Gay Short Films & Web Series

Released on Youtube yesterday to mark the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia (IDAHO), Homophobia follows a young soldier who faces torment and bullying due to his sexuality. Then, while patrolling the Austrian-Hungarian border, whose feeling for one of his comrades start to come to the surface.

“Laws can prevent people from doing crimes, but they don’t change people’s thinking. Art can touch people on an emotional level and really make an impact”, says director Gregor Schmidinger. “People often connect homophobia with hate, but it’s really about fear. It’s the fear of the unknown—and sometimes of the unknown within ourselves.”

The short is interesting for highlighting how the mental fear instilled into victims of homophobia can be as as bad as the actual bullying itself. It also suggests internalised homophobia is just as difficult. It might take this to extremes towards the end, but the short is still well worth watching. (Thanks to Queerty for the heads up)

Aussie short film Disarm won the My Queer Award at the Sydney Mardis Gras Festival in 2010, and you can see why. David Kinsman and Taris Tyler play a young guy and a slightly older man who hook up for casual sex. Things take an aggressive turn, but as one of them is about to leave, he’s drawn back in to what becomes an unexpected moment of understanding.

It’s a surprisingly perceptive look at hookup culture, taking into account its oneupmanship (everyone’s doing it so I need more shags – whether everyone is or not) as well as the emptiness and superficiality, all of which can hide a yearning for something – not that’s it’s necessarily that for everyone, but it certainly is for many. It’s also interesting in its discussion of how endless hookups being a possible sign of internalised homophobia and also how a sex partner is a full, complex person – something some men try to ignore.

It seems that whatever the fabled ‘gay agenda’ is, it’s far more covert than we ever imagined, and the opponents of gay rights are just as sneaky. In Deep Cover it’s spy vs. spy, Mr & Mrs Smith style, with Leah working hard to stop gays from being allowed to get married, little realising that her boyfriend is actually gay and working against her! However they discover they have more in common than they thought, or do they?

Made by Jared Vincenti for his Boston University for his Master Of Fine Arts Degree, it’s great fun, so click above to take a look.

When Jonah Mowry posted the video above a couple of months ago, it’s unlikely he ever thought it would go viral across the blogosphere and hit 2.2 million views on Youtube. However his bravery and openness about being bullied due to being gay, as well as the simple yet creative way he’s created what is as much a short autobiographical film as a vlog, have touched an awful lot of people.

At a time when there are so many stories about bullied gay teens killing themselves, it great to see others facing facing their tormenters and turning that pain into something productive. It’s a beautiful video.