18 May MGFF18 Short Films Available to Stream
With thirty-seven films from ten different countries available to stream right now, this collection of short films is just a fraction of those that played at MGFF18.
Celebrating 25 years of Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival, the festival program spotlighted homegrown talent with a fresh batch of My Queer Career shorts and a retrospective selection of some of the best entries from its long history. Alongside the historic Queerability shorts and a diverse slate of gay, lesbian, and trans stories both fictional and not, this list will keep you entertained for hours.
Click here to see the feature films.
My Queer Career 2018
Paradise
Dir. Stephanie Stretton, 2017, 12min, Australia, English, Lesbian, Drama
George is released from prison for an unknown crime. She is treated with hostility by her small town, but finds comfort in her family and new friend, Alice. As George explores her freedom and newfound adulthood, her relationship with her family is threatened.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Tasty
Dir. Meaghan Palmer, 2016, 15min, Australia, English, Gay Man, Drama
A queer teenager finds pride in his newly discovered sexual identity during the midst of a drug bust in a Melbourne gay nightclub in 1994. Based on a true event…
Available to stream on YouTube
Wild Dances
Dir. Bina Bhattacharya, 2017, 14min, Australia, English and Ukrainian with English subtitles, Gay Man, Dramedy
When Ruslana wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine in 2004, it sets off an unbelievable chain of events on the other side of the world. The lives of a shy, closeted, Australian gay boy and a spirited, Ukrainian-Australian girl are forever fused as they share a moment of freedom in their conservative, rural small town.
Available to stream on Vimeo
My Queer Career Retrospective
Clan
Dir. Larissa Behrendt, 2013, 7min, Australia, English, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
As a child James Saunders struggled to find his identity. He received an scholarship to a private boarding school but he didn’t feel at home there any more than he did with his own family. It was only after he came out and joined the Sydney Convicts Rugby Club that he finally found his clan.
Available to stream on YouTube
Disarm
Dir. William Faulkner, 2010, 17min, Australia, English, Gay Man, Drama
Two men meet online for a hook-up, but after an initial confrontation, they fall into conversation and have something they did not expect: a connection.
Available to stream on YouTube
Drowning
Dir. Craig Boreham, 2009, Australia, English, Gay Man, Drama
Things are changing for Mik. His world has been turned upside down by the sudden death of his older brother forcing him to redefine his place in his family. The one solid thing in Mik’s life is his best friend Dan. But Dan has a new girlfriend…
Ex
Dir. Andrew Soo & Julie Kalceff, 2003, 8min, Australia, English, Lesbian, Dramedy
Kath has just moved in and Rachel wants their first weekend to be perfect. Everything is going to plan until Kath’s ex calls, destroying any ideas Rachel may have had.
Available to stream on ABC iView
MyMy
Dir. Anna Helme, 2013, 14min, Australia, English, Transgender Man, Experimental/Sci-fi
A young man longs to connect with the world. Frustrated, he uses a cyberfeminist CD-ROM to create a cyborg twin.
Available to stream on YouTube
Summer Suit
Dir. Bec Peniston-Bird, 2012, 15min, Australia, English, Queer, Drama
Robbie’s discovery of an old suit gives her a new identity. But can she and her suit survive the trials of summer?
Available to stream on Vimeo
Two Nights
Dir. Rolmar Baldonado, 2006, 11min, Australia, English, Gay Man, Drama
Over two nights a young Chinese immigrant has two sexual encounters and is forced to choose between the one he wants and the one who wants him.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Gay Shorts
Cas
Dir. Joris van den Berg, 2016, 48min, Netherlands, Dutch with English subtitles, Gay Man, Drama/Romance
The seemingly rock-solid relationship between Pepijn (29) and Sjors (33) is put in jeopardy when they invite the lively, 20-year-old student named Cas over to sleep on their couch until he finds a place of his own.
Available to stream on Dekkoo
Heavy Weight
Dir. Jonny Ruff, 2016, 13min, UK, English, Gay Man, Drama
When a talented new arrival begins using the local boxing club, Paris, a skilled fighter, is forced into an unexpected struggle with himself.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Scar Tissue
Dir. Nish Gera, 2017, 14min, Netherlands, English, Gay Man, Drama
A casual hookup takes an intimate turn when Sami, a Syrian refugee from Damascus, meets Johan. In the course of a night in Amsterdam, the two men will confront some truths, and unsettling secrets, about the very different worlds they come from.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Sisak
Dir. Faraz Ansari, 2017, 15min, India, Gay Man, Drama/Romance
Set in the fast-paced environs of the usually bustling Mumbai local train system, Sisak details a romance that develops slowly and intoxicatingly, nestled in the silences and quiet comforts of the end-of-day train journeys between two men
Available to stream on YouTube
Something New
Dir. TJ Marchbank, 2017, 17min, USA, English, Gay Man, Comedy/Romance
After a rough break up, Jonah finds himself struggling to open up to a new relationship, which in turn creates some awkward, hilarious and disastrous results.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Lesbian Shorts
Apart From Everything
Dir. Ben Lewis, 2017, 19min, Canada, English, Lesbian, Drama
After a two-year absence and a recent stint in rehab, Fran (Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black) returns to face the emotional fallout of her disappearance and make amends with the girlfriend and the brother she left behind.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Cocoon
Dir. Mei LiYing, 2017, 25min, China, Mandarin with English subtitles, Lesbian, Drama
China, 1997. An unhappy marriage, a love affair and a child who holds all the secrets.
Available to stream on Revry
Pool
Dir. Leandro Goddinho, 2016, 30min, Brazil, Portuguese with English subtitles, Lesbian, Drama
On a quest to understand her grandmother’s past, Claudia meets Marlene, an old woman who’s created an homage to her memories inside an empty pool.
Available to stream on Seed&Spark and Vimeo
Encuentro
Dir. Florencia Manovil, 2017, 16min, USA, English and Spanish with English subtitles, Lesbian, Drama/Romance
Claudia’s night out with friends is disrupted by an encounter with the captivating Isabel.
Available to stream on Lesflicks
Waffles
Dir. Foster Wilson, 2017, 5min, USA, English, Lesbian, Drama/Horror
A young, gay millennial discovers she’s slept with the enemy and has to choose between swallowing her pride and standing by her principles.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Transgender Shorts
Get the Life
Dir. Ozzy Villazòn, 2016, 12min, USA, English, Transgender Man, Drama
Alex, a transgender youth, has been struggling with a secret pregnancy. He considers what he is willing to lose in order to live honestly and courageously.
Available to stream on YouTube
Walk for Me
Dir. Elegance Bratton, 2016, 12min, USA, English, Transgender Woman, Drama
Set to make her Femme Queen debut as Hannah, a young woman’s two worlds collide when her mom shows up and discovers her daughter’s secret life.
Available to stream on Dekkoo
Queerability Shorts
Picture This
Dir. Jari Osborne, 2017, 33min, Canada, English, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
We follow Andrew Gurza, a self-described “queer cripple,” as he plans the second edition of Justify My Love—a sex-positive play party that the international media was quick to call a “handicapped orgy” when it launched in Toronto the year before. At the heart of the film is the uneasy dichotomy that disabled people face, of feeling either invisible or like a freak show, especially with regards to their sexuality.
Available to stream on the National Film Board of Canada website and YouTube
Sign
Dir. Andrew Keenan-Bolger, 2016, 15min, USA, English and American Sign Language, Gay Man, Drama/Musical/Romance
Using silent vignettes, music, and sign language, Sign uniquely tells the story of a relationship between Ben, a hearing man, and Aaron, who is deaf.
Available to stream on Vimeo
QueerDoc Shorts
Bayard & Me
Dir. Matt Wolf, 2017, 16min, USA, English, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
Bayard & Me is a short doc about how the openly gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, best known for organizing the March on Washington and advising Martin Luther King Jr., adopted his partner Walter Naegle in the 1980s for legal protections. In this story, Walter remembers Bayard and how they had to work around the system decades before gay marriage was legalised.
Available to stream on Vimeo
Better Known As Peaches Christ
Dir. Jeff Dragomanovich & Nate Visconti, 2016, 4min, USA, English, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
Drag icon Peaches Christ offers a rare, intimate glimpse into her process of transformation, and describes the path from stifled teen to brazen cult hero.
Little Potato
Dir. Wes Hurley & Nathan M. Miller, 2017, 14min, USA, English, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
An autobiographical documentary short about a gay boy growing up in the Soviet Union, his mail-order-bride mum, and their adventurous escape to America.
Muxes
Dir. Ivan Olita, 2016, 9min, USA, Spanish with English subtitles, Queer/Transgender, Documentary Profile
The latest documentary by Ivan Olita is a piece documenting the far reaches of the southern state of Oaxaca where, in the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes”, and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.
Still Burning
Dir. Nick Rowley, 2016, 9min, France/UK, French with English subtitles, Gay Man, Documentary Profile
Voguing has come a long way since 1990’s seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. It is experiencing a renaissance in Europe, with the heart of the scene in Paris. Sky Ninja is a part of the new generation keeping the torch burning and helping pass it on to the next.
Available to stream on Vimeo
All information was correct at the time of publication. For the most up-to-date information about where you can watch a particular film we recommend using Just Watch.