The Men’s Shorts program at Reel Affirmations 2015 played
late Saturday afternoon and was a rather long program (114 minutes).
The leadoff film, “Nomansland” (2013, Denmark), directed by
Karsten Geisnae and written by Flemming Klem, runs 36 minutes, is the most
significant of the lot, and has the substance of a feature. Gerard Bidstrup plays a brooding young hunk
who learns his former boyfriend has died of AIDS. When he tries to attend the “family-only”
funeral, he is rebuffed (quite vigorously, in the chapel). The plot set-up has some similarity to “Tom
at the Farm” (Aug. 17). Copenhagen
never has looked bleaker or more bleached than in this wide-screen film.
The second biggest film was “I Do” (“Aceito”, 20 minutes),
by Felipe Cabral, a comedy in which Junior (played by the director) plots to
propose marriage on Rio de Janeiro’s beach.
The over-exposed photography and lightweight gags wear out their
welcome.
Then there is “you.me.bathroom.sex.now”, by Francisco Lupini
Basagoiti (Venezuela), at 17 minutes, a bar-room comedy about hypocrisy after
Antonio (Miguel Belmonte) catches a boyfriend misbehaving in the toilet.
“Open Relationship” (“Relacion abierta”. 2014, Spain, 13
min) by Carlos Ocho is a dramedy about two men negotiating the terms of an open
relationship.
“Mum” (2013, USA, 11 minutes, by Alex Bohs) explores a
relationship among the hearing-impaired, and features some underwater work.
“Das Phallometer” (Canada, 7 minutes, shows a man seeking
asylum from Iran in the Czech Republic, being forced to undergo penile plethysmography
when shown images to prove he is gay.
This test is actually used in the US and other countries in “treating”
sex offenders in prison, so the idea isn’t funny.
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