Gay Short Films & Web Series

The 1980 Al Pacino movie Cruising is one of the most controversial gay-themed films ever made and still has the power to raise many people’s hackles. But now director Brumby Boylston has decided to turn the controversy on its head by creating a Cruising children’s electric playset in a new short film.

Cruising follows Pacino’s cop character as he goes undercover in New York’s gay leather scene in order to catch a serial killer, but finds himself seduced by the hard partying, drugs and erotic atmosphere. Even before it started shooting there were protests in the streets due to the fact it was based on a short story many deemed deeply homophobic. The anger was so great that director William Friedkin agreed to add some text to the beginning of the movie saying that the film was not supposed to reflect all of the gay community.

More recently Cruising became the inspiration for James Franco and Travis Mathews’ unusual queer-themed film, Interior Leather Bar.

Here though it becomes a great toy, complete with a car to go cruising in, strangers to make eye-contact with and it’s educational too, as youngsters will need to know all about the hanky code to play – all shown to us in a pitch-perfect take on 1980s toy marketing. Take a look below.

The short has screened to acclaimed around the world, including at Sundance and the New York Queer Film Festival. [Read more…]

There have been a few short films that have replaced coming out as gay with having to come out as something else (usually as straight), as a way of highlighting how the questions people ask and the issues that it often raises are ridiculous.

Out Smart does a similar thing, with it’s premise seeing a young man having to come out as intelligent. It’s a neatly to make the point that many people’s reactions are absolutely predicated on the idea that being gay is a bad thing (as well as to subtly position those who have a problem with gay people as being intrinsically dumb).

Director Dawn Cobalt comments, ‘When I first came out, it was the scariest thing I ever had to do. And I realized that, as I kept meeting new people, I would forever be coming out. I would also forever be coming out to people from my past who didn’t know me as out. They would wonder, “Why didn’t she just tell me?” So this film is very special to me.

‘I had to make this film to express that experience – and add humor to a very tough confession to make to anyone. Everyone is different in his or her own way and society tries to decide what is normal and what is not. We have all been in a situation where you want to tell people something that is out of the “norm” and hope that they still accept and love you.’

It’s been screened at numerous film festivals and won several awards, as well as being screened at numerous PFLAG meetings across the US. And you can take a look at it below. [Read more…]

A few years ago a growing squeamishness about camp amongst some gay men was threatening to kill off drag. However thanks to the likes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and performers who take drag seriously and show why it should still have a place in gay culture, it’s now in fairly good health.

James Hosking’s Beautiful By Night is a 30-minute documentary focussing on following three older drag entertainers at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It’s an intimate look at Olivia Hart, Collette LeGrande, and Donna Personna.

Starting out with how they transform themselves from middle-aged men into lip-syncing divas, it then follows them to Aunt Charlie’s for their evening performance. It’s a great look at people who are still holding to the drag ideas of the past, before the sharp and rather arch performers of today took over. It’s a perhaps more ramshackle style but it has warmth.

Watch the documentary below. [Read more…]

There have been plenty jokes made about men and women having to deal with what to do after the apocalypse, with the future of the human race resting on their shoulders. However there’s no guarantee that if there were only two people left it would be even share the same sexuality.

With their funny new video, the Second City Network looks at the effects of the Queerpocalypse, when ‘the human race is extinct except for a couple of queers.’

What are they going to do? And is it going to be the end of humankind?

Second City is of course the famed improvisational comedy troupe that started in Chicago and spawned the likes of Harold Ramis, Alan Arkin, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Jane Lynch, Mike Myers and Steve Carell. [Read more…]

Last week we posted the trailers for the fun-looking gay-themed web series United Queedom, which reimagines the debate over Scottish Independence as a romantic comedy between two guys who have to decide whether to split up.

Now the four episodes of the show have arrived, which you can watch below.

Bob Denham came up with the show, which stars Damien Hughes as Scott and Daniel Page as Adrian, who bicker and squabble over all sorts of things, all of which take a metaphorical look at the issues voters have to decide on in the Scottish Independence poll in a couple of weeks time.

And just to make sure it’s like the real thing (sort of) at the end viewers are invited to vote on whether Scott and Adrian should indeed split up.

It’s a lot of fun, so take a look at the episodes in the playlist below. [Read more…]