Outfest Los Angeles

NARRATIVE FEATURES
MY EMPTINESS AND I (MI VACIO Y YO)
DIR. ADRIÁN SILVESTRE | SPAIN | 98 MIN.
SATURDAY | JULY 16 | 1:00PM | HARMONY GOLD
MONEYBOYS
DIR. C.B. YI| FRANCE | 120 MIN.
WEDNESDAY | JULY 20 | 9:45PM | DGA 1
LONESOME
DIR. CRAIG BOREHAM | AUSTRALIA | 95 MIN.
SATURDAY | JULY 23 | 9:30PM | DGA 1
Down and out and on the run, handsome drifter Casey rolls into big
city Sydney with a longing for connection and an untold past in the
countryside. Adrift within the all-consuming hook-up scene of this
unknown urban labyrinth, he strikes up a friendship with charismatic
fellow hustler Tib after crossing paths in bed. Their connection quickly
settles into a physical and emotional partnership that offers the promise
of a new beginning for them both but only if they can survive the secrets
and sinister forces that surround them. With an eye towards finding the
sublime where others might look away, director Craig Boreham crafts
an erotic, sensitively tuned vision of striking vulnerability that dares
to kindle hope and redemption against the most impossible odds.
MARS ONE ( MARTE UM)
DIR. GABRIEL MARTINS | BRAZIL | 115 MIN.
THURSDAY | JULY 21 | 7:00PM | DGA 2
In this Sundance darling about a young woman discovering her queerness
and taking a brave leap into new love, Brazilian director Gabriel Martins
weaves a tender family drama with a sensual love story. Set in the postelection
tumult of Bolsanaro’s regime, we meet a working class family of
four, each with their own wishes for their future. Eldest sister Eunice has
just met her great love in Joana, but hesitates to reveal her true self to her
family members each dealing with their own challenges. Avoiding the
dramatic trappings of the coming out narrative, Martins instead shows
us a casual, easy love progressing naturally. Bathed in all the colors
and music Brazil has to offer, Mars One is a celebration of life in the
face of tragedy, and the enduring familial love that carries through it all.
Outfest alum Adrián Silvestre partners with co-writer and lead
actress Raphaëlle Perez to create a colorful, layered portrait of a
life in flux. Perez plays Raphi, a low-level office worker with dreams
of being an artist. When Raphi is diagnosed with gender dysphoria,
her story becomes a deeply humane exploration of the choices
one trans woman makes as she learns to re-enter the dating world,
demand more from her sex life, and come into her own as a gifted
writer and performer. Bursting with vitality and exuberance, the
community that forms around Raphi is inspirational, led by a support
group of multigenerational trans women played by the subjects of
Silvestre’s Outfest Award-winning documentary, Sediments. This is an
invigorating cinematic experience, destined to become a queer classic.
Director C.B. Yi’s gritty and tender debut feature explores the
emotional entanglements and secret world of street hustlers — or
“Moneyboys” — working their clients and making a living in big city
Beijing, where gay life is taboo but a surplus of demand survives in
the shadows. Far from his home in rural China, twenty-something Fei
rises in their ranks as a wet-behind-the-ears newcomer while sending
along his earnings to the conservative family he left behind in the
countryside. But when their disapproval irrevocably complicates his
position, his life in the profession shifts as he seeks a new chapter in
love without price tags attached. Yi’s tactile sensitivity and assured
sense of direction with actors and their environment evokes a longing
to belong against the shimmering mystery of starting your life anew.
Content advisory: Depictions of violence
Content advisory: This film contains intense scenes of a graphic sexual nature.
MAYBE SOMEDAY
DIR. MICHELLE EHLEN | USA | 91 MIN.
SATURDAY | JULY 23 | 7:00PM | DGA 1
When her wife devastatingly asks for a separation in order to explore other
options, Jay decides to pick up her life and move across the country to
start anew. Halfway through the trip, she makes a pit stop to visit her high
school best friend, a single mother raising a young daughter. Haunted by
the memories of her crumbling marriage and holding out for a second
chance, Jay postpones the rest of her trip. She’s paralyzed in her grief
until she befriends a charismatic gay man whose outlook on love forces
her to come to terms with her new reality. Michelle Ehlen (Heterosexual
Jill, S&M Sally) returns to Outfest LA with an honest and heartfelt journey:
a love letter to the people who help pick us up when our hearts are
broken, and the beauty of discovering the strength to create a fresh start.
PETER VON KANT
DIR. FRANÇOIS OZON | FRANCE | 85 MIN.
SUNDAY | JULY 17 | 9:30PM | DGA 1
One of contemporary cinema’s most prolific and stylish artists, François
Ozon’s (8 Women, Summer of ‘85) latest breathes dazzling new life into
a landmark of the queer canon. This tale of romantic obsession uses the
framework of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 masterpiece The Bitter
Tears of Petra von Kant, and remolds it to focus on prickly film director
Peter (Denis Ménochet), whose friend and frequent star Sidonie (a superb
Isabelle Adjani) introduces him to young aspiring actor Amir. Peter is
instantly infatuated, but with the beautiful Amir’s star rising and attention
wandering, the potential rejection sends Peter’s temper into overload.
No one is safe, including Peter’s long-suffering, silent assistant and his
understanding mother (Fassbinder regular Hanna Schygulla), and the
result is an explosive actors’ showcase that needs to be seen to be believed.
PHEA
DIR. ROCKY PALLADINO | UNITED KINGDOM | 93 MIN.
SATURDAY | JULY 16 | 1:15PM | DGA 2
Phea is an aspiring singer/songwriter who feels stuck. Her music
career has stalled, and her relationship to her girlfriend Justine is on
the precipice. So when Justine stops answering her calls, Phea tries to
find her to get some explanation — but she is soon drawn into the orbit
of a dangerous human trafficker that puts her own life, and Justine’s,
on the line. She swiftly discovers that she would do whatever it takes
to save her lover. Come for the emotionally and politically resonant
lesbian spin on the myth of Orpheus, and stay for the extraordinary
debut and music of Sherika Sherard — the singer/songwriter cast
as Phea after the director saw her busking in a London tube station.
Preceded by EDIBLE Dir. Kandis Golden, 2021, 18 min.