The collaboration between “sixth generation” director Liu Bingjian and openly gay screenwriter Cui Zi’en has resulted in a picture of homosexuality rare for Chinese cinema in its sympathy and realism. A shy young man arrives in Beijing to work in a clothes shop owned by the repressed wife of a boorish man. Meanwhile, the flamboyant host (Cui Zi’en) of a lonely hearts talk show on a pirate radio station is asked out by the editor of a fanzine that publishes graffiti from public toilets. At first nothing happens–feelings are hidden under a cloak of normalcy. When passions finally erupt, they are violent, unexpected, liberating and subversive.

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Audience award winner at five festivals, Crush by Phillip Bartell (2000, 29 min) is set during a long hot summer in a (very) small town in rural Illinois, as 12-year-old Tina bonds with 16-year-old Robbie over their favorite TV show. Tina soon develops a major crush on Robbie. Robbie, however, develops a crush of his own… The Mountain King by Duncan Tucker is a sensuously photographed film that depicts a relationship between a persuasive hustler and a quietly closeted young man at the beach. …lost by Dan Castle was made in response to growing complacency about the continuing threat of AIDS and captures a day in the life of a young man foundering in a world of drugs, anonymous tricks, and AIDS. When Joseph asks his lifelong partner, Caesar, to send for a priest in The Confession by Carl Pfirman, it leads to a dramatic struggle in this moving exploration of love, faith and commitment.

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The rose-colored glasses of memory always idealize one person from the past with whom everything could have been perfect – if it hadn’t gone so horribly wrong. Julie and Me explores a friendship and love that gets its second chance. Freshly single Juliet seeks out her childhood friend Julie with whom she hasn't spoken in fifteen years because of a misplaced kiss. Initially their relationship is strailed, but they try to reclaim their friendship, explore what went wrong and try to make sense of the chemistry and sexual tension boiling just below the surface. Cheeky and humorous animated vignettes keep this emotionally intense love story light. A modern romance, Julie and Me effectively looks at the underlying tensions in relationships and how those tensions can both enhance and destroy intimacy.

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