Warm

Grotesque

A devil makes a violent attempt to change himself into a heavenly creature. His evil process backfires when he is confronted with the creatures from within.

Guise

Arising from the earth, a body discovers its nakedness. A suit of armour becomes a metaphor for the trappings of identity. Pixilated to produce the effect of a human marionette, accompanied by a good-natured verse.

Hand Job

Stop motion experimental film that shows a man watching porn and releasing himself.

Cupid

Cupid gets beaten at his own game.

Frostbite

A lonely lighthouse keeper rescues his fantasy: a frostbitten man on the rocks.

Closet Case

In this quintessential 'coming out' film, a grinding rhythm leads us through a passage of closed doors, as a man struggles to break free from his literal and social confinement.

(ab)NORMAL

"In '(ab)NORMAL' the relationship spectrum, from paranoid avoidance to smothering and overwhelming attention, is traced through four pixilated sketches." - Toronto International Film Festival

Haven

Animated magazine cutouts of two men having sex lead into appropriated gay porn images, blurred to the point where they become abstract colour and motion. All this is set to pastoral sounds, sex noises, and a reporter's voice-over about the RCMP’s “fruit box” experiments - official and ludicrous attempts to expose closeted gay men.

Camp

Based on real-life experiences, “camp” recounts the stories of homosexual survivors of the WWII concentration camps. A series of short, expressionistic vignettes weave together these horrific experiences. Part documentary, part drama, “camp” uses a variety of mediums to explore the emotional reality of those marked with the pink triangle.

Broken Relationship

"Broken Relationship" moves through a kaleidoscope of colour and pixels to fragments of embraced bodies. Using glitched video footage from classic porn, the broken and distorted imagery speaks to the difficulty that the LBGTQ youth encounter when trying to navigate through their sexuality and relationships. Easy access to pornography means that many young people are learning these important life lessons through a distorted lens. This is especially true of the LGBTQ community where access to information is difficult to acquire from their family, teachers or even friends. The glitched video images mimic the broken messages that much of the porn industry communicates, certainly not the birds and the bee's stories that most youth grow up with.

Stage Fright

The curtains are drawn, a clown stands in the spotlight, the reception is dismal. Before s/he can even begin to perform, debilitating fear takes over. Both sad and humorous, this film explores how one can be manipulated by the depths of fear.

Fruit Machine

Mixing fact and fiction, this film tells the story of Dr. F.R. Wake and his bizarre creation, which became known as "the fruit machine." In the 1960s, Wake was hired by the Canadian government to devise a series of tests that would expose homosexuals working in the civil service. This modern retelling reveals that Wake may have had a few secrets of his own.

Gravity

When you wake up and you have so much to do that you just want to go back to bed. The illusion created by shooting the entire film in reverse emphasizes the entire cycle of life.

Hoolboom

"Hoolboom" is a film that Arts Toronto commissioned local filmmaker Wrik Mead to make based on his impressions of fellow filmmaker Mike Hoolboom. With some collaboration from Mike, Wrik has produced a film about the body, self-awareness, and the art of film.

Homebelly

Homebelly combines waking dreams with unsettling fragments of this and that. An icy soundscape is set to a live-action animated drama featuring a sleeping body and a persistant rock.

Wave

Tender memories of a first gay embrace, of shock and exhilaration and disavowal animated against the waves of a deep blue lake.