To Live, To Die, To Live Again

De la cage aux roseaux

A journey into contemporary French cinema through a series of exclusive interviews with the leading figures of GLBT French cinematography: André Téchiné, Catherine Corsini, Gaël Morel, Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau and other old acquaintances of our film festival. This documentary offers an interesting insight into the official and non-official cinema from the point of view of gender identity. A look behind the scenes: discussing issues like censorship and self-censorship, women' cinema and misogyny, transvestism and homo-eroticism, cinema d'auteur and popular cinema (was the Nouvelle Vague homophobic?). From past to present, from Jacques Demy to François Ozon.

Wild Reeds

As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

La vie à rebours

A sunny winter morning... Two brothers on a countryside path, go intown, as usual... That day, the younger brother has a meeting with his criminal friends. Stéphane, his older brother, isn’t aware of it. Fate will reunite them one last time... but too late. Stéphane, bearer of a terrible secret, is in for a life of suffering...

Love Songs

Ismael and Julie, in the hope of sparking their stalled relationship, enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice. When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love. For Ismael, this means negotiating through the advances of Julie's sister and a young college student – one of which may offer him redemption.

L'enfant du paradis

Everything seems to be smiling again at Yazid, an actor with a sulphurous past. He is trying to regain custody of his son and find a stable family life. But despite his efforts, he is overtaken by his old demons...

Our Paradise

Vassili is an aged prostitute with killer instincts. He finds an unconscious young man in the Forest of Boulogne and takes him home. Now lovers and accomplices, the two men become a couple in prostitution and steal from their clients. And yet, menaces of retaliation leave the couple with no choice but to escape from Paris. The runaway begins...

Those Were the Days

The grueling, emotionally torturous world of French preparatory schools provides the framework for this mystery. The deliberately rigorous courses are designed to prepare students to take the brutal examinations for entry into the elite Grand Ecoles, where a select few will gain the skills and education needed to insure a bright, prosperous future for themselves. The story centers on Delphine, a girl from the lower classes, and the upper class Claude. Both young women aspire to attend the Ecole Normale Superieure on the Rue d'Ulm. Delphine lives in humble public housing with her dull mother and two young brothers while Claude, who considers herself a Communist, lives in luxury with her own servant; she is sexually involved with fellow- student, Axel, who thinks himself a fascist.

Catch the Wind

Edith, a 45-year-old textile factory worker, sees her life turned upside down by the company’s downsizing measures. Estranged from her son and without any other ties, rather than go into unemployment, she decides to leave her life behind and follow her work at the factory which has been relocated in Morocco.

Far Away

Serge is a long distance lorry driver between Morocco andEurope. In Tangier, he tries to reconcile with his former girlfriend, Sarah. She has refused to have anything to do with him since her mother’s death and intends to join her brother in Canada. Serge appeals to Sarah’s protector, a young Arab named Saïd, to allow him to meet up with Sarah, promising in return to smuggle Saïd into Europe...

Three Dancing Slaves

Annecy is no tourist destination for three working-class Algerian brothers and their father, in the months after their mother has died. Marc is deeply troubled: he tries to stiff drug dealers and then plots revenge. Christophe is released from jail, lands a job, and must overcome various temptations in order to keep it. Olivier, nearing 18, may be falling in love with Hicham...

Constance aux enfers

Except for Amine and Kimmy, the young couple of neighbors she meets regularly, visitors are rare in Constance Brunel's antique store. Loneliness is also her life. One night, Amine, in a panic, seeks help at her house: Kimmy has fallen badly when she slipped and she has killed herself. Thinking that the police will not believe this version because of his judicial past, Amine borrows Constance's car to take the corpse and make it disappear. In the days that follow, this shared secret brings Constance and Amine closer. But one morning, an anonymous letter accompanied by photos demands a ransom: someone in the building has seen everything, the blackmail begins.

Full Speed

A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it...

New Wave

Eric, a lonely young college student, meets Romain, a student who has been dispelled. Far from the family farm, Eric discovers the new wave musical movement with the help of Romain, and decides to edit a video clip for a song by Romain.

Zonzon

In a French prison, three men are coming to terms with the emotional and physical torment which their incarceration brings them. Arnaud is serving a six-month sentence for drug smuggling; he protests his innocence and will do anything to secure an early release. Francky is a hardened criminal who has all but lost his wife and family and who seeks comfort in self-inflicted abuse. Kader is in prison for theft; he is the most philosophical of the three men, he is growing accustomed to prison life and seems to prefer it to the world outside.

After Him

When Camille's son was killed in a car accident, the devastating loss proved too much for emotionally fragile mother to bear. Now desperately clinging to any reminder of the son she held so close to her heart, Camille becomes increasingly fixated on Frank - the young man who was not only her child's best friend, but the one who was responsible for the tragic accident that took his life as well. At first, Frank is receptive to Camille's advances. It's not long, however, before the pair's scandalous relationship prompts many of Camille's friends to distance themselves from the increasingly unstable woman. Later, as Camille's obsession with Frank turns menacing, the relationship between grief-stricken mother and her guilt-ridden lover begins to take on ominous undertones.

Ma mère

After his father's death, a young man is introduced to a world of hedonism and depravity by his amoral mother.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'.

Withnail & I

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

The Curiosity of Chance

It’s the ‘80s once again, new wave angst and genderbending fashion are all the rage, but new kid at school, Chance Marquis, is trying to find new ways to stand out. Being an odd and somewhat awkward teenager makes him the target of the school bully. To deal with this dilemma, Chance turns to the opposite ends of the high school spectrum for help. On one side is the flamboyant drag queen and at the other, the varsity jock, Levi Sparks with whom Chance develops a unique friendship.

The Walker

Carter Page III, a middle-aged gay man in Washington, D. C., is a "walker", a single man who escorts other men's wives to social events so the husbands do not have to. One of the women he escorts, Lynn Lockner, is the wife of a United States senator and is carrying on an affair with a lobbyist. When she finds the lobbyist murdered, she embroils Carter in an investigation that leads to the highest levels of the federal government.

Less Than Zero

A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for Christmas at his ex-girlfriend's request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.

Head On

Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.

The Man Who Loved Yngve

It’s November 1989 and the world is changing. So is Jarle, who attends Kongsgård High School in Stavanger. He plays the guitar/lead singer in a local punk band, has a great girlfriend, and has the coolest best friend. But it's all about to change when Yngve enters the classroom.

The Doom Generation

Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.

Man on High Heels

Ji-wook is a virile detective with a reputation, but deep down in his heart, he always considered himself as a woman and finally decides to get a transsexual operation. However, his plan falls apart as vicious gang members start their revenge on him.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.

American Gigolo

Julian makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle, a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's being framed. Meanwhile Michelle begins to fall in love with him.