Danger! The ozone layer of planet Zots is disappearing due to an overabundance of emotion! What can a lesbian space alien do to save her world? Well, board a flying saucer of course, and take a trip to New York City (it’s on planet Earth), where hearts will be broken and “big feelings” will be overcome. From the out-of-this-world people who brought you the wonderful shorts Dyke Dollar, Countertransference, and Hold Up comes the tale of codependent Barr, promiscuous Zylar, and sweet Zoinx, three shiny-headed space aliens on a mission of heartbreak. Can love survive the trials and tribulations of intergalactic romance? With the low-fi kitsch of 50s B movies, director Madeleine Olnek embraces what sci-fi fans have known for years—outer space is the perfect setting for the final frontier of relationship drama. Soup up your cardboard spaceship, put on your tinfoil hat, and find the nearest wormhole to claim your seats for the hilarious Sundance hit Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same. (Description courtesy of Alexis Whitham, Frameline International LGBT Film Festival.)

Event Info↗

Where do you go if you grew up unpopular and pimply, having unrequited crushes on boys in the rugby team and wishing to be transported to the exotic yet often papier-mache worlds of English science fiction serials? How do you cope if you are both a geek, and gay? Outland is a situation comedy from the producers of Summer Heights High and John Safran’s Race Relations that revolves around a gay science-fiction club. It is a comedy about belonging, and how everyone searches to find a place where they fit in.  Episodes 1-3: Bondage & Bionics. Open about their sexuality but not so much about their geekdom, the gang outs one of their own on a first date, stumbles into a complicated BDSM scene, and faces the Khan-like wrath of their club’s former leader. (Description courtesy of the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.)

Event Info↗

Festival favourite Ferzan Ozpetek (Ignorant Fairies; Saturn in Opposition) returns to with a light-hearted tale of family obligation and repressed desire that is as playful and sunny as a weekend on the Italian Riviera. Tommaso is the youngest son of the well-to-do and ultra-conservative Cantone family, who own a pasta factory in Puglia. He returns home for an important family dinner at which his father plans to hand over the business to Tommaso and his brother Antonio. But Tommaso has a comfortable life in Rome as an aspiring writer and a steady relationship with his boyfriend Marcoa life he has kept secret from his family. He has no desire to move back to his hometown or to give up his writing career, so he plans to announce to his family at the dinner that he is gay. That evening, however, just as Tomasso begins his speech, he is upstaged by his brother, who, to everyones surprise, reveals his own secret! Antonio is promptly disowned and their father Vincenzo collapses from a heart attack. With the family in a state of turmoil, Tommaso reluctantly steps in to run the factory with Alba, the daughter of their new business partner. The comedy follows Tommaso as he balances running the firm, consoling his outraged family and keeping his homosexuality a secret in case the news altogether kills his stricken father. A surprise visit from some of Tomassos friends, including boyfriend Marco, uncovers some well-hidden family secrets and helps to change some long-held beliefs among the family. Loose Cannons is a witty, penetrating drama, beautifully acted by its ensemble cast. The film takes a lighthearted approach, revealing each family member’s quirks in a story that meanders through an emotional terrain of unspoken feelings that are played out against a backdrop of sumptuous beauty. (Description courtesy of Inside Out: The Toronto LGBT Film Festival.)

Event Info↗