Queer filmmaker Jordan Firstman’s short film CALL YOUR FATHER is a disturbing tale about an intergenerational disconnect between two gay men hooking up for a date. 

Greg (Craig Chester) a rather reserved 50 year-old is picking up 24 year-old Josh (played by Firstman) who is a bundle of uncontrollably energy.  The young man is a self-centered Poet who simply has no filter and insists on making a whole stream of outrageous patronizing generalizations about Greg. For some reason, despite being treated so off-handedly by Josh, Greg is intrigued enough to continue with the date.

At several points throughout the evening it looks like this first encounter will end in tears, but both men are obviously fulfilling some sort of need they see in each other  for them to perseveres.

This wee drama is intensely uncomfortable to watch at times but like the men on the screen, you fell compelled to sit it out to the end. This look at the whole question of daddy issues and what middle-aged gay men really expect from dating millennials, raises some very salient points on an issue that plagues the LGBT community.

Any initial reaction as to why in earth the mild-mannered Greg would put himself through such discomfort and humiliation, soon passes when you start to appreciate that he has needs that he feels could be filled by this Josh or  another ‘Josh’ type.