Archive

Sekret

Ksawery and Karolina are visiting Jan in the country. Ksawery is a dancer who performs as a drag queen and Karolina is his agent. Jan is Ksawery’s grandfather. Ksawery is gay, Karolina Jewish. Jan is guarding a dark secret from the time of the Holocaust. At first glance, an almost quintessential grouping for a story about history, a story about perpetrators and victims. But it’s not that simple. Identity here is composed of different layers that ...

Self-Portrait in 23 Rounds: a Chapter in David Wojnarowicz's Life, 1989-1991

Political artist, painter, writer, performer and photographer David Wojnarowicz was one of the leading personalities of the 1980s New York art scene. In an interview conducted in 1989 by cultural theorist Sylvère Lotringer, Wojnarowicz speaks candidly about intimate moments in his life, the creative process, sexuality, AIDS, and coming to terms with one’s own death - at a time when society categorically refused to face up to the AIDS epidemic. M...

Serpentário

The opening titles say Carlos Conceição was born in Africa and left for Europe in his teens, his mother stayed behind. She said she wanted to adopt a bird that would live for 150 years, but only if he would take care of it when she died. The landscape the young man flies over afterwards can only be Africa too, mountains and great plains, antelope herds, earth the colour of an impossible clay. A woman speaks to him in voiceover when he lands, imp...

Sex

One kiss on the roof on a warm night in Copenhagen and Cathrine, in her early twenties, can no longer keep a grip on her life. On the one hand, there’s her colleague Selma, from whom she wants more after that first kiss. On the other, there’s her boyfriend Simon. For him, what little they have is actually plenty, and for some time now, even less has been enough for Simon in bed. For Cathrine, who
works at a call centre giving tips on sex and love...

Sex

Two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages both end up in situations that challenge their views on sexuality and gender roles.

Sex is...

This documentary lovingly explores the variations on gay male sexuality in San Francisco from the 1960's to the 1990's, from the beginnings of gay liberation there, to the promiscuous seventies, on to the more careful behavior of current gays. A great deal of erotic imagery from the period is screened. The narrator and director Marc Huestis, himself HIV positive, also discusses ageism and racism within the community, and interviewees share ...

Sexo e Claustro

Maria Del Pilar lives in Mexico. A lesbian, she used to be a nun and once lived in convent. Nowadays she is involved in a number of political activities and is a human rights activist. However, these aspects of Maria’s life are not the focus of this film so much as her feelings and private opinions. A film about the conflict between sexuality and religion, body and soul.

Shadowboxing

Shadowboxing builds on Abdi Osman’s ongoing research surrounding the gaps between experiences and representations of queer cruising, space-making, and place-making in the city of Toronto. A projection of lush green park environments documented by Osman from sites across the city appears. Osman’s holdings and records of queer, locational fortitude speak to the countless compounded sites around us where bodies have forged connections in time and...

Shahada

This episodic film about three young muslims in Germany was shot in Berlin. Ismail, a Turkish police officer, can’t cope with a dramatic accident involving his firearm. He leaves his wife and daughter to atone for his supposed guilt. Samir is a young man from Nigeria. It’s becoming ever more difficult to deal with his nascent homosexuality in the light of his muslim beliefs. Maryam is the daughter of a Turkish cleric but orients herself towards we...

Shakedown

  

Shirley

Two imposing personalities are at the centre of this intensely atmospheric drama: horror writer Shirley Jackson and her husband Stanley Hyman, a literary critic and college professor. When young graduate student Fred Nemser and his pregnant wife Rose move in with the Hymans in the autumn of 1964, they soon find themselves under the magnetic spell of their brilliant and proudly unconventional hosts. But Shirley’s need to nurture her writing is a r...

Shooting Geronimo

A filmmaker and his actor. The frustrated director asks another equally attrac tive man to join the protagonist. Jealousy between the two actors forces the director to intervene.
A comic take on the ‘white man’s’ view of ‘Indians’ that is also reflected in the film’s formal aspects such as the use of split screen and a variety of generic quotes.

Si c'était de l'amour

The film about Gisèle Vienne’s dance piece “Crowd” is a techno party gone rave, awash with repetitive movements, physical and emotional encounters between fifteen bodies charged with sexual energy. The camera keeps us plunged into the heart of the choreography, repeatedly zooming out to allow for an insight into the rehearsal process. Through staged one-on-one conversations between the performers, we learn about the background story of their cha...

Sieger Sein

Mona has fled Syria with her Kurdish family and ends up in a primary school in Berlin-Wedding. Things are tough in the school. Everyone on Mona’s all-girls football team plays against each other. But only “team work makes the dream work”.

Siemiany

Andrzej and Michal spend their vacation together every year in Siemiany. They pass time by catching tadpoles, swimming and exploring their sexuality. Their friendship is challenged by 14 year old Agnieska. Michal is very attracted to her. Andrzej is either not old enough or just is not interested in Agnieska. Michal’s older brother and his bleach blond gang invade the boys’ holiday paradise. Andrzej senses that he is not missing anything by going...

Silver Haze

When 23-year-old Franky hears the words “I love you” from her boyfriend after sex, her response is merely: “Whatever, I’ll see you later.” As a child, she was seriously injured by a fire and this has left its mark on more than just her body. For 15 years, she has been trying to bring those responsible to justice. Franky is now working as a nurse in the very hospital where, back then, her life was saved. She is a welcome sight in every room and fi...

Silverlake Life: The View From Here

After he was diagnosed with AIDS, film director and one-time UCLA film professor Tom Joslin decided to closely document his and his lover Mark Massi's experiences. The film follows his day to day life as he struggles to cope with the disease and its ravages. One particularly difficult section covers the lovers' journey to New Hampshire for what turns out to have been a final Christmas celebration with Joslin's family, which has kept Mas...

Sing Me the Songs that Say I Love You

In May, 2011 a concert was held in New York’s Town Hall to commemorate the influential Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle who had died of cancer a year previously at the age of 63. This film shows the intimate group of people on stage including her children Rufus and Martha Wainwright, her sister Anna McGarrigle and friends from the music business such as Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty and Teddy Thompson, all of whom weave ma...

Singin’ in the Rain

It’s 1927 and the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, has just become a huge hit. So the next production for silent film idols and manufactured sweethearts Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont has to be a “talkie” too. But Lina’s voice is a horror. So Don’s new flame, chorus girl Kathy, is hired to dub her. When Lina finds out, she rebels ... “If you must wear fox to the opera / dame fashion says dye it!” This musical makes no bones about putting the artific...

Sisi & Ich

Irma Countess von Sztáray does not have it easy. Shortly before her application to become lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen of Hungary known as “Sisi”, Irma gets a bloody nose from her strict mother in all the excitement. Then, at court, she is put on display like a prize cow and interrogated. At Sisi’s summer residence on Corfu, Irma first has to prove her athleticism in sadistic exercises and is then put on a diet of coc...