A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.
Social & External
The people behind it
Tedd Szeto
Filmmaker
Lela Lee
Yel Fan
Ray Chang
Sean
Paulino Tamayo
Heroine
Commissioned by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, If You Were Me is an innovative omnibus film project to promote tolerance and human rights and shed light on the hardships disadvantaged people face in Korea. This third installment continues the If You Were Me tradition. Directors Jeong Yun Cheol (Marathon), Kim Hyeon Pil (Wonderful Day), Lee Mi Yeon (L'Abri), Noh Dong Seok (Boys of Tomorrow), Hong Gi Seon (The Road Taken), and Kim Gok and Kim Sun (Capitalist Manifesto: Working Men of All Countries) participated in If You Were Me 3, creating shorts on human rights issues of their choosing, ranging from labor conditions to gay rights to discrimination.
Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.
Pool Blue is an attempt which tells, without dialogue nor rationality, a connection fantasized between two men. It is the fantastical projection which reveals certain eroticism. Pointless and discreet, the desire is present, two men are careful, gauge to the point to create a link of seduction. This link is intelligently staged, it is invisible with the eyes of the other swimmers, mysterious for both men and very explicit for the spectator.
The young Samir accompanies the politician Stefan to a hotel room. Samir is in love and has set everything aside to be able to go with Stefan, as they had planned. But under the surface lies a big misunderstanding, and outside in the rain a journalist is waiting for the next big headline.
Shinohara, a young bodybuilder, joins a para-military sect in northern Japan. His instructor, Takizawa, takes a liking to the new recruit. After an early “special” training session the two develop a lasting and loving relationship.
An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge.
A Fantastic Ghost Wedding is the story of a young popular spirit medium, who is hired to find a spouse for a dead teenage boy. The chosen bride turns out to be an unexpected person, and this snowballs into a series of events culminating in a Chinese ghost wedding.
Deep in the lush river jungles of Argentina, Alvaro lives a solitary existence fishing and harvesting reeds. What sets him apart from the rest of his village is that he is gay. There are no other gay men in his world, his only means of expression is with the occasional outsider who passes through. Most of these men come via the river taxi El León, whose captain El Turu is a mean man with a homophobic streak and a secret. When illegal loggers appear in the jungle El Turu accuses Alvaro of aiding them, a dispute which leads both men towards confrontation.
When the recently divorced Tarik spends time alone in a holiday cottage on the Veluwe, he meets the owner of the house, Jonas. But when they seem to grow towards one-another, it proves difficult for Tarik to not let his true feelings emerge.
Max isn't sure about his sexual orientation until he meets Leon at his new school. When Max is singing a song at a school concert something beautiful happens.
Best friends Beto and Daniel spend most of their time together. Daniel struggles with his gender identity just to hide his feelings for Beto. To be himself, he has to overcome his fear by showing Beto what he truly feels.
An aging, closeted Alzheimer's patient, clashing against his strong-willed daughter, struggles to hold on to the memory of his long lost lover.
While struggling to cope with the death of her boyfriend, a young woman begins to form romantic feelings for her new supportive female friend.
A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local millionaire, whom he befriends.
The life story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who survived the Nazi reign as a trans woman and helped start the German gay liberation movement. Documentary with some dramatized scenes. Two actors play the young and middle aged Charlotte and she plays herself in the later years.
Nico is a famous actor in Argentina, but in New York, nobody takes notice. He needs to juggle bartending, babysitting and odd jobs to keep himself afloat. But when old friends from Buenos Aires come to visit, he needs to juggle the image of his old life with the reality of the struggling actor in New York City.
'Guacho' narrates a summer day in the life of two teenage friends, Maikol and Darío, who want to escape their everyday crushing reality, at least for a day. They spend up to the last penny to get to the mountains where, taking refuge in tranquility and mutual love, they manage to get a grasp of happiness. But freedom does not seem to be so available to them.
Manuel is a gay Latino teen who lacks guidance and support. Even though his mother, Anna deeply cares for him, she is only able to prove and instill her love through video tapes made from afar. Keeping his sexuality and boyfriend a secret from his homophobic father, Manuel must decide the life he wants to live or end.
Hao, a chubby gay man, works as a janitor at a gay spa. For him, romantic relationships are an unreachable dream. One day, an attractive customer, Kai, walks into the place, and Hao has the opportunity to massage him.
Christian, a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce Aaron, a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex.
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
In 1955, young photographer Dennis Stock develops a close bond with actor James Dean while shooting pictures of the rising Hollywood star.
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
After tragedy strikes Henry and Penny, he befriends a tenacious young girl and discovers she is constructing a raft to sail across the Atlantic to find her lost father. Together, along with some unlikely friends, they set forth to construct the vessel and subsequently rebuild their lives.
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
An equal rights crusader, journalist and activist: Gloria Steinem embodies these and more. From her role in the revolutionary women's rights movement to her travels throughout the U.S. and around the world, Steinem has made an everlasting mark on modern history. A nontraditional chronicle of a trailblazing life.
