This year’s selection of  films featured in our annual Cine Gay Showcase are thought-provoking, incisive, and unflinching in their portrayal of the modern day LGBTQ experience. The documentaries highlight the struggles individuals face when they strike against systems of oppression, while the narrative features provide examinations of the complex nature between sexuality and gender, reality and fantasy, and actions and their consequences.

Don’t Call Me Son

Dir. Anna Muylaert
(Brazil, 82 min., 2016, Portuguese w/ English subtitles, Drama)

3/24 / 8:40 / S3
3/25 / 8:05 / DGC

Tall, dark, androgynously handsome, Pierre wears eyeliner and a black lace g-string, and has sex with both boys and girls. Things get only more complicated when the teenager’s single, working-class mom is arrested for having stolen him at birth. Pierre is returned to his biological parents: bourgeois, straight-laced, and thrilled to have him back- until he shows up in a zebra-print mini dress. The turmoil of adolescence is plumbed with wit and compassion by writer/director Anna Muylaert. 

Etiqueta no rigurosa

Dir. Cristina Herrera Bórquez
(Mexico, 92 min., 2016, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Documentary)

3/18 / 5:15 / DGC
3/26 / 5:50 / S10

Victor and Fernando run a beauty salon in Baja California. For many of their customers, they were a lovely couple, until they decided to marry. They become the first ones in their state to fight for their rights in a place filled with homophobia and inequality. Through their struggle, they manage to open the eyes of Mexican society and affirm a love that fills every frame of this moving and eye opening new film.

Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America

Dir. Tiffany Rhynard
(USA, 90 min., 2016, English, Spanish w/ subtitles, Documentary)

3/17 / 8:00 / DGC
3/22 / 9:15 / S9

When Moises Serrano was just a baby, his parents risked everything to flee Mexico and make the perilous journey across the desert in search of the American dream. After 23 years growing up in the rural south as an undocumented gay man, Serrano is forbidden to live and love in the country he calls home. He sees only one option: to fight for justice and demand equality.

Jesús

Dir. Fernando Guzzoni
(Chile, 83 min., 2016, Spanish w/ English subtitles, Drama)

3/19 / 8:15 / S2
3/21 / 8:30 / S9

Jesús, 18, lives alone with his father, Hector, with whom he has a detached relationship. Jesús dances in a K-pop band, hangs out with friends, does drugs, watches trashy movies, and has sex in public places. One night, he and his friends cause a tragedy. This event will brings Jesús and Héctor closer than before, but also threatens to tear them apart forever.

The Ornithologist

Dir. João Pedro Rodrigues
(Portugal / France / Brazil, 117 min., 2016, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Spanish w/ English subtitles, Drama)

3/19 / 9:45 / S9
3/23 / 8:00 / S10

A handsome ornithologist experiences a series of surreal adventures during a bird surveying trip in this experimental interpretation of the life of St. Anthony of Padua.

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four

Dir. Deborah S. Esquenazi
(USA, 91 min., 2016, English, Documentary)

3/18 / 2:15 / S2
3/19 / 3:30 / S9
3/25 / 1:20 / S10

The story of four Latina lesbians who, in 1994, were wrongfully convicted of raping two young girls. Southwest of Salem documents the bizarre allegations made against the women during a period of rampant homophobia and hysteria, the faulty forensic science used to convict them, and the failure of the justice system to exonerate them long after the charges were shown to be false.

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For screening links and interview inquiries, contact for the Media Arts Center San Diego:
Laura Castañeda / Press Pass International /  PresspassLC@gmail.com /  619-855-4140