Carandiru (2003)

This episodic film is set in São Paulo's House of Detention, referred to as Carandiru, one of Latin America's largest prison systems. 7,800 men serve time in a facility built to house a maximum of 3,000 prisoners. An Oncololgy Doctor (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) arrives in the jail to test patients for HIV infection. Seeing the disease, overcrowding, and rampant circulation of drugs, he notices the internal power structure among the prisoners. The doctor is moved to volunteer his services on a weekly basis. As his efforts begin to bear results, he gradually earns the respect of the prison community. Several narratives develop, including the attempted murder of Dagger (Milhem Cortaz), the solitary confinement of Chico (Milton Goncalves), and the romance between Lady Di (Rodrigo Santoro) and Too Bad (Gero Camilo). The doctor eventually establishes a routine and sees the prisoners as survivors. Tragically, everything leads to the violent conclusion: the October 2, 1992 prison riot known historically as the Carandiru Massacre. Policemen storm the prison and murder 111 unarmed inmates.

Based on a true story, "Estação Carandiru" (Carandiru Station), a memoir by Dr. Dráuzio Varella, the film's first moments are close-up and rough. The camera puts you inside the notoriously overcrowded and treacherous São Paulo prison, where two inmates argue over one's right to slit the other's throat. Dr. Varella said, "I have no right to tell a story like this, if someone's going to identify the person I'm talking about. This guy didn't tell me his story so I can use in a book. He told me because I’m a doctor and he trusted his doctor. However, the story should be told."

The DVD emphasizes the films historical context and political argument: in addition to director Babenco’s mostly narrative commentary, a "making of" documentary, it includes seven deleted scenes, and historical footage of prison activities from 1928 (when prisoners were enrolled in music and math classes, and rewarded for “excellent behavior"), as well as the demolition of the prison in 1993 in an effort to destroy the horrific memories it held. André Abujamra composed the original music. Hector Babenco, Fernando Bonassi, and Victor Navas wrote the screenplay based on Dr. Dráuzio Varella's book. Hector Babenco directed. In Portuguese with subtitles in English and other languages.

Blue Citrus Hearts (2003)

Sam (Joshua Peter Laurenzi) and Julien (Paul Foster) are high school best friends in Memphis who fall somewhere between the nerds and the losers. Sam has an abusive father (Mark Pergolizzi) and a cold-hearted mother (Lee Ann Roberts). Julien's parent is a single mom (Emily Fry) who provides him with an abundance of love. Both have girlfriends and neither has a job. Sam struggles against his father, his oblivious girlfriend, and thoughts of suicide clash while his affection deepens for Julien. He constantly writes in a journal he will not let anyone see and hopes to take guitar lessons. Julien haunts coffee shops and daydreams.

Both have come to realize something is missing from their lives, and this sense of loss is diminished only when they are together. Julien is a moody boy, and his girlfriend Arielle (Alex Booth) has just about had it with him. The only bright light in his life is his friendship with Sam. They go together to the café, show each other their secret places, and wrestle on the grass. It's obvious they're in love. But these are teenagers--and they're just not ready. Then one night Julien shows Sam a poem he's written called "Blue Citrus Hearts" and it's about his crush on his best friend. Sam and Julien struggle through this film, trying to communicate with themselves, with friends, and finally with each other--discovering what they fear most, that they are gay. The film ends a bit too quickly.

This is a bittersweet tale of two boys in love. It's a slowly paced, heartfelt, gritty, honest little movie that has the power to move you profoundly. Sometimes there is arthouse pretentiousness that is appropriate here, revealing a deceptively simple story with complex emotional issues. The teenage boys from extraordinarily opposite homes find their way through friendship and sexuality while dealing with the complexities of high school, teenage romance, angst, fitting in, the desire for popularity, and the need to be understood and alone. They are unremarkable, ordinary boys learning to cope with emotions they fear and possibly can't understand.

Experimental in style, with lines of poetry scratched into film stock, sometimes jarring editing and a non-linear story, it is a distinctly non-Hollywood experience. It has a freshness and an originality missing from most films today. The soundtrack is strong, and the local music certainly adds flavor to the movie, although it is too loud. It's basically a noisy film. The actors are pimply high school students, not 25 year-olds playing high school students. Another important statement it makes is in the new millenium it is still not OK to be gay. It may be fashionable to accept homosexuality on TV and in movies, but in the real world gay men are still shunned, still legislated against, and still murdered because of their sexual orientation. Viewers comments are mixed--some love it and some do not. Morgan Jon Fox wrote the screenplay and directed.

East Side Story (2006)

Diego Campos (René Alvarado) lives in a conservative suburb of East LA, and is in an unhappy relationship with his closeted real estate agent boyfriend Pablo (David Berón). The pair finally decide to split after Diego has had enough of playing a Mexican immigrant in Pablo's fetish games, only for Pablo to woo Diego's nymphomaniac aunt Bianca (Gladys Jimenez). Diego helps his grandmother Sara (Irene DeBarri) run the family restaurant and hides his gay relationships from his traditional Latino family. He plans to move away and open an upscale Mexican restaurant in Phoenix.

It's the perfect time to be single and out in East LA, as the neighborhood suddenly becomes the hot spot for young gay men, and soon Diego's eyes start to roam as an influx of gay white men move into the neighborhood and begin gentrifying it. When the dashing Wesley Henderson (Steve Callahan) and his outrageous boyfriend Jonathon Webber (Cory Schneider) move in next door, tensions start to grow. Jonathon is terrified by the Hispanic locale and makes ludicrous claims about his impending gay-bashing.

Wesley, meanwhile, falls head over heels for neighbor Diego. The attraction between Wesley and Diego is immediate and electric, forcing both men to reexamine their state of affairs. Serious questions arise about the pressures of an inter-racial gay relationship, including malevolent ex-boyfriends and the discouragement of disapproving family members. Hilarious, feel-good and scorchingly hot from start to finish, "East Side Story" tells an uplifting tale about loving thy neighbour--and not getting caught. It's a well-balanced movie and although the outcome is not certain until the end, everything works out.

This is an entertaining comedic drama, a creative and intriguing look at life in East LA that opens with a mouth-watering twist. The main character performs very well and there are some show stealing moments from the supporting cast: his over the top aunt, the Hispanic dog-walking homophobic chef, and the bigoted campy gay neighbor. One viewer commented, "Very enjoyable, well-acted, well-scripted romantic movie! It's hard to believe this is Mr. Portugal's debut film. It doesn't hurt that the movie is chock-full of really cute actors, with enough shirtless scenes and quick rump shots that titillate." Steven Cahill composed the original music. The screenplay was written by Charo Toledo and Carlos Portugal, who also directed.

Colma: The Musical (2006)

"Colma" refers to a northern California town built as a necropolis and still used as a burial place. It serves as the setting for the picture, but the meaning is expanded to characterize the small town as a place of boredom and spiritual death for its young residents. The teenagers at the center of the movie are Rodel (H. P. Mendoza), Maribel (L. A. Renigen) and Billy (Jake Moreno). The three rebel against the status quo by periodically breaking into musical numbers--songs original to the film done in the style of 1980s new wave rock. They dance around the cemetery and streets. Just out of high school, they are just beginning to explore a new world of part-time mall jobs and college parties. As new revelations and romances challenge their relationships with one another and their parents, the trio must assess what to hold onto, and how to best follow their dreams.

The movie opens with the three leads singing the rave-up "Colma Stays", which describes the anonymous small town with clever imagery. Lanky Billy is an aspiring actor who gets a sales job at the mall and also a supporting role in a local community theater production. He also finds a new girlfriend Tara (Sigrid Sutton) but can never quite manage to shake off the lingering memories of his ex-girlfriend Joanne (Kat Kneisel), much to the chagrin of his close friend Maribel. With a cheerful spark masking an uncertain melancholy, cherubic party girl Maribel is the glue holding the trio together. Her main concerns are getting fake IDs and looking ''f**kable''. Maribel's shining moment comes with "Crash the Party", very similar to Blondie's "Dreamin'", preceded by the film's funniest moment, a purchase of alcohol with fake IDs similar to the liquor store scene in "Superbad".

Rodel is the most challenging character, a gay poet and slacker, closeted from his traditional Filipino father and increasingly jealous of Billy's ability to move on with his life. He feels that he has to be a good son (his brother is in prison) and that means he must stay in the closet. Rodel provides the film's most painfully realistic moments, as well as the most lacerating lines. His rendition of "One Day" provides genuine heart to the story's climactic moment, but his nasal vocals are a repetitive monotone. The barroom shanty scene runs too long, especially in ¾ time, and the "Deadwalking" duet between Maribel and Rodel is marred by the artsy intrusion of ghostly couples dancing in the cemetery.

Filled with shots of San Francisco in the background, those in the Bay Area will appreciate the SF inside jokes. The first half dozen songs cover everything from the boring life in Colma to crashing college parties. However, the second half of the film tackles more serious and mature themes such as love, family acceptance, and becoming an adult. The acting feels stilted and the music derivative, but the film somehow makes it to the finish line through its honesty about how life is for social outcasts living in San Francisco's suburban necropolis. This coming-of-age musical had a budget of $15,000, but first-time director Richard Wong and first-time screenwriter, songwriter and co-lead H. P. Mendoza make something substantive from the premise of three close friends just out of high school. It's a funny, bawdy, real, stylized, quirky world in a bizarre setting.

Director Wong said: "It's a hard movie to market. All the gay distributors don't think the film's gay enough, all the Asian distributors don't think it's Asian enough. People like labels, and labels help sell. We didn't make it to sell anyways. And just the fact that it is gonna sell is pretty amazing. We never even considered submitting to queer and Asian film fests. It was always more about teenagers and the human experience. I would never take away what they have done for us, but that was not our original aim. We just set out to make a good movie." The DVD includes a commentary track from Wong and Mendoza and fifteen minutes of deleted and extended scenes. H. P. Mendoza composed the original music. He also wrote the screenplay from a story he wrote with director Richard Wong.

Beverly Kills (2005)

Beverly Jackson (Gary Kelley) is an aspiring actor who loses a role in a musical at the Pride Playhouse, a nude theatrical production of "Balls Out."--a revue that promises a same sex marriage ballet and gratuitous male nudity. Furious, muscular cross-dresser Beverly decides to form a cult of revenge after seeking advice from Rocco (John Marlo), his massuer. Meanwhile back at the Playhouse, employee Shane (Rick Sparks) is dumped by his boyfriend, then falls into the arms of Ray (Matthew Herrmann), a lighting designer, and the two are swept into Beverly's bizarre scheme. We encounter broken relationships, lonely guys, new relationships, arrivals to Hollywood from all over the country who long to become stars and end up being "stand-in celebrities" for the tourists along the Hollywood Boulevard.

Beverly gathers the guys and gals who have auditioned and plans a terrorist martyrdom attack at Hollywood and Highland as a means of making a statement about the unstable way of life and irony of the promised land of dreams. The tone changes a lot: it's a comedy, then a drama, then a love story. Of course it all goes awry, but it does so with some very attractive people and some impressive talent.

This very entertaining satire of Hollywood lunatics, fanatical doomsday religious cults, and oversexed gay community theater features lots of cuties, a hot romance and a twisted drag queen. There are plenty of laughs in this edgy comedy, and the over-the-top, silly, ridiculous situational comedies and parodies contain much social comment. All of the men in the movie are gorgeous and either wear absolutely nothing or next to nothing throughout the whole movie. Their nudity includes full frontals. The "Balls Out" musical number is great! Unlike most low-budget gay romantic comedies this one doesn't take itself so seriously, is quite witty, well-acted, and leaves you feeling good. If you are easily offended or don't have an absurd sense of humor, then you should probably look elsewhere as this one is scathing and out there. Viewers comments are mixed. The DVD includes the director's commentary track, which is very entertaining and helps appreciate this movie even more. For some great surprises, freeze-frame the Cult's CD multi-media presentation. A few single frames contain some startling images. Jeffery Alan Jones composed the incidental music, and Damion Dietz wrote the screenplay and directed.

Azuloscurocasinegro (2006)

Jorge (Quim Gutiérrez) and Israel (Raúl Arévalo) are two best friends living in Spain. Jorge wants a suit. Israel wants a van. Jorge's plans are put on hold when his father Andres (Héctor Colomé) has a stroke. For seven years he nurses his father and is forced to take over his job as a janitor while studying part time to get a business degree. When Natalia (Eva Pallarés), his childhood crush, returns from studying abroad, Jorge yearns for something better. He is desperate to find a better job, but no one will hire him because he only has experience as a janitor.

Antonio (Antonio de la Torre), Jorge’s older brother, will soon be released from jail. He is an opportunist who has never gotten along with their father. In prison Antonio meets Paula (Marta Etura), a beautiful young woman in jail on drug charges. Paula has a problem because she flirted with another inmate's boyfriend. Violently harassed in jail, she wants to get pregnant in order to be moved to the jail's safe maternity ward. Antonio just wants to have sex with Paula, soon falls in love with her, but he discovers that he is sterile.

Everything changes when Antonio gets out of prison. He plays on Jorge's good nature to get him to step in during conjugal visits and impregnate his girlfriend Paula. Jorge reluctantly agrees, even though it might get in the way of his long-term relationship with Natalia. Meanwhile, Jorge's best friend Israel secretly photographs men visiting an erotic masseur. He finds out that his father is one of the clients and thinks that he must be gay. Irritated with his father's hypocrisy, Israel starts anonymously blackmailing him. However, he later begins to question his own sexuality when he visits the erotic masseur himself.

Jorge's relationship with Natalia becomes difficult after she tries to get him a job where she works but he is only offered a position as a janitor. Then Antonio finds out that their father has an undisclosed bank account full of money. Jorge makes regular visits to the women's prison to carry out his brother's wishes and falls for Paula. Gradually, they develop an unusual relationship. She gets pregnant and through her, Jorge learns to stop feeling responsible for everything and finally confront his own wishes, ignoring what the world expects of him. He breaks his relationship with Natalia and decides to wait for Paula’s release. The relationship of the two brothers survives Jorge's emotional involvement. Antonio fails to retrieve the money his father has had in the secret bank account and is instead mortally attacked by his father.

Israel confronts both of his parents and his own sexual identity, finally achieving some degree of peace. Jorge and Paula have a baby daughter. He moves from the building where he has worked and lived for so many years, finding a new job as a janitor. When Jorge thinks of escaping his dead-end life, he dreams of a suit, which is dark blue, almost black. At the end, he takes Israel’s car, breaks the store window and grabs the dark blue suit.

These two stories are interwoven to demonstrate the struggle between family obligations and individual freedoms, especially at that point in life of coming into one's own. With its subtle wit and homoerotic curiosity, "Azuloscurocasinegro" is a fresh and vibrant discovery reminiscent of its Spanish-language forerunner "Y Tu Mama Tambien". The English title is "DarkBlueAlmostBlack", which is technically called "midnight blue". It's a state of mind, an uncertain future, and a color--a color that we don’t always recognize and which varies depending on the light, the medium and the mood. The DVD extras include interviews with the director and the lead actors. Pascal Gaigne composed the original music, and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo wrote the screenplay and directed. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Get a Life (2006)

"All I want is a straight guy who will be gay just for me," says Jaime (Brian Campbell) to his abusive psychiatrist. This is a statement that propels the plot of a disenfranchised homosexual looking for himself. Jaime desperately searches his hometown of Chicago looking for love, acceptance, and happiness in some interesting and surprising places. Along the way, Jaime meets some fascinating and colorful people, in addition to many hot and sexy guys, both straight and gay, all leading to surprising insights into his own life.

In the seedy Ram Bookstore he meets student Monty (Michael Gonring), a troll-loving bisexual with a girl friend in Boston who says, "I thought I'd take a walk on the wild side for a few months and then go back to her and all this will become a distant memory." Monty becomes Jaime's guide and conscience in a journey through the maze of his broken life. After the bookstore gets busted Jaime ends up in the same cell with his enemy Hal Stevens (Peter Marinelli). The two hate each other because Hal used to steal all his tricks in the bookstore. But they become the closest of friends and decide that there is an alternative to gay life. Hal says somewhere there is a twilight zone of the sexual fringe and that's where they belong.

After a visit to Miss Galena Chanel (Tina Stefano), an expert in making gays popular, they try a variety of gimmicks. From circuit parties decked in zoot suits, to dressing up in drag and trying to pick up gas station attendants, and all the way to a classic betrayal by his new found friend, Jaime is left twice as vulnerable and lonely. Vulnerable enough for Ray Milano (Matt Edwards), a coworker and homophobe, to step in and ruin his life completely. Jaime gets what he wants, including a lover, but not before a spectacular revenge climaxing in a fight in which he beats up Ray in front of all the coworkers. "I am a lowdown c***sucker who just beat the crap out of you! What does it make you Ray?" he asks him, his voice trembling while pinning him down. In the end, Jaime discovers the one person he never thought he would: himself.

Viewers unanimously hate this film. One comments, "There is nothing at all believable or coherent about the narrative of this video...I suppose the tone is supposed to be comic, but most of the humor is so over-the-top as to be unfunny. The only exception is a brief jaunt as desperate drag queens that manages some humor. The acting is mostly poor, the script worse." Another wrote, "It's so bad it's not even campy or laughable. It's just lame. And the acting is awful! And the direction is terrible! Don't waste your time. Or money." Another: "It's not even worth the time to watch the movie. Cheap production. Bad script. Something that one won't even watch if you get paid for it." Here are two more: "This movie is like one of the worst B movies with amateurs trying to act which they can't if their life's depends on it," and "It's just a lame movie with really overly bad acting. I mean, bad acting is actually a compliment for this because the acting is so awful. And no one wants to watch trolls in sex clubs hitting on young boys. No one! So really...don't waste your time with this one." Nick Monson composed the original music, and Toby Ross wrote the screenplay and directed.

บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ (2003)

Nong Toom (Asanee Suwan) is a terrific and talented Thai kick-boxer, a young man who is sensitive to the female side of his personality. As his mother says to her husband, "If my son turns out be a transvestite that is our karma. We must accept him for what he is." Born into a tough hard-working farm family in a small village, Toom was taught not to take any crap from anyone, even if it means using his fists to settle an argument. He embarks on his life with the psychological backing and support of his family, a life that places him in a kick-boxing match where he learns that he has a great talent for the sport. After a short stay at a monastery, he becomes a champion kick-boxer, mastering the masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai.

Toom's gender bending becomes more and more apparent to his fans as his talent and stature rises in the Thai kick-boxing world. His fans take his wearing makeup and outlandish colored trunks as a gimmick, even when he takes to kissing his defeated opponents. But when Toom decides to pursue a surgical transformation some are outraged, but most see it as insulting and besmirching Thai manhood.

As he lives with his coach and other fighters, a situation that offers no privacy, Toom struggles with taunts that he is demeaning his sport, acting more as a clown, and becomes increasingly aware of people trying to manipulate him. Following a traumatic event in his life, Toom faces his greatest challenge yet, a high-profile fight with a much larger woman wrestler in Tokyo. Toom/Parinaya retires from boxing when he becomes more of a woman, a kathoey (male-to-female transgendered person). Her post-boxing career is acting and modelling.

Based on the true story of Thailand's famed transvestite kick-boxer Parinaya Charoemphol, "Beautiful Boxer" tells through flashbacks about her childhood and teen years before her sex change operation, when she was Nong Toom. This action drama is a touching, funny, ironic, graceful, gritty, and realistic high-concept movie. Shot in 9 provinces across Thailand and in Tokyo, the film also features a series of explosive matches where Nong Toom knocks out most of his opponents in Thailand and Japan. The fight sequences and location shots are beautifully photographed, with many special effects that add to the dramatic effect of the story. A fascinating transgender movie, it also contains lots of eye candy for gay males. It won numerous film festival awards, a GLAAD award, as well as a "best actor" award for Suwan from the Thai movie board. DVD extras include a "making of" featurette, info on the fight sequences, interviews, and a music video. Amornbhong Methakunavudh composed the original music. The screenplay was written by Desmond Sim and Ekachai Uekrongtham, who also directed. In Thai with English subtitles. The English title is "Beautiful Boxer".

Boys Life 5 (2006)

The fifth installment in the successful series of gay-themed short films anthology collects four short films produced between 1990 and 2005. This collection avoids the alternating callow humor and dull self-seriousness of previous installments. Each feels like a first-rate mini-feature rather than a student experiment or a Hollywood audition.

In "Fishbelly White", directed by Michael Burke, alienated rural youth Duncan (Mickey Smith) mistreats farm animals and explores his homoeroticism with a hunky older boy (Jason Hayes), only to learn some harsh lessons about nonconformity. With its rural setting, offbeat protagonist, and less-is-more approach to both dialogue and sexual tension, this entry could hardly be confused for a typical gay indie. It features subtle insights into adolescence and sensuality. Burke uses "Fishbelly White" as the basis for his feature "The Mudge Boy".

"Dare" was written by David Brind and directed by Adam Salky. Hunky high-school star Johnny (Michael Cassidy) has the lead in the school play "A Streetcar Named Desire" but is having trouble remembering his lines. Nerdy "Light boy" Ben (Adam Fleming) likes to look at the very popular boy, and to spotlight him on stage. The irritated female lead of the play refuses to give her co-star a ride home, and "Light boy" volunteers. Once there, champagne gets opened poolside and both boys are soon in the pool, and the daring occurs. The final shot is deliciously sly. "Dare" offers the most explicitly gay subject matter of the collection, yet it shares with the other films a tension between childhood innocence and erotic awakening.

In "Late Summer", written and directed by David Ottenhouse, photographer Adam (Augustus Kelly) recounts the genesis of one of his photographs, in the process revealing much about his adolescent self (Erol Zeybekoglu). It begins in an art gallery with a photo show of Adam's work and proceeds to a lengthy flashback leading to an image not for sale. The photo shows the photographer's older cousin Josh (Christopher Nee) with whose family the photographer stayed after his parents' deaths. The younger Adam is hero-worshipping and shy, but not a pushover. The cousin goes skinny dipping, and he doesn't keep his shorts on as the boys in "Dare" do. Josh appears totally naked in the swimming home scene. But the film is restrained, with its gayness a matter of sensibility and subtext rather than overt content. This short is a rare example of a flashback story whose framing sequences actually add to its emotional heft, providing an intriguing suburban contrast to the farmland lyricism of "Fishbelly White".

"Time Off" was directed by American-born Israeli Eytan Fox. A soldier receives some unexpected insights into the private life of his dictatorial lieutenant. The "Time Off" of the title is between the end of basic training and deployment to Lebanon during the First Lebanon War in 1982. We see a lieutenant (Gil Frank) putting his men through annoying exercises. He seems to be picking on a pleasant-natured sensitive recruit named Yonatan (Hanoch Reim). On leave in the city, Yonatan wanders into a known gay pick-up spot and guess what? It was shot in Hebrew a decade before any of the other films. With its military setting and political backdrop, "Time Off" engages with the real world rather than just its characters' inner lives. Yet its subtlety and ambiguity fit in perfectly. Fox would go on to explore similar themes with the full-length "Yossi & Jagger".

The fifth and most consistently rewarding entry in the "Boys" Life series of anthologies focuses on the inner contradictions and unspoken longings of their protagonists. These four films collectively explore issues such as unrequited love and allow the "Boys Life" series to grow up. The bittersweet featurettes offer homosexual men a chance to identify with non-archetypal characters instead of drag-queen confidants or suicidal closet cases.

Cachorro (2004)

Pedro (José Luis García-Pérez) is an attractive gay dentist who lives a cosmopolitan life in Madrid. He's a well adjusted, kindly, and independent "bear" who thinks nothing of having his two best friends have sex in his bed while he takes a shower--sometimes even participating in a threesome. His older sister Violeta (Elvira Lindo), an ex-hippie, leaves her son Bernardo (David Castillo) to stay with Pedro when she impulsively decides to take a two-week jaunt to India with her latest boyfriend.

Soon the two form a strong attachment and their life together seems to be going well. Bernardo cooks for Pedro, but his nephew's presence forces him to take a break from his otherwise extremely active sex life. Even his boyfriend Manuel (Arno Chevrier), who suddenly pays Pedro a visit and who shares his penchant for leather and latex, is basically rejected. But when Doña Teresa (Empar Ferrer), Bernardo’s paternal grandmother, arrives on the scene, she begins to resent Pedro's closeness with the boy. Doña is a lonely and embittered old woman who blames Violeta for her son's drug-related death. She's also eager to re-establish a bond with her grandson, who doesn't like her. She's concerned about the influence that Pedro may be having on the boy and wants to take over Bernardo's upbringing by sending him to a private school in Valencia where he can learn English. The boy, however, is reluctant to leave his uncle and vows to stay with Pedro.

News arrives that Bernardo’s mother has been arrested in India for drug smuggling. She may be facing a prison sentence of thirty years, and Pedro is just as shocked at this news as Bernardo. Nevertheless, he realizes that he is now responsible for the boy. There suddenly are so many things to organize, such as repairs to the house and finding a school for the boy, that Pedro hardly misses the life he used to lead. Gradually he succeeds in rekindling his sex life, but in a less excessive form.

Then Doña demands custody of Bernardo. After illegally obtaining his medical history revealing that Pedro is HIV-positive, and hiring a private investigator who obtains pictures of Pedro at a gay club, she threatens him with both. Pedro lets her put Bernardo in a boarding school. When his grandmother goes to visit him and reveals Pedro's HIV status, Bernardo says that he already knew and that his mother is HIV-positive as well. She then reveals that Pedro is in the hospital with pneumonia. He tells her that he hates her and that it's her fault that he's in the hospital, because he wasn't there to care for him.

Three years pass, letters go back and forth between Pedro, Bernardo, his mother, and his grandmother. We then see Bernardo and his friends at a funeral, and a casket being lowered. Shortly after, a cab pulls up with Pedro in it, out of the hospital and healthy, then revealing that it was the grandmother's funeral they were attending. After a brief conversation, Bernardo goes and hugs and kisses his friends goodbye, then he and his uncle reunite and ride away in the cab together.

"Cachorro" defies all expectations and never passes judgment on any of the characters, not even on the villainous Doña Teresa. And there's no puritanical scorn about Pedro's supposed inappropriateness as a guardian and role model. In fact, Pedro goes out of his way to live his life as he would a single man: We see him going to bars, cruising back rooms, flirting with shop attendants in front of Bernardo, and even inviting his friends over for marijuana and coke-induced gatherings. The film also explores Pedro's relationship with a flight attendant and part-time lover who wants a commitment that Pedro is unwilling to make. Throughout all of this Bernardo is either oblivious to what is going on, takes it all in his stride, or even offers Pedro romantic advice.

There's a lot of love among Pedro's "bears", and though the movie is occasionally over-talky and light on the drama, there's still lots of warmth and humor. It's an important movie, groundbreaking because we are given an intelligent and perceptive insight into a part of the gay community that has been marginalized by the wider gay community. Bears are a sub-culture that have received little or no recognition in gay-themed movies. However, one viewer commented, "Don't be deceived by the blurb, because this isn't a nice gay film at all. On the surface it appears frothy, but underneath it's a sleazy film of betrayal, deceit, and a man's lost love that he'll never get back. It has it's funny moments, most of which you'll have seen on the trailer, but the rest is a gritty, rather sad little down-beat film that'll appeal to those who like it real." Lucio Godoy composed the incidental music. The screenplay was written by Salvador García Ruiz and Miguel Albaladejo, who also directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The Spanish word "cachorro" describes any young, furry animal such as a cub or puppy, and the English title is "Bear Club".