The Gay Cinema Video On Demand experience at TLAgay.com has your entertainment needs covered! We’re always working to expand selection of new and old gay-themed movies available for your viewing pleasure. Here’s just five of our current favorites, from various years, that you may have missed – ALL available to watch INSTANTLY! These aren’t our TOP 5, by any means – just a handful of flicks we want to highlight.
Animals © Artsploitation Films
2012, Spain
David Lynch meets Donnie Darko in this stylish coming-of-age tale that explores the exciting but troubling moment when sexuality enters into a young man’s worldview. Seventeen-year-old high school student Pol (Oriol Pla) pals around with Deerhoof, his opinionated, drums-playing, English-speaking teddy bear. But Pol’s child-like world is threatened when he meets an alluring and potentially dangerous new student. Gorgeous cinematography, a rousing soundtrack and several strong supporting cast members including Martin Freeman (of The Office and The Hobbit fame) help make Animals an unpredictable and unconventional supernatural drama.
The Famous and the Dead (c) Water Bearer Films
2009, Brazil
The Famous and the Dead is an evocative drama set in southern Brazil. A 16-year-old Bob Dylan fan, known only by his online handle “Mr. Tambourine Man,” lives with his mother in the remote countryside. Devastated by the loss of his father and trapped in a village he dubs “the hole in the world,” his only contact to the outside world is via the internet. The arrival of two mysterious figures, the spirit guide “Jingle Jangle” and her companion Julian, ignites both a fear and a fascination that draws him into their seductive nether world. Adapted from the novel by Ismeal Caneppele, director Esmir Filho‘s surreal, visually sumptuous debut is a subdued, soulful and dreamily opaque tale that mines the themes of adolescent uncertainty and burgeoning queer sexual desire.
The Road to Love © Water Bearer Films
2001, France
Karim (Karim Tarek) is a straight Algerian-French sociology student who embarks on a documentary film project on Arab homosexuality – a study which takes him from Paris to Amsterdam, Marseilles and eventually to the Maghreb region of Northern Africa (an area encompassing Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia). He attempts to interview gay men, but the sexually repressive nature of the region makes it all the more difficult. He interviews a Tunisian performance artist and a sexually aggressive man, but eventually he meets the handsome and openly gay flight attendant Farid (Riyad Echahi). The two talk and become close friends. Farid begins to believe that Karim is repressing his own sexuality. When Karim’s girlfriend leaves after discovering a book on Persian love poems given to him by Farid, Karim takes the opportunity to explore his hidden feelings.
Seed Money (c) Breaking Glass Pictures
2015, United States
Seed Money tells the the fascinating and largely unknown story of Chuck Holmes, the San Francisco pornographer who founded Falcon Studios. As a major contributor to gay advocacy groups, Holmes helped create and shape gay identity in the 20th century, only to find out that while his money was welcome in philanthropic circles, he sometimes was not. Funny, candid and completely eye-opening (in more ways than one), this feature-length documentary is packed with mind-blowing (and often load-blowing) archival footage as well as interviews with notable figures, including Chi Chi LaRue, Jeff Stryker, Scissor Sisters front-man Jake Shears and John Waters. Learn all about one of the gay communities most unheralded hero – seems like it’s the least we can do for him!
Supernatural © TLA Releasing
2014, Thailand
From writer-director Thunska Pansittivorakul comes this visually sumptuous sci-fi fantasia. Supernatural takes place in a futuristic Thailand, where everything is orderly and citizens earn merit through good deeds. The problem: people aren’t allowed to touch each other. For the film’s characters, nostalgia for the past and a painful longing for sexual intimacy are setting in. Packed with gorgeous imagery and a sensual homoeroticism, Supernatural travels back and forth from the past to the future to comment on gay life in the present.
