From the acclaimed director of Married Life and Forty Shades of Blue comes a haunting, subtle tale of a contemporary gay relationship. Debuting at Sundance and winning the Teddy Award at the 2012 Berlinale, Keep the Lights On is a visually stunning film that “breaks new ground in contemporary American gay cinema” (The Hollywood Reporter). The deeply personal story charts the highs and lows of an emotionally and sexually charged relationship between two men. It’s 1997 and New York City is in a state of intense flux when documentary filmmaker Erik Rothman (Thure Lindhardt) first meets Paul Lucy (Zachary Booth), a handsome but closeted lawyer in the publishing field. What begins as a highly charged first encounter soon becomes something much more, and a relationship quickly develops. Told over the course of ten years, this is a film about sex, friendship, intimacy and most of all, love.

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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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Set in a small town on the Belgian coast in the late 1960s and 70s, adolescent introverted dreamer Pim grows up accustomed to neglect from his selfish mother Yvette. Pim eventually finds succor at the home of Yvette’s co-worker Marcella where he heroworships her older son, Gino. Friendship grows into love when Gino, cautioning Pim to secrecy, supplies the besotted boy’s first sexual experiences. But when Gino begins a relationship with a French girl, jealous Pim focuses his wistful romantic fantasies on Zoltan, the hunky itinerant fun-fair worker who comes to board at his house. Winner: Alice in the City Award, Rome Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award and Best Feature Debut, Montreal Film Festival. (Description courtesy of Palm Spring International Film Festival.)

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