Boys Briefs 5: Schoolboys (2008)

The fifth installment of the successful "Boys Briefs" series takes us in search of the best gay shorts in the world. 19 year-old Oscar Peralta, with his handsome good looks and charming personality introduces the six short films included in the collection.

First is "Kali Ma" a 14 minute film from India directed by Soman Chainani. A suburban food-loving Indian mom (Kamini Khanna) finds out her gay son Santosh (Manish Dayal) is the victim of a vicious bully and delivers her own brand of vigilante justice. Seeing him in anguish, she wants her son to be happy, regardless of what it will take. Her son is humiliated when he lusts for high school jock Peter (Brendan Bradley), and she heads to his house for a confrontation. This entry attempts to blend comedy and violence, but it's not funny, and any attempt at serious commentary is discarded in favor of cartoonish antics. The fight is too mean spirited to be silly, but too silly to be believable, and the ending is out of place. It doesn't make sense regardless of how you view its tone. However, "Kali Ma" has won awards and many viewers love it.

Second is "Flatmates" a 21 minute film from Norway directed by Magnus Mork. A young gay man is in love with his straight but playfully homoerotic roommate. It's obvious that the relationship between Bjorn (Sven Borang) and Hampus (Jonas Eskilsson) is unique. The two close friends move into an apartment together, and are comfortable with each other. That makes it increasingly hard for gay Bjorn to keep his crush under control, especially when straight Hampus has his girlfriend (Emilie Lidgard) over. One night he makes a move that is bound to have a serious effect on their relationship. This is a simple story about being in love with your best friend and about the dividing line between tenderness and abuse. It features natural performances and unforced developments, leading to a powerful end that isn't phony. Cinematically, "Flatmates" is dark and full of grain. It swept the 2007 Oslo Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, winning the Audience Award and the Jury Award for Best Short Film.

Third is "Secrets" from the USA directed by Jeff Warden. With a runtime of 15 minutes this brave and bold short shows us one night, five teens, a deck of cards, a secret gay crush, and a belt. Five friends--two girls and three guys--spend a parent-free night partying with booze, lollipops and a deck of cards that decides which duo gets some alone time. This is the most colorful, flashy entry here, and it sometimes feels like a music video. The performances feel genuine and real, which might scare a lot of viewers because some of the "games" the kids play behind closed doors get a little out of hand--such as exploring erotic asphyxiation. Danielle (Lindsay Gareth) is the troublemaker with a crush on Mike (Bryan Endress-Fox, now Ber Fox), but when she gets the sense he has the hots for Tony (Casey Graf), the night takes an unexpected turn. While the scary sexual games may make some of the characters less believable, the climax is played with such honesty you can't help love it. "Secrets" suffers from color imbalance.

Next is "Yeah No Definitely" a 14 minute short from the USA directed by Dave Snyder. Cam (Vincent Piazza) and Kiff (Alan Barnes Netherton) are two college students in an intense platonic relationship. While Cam is expert at suppressing his emotions, something is eating away at him. Denial proves deadly in this humorous and heartbreaking film about what happens when grief and passion collide. "It's a statement of pure equivocation," says director Dave Snyder in the bonus features. "Most of us speak like stammering teenagers, unafraid to say what we really feel." This entry follows Cam and Kiff as they hit the road for a house party. Snyder notes that he let the two leads improvise, and the interplay between them goes a long way in selling the material. The two leads are outstanding--they look and act like close friends, giving weight to the story. As the two settle into the night, we learn more about Cam's past--and get a window into his feelings. While the ending may not please a lot of viewers, it's refreshing that it doesn't play to our expectations. The film leaves you thinking, and--along with "Flatmates"--is the most realistic story in the collection.

"You, Me and Him" is an 18 minute film from Brazil directed by Daniel Riberio. This entry starts with lovers Danilio (Daniel Tavares) and Marcos (Diego Torraca) smiling in bed as they discuss their upcoming anniversary. Danilio plans to finally move out of his parents' home and into an apartment with his lover, with a honeymoon to follow. But when Danilio's parents are killed in an accident, he's suddenly forced into a new role with 10-year-old brother Lucas (Eduardo Melo). Now Danilo's biggest concerns are making sure a little boy gets to school on time and drinks enough milk. A touching story about love and responsibility, this story has the most potential as a feature-length film. The script is surprisingly mature and complex with such a short runtime, and all three actors turn in great performances. A scene between Lucas and Marcos is one of the most moving in the entire collection.

Last is "Benny's Gym" a 25 minute film from Norway directed by Lisa Marie Gamlem. A pair of young boys grow up fast in this very good film. Mild-mannered artist Alfred (Atdhe Belegu) is the frequent target of school bullies, including Benny (Kim Erik Tena Eriksen), who wants a tattoo. Alfred draws one on Benny's arm in secret, and this is the beginning of an eventually warm relationship between the boys, a relationship that must be kept secret, much to the dismay of emotional Alfred. If you can forget the sexual overtones of the other five shorts here and look at this as a tale of friendship, your discomfort will go away. A few of the developments are hard to take, and the story becomes more about co-dependency and violence. Although this is a memorable watch in a gut-punch sort of way, this last entry feels a little out of place with the rest, primarily because the two leads are a lot younger.

Most of the shorts revolve around the budding sexual attractions of young gay men, with similar structures leading to hopeful or heartbreaking conclusions. Nothing is unwatchable, but nothing really impresses. The total runtime is 109 minutes with a soundtrack in English, Hindi, Norwegian, and Portuguese. Subtitles are in English and Spanish.

Avant que j'oublie (2007)

58 year-old Pierre (Jacques Nolot) is a former hustler and lonely prisoner of his past. The film opens with a black circle as a dot on a white screen. Slowly the circle enlarges until it fills the entire screen, making the viewer see the kind of oblivion which Pierre is facing. Living off money provided by former wealthy lovers, he stays in his apartment, waits for inspiration, but can't write his next book. He resorts to prostitutes for sex and discusses at length the price of their services with his friends. Pierre reminisces about his youth, beauty and time as a gigolo. "I've stopped doing things,” he says, "I sublimate." Pierre is HIV-positive and has been taking medication for years. He is weary but begins a new therapy. Slowly he pulls himself together and finds renewed inspiration with psychiatrist Dr. Manosky's (David Kessler) help. Pierre spends his days meeting old gigolo friends, going to his psychiatrist, trying to write, hiring young hustlers, and watching life pass by at his local bistro over a beer and a sandwich.

Conversations with his friends are devoid of any passion or interest in what the others have to say. Everything seems to circle around the prices of rentboys and how poorly they are paid. There is no compassion or empathy in these conversations, so the only people who can tolerate Pierre’s complaining are his psychotherapist and the hustlers who treat it as a duty to listen to him. Pierre sometimes talks of suicide but listeners think he just wants attention. Death has never really been absent in Pierre’s mind. At the age of 25 he decided not to make any investments since he didn’t expect to live much longer. For the past 24 years Pierre has had his HIV-positive status hanging over him.

At the age of 25 former society gigolo Tountoune (Albert Mainella) became his lover and benefactor. Although they never lived under the same roof, they were together for almost 35 years. Tountoune had willed his entire fortune to Pierre but his will was never registered with a lawyer, so when Tountoune suddenly died on the day they were supposed to meet for lunch, Pierre was left with only two life insurances in his name. Pierre feels cheated out of his old lover’s inheritance, but the whole ordeal only seems to motivate him to put more effort into writing.

Pierre's inability to concentrate in order to read seems to be the same force that makes him write: his fear of the oblivion, the black circle which threatens to devour him before it’s too late to leave a footprint in the world of the living. Despite his talk of suicide he doesn’t really want to go yet. Although he claims that nothing interests him anymore, he resists a new HIV treatment since it may have side effects--loss of hair and looks. He still dresses elegantly and rarely lets his guard down in front of others. His obvious vanity at age 58 suggests he is still the same proud person behind his fatalistic façade. The final scene of the film, powerfully supported by Mahler’s music, shows his defiance of the oblivion he’s inevitably facing with all the dignity you can expect from an old unbroken gigolo.

This memoir told in the present tense is an appraisal of the indignities faced by a near-death homosexual with no money, mostly dead friends and only bitchy acquaintances to lend any comfort. Sex is paid for or stolen from delivery boys, prostates flare up, work dries up, HIV medication runs out, and the hot young gays look at him with pity. The film is a somber, intimate, authentic, profound, stylish, and existential rumination on homosexuality, aging, desire and death. This is the final installment of director Jacques Nolot’s trilogy about gay life in Paris, and he stars as the melancholy Pierre. He also wrote the screenplay. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "Before I Forget".