Hold the skepticism—the smart and funny group of people profiled in this fast-moving documentary have heard it all before. Meet Swank Ivy who makes YouTube videos debunking common beliefs; or David Jay, the movement’s poster boy and regular on television talk shows, including The View. (A)sexual documents the growth of this newly organized sexual minority while raising provocative questions about queer inclusiveness and the boundaries of “normal” sexual desire. In 2002 Jay created a website, asexuality.org; today, there are some 26,000 members of AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network). Members discuss coming out as an asexual, their struggles for acceptance, and the various subgroups within the community (to cuddle or not to cuddle?). Along with David Jay and other members of the asexual community, the film features academic researchers who speculate that there are over three million asexuals in the US. Sexperts Carol Queen and Dan Savage weigh in on the f ledgling asexual movement and its place in queerdom. Is it possible that in today’s sexualized society, lack of desire is perversion’s f inal frontier? (Description courtesy of Monica Nolan, Frameline International LGBT Film Festival)

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Set during a tumultuous period of FrenchCanadian history, Funkytown follows the lives of eight people who are linked to a world famous Montreal nightclub called The Starlight in the late 1970s, when disco, casual sex, cocaine, and corruption reigned supreme. The action pivots around Bastien (Patrick Huard), a larger-than-life TV personality with a heroic appetite for booze, drugs, women, and outlandish clothes. We also follow aspiring singer Adriana, who has her sights set on record producer Gilles as her ticket to fame, and club dancer Tino, who becomes confused about his sexuality when he meets the openly gay Jonathan. By 1980, as the disco lifestyle fades, the characters feel the hangover acutely and are forced to make some difficult life choices. With many characters based on real-life figures from the era, Funkytown is a realistic portrait of Montreal.

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Wanting to quit prostitution in Manila and start a new life, Sofia, a transgender woman, gets her chance when an old friend asks her to look after her twelve year-old son, Tomas, while she works overseas for a year. Sofia packs her bags and moves to the small town of Talisay where she becomes Donna, taking care of Tomas. As she’s about to settle into this quiet, idyllic life, the past inevitably creeps back up and she discovers that the town’s mayor Tiongson, who is seeking re-election, is a crony of Verano, one of her regular clients back in Manila. Determined to erase any trace of her past, Donna discreetly hatches a plan to remove Tiongson from power and rid the town of Verano’s influence.

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