Sheldon Larry’s audacious, raunchy and big-hearted musical—with songs by Beyonce’s music director Kim Burse and choreography by Beyonce’s dance master Frank Gatson Jr.—takes us into the fabulously funky world of voguing. (Remember the documentary Paris is Burning?) Here the setting is contemporary downtown L.A. Our hunky, homeless hero Brad , discarded by his homophobic mom, falls in with the members of the House of Eminence, ruled by the stern aging diva Queef Latina, who keeps a careful, loving watch over her makeshift family of runaways and throwaways. When two of her crew fall for Brad, the Queef is royally unamused. High flying and low down, Leave it on the Floor is a one of a kind celebration—a gay African-American musical about f inding your true family. (Description courtesy of the LA Film Festival.)

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Carlos is spending the summer in the country with his family in order to help out with things. Perhaps he won’t even be returning to the capital, as economic prospects are hardly rosy there either. Extremadura on the other hand, sparsely populated and for a long time one of the most neglected regions in Europe, is experiencing a tentative upturn. Tourism and modernisation rub shoulders with almost archaic customs and a conservative, mostly elderly population here. Sleepless Knights depicts all this in casual, unobtrusive fashion, in images that have at times a truly otherworldly beauty. The central theme is the love story between the newly returned Carlos and the young policeman Juan. “You don’t look like you’re from here,” remarks Juan when they meet. “I’m not from here,“ replies Carlos, “I live in Madrid.” Whether to be from here or elsewhere is a decision that many here have to make. Extremadura, Madrid, maybe even Munich? This uncertainty suffuses their love story with a peculiar sense of tension before the backdrop of a seemingly relaxed, uneventful summer. It is only the old men striding through the austere landscape in their strange knight costumes who remain blissfully untroubled.

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Zenne Dancer is inspired by the true characters and stories of Zenne Can and Ahmet Yildiz, who was murdered by his father July 18, 2008 in Istanbul. It is the contemporary story of three unlikely friends: Ahmet, a hyper-masculine gay (bear); Can, a male belly dancer (Zenne); and Daniel, a German photo-journalist. One day they meet Daniel, a German photojournalist newly arrived in Istanbul. The three of them forge a friendship and Daniel and Ahmet grow even closer, as a relationship begins to blossom between them. Soon, Ahmet’s hyper conservative family, suspicious and fearful of Ahmet`s sexual orientation, has hires a man to spy on him When Ahmet’s family discovers Ahmet’s plans to leave the country, they decide to defend their family honor. Zenne Dancer is an honest and unflinching look at living opening gay in Turkey, confronted by a systemic, institutionalized and culturally embedded homophobia.

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