The Last Chapter

Bernard is a French man on the verge of his twilight years, he is moving into a new apartment, probably his last. Director Gianluca Matarrese documents without any filters himself and his much older lover. He is documenting them reminiscing and having sex, playing control and submission games, master and slave. A young and curious filmmaker and his older BDSM fan lover, who lost his greatest love during the AIDS pandemic of the 80’s and suddenly, years later, found himself falling for a younger man. What at first started out just as a sexual adventure, turned out to be much more.
This is a film about the generation gap, friendship, life, death, sex, love adn dealing with the fast approaching inevitable end .
The Last Chapter” is a courageous, unfiltered documentary.

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sex scenes.

In association with the French Institute

Wet Sand

Wet Sand” is the second feature film by Georgian director Elene Naveriani. It deals in a very delicate and moving way not only with the homophobia engrained in the Georgian society, but also with the generation gap between the older closeted queers and the younger generation who refuses to hide.
In a quaint fishermen’s village, on the shores of the Georgian Black Sea, live friendly people who are sure that they know each other well. One day, Eliko, one of the village elders, is found hanged. His androgenous looking granddaughter Moe, a city girl, arrives at the village in order to organise her grandfather’s funeral. She clearly doesn’t fit in the conservative community that sees her as an outsider, but the locals fake a warm reception. Moe befriends the old tavern owner who used to be very close with her grandfather and the village spinster bartender working for him. The more Moe delves into the mystery that is her grandfather’s life, the more she uncovers the web of lies and the tragic consequences of Eliko’s secret love life.
Pay attention to the perfect and addictive soundtrack, which will surely send you straight to Spotify to look for the songs afterwards.

Additional screening: 3.11, 20:30 Cinematheque Herzliya

The Revenge of the Shiny Shrimps

A sequel to the successful 2019 dramatic comedy “The Shiny Shrimps”.
This time the queer water-polo team are on their way to Japan, to take part in the LGBT games in Tokyo, when their plane is detained in the heart of Russia, in a particularly homophobic area. The fun trip to Japan turns into a life changing experience that will give the protagonists a new perspective on their reality.
This is an unusual sequel that chooses to confront the merry French bunch that is living a fairly safe and free life in Paris with the hard reality that is the lives of LGBT people living in East Europe. The team is facing many troubles they have never faced before, such as the dangers of using Grindr in Russia, an incarceration in a conversion camp, and raging and violent homophobia.

The scenes set in Russia were actually shot in the Ukraine, and some of the Ukrainian actors who played Russian characters had found themselves later fighting against the Russian invasion.

In association with the French Institute

Klappe

3.11 – after screening Q&A with the director
4.11 – director in attendance.

German cinematographer and TLVFest favorite, Jürgen Brüning, delivers a shameless masterpiece that took 16 years to complete. He is mixing up pieces of his works as a director and producer (on films he produced for Bruce La Bruce and Shu Lea Cheang amongst others) and unreleased footage he has taken years ago, all wildly edited together. Brüning weaves into the narrative countless references to global pop culture.
Klappe” project (which means “public toilets” or “Tea rooms”) was written and partly filmed in 2006 and was shelved due to lack of time by the busy producer. The forced break from his work due to the COVID epidemic allowed Brüning and editor Jörn Hartmann to return to the ambitious project and finish it. In the time since the beginning of the project the two had grown up, developed and found new topics of interest. “Klappe” is an indescribable idiosyncratic film. An experimental queer cinema that is anti-religious, anti-authoritarian and somehow just anti everything! The result is subversive, pornographic, social, political, revolutionary and perhaps, mostly, a romantic musical that is nostalgic of the time when queer cinema was ground breaking and smashed conventions.

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sex scenes.

Maybe Someday

The screenwriter-director-actress Michelle Ehlen comes back to TLVFest after screening here two of her other films: “Butch Jaime” and “S&M Sally”. Her previous films were lighthearted fun-filled comedies that enjoyed crushing gender stereotypes. This time Ehlen proves that she is not only a gifted comic filmmaker but a quality drama master as well. “Maybe Someday” brings us the serious side of her cinematic work and this time she deals with relationships, heartbreak and memory, but despite the dramatic levels, the film is still full of humour.
After her partner leaves her, Jay embarks on a road trip across the USA with a backpack full of basics and an old phone. She arrives at the home of a childhood friend in California and gets swept by a torrent of bitter-sweet memories of their childhood. The real crisis comes when she finds out her old partner is seeing someone else. Meanwhile she meets Tommy, an amateur stand-up comedian who is funnier off the stage. With her teenage sweetheart in the next room and her ex that still messages her, Jay must decide if she really means to leave the limbo she’s stuck in.

Circus of Books

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop “Circus of Books” gave the members of the Los Angeles LGBT community a safe space to celebrate themselves without judgment. Not many people knew that the owners of the shop were Karen and Barry Mason – she was an ex-journalist and he was a special effects master for big Hollywood films such as “2001: A space odyssey” and “Star Wars”. A straight, religious, Jewish couple with three children that attended a religious Jewish school and went to Synagogue on the weekends and were never aware of their parents occupation (and neither did friends and close family members). The Masons witnessed the HIV plague first hand and lost a generation of treasured employees. They became social activists, and yet throughout the whole period never identified as such – only as entrepreneurs serving clients the world ignored, until the internet had ruined their business.
Circus of books”, which was produced by Ryan Murphy, is Rachel Mason, the couple’s daughter, first documentary film. For the first time she puts a camera in front of her parents, the least radical people she ever knew. She asks how they became the biggest distributors of gay porn in the the USA and why did Karen react so negatively when her own son came out of the closet.

The screening is courtesy of Netflix.

Alis

28.10 screening – Opening speeches

In a youth shelter in Colombia, ten young women sit down in front of the camera and close
their eyes. They are instructed to picture Alis, an imaginary friend that came to the shelter, and to tell her life story. Like the other girls, Alis used to live in the streets of Bogota. This imaginary companion is the beginning of a very unique and extraordinary documentary project. Alis is used as a gentle and reflective entry point to the personal stories of the participants. Alis becomes a chilling mirror of the life stories of ten young women who talk to the camera about past traumas, surprising love stories and their ambitions for the future. “Alis” might be an imaginary friend, but she will take you on a moving journey into the world of young women who have been through so much at a too young age and now deserve to enjoy some of the freedom the shelter provides before embarking on a new journey as adults.
Directors Claire Weisskopff and Nicholas Van Hemlrick’s work is sensitive, gentle and compassionate, and gives a unique and direct glimpse into the stories of young women whom society doesn’t notice. For the first time they look straight into the camera and tell their story, as they try to break the vicious cycle they were born into.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 29.10, 20:30

In association with the the Romanian Cultural Institute

Nelly & Nadine


VOD screening is AVAILABLE ONLY IN ISRAEL.


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The voice of Nelly, an opera singer, is ringing out in the middle of Ravensbruck concentration camp. Nelly and Nadine first met
on Christmas 1944 in the hell of the concentration camp and there started a relationship that would change their world. Nelly Mousset-Vos, was an opera singer in Paris, who used to frequent Natalie Clifford Barney’s literary salon in the 30’s. Nadine Hwang was the rebellious daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Spain. Sylvie, Nelly’s granddaughter, discovers a diary, 8mm film clips and audio tapes in a locked box belonging to her grandmother. She pieces together the unbelievable, bigger-than-life love story of Nelly and Nadine. For a whole year, Swedish acclaimed director Magnus Gertten (“Only the Devil Lives without Hope”) accompanies Sylvie in her search for the untold stories of her grandmother Nelly and her lover Nadine. The result is a moving documentary about a deep, loving relationship. This is an unforgettable memoir of two women who were determined to be truly free, as well as a reminder of the need for individual and collective remembrance.

 

 

Phantom Project

When was the last time you saw a gay urban ghost comedy in cinema or on TV? This film from Chile, by the director Roberto Doveris (who also produced “El Príncipe”), is an unexpected surprise.
Pablo is a young actor with dreams of becoming a star. Until his dream comes true he is working as a simulated patient in a medical school where medical students do experiments on him. Not only is his acting career at a standstill, his whole life seems to be going nowhere – he’s still in love with an ex-boyfriend, his roommate disappeared without paying rent and has left an unusual problem in his wake. A ghost.
Phantom Project” is an indie comedy about the journey of a young man to self discovery and about following dreams in strange and surprising ways.

Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter

A wonderful new film from director Gustavo Vingare (The Blue Flower of Novalis”) takes place in Sao Paulo in a-not-so-far dystopian future. The city is taken over by a virus that attacks the brain and the people’s ability to remember. An entire country has forgotten their colonial past and the cruel dictatorship that ruled the place. Three young queers are getting swept into a surreal adventure in the once noisy city which is now quiet due to the virus and raging capitalism. They talk abou their experiences with HIV, get make-up tips, visit an elderly client and eventually arrive at an antique shop run by a singer named Mirta.
Three Tidy Tigers” is a magical and clever creation about friendship and love on the outskirts of society, during a plague era.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 27.10, 20:30