Metro Weekly's 20 Gay Short Films Everyone Should See
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Short on length, big on impact, these gay films are a must-see
By Rhuaridh Marr and Randy Shulman on February 19, 2015
“I’m not sure that these are the greatest LGBT films ever,” says Jon Gann. “To me they are significant. I like them because they are about the entire community. In some of the stories, the LGBT portion is very small, but the LGBT component is really critical to how the story unfolds.”
best, gay films, gay movies, gay film, gay movie
Illustration by Christopher Cunetto
Since 2009, just prior to the Oscars, we’ve occasionally put together lists of “25 Gay Films Everyone Should See.” When it came time for this year’s list, we thought we’d give feature films a break and turn our attention to an oft-neglected, but much beloved category — the short. And who better to curate our mini-festival for us than Gann, executive director of DC Shorts, which, every fall, stages a massive, citywide shorts festival. Gann (see profile, page 20) unearthed 20 LGBT nuggets for us to review, and while, as with any collection of shorts, the quality varies considerably, the collection as a whole captures the entire gamut of the LGBT experience.
The beauty of a short film — most of which range from 2 to 20 minutes — is that even if they’re not perfect, they can be easily endured and then you’re onto the next. It takes a special gift to craft a cogent narrative, to capture a powerful emotion, to convey an idea in a film whose average length is 9 minutes. So, when a filmmaker gets it right — such as Carlos Molina with the unnerving thriller Red or Lance Larson with the emotionally raw Bloom or Arnaud Lalanne with the blissful La Princesse — you have to admire the craftsmanship at work. Yes, short films are sometimes easy to figure out — when the genre is specifically LGBT, it can be hard to truly surprise your viewer — but look beyond that and, in the fleeting moments you spend with each film, absorb what the filmmaker is trying to impart.
A link and instructions on how to stream or download the shorts are available after this feature. Read our thoughts on each, then follow the link at the bottom of this page to enjoy all 20 shorts, courtesy of DC Shorts.
No matter how you digest these shorts — in bitesize nuggets, or one long session, on iPad, computer, or even via Chromecast — it’s an experience worth having. With 20 films from across the gay spectrum, it’s three hours of LGBT cinema that won’t leave you feeling shortchanged.
Missing from imdb:
The Gay Who Wasn't Gay Enough (2:39min, Canada 2011)
Freedom on the Rocks (10min, USA/Israel, 2011)
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1 new
Gaysian
2013, in 0 top lists Check -
2 new
I Love You
2013, in 0 top lists -
3 new
La Princesse de Lamour Damour
2013, in 0 top lists -
4 new
Rojo
2013 — a.k.a. Red, in 0 top lists -
5 new
Slow
2011, in 0 top lists -
6 new
The Commitment
2012, in 0 top lists Check -
7 new
The Binding of Ishmael
2010, in 0 top lists -
8 new
Spiral Transition
2010, in 0 top lists -
9 new
Sufferin' Till You're Straight
2013, in 0 top lists -
10 new
Tiny Miny Magic
2011, in 0 top lists Check -
11 new
Shabbat Dinner
2012, in 0 top lists Check -
12 new
The Carrier
2011, in 0 top lists Check -
13 new
The Queen of My Dreams
2012, in 0 top lists -
14 new
The Queen
2010, in 0 top lists -
15 new
Gayby
2010, in 0 top lists Check -
16 new
Bloom
2008, in 0 top lists -
17 new
Signage
2007, in 0 top lists Check -
18 new
Diva
2007, in 0 top lists
Last updated on Mar 22, 2021; source