Swain is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man’s ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.
Social & External
The people behind it
Gregory J. Markopoulos
the protagonist, Swain
Mary Zelles
the woman
Oscar Wilde is a married playwright who has occasionally indulged his weakness for male suitors. After much toil, Wilde debuts 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in London, and a chat at the theatre with Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas leads to a full-fledged romance. However, this affair leads to a legal dispute with Lord Alfred's oppressive father, the Marquess of Queensberry, and, given the local anti-gay laws, Wilde is jailed. Wilde's vast intellect helps him survive until he regains his freedom.
Early Rosa von Praunheim short film. Originally intended to be the ending of "Die Bettwurst".
A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.
Drawn by the promise of easy money and anonymous sex, queer camboy Aaron Eagle is shocked to discover a personal connection with the mysterious stranger who has paid for his company. Over the course of one night, the two men engage in a war of words and emotions as they wrestle with the impact of a tainted and shared past.
In his film 'La tête dans les nuages' ('Head in the Clouds') Jean-Marie Teno criticizes the ills of the modern world and the regression of African societies. This short documentary shows the capital of the Cameroon, Yaondé, but might equally show other African cities: heaps of rubbish lie at the edge of streets, academics are out of work, officials unpaid, corruption is the norm, and misery everywhere. For Jean-Marie Teno 'colonization, civilization, independence, then humanitarian talk are merely excuses and theatrical gestures to ensure that Africa remains the place which foreign powers can exploit with a good conscience.'
On the surface Sarra leads an average life, the one her mother has planned out for her: the young Tunisian is taking sewing classes and preparing for marriage to a young man. But deep inside she is concocting a plan to escape this life – as BLACK MAMBA
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.
Ana's shyness holds her back from talking to her crush, but with inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, this may finally change.
A queer teenager struggling with the onset of puberty discovers a living cave that presents them with a new skin and a chance to explore their identity.
A man without his own half of the body is looking for the other half in the opposite sex. As for the integrity of his body, so for the sake of emotional healing.
Jade decides to come out to her Mom as a lesbian before her wedding. After practicing multiple times, she receives an unexpected call from her mom.
A man spends 15 minutes waiting for the results of a Rapid HIV Test.
A recently widowed mother has to take drastic action when she discovers her 12 year old son might be a psychopath in the making.
In 1968 Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys met a dynamic and passionate singer/songwriter and introduced him to Hollywood. The two set out to record that artist's first professional album. The album became known as LIE. In 1969 this artist achieved incredible fame, but not for his music. The artist's name was Charles Manson.
Late in the afternoon, a student and a construction worker sit on the edge of the bay and leave traces on the landscape.
A bittersweet tale of young love based upon a short story by Stephen King.
An animated short by Liying Huang
The 12-year old Dolores, a feisty preteen desperate to be seen as a grown-up in 1976 suburbia is on her humiliating, hilarious journey from girlhood to growing up. She fantasizes about sex, womanhood, work... and Freddie Prinze. The girl thinks she's got the lowdown on being a woman, but when her overworked single mom Janice hires Cleo to babysit her world collides with the super cool black 16-year old's, each learns painful truths about what it really means to grow up.
Paris, in the early 1990s: a group of young activists is desperately tied to finding the cure against an unknown lethal disease. They target the pharmaceutical labs that are retaining potential cures, and multiply direct actions, with the hope of saving their lives as well as the ones of future generations.
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.
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.
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
Two large, ignorant bullies ruthlessly pursue a small, brilliant boy in this young adult Roald Dahl short story.
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.
A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
A destitute WWI veteran is hired to help carry out restoration work on a medieval mural in a rural Yorkshire church. While living in the quiet village, he forms a close friendship with an archaeologist and begins to come to terms with his trauma.
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves, and leather-clad bikers.
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?
Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.
Harold is celebrating a birthday, and his friend Michael has drafted some other friends to help commemorate the event. As the evening progresses, an unexpected guest shows up, the alcohol flows, the knives come out, and dormant and unspoken emotions are unleashed.