Film Categories: LGBTQ

  • Porn Yesterday

    Queer people remember their first experiences with porn.

  • A Sublime Failure

    Writer and essayist David Schmader reflects on his twenty year obsession with the notorious Hollywood flop SHOWGIRLS.

  • Tiny House

    Inspired by a true story. After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Lee copes with his illness by developing a tiny house that will accommodate his deteriorating body.

  • Misadventures of Pussy Boy Trilogy

    “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” is trilogy of short videos subtitled “First Love”, “Sick” and “First Period”, each video’s running time is approximately 6 minutes, all videos are animated in a fashion that is very much “do-it-yourself” aesthetic, as told from the point of view of a transgendered youth in rural Cape Breton. Each video was animated by hand, the backgrounds were created like theatre back drops, with the characters hand painted and cut out, performing each scene in front of the matching background for the scene. Camera work involved shooting each shot for 3-5 seconds and then manipulating the characters…

  • First Love

    “First Love” is the first video in the “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” trilogy, made in 2002, our outcast 2Spirit youth Alick is seduced by femme Lesbian siren Kay with token resistance. Kay is also an outcast because of her Metis status, this shared outsider status draws them together in order to survive the tyranny of high school bullies against their queer romantic attraction.

  • Sick

    “Sick” is the second video in the “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” trans trilogy, produced in 2003. Alick is verbally and physically queer bashed at school, Kay shares with our anti-hero the power of reclaiming hurtful words like “sick”. Our protagonists find safety, comfort and acceptance in each other’s arms.

  • First Period

    “First Period”, the third video in the “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” trilogy, the title is a double entendre for the first period of school and Alick’s first menstrual cycle, a shocking event that sends our intersexed youth into an emotional tailspin. Alick is worried about how Kay will react, will she have anything to do with this “?”. Their burgeoning secret relationship is threatened by Kay’s friendship with Ray, the high school bad boy. Alick also relates how he acquired the name “pussy boy”. Alick learns his lessons well from his first love Kay and turns a bully’s taunt into…

  • Trans Cabaret

    “Trans Cabaret” is half hour long “edutainment” cabaret of sketches about “all things trans”, performed by members of the trans community for the purposes of bringing “translightenment to the masses”. The video also goes behind the scenes to show the performers coping with being homeless, dealing with transphobia in the shelter system, telling parents about being trans and dealing with abusive partners. During the cabaret the performers rehearse tongue-in-cheek sketches by “characters” in the cabaret. The video demonstrates through the cabaret an open attitude about the basics of gender reassignment surgery, gender identities and orientations, the myths and realities of…

  • Audrey’s Beard

    “Audrey’s Beard” was shot on my beloved Bolex camera. The film was conceived as a time-lapse documentary film experiment with shots of this once butch dyke filmmaker’s beard growing in over a 21-day period in the early 1990’s. At the time it felt like it was a very transgressive act as an artist, transitioning gender, to grow the beard I had felt ashamed of for so many years, using my body to tell a story, coming to terms with the shame of being born Intersex in a creative and empowering way. Ten years later, in 2001, a potent voice over…

  • Things That Happen in The Bathroom

    In the intimate sanctuary of the bathroom, a lonely young queer yearns for love, and learns how to survive heartbreak. For Jak (John Calvin Pierce), the bathroom is a refuge, a place where they can exist without wearing the mask they present to the world. But when their feelings of loneliness threaten to overwhelm them, Jak invites a new hookup into the bathroom – opening up to all the pleasure, embarrassment and self-discovery that comes with queer intimacy.