There is a really fine art and skill into curating compendiums of short movies, and it’s one that the programmers at Peccadillo Pictures, a major UK distributor of LGBT cinema, actually seem to get better at with every new edition of their celebrated Boys On Film Series. Their latest one no 15 : Time & Tied, includes 9 quintessential Brit shorts that cover several spectrums of the LGBT community and show just how universal our community is these days.
Our favorite has to be ‘Dawn’ from trans filmmaker and activist Jake Graf. As usual his heartwarming story is about life turning out to be quite different than our initial perceptions. A pair of lost souls sitting on a deserted country bench waiting for the first bus of the morning, and as the day starts to break and they share their stories they both sense a feeling of hope. Currently picking up Best Film Awards from Festivals all over the world, and deservedly so too.
The first film in this collection is Closets : directed by Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, and it’s the tale of Henry a gay teenager struggling with his sexuality and his angry mother. His only escape is hiding in his wardrobe where he gets transported to 2016 and meets Ben who is now occupying his old bedroom and dealing with his own version of being closeted. It’s a very touching wee film, extremely well-acted, but as the accompanying rather disheartening statistics at the end proved, times haven’t improved much at all for young people trying to come out.
Putting On the Dish is a nostalgic look back to 1962 when the gay world (in London anyway) revolved around a cult weekly radio program called ‘Round The Horne’. It was before homosexuality was legalized and so gay men ….. mainly theatrical & flamboyant ones …. adopted their own coded language called ‘polari. Even if you do not understand any of it, you will certainly get the drift in this hilariously funny 6 mins short from Brian Fairbairn & Karl Eccleston.
G o’clock is an alarming drama that starts out with a hunky paramedic saving a young man’s life after he has overdosed on GHB, on to discover that when the shining knight is off-duty he indulges in drug fueled sex-parties himself. Peppered the plot with handsome naked men still doesn’t disguise the fact that even ‘sensible’ use of recreational drugs comes at a heavy price. Directed by Mitchell Marion.
The very intriguing Nightstand, a London based thriller starring its writer Amrou Al-Kadhi as a gay barman and one half of a self-destructive three day affair with a middle-aged married man, is unquestionably our second favorite in this compendium. Al-Kadhi, a fascinating and extremely talented young man, has somehow persuaded both Sir Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry to executive produce this thought provoking film which was directed by Charlie Parnham, and also starred Nicholas Gleaves.
Morning Is Broken : Two ex public schoolboys are sharing drinks and glances as the wedding they are guests at, starts to wind up. When they go off for a ride together it is obvious that there is a mutual attraction, and even though Sam makes the first move, he is the one that recoils in horror as he simply does not want to face the reality of his own sexuality. A sad tale beautifully told.
Sauna The Dead is our least favorite of the anthology as zombies (even gay ones) have zero appeal for us, but we can at least accept the premise of this movie written, directed and starring Tom Frederic, that if you are not nice to pleasant strangers in a gay sauna, then life will simply just get shitty.
Eastenders actor Leon Lopez who stars in G’oclock, directs Crossroad an extremely tense drama about a very confused and angry young man who he embarks on a night of self-discovery as he battles with the inner demons he is dealing with.
Trouser Bar is by far the funniest, campest and erotic piece in this anthology. It is also the most controversial one too. In 2014 The Guardian Newspaper announced that Trouser Bar had been (allegedly) written by the distinguished late gay actor Sir John Gieguld, who had given it to his friend the famous pornographer Peter De Rome to produce. There have been lots of legal activity since then ….mainly by Sir John’s trustees….and subsequently the film is now credited to producer David McGillivray instead, but the shop in the film is very tongue-in-cheek called Sir John’s.
Evidently the great man of the stage was obsessed with trousers, and loved corduroy and leather in particularly, so he wrote this film set in a menswear shop in the 1960’s. Directed by pornographer Kristen Bjorn and starring a whole host of his favorite porn stars, this fluffy piece of soft porn is hilariously funny, although without the notoriety attached it would have probably have passed unnoticed.
Boys on Film 15 Tied & True is available streaming globally via VIMEO VOD
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/boysonfilm15timetie as are all previous Editions. Later next month Tied & True will also be available via Amazon & Itunes Worldwide
Labels: 2016, comedy, coming of age, coming out, drama, short movies
