It’s often tough enough getting an LGBTQ feature film in front of the audience it truly deserves, but it is so much harder with a queer short film.  With all the Film Festivals on a forced hiatus this year due to the lockdown, we applaud Miami’s OUTshine Fest for its online programing that on the 21st May is screening 4 of the new crop of shorts.

Eric Rosen’s NETUSER is the tale of of an internet provocateur  (played by Denis O’Hare) who puts himself and his family  at risk through a thoughtless encounter on Grindr. Rosen packs a lot of nuance about the queer rights movement into Netuser, which concludes on a note both startling and sinister.  BTW The 15 minute film, also stars Rosen’s real life husband/actor  CLAYBOURNE ELDER and the couple’s 2-and-a-half-year-old son, Bo

 

Dress Up Like Mrs. Doubtfire : a 13 min film by Will J. Zang taht looks at Robin William’s hilarious performance as the nanny-in-drag that was an enormous box office hit.  It however not only raises the issue of the extreme lengths a parent will go to keep connected with their children post divorce, but more importantly the fact that Hollywood still insists on straight men playing these roles.  God forbid it ever should be a gay actor.

N.B. Look out for Fairytale a truly wonderful Italian movie  directed by a gay man where the star is a housewife in drag played by the director’s husband. Due out soon.

The Gust (La Ráfaga) from Puerto Rican director Edgar Garcia  is a homoerotic tale of two neighbors thrown together after the Island had been devastated by a recent Hurricane. One is a middle-aged gay teacher and other a tormented young closeted athlete with a penchant for disrobing.  They shower together to save water ………..

 

The 4th and final short film is our favorite :  Wonder directed by Javier Molina. It’s the story of 11 year old Sammy living with Frank his single-parent  blue collar Dad in the Bronx. One day on the way home from school he encounters a heroic drag queen and secretly starts dreaming of trick-or-treating as Wonder Woman for Halloween.  The unexpected ending may have you grabbing for a Kleenex. 

 

The Screenings are FREE and open to everyone (even if you don’t have the good fortune to live in Miami)..  Plus after each film there is a Q & A session with each of the filmmakers that you can listen too/take part via Zoom.  

All the information and instructions  are HERE