Paul Monette: the Brink of Summer's End (1996)

This biographic documentary is a tribute to Paul Monette, the gifted gay writer whose death in 1995 brought an early end to a promising career. The film examines his childhood in Massachusetts, his close family life, his school experiences, and his struggle with his sexuality. Readings from Monette's work punctuate interviews with the author, his brother, and friends. Home movies and photos reveal Monette's love of life nearly as well as his words. "Becoming A Man", "Borrowed Time", and "Last Watch of the Night" are masterpieces of gay literature that uplifted a generation of men who were imprisoned in the closet, and inspire another generation who can now be proud of themselves and those they love. Paul Monette left more than a legacy of words about the experience of living with and dying from AIDS. He left all of us with the strategy to "go without hate, but not without rage. Heal the world."

Originally planning to make a documentary that profiled several gay people, director Monte Bramer and producer Lesli Klainberg changed their minds after meeting Monette. "It was a magical three hours," Bramer said of this initial meeting. "We knew then that here was a subject of a major documentary." The film was a big hit at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, picking up the coveted Audience Award for Best Documentary. Jon Ehrlich composed the incidental music and Monte Bramer wrote the script and directed.

La Virgen de los sicarios (2000)

Fernando (Germán Jaramillo) is an author in his fifties who has returned to his crime-ridden drug capital hometown of Medellin, Colombia. He meets Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros), a handsome gay 16-year-old assassin at a party and immediately falls for him. The two begin a relationship consisting of sex and Fernando telling Alexis how pastoral the city was when he left. Alexis explains about robbery, violence, and shootings. Even though Fernando has come home to die, his negative worldview is mellowed by Alexis. He soon discovers that Alexis is a gang member and sicario (hitman), and members of other gangs are after him. Several assassination attempts fail, but he is finally killed by two boys on a motorcycle. Fernando is partly responsible for this, because Alexis' weapon had been lost before the murder due to Fernando's suicidal impulses. Fernando visits Alexis' mother (Cenobia Cano) and gives her some money, and then walks through the streets aimlessly where he meets Wilmar (Juan David Restrepo), who bears a striking resemblance to Alexis. He and Wilmar begin an affair, the kind of relationship he had with Alexis. Wilmar is also a killer, but it is a shocking revelation to Fernando when he finds out that Wilmar is the one who shot Alexis. He vows to kill Wilmar, but then learns it was Alexis who started the violence by killing Wilmar's brother. When Wilmar goes to say goodbye to his mother before he and Fernando leave the country, he is killed as well. Realizing that the vicious cycle of murders in Medellín denies happiness, Fernando presumably commits suicide, but the last scene is ambiguous.

According to the director, the relationship between Fernando and Alexis is patterned on Greek pederasty, where "not only was a boy learning from an adult, but an adult was also learning from the boy. It's a two-way relationship, especially in this movie, where the writer discovers things about the new realities of his town that he would never know otherwise. And obviously, the boy has everything to discover from this adult." The film was shot with high-definition digital video cameras, giving the movie a cinéma vérité look. Fernando Vallejo wrote the screenplay from his novel. Barbet Schroeder directed. The English title for this Columbian/French movie is "Our Lady of the Assassins".