Swain is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man’s ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.
Social & External
The people behind it
Gregory J. Markopoulos
the protagonist, Swain
Mary Zelles
the woman
Luc ou la part des choses is an ambitious and effective film about the story of a young man who "discovers" and assumes his homosexuality.
Nina, a mentally ill teenage orphan, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fall in love but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. Meanwhile, Francoise is picked up at a Berlin psychiatric hospital by her husband, Pierre. After spotting Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but no one believes her.
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.
During her wedding ceremony, Rachel notices Luce in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck, she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce.
After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.
William and Helen have to face the “coldness” that have seethed between them, after being married for more than three years. One night, as Helen states that she wishes for a divorce, the couple has to make a decision that will change the paths of their lives.
A football hooligan feels unconditional love for his club. However, being gay, he has to hide his identity in order to survive in this world that is so precious to him.
Arthur is a single dad, struggling with the care for his seven-year-old son Max and the combination of his secret life as a drag queen.
A message from Javier's boyfriend changes his family situation and causes them to reconsider their relationships.
This documentary follows two long-lost Ukrainian friends, Arsalan and Nastya, as they reconnect in Germany after russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Arsalan, an actor now in Frankfurt after time in a refugee camp, and Nastya, journalist and producer who stayed in Kyiv, reflect on the divergent paths their lives have taken due to the war. Through their conversations and therapy sessions, the film explores themes of displacement, identity, and the emotional impact of war on youth.
Eight-year-old Jesse lives in a twilight world of sadness and silence, squeezed into a tiny caravan with his grief stricken father. They're in limbo, existing more than living. The child intuitively understands that looking forward is harder than looking back, and that's where life happens. But they are stuck, until an accidental friendship with a V8 driving transsexual unlocks the means for Jesse to liberate his father and himself.
Since the post-election period in 2010, the poor farm-less people from Malatto village group, Maubin district in Ayeyarwaddy region have been struggling hard for their living almost every year. This happens since there has been less and less land in the region where they can earn their living. Their rights to use natural resources in their local area has been limited. So, they face lots of difficulties in meeting their basic needs. When the stakeholders of the water and land areas in that region have got the right to open their hearts, we can hear the “Whisper from Malatto”.
A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".
Kei longs for a “normal” life in rural Japan. But for a transgender man who is jobless in his own hometown, getting to normal is one steep climb, especially since Erin, his Canadian partner, longs to move to Tokyo, where they can live openly and freely. On his way to a job interview in the city, Kei meets a stranger. Abandoning his journey to help her, he discovers she is the owner of the hot springs—a place he once loved, as a child. Kei's encounter with the healing waters is complicated by Erin’s turning up as well. Finally, the couple—one on the men's side, the other, on the women's—must face the truth about their divergent wishes, identities, and murky notions of belonging.
A contemporary, ensemble drama that tells the complex tale of six high school students whose lives are interwoven with situations that so many of today's youth are faced with. The story takes place during a normal school day. At precisely 2:37 a tragedy will occur, affecting the lives of a group of students and their teachers.
Fredy is a teenager who lives in the countryside and denies his homosexual inclinations. When rumors start circulating in the village, he decides to go to Havana, where he meets a group of people who help him realize that it is best to accept himself.
Isabelle’s third date with Jason goes from promising to disastrous in Astoria, where recent subway renovations cost millions of tax dollars but kept the stations inaccessible.
Abel doesn't accept his step-father's presence and tries to persuade his mother to leave him, only she doesn't hear what he is trying to say. Abel gets caught up by his imagination to avoid having to deal a reality he will have to face.
After losing their mother, Mía and Moi take refuge in a ramshackle family home, in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. With them, Biel, Moi’s boyfriend. Together the three of them try to rest and heal the wounds. Especially in the case of Moi, who is recovering from a severe nervous breakdown. These are days of recovering family memories, some of them painful, of meeting again, of living without haste. The arrival of Mikel, Mía’s boyfriend, will alter the coexistence and disturb each of the inhabitants of the house in different ways. The tension grows until it explodes in an act of violence with irreversible consequences.
Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.
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 seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
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.
A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
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.
A retired boxer intends to return to the ring for one last shot at the title, but first he must make the weight. Holed up in a room in Las Vegas with an unscrupulous trainer, he embarks on an intensive and illegal weight-cutting program.
Short film made with the help of the Sundance Film Institute and serving as a proof-of-concept for the subsequent feature film.
Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.
A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
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.
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.
When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.