.

Magdalene Vargas: Unfelt

An exploration of what it means to be unfelt.

The Alexander Ball

The Alexander Ball is an observational documentary extravaganza celebrating Samoan-Māori-Australian trans woman of colour, Ella Ganza, and the Meanjin (Brisbane) ballroom scene, as she and her ballroom family prepare for one of the biggest pride events of the year: The Alexander Ball.

Les Mamelles de Tirésias

Beautiful They

Violet and Blue's youth collide in an early morning toke that leads to the ocean where connection stirs. What results is a tender, uplifting, queer surf-romance about the nuance of gender and the refuge found in being truly seen.

Intimacy

SUMMER. HEAT. SWEAT. CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER. ALL BECOMES DARKNESS.

Mirror Mirror

Entrapped by a fractured mental state, A heartbroken young woman is greeted by the presence of something sinister in her mirror. Encased desires and the sickly sweetness of apples are enough to unearth her.

Sofia

While unpacking boxes in her childhood home, Sofia comes across an old camcorder. As she watches the tapes, the shaky footage awakens fragments of a past she thought was buried. The voices, laughter, and captured silences become the thread of a memory she tries to piece back together — or perhaps to rewrite.

Sanctuary

Throughout the 1960's, gay bars served as havens for a marginalized queer community across the country. Frequent police raids and laws dictating women to wear three pieces of 'gender appropriate clothing' resulted in countless cases of police harassment, assault, and brutality. Sanctuary follows Meg and Abigail as they navigate their interaction and coping process after one such raid.

b.longing

A dialogue and home video about belonging, from young people living in modern colonial society.

God is a Pelican

“God is a Pelican” follows two queer middle-school girls, Madi and Josie, who both recognize they are different from other students, and don’t fit into the religious white suburbia around them. They decide to create their own religion, a religion for the weirdos and “others” of the world.

Appalachian Dog

Appalachia, 1946: a seamstress welcomes home her tailor husband to find they are not the team they were. Trying to stitch their old life back together, time and again it threatens to fall apart - with each of them pulling at the thread.

101 Butterflies

It took a hundred queer years for Lola Perla to be finally recognized by a government that never really took notice of the likes of her. But that’s okay, because along with the president’s anti-climactic, and in many ways, almost insincere recognition is a fat envelope containing Php100,000 (USD$2,000). For Perla, this is more than enough money to transcend her idea of a lifetime legacy. Today is the day Lola Perla confronts her long-standing personal covenant: to bail an ex-lover’s son out of jail. Meeting fifty-someting Nanding transforms into a reunion, then, a communion of her present self, with an old love.

Tortu

Tortu is a successful IT consultant, loves his job, and works hard. But then he is laid off and can't find another job. He loses his home, his dignity. He begs on the streets of Middlesbrough for months until his friend, Gary, saves him and gives him the money to go live with his uncle, Hugo, in Noyers, France. There he meets Lucas, a local farmer, himself transplanted to the country when his father hands him the keys to a farm. The two men fall in love. But things are not great, as Tortu, has to go home due to the immigration restrictions.

Them That's Not

Andrea “Drea” Stoney, a queer, Deaf poet, feels isolated at her grandmother’s repass, surrounded by a distant family uninterested in ASL. Seeking refuge in quiet corners of the family brownstone, her world is further shaken when her estranged father Samuel—temporarily released from prison after 20 years to mourn his mother—arrives. Bound by grief and blood, father and daughter must confront their strained relationship and find fragile reconciliation before his return behind bars.

Park Slope

Maybe that's what they like, a little bit of melodrama.

Never My Love

In a Berlin nightclub, a lonely man is seduced by a mysterious person, who then invites him to spend an unforgettable night together with their partner.

Liminality

In 2006 Berkeley, amidst the throes of first love, queer teens Nina and Jay grapple with understanding Jay's uncharted trans identity. Nina's well-intentioned but misguided efforts to assist push them apart.

Supernatural Doll

A closeted man kills his male love and lover's niece. Soon he and his family are tormented by the possessed doll of the little girl.

The Giver

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Howl

It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

The Art of Getting By

George, a lonely and fatalistic teen who's made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.

4th Man Out

After a night of drinking, Adam Hutcherson stumbles out of the closet to his three straight buddies. A disruption to their dynamic which they now must try and overcome through alcohol, Tinder dates and forgiveness.

2073

Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.

Watching the Detectives

Neil, a self-proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur.

Light of My Life

Parent and child journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out half the world's population. As a father struggles to protect his child, their bond—and the character of humanity—is tested.

My Dinner with Andre

Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.

9

When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good.

Love and Monsters

Seven years since the Monsterpocalypse began, Joel Dawson has been living underground in order to survive. But after reconnecting over radio with his high school girlfriend Aimee, Joel decides to venture out to reunite with her, despite all the dangerous monsters that stand in his way.

Past Lives

After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.

The Nut Job

Surly, a curmudgeon, independent squirrel is banished from his park and forced to survive in the city. Lucky for him, he stumbles on the one thing that may be able to save his life, and the rest of park community, as they gear up for winter - Maury's Nut Store.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.

Synecdoche, New York

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

As Good as It Gets

A misanthropic author, a single mother and waitress, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

Mr. Church

A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.

Benny & Joon

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

Port Authority

Paul, a 20 year old midwesterner, arrives at the central bus station and quickly catches eyes with Wye, a 22 year old girl voguing on the sidewalk. After Paul seeks her out in secret, an intense love between them blossoms. But when Paul discovers Wye is trans, he is forced to confront his own identity and what it means to belong.