Haim Tabakman’s breathtaking, award winning debut film Eyes Wide Open is a gay love story set in the heart of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Winner of Best Film award at the Palm Springs Film Festival, Eyes Wide Open is a powerful film that the New York Times calls “a quiet and confident debut feature that explores the conflict between sexual desire and religious obligation.”

Gay Pride marches and festivals are happening all over the world sometimes under heavy opposition and violence. This feature length documentary follows the Vancouver Pride Society’s (VPS) Parade Director Ken Coolen and his VPS colleagues as they travel to places where Pride is still steeped in protest to personally experience the rampant homophobia that still exists. They also travel to São Paulo, Brazil for the world’s largest gay parade and New York City, the birthplace of the modern gay liberation movement. Increasingly the Pride movement is globalizing. Coolen and many Pride organizers in North America and Europe, where celebration has overtaken political action, strive to remind their communities that Pride is at its heart a global fight for human rights. Despite the hundreds of thousands of people cheering in the streets, Pride is much, much more than a parade and a party. It is a giant step on the road to true equality. The GLBT community during Pride is an entertaining and engaging multi- ethnic group than can bring attention to the issue of human rights with diversity, insight, and of course plenty of fabulousness. Director in attendance Thursday, May 6th, 7:30 PM MFA

Ten years ago ‘The Screech’ was the hottest lesbian band around. Iris and Lily were the lead vocalists, MJ the producer, and Carol always went on tour with them. But the days of big dreams and wild nights have long since past. Sexy Iris now drinks too much and fantasises about a comeback that has yet to materialise. She and MJ split up years ago, but just can’t let go. Carol and Lily are so bored by their relationship that they can’t seem to decide on anything, except perhaps to have a child together. And then Cricket enters this Bermuda triangle of fallow desire, disappointment, anger and boredom. This argumentative twenty-year-old is looking for trouble – and finds it. After a pool party awash with cocaine and alcohol, Iris winds up on Cricket’s lap. This makes MJ – to whom Iris has been unfaithful so often before – even more furious. An argument ensues and escalates into a fight during which Cricket is badly injured and dies. The girlfriends decide to overcome their differences, pull together and get rid of the corpse. Their complicity creates a firm bond. But then, a year later, Skye turns up on Lily and Carol’s doorstep. Revenge is her aim and seduction her strategy … (Description courtesy of The Berlinale)