Like everywhere else in the world, gays and lesbians in Cameroon seek refuge in the city. The two young gay men in this film are crazy about Rihanna and Lady Gaga, who has been a gay icon since her hit song ‘Born this way’. But the tolerance Lady Gaga sings about is just a dream for them. In their country, homosexual relations are subject to punishment of up to five years in prison, and it is almost impossible to come out to your own family. This film describes both the impossible and the possible. The filmmakers’ unobtrusive proximity to their protagonists has yielded conversations in which their interlocutors discuss their longing for a love life they are forbidden to have. Alice Nkom is a lawyer and human rights activist fighting to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. Thanks to her, there is quiet hope and small niches can be discerned where there is something akin to a life not based upon self‐ denial. After Call me Kuchu, which documented the situation for homosexuals in Uganda and won a Teddy Award in 2012, Born This Way makes it clear that the worldwide struggle for tolerance and equality still has a long way to go. NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

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In Roberta's dream, she is trudging through the streets of Santiago, Chile carrying her bed on her back, having lost everything. In reality, she has a young son; an ex—the boy's father—who still adores her; a girlfriend, Javiera, who operates a “post pornography” website; and among other family members, a mother, Ana, whose disapproval she's come to expect. When she comes out to her mom, the older woman's reaction is predictably negative, which only encourages Roberta to bring her mother and her girlfriend together on a day‐long sailing trip. Trapped together on the open water, the three women have no choice but to talk to one another, even as they discover just how impossible communication sometimes is. Gorgeously shot, briefly erotic, writer/director Constanza Fernández's intimate drama touches on many things, including the challenges of coming out in a repressive society, the politics of sexual representation, and Chile's dark history and the tragic legacy of its “desaparecidos.” Mostly it is about the difficulty of relationships, whether between lovers or parent and child; how easy it is to hear but how hard it is to listen; and how difficult it is to understand and be understood. Roberta opens a Pandora's box with this voyage, as the woman who demands honesty from her lover and her mother finds out how hard it is to be honest, even with herself.

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A film about a film within a film. In order to avoid an X rating, 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was rumored to be cut and destroyed from the 1980 film, “Cruising.” Inspired by the mythology of this controversial film, filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews collaborate to imagine their own lost footage. Amid the backdrop of a frenzied film set, actor Val Lauren reluctantly agrees to take the lead in the film. Val is repeatedly forced to negotiate his boundaries during scenes on and “off camera,” as unsimulated gay sex happens around him. The film itself is constructed as a play with boundaries remaining queer in subject and form. As much a film about filmmaking as it is about an exploration of sexual and creative freedom, “Interior. Leather Bar.” defies easy categorization. NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

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