The 5th Out & Loud - Pune International Queer Film Festival is proud to announce its official selection of films for 2021. This year we bring you 65 films from across the world. We also take this opportunity to thank our movie review panel who worked tirelessly to carefully watch and review each submission and the filmmakers for sharing their masterpieces with us!
This year, we received 151 submissions from 40 different countries. And finally, after watching each and every submissions carefully, we have reached a place where we were able to select 65 great movies to screen at the 5th Out & Loud - PIQFF. This 65 movies includes 11 Indian movies and 54 International movies from 25 different countries.
Thank you everyone who contributed directly and indirectly to make this happen. Schedule of the film festival with details of the screening date and time, panel discussion topics and other information are available below. Download the schedule here.
Click on a movie name to view more details
Running Time: 1:15:08
Project Type: Documentary
Language: English
Country: Croatia
Director(s): Jakov Sedlar
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
It is dangerous to find love for a Russian girl in Mosco's suburbs. She flies to Tel Aviv for one of the world's largest Gay Pride parades. This film is a story about searching for freedom in all possible ways.
Running Time: 0:35:22
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English, German, Swiss German
Country: Switzerland
Director(s): Manuel Gübeli
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Sascha’s name wasn’t always Sascha. But now it is. Sascha doesn’t identify as a man or as a woman, but as trans non-binary. A story about what it means to live in a society that wasn’t expecting you. A glimpse into a life that allows us to question our own categories.
Running Time: 0:09:06
Project Type: Short
Language: Spanish
Country: Spain
Director(s): Robero Pérez Toledo
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Emilio navigates questions around gender identity on a trip with friends.
Running Time: 0:09:40
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): Liang-Chun Lin
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
As Karan has a hard time accepting his newly blended lesbian family, He really needs this party tonight to make friends. However his step sister, Lily, gets her first period while both mothers are out.
Running Time: 0:07:22
Project Type: Short
Language: Chinese, English
Country: Singapore
Director(s): Yan Qiu Foong
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
A young man awaits death in the bathroom while his oblivious family bickers right outside. This is clearly an excellent time for his parents to begin openly questioning his sexuality.
Running Time: 0:17:04
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): Daniel Nemes
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
When a man loses the love of his life during a pandemic, he is forced to navigate grief in isolation and learn to accept life without his love.
Running Time: 0:08:31
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English
Country: France
Director(s): Carolina Kzan
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Hel, a non binary person, asks their friend, Carolina, to take some pictures of them as a way to record their gender transition path. This is an honest and sweet record of Hel's questions and points of view in relation to their experiences on the gender spectrum.
Running Time: 0:20:46
Project Type: Short
Language: Spanish
Country: Mexico
Director(s): Nancy Cruz
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Camila and Abril grew up together in a small town and are best friends. There’s an obvious and uncomfortable attraction between them. As April's family is set to move to the city, neither understand how to say goodbye to the person they love.
Running Time: 0:09:52
Project Type: Short
Language: Spanish
Country: Argentina
Director(s): Paloma Coscia de Luque
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
After having a drunken night, a couple of women return to their apartment. Later, both listen to Camila, their neighbor, having sex with a man. Now, everything turns into a hostile situation, from which it will be difficult to escape.
Running Time: 1:27:18
Project Type: Documentary
Language: Catalan, Spanish
Country: Spain
Director(s): Mar C. Llop
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Important questions are asked around parenting of Trans* children – navigating acceptance, they gender binary, transitioning, bullying, passing, and a lot more
Running Time: 0:24:56
Project Type: Short
Language: German
Country: Germany
Director(s): Alex Mello
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time:01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
"Outside the Aquarium" is the new exhibition of protagonist Jonas. In his paintings he portrays his experiences as a black immigrant and part of the LGBT Community, expressing his fears, loneliness and dreams for the future.
Running Time: 0:05:55
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): Aïcha Idelcadi
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Two queer people navigate modern dating-life in San Francisco, and question the meaning of love.
Running Time: 0:04:31
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
Director(s): Lucie Rachel, Chrissie Hyde
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Factory Talk is a spoken-word artist film exploring identity, sexuality and masculinity in a modern day working factory.
Running Time: 0:26:36
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): Laura Arten
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
This project looks into lives, loves and work of gender equality pioneers, a selected group of artists, who were not only daring enough to step out of the gender binary norm despite adversity of their environment at the time, but who also shaped and shifted the world of art in their own right.
Running Time: 0:13:13
Project Type: Short
Language: French
Country: France
Director(s): Simon Helloco, James Maciver
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
Hugo, a young actor, is asked to improvise at an audition, by narrating a story, where he’s the actor and director. He unfolds a tale that explores sex, disease, and self-emancipation.
Running Time: 0:02:23
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): United States
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
Dating is hard. Zoom dating is harder. Then, Sam meets Dakota and learns that opening her heart may be the way to go.
Running Time: 0:09:54
Project Type: Short
Language: Bengali
Country: India
Director(s): SAIKAT DAS
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Shom and Dip’s relationship faces hardships due to societal norms. However, their love for each other overcomes these struggles. But, when Dip gets diagnosed with AIDS, they are put to test yet again.
Running Time: 0:07:45
Project Type: Short
Language: Tamil
Country: India
Director(s): Radhika Prasidhha
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Two women meet online. In the next few months, they share an intimate connection through virtual media. The possibility of meeting in real life fills them with curiosity, hesitation, longing. Do they end up on the same page? Will they meet? Will they hold hands? The conversation unfolds.
Running Time: 0:20:11
Project Type: Short
Language: Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Ribhu Ghosh
Screening Date: Day 1 - 14.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
This is about homosexuality in rural India, as a boy grapples to ascertain his equation with his brute of a father. Simultaneously, he finds comfort in a lover and best friend.
Running Time: 1:14:55
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Language: Spanish
Country: Argentina
Director(s): Cecilia del Valle
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Áyax Grandi, at 48, decides to become Canela. This film narrates the parenthesis in the life of Canela, where she is torn between having gender reassignment surgery or not. She consults with healthcare professionals, her sons, and old friends until she realizes something about her desire that she didn't really expect.
Running Time: 0:10:19
Project Type: Animation, Documentary, Short
Language: English
Country: Australia
Director(s): TJ Narula
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Through the eyes of three LGTBQI+ activists, this documentary comments on the dogma and bigotry that takes place in the name of religion and how that impacts the LGBTI+ community in serious ways across the world.
Running Time: 0:11:55
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: Canada
Director(s): Iven Tu
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
A middle-aged man, Charlie, wakes up every day trying to get over the loss of his beloved. Following the innovative psychotherapy, the Sandplay, he finally opens up about his traumatic memory with his partner Luke.
Running Time: 0:19:29
Project Type: Short
Language: Chinese, English
Country: China
Director(s): Dongni Lanca Li
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
An unexpected tropical encounter sparks a fragile romance between a wanna-be astronaut and a village farm boy. Despite social and class differences, these two young men share an invaluable romantic bond.This is a story about two men, two worlds and one real rocket.
Running Time: 0:03:09
Project Type: Animation, Documentary, Short
Language: English
Country: South Africa
Director(s): Justin Couto
Screening Date: Justin Couto
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
This is an exploratory self-portrait “Claymation”. Staged in a white studio-like setting, the film follows the filmmaker as a clay figurine being interviewed about their personal life, and career as a filmmaker.
Running Time: 0:22:08
Project Type: Short
Language: French
Country: France
Director(s): Guillaume Mainguet
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
After the cremation of his father, Vincent and his family gather relatives in the back shop of the family butchery for a final tribute. Vincent announces that he is leaving for some time with his boyfriend Olivier.
Running Time: 0:18:09
Project Type: Documentary
Language: French
Country: France
Director(s): Amandine Le Goff
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Leon reflects on his gender identity when he wears a one-piece bathing suit to a local swimming pool.
Running Time: 0:18:03
Project Type: Short
Language: Hebrew
Country: Israel
Director(s): Johnny Doov
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Moshe, a 70 years old gay man, spends New Year's Eve alone at his apartment after a young man refuses to have sex with him.
Running Time: 0:17:40
Project Type: Animation, Documentary, Short
Language: Portuguese
Country: Brazil
Director(s): Felipe Ferreira
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
In early 2020, the world changed drastically. For Gabriela, a Brazilian young transgender woman in her early transition process, such change was even deeper. Through a mixed media documentary, filled with conversations about childhood, feelings, femininity, gender, desire, isolation and belonging, a portrait of Gabi is made.
Running Time: 1:11:12
Project Type: Documentary
Language: Portuguese
Country: Brazil
Director(s): Susanna Lira
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Recently two new forms of prevention have arrived - PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) and PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) - drugs that promise greater efficacy against HIV / AIDS transmission and contagion. Through an intimate and observational record, the film can be judged morally for diving into the user’s daily lives of PrEP, bringing up reflections about desire, sex and protection.
Running Time: 0:30:00
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English, French, Italian
Country: Italy
Director(s): Savino Carbone
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
What does it mean to be free? Two homosexual migrants talk about their status of asylum seekers in Italy. They fled Nigeria and Senegal, where LGBT community is prosecuted by law and now they live in "limbo". Meanwhile, the effects of deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini's migration policies are becoming tougher.
Running Time: 0:20:00
Project Type: Short
Language: Hebrew
Country: Israel
Director(s): Bar Friedman
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
A student who has a lot of growing up to do and is unfortunately also a bit ignorant, needs to study for an exam with a fellow student of his, who just happens to be homosexual, or else risk failure.
Running Time: 0:09:26
Project Type: Documentary, Experimental, Short
Language: English
Country: Australia
Director(s): David Mark Farrington
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
[email protected]' is the impulsive reflex of an actor confronting the contemporary realities of being Queer in the international film industry in all it's shades and nuances.
Running Time: 0:06:33
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: United States
Director(s): Eric Bendross
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
A conflicted young man contemplates coming out to his super religious mother, but what happens next is nothing like either of them expects.
Running Time: 0:28:06
Project Type: Short
Language: Slovak
Country: Slovakia
Director(s): Lukas Vizner
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
A short movie about a relationship of a talented pianist Christoph and an experienced porn-star Philip opens a complex topic of prejudice in society, as well as within LGBTI community.
Running Time: 0:28:05
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English, Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Sukhdeep Singh
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Sab Rab De Bande brings forth the various challenges that LGBTQ Sikhs grapple with and the different ways in which they reconcile their faith and gender/sexual identities.
Running Time: 0:04:40
Project Type: Animation, Short
Language: English, Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Mihir Lele
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
The video highlights the importance of respecting a person's right to identify with a gender, even if others might not necessarily 'get' it. It highlights other issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community, further driving the need for inclusivity and mutual respect. India has just passed a widely criticised, draconian Trans Bill 2019, making this video very timely.
Running Time: 0:18:54
Project Type: Short
Language: Other
Country: India
Director(s): Sunil Revankar
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Paul 10 is a film of a young aspiring footballer, whose life turns upside down when the football association expels him from the team when a hidden truth about Paul’s identity comes to light.
Running Time: 0:06:58
Project Type: Short
Language: English
Country: India
Director(s): Bhanu Babbal, Kashyap Swaroop
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
When two contrasting personalities are thrown into a new world of constant cohabitation, under the creeping clouds of mortality, they are left to navigate through an important life decision together - revealing the truth of their relationship to a parent figure.
Running Time: 0:19:07
Project Type: Short
Language: Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Narehn Megeri
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
Zikr, is a real but still a rare story. It's about unsaid emotions, feelings, experiences all of us hold within us.
Running Time: 0:03:33
Project Type: Animation, Short
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
Director(s): Samuel Player
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
A glance through LGBTQ+ history through the mirrors of a Drag Queen. Following the life of Lottie Love we see what it was like to grow up Queer in times of oppression, through the Gay Rights Riots and the AIDS crisis, but also with so much love for her chosen family and the people she are closest to.
Running Time: 0:16:00
Project Type: Short
Language: Italian
Country: Italy
Director(s): Andrea Papalotti
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
Virginia tells Cristian, a boy she is dating, the story of her father, a transvestite, who that same evening will perform in a club, interpreting Blanche's monologue from "A Streetcar Named Desire".
Running Time: 0:22:10
Project Type: Short
Language: English, French
Country: Belgium
Director(s): Sonam Larcin
Screening Date: Day 2 - 15.05.2021
Screening Time: 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
The unexpected arrival of a Nigerian migrant in the Belgian countryside shakes up the fragile daily life of two men living a secret relationship.
Running Time: 1:08:43
Project Type: Feature
Language: Spanish
Country: Argentina
Director(s): Julian Dabien, Cristina Tamagnini
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
A teacher of great vocation faces a turn in his routine when a friend in trouble arrives in town. The relationship between them raises rumors about his sexuality and forces him to face his community.
Running Time: 0:21:10
Project Type: Short
Language: French
Country: France
Director(s): Johann G. Louis
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Daphne, who cut off contact from her family 20 years ago, decides to come back and see her mother, Claudine. She fears the reunion, and hopes Claudine will put up with who she is now.
Running Time: 0:16:40
Project Type: Short
Language: French
Country: France
Director(s): Valérie Leroy
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
Mylène, 45 years old is a cleaning maid on a ferry boat. Tonight her colleagues are organizing a surprise party for her birthday. But on the gift voucher, Mylène reads her dead name, a name that she doesn’t’ want to see anymore. Who wants to blackmail her?
Running Time: 0:15:06
Project Type: Short
Language: Persian
Country: Iran
Director(s): Morvarid Kashiyan
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 09:00 am to 11:00 am
This is a story of transitioning of a trans woman while she navigates her relationship with her father and her love for a stage director.
Running Time: 0:25:03
Project Type: Short
Language: Spanish
Country: Argentina
Director(s): Marco Buontempo
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Bruno and Franco meet again many years after having shared an affair in their teens. During a day spent together, they exchange thoughts on their behavior in the past and the changes of mind in their earlier attitude towards sexuality.
Running Time: 0:25:08
Project Type: Short
Language: Hebrew
Country: Israel
Director(s): Netta Shalev
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Set in 1994, homophobic Amit returns home; a year after the death of his twin brother, Yoni, who died of AIDS. A homophobic Amit is invited to a drag show by the grieving family, which they are all attending for Yoni's memorial, who was a drag queen.
Running Time: 0:15:21
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English, Hungarian
Country: Hungary
Director(s): Mariann Zászlós
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
A testimony of two transgender women about childhood, desires, violence, and perseverance.
Running Time: 0:11:51
Project Type: Short
Language: Portuguese
Country: Brazil
Director(s): Washington Calegari
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 11:15 am to 12:30 pm
Alvaro has been quarantined for 97 days without leaving home, and uses delivery apps to order everything he needs. When the delivery man arrives at the building with another meal, an unexpected situation imposes a difficult decision on Alvaro.
Running Time: 1:00:12
Project Type: Feature
Language: English
Country: Namibia
Director(s): Philippe Talavera
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
‘Kapana’ follows the story of George, insurance broker, openly gay, with a supportive family and friends and his meeting with Simeon, a kapana seller (kapana is the local name for barbecued meat) who doesn’t want to accept he is gay and cannot imagine a place where he could be happy having a relationship with a man.
Running Time: 0:22:08
Project Type: Short
Language: Hebrew
Country: Israel
Director(s): Isak Kohaly
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Itamar, a chubby and depressed young man, returns to his childhood home in the suburbs following a mental breakdown. As he struggles to get better under the care of his quirky and overprotective mother, old tensions about his sexual orientation arise.
Running Time: 0:23:09
Project Type: Documentary, Short
Language: English
Country: Canada
Director(s): Dale Windle
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
A 22 minute profile of a Chinese Canadian restaurateur with a big heart, serving the community, running a successful restaurant, raising money for charities, hosting wild karaoke parties and making people happy as the amazing, flamboyant, wonderful drag queen China Doll!
Running Time: 0:13:17
Project Type: Short
Language: German
Country: Germany
Director(s): Philipp Gufler
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
In 2002, Lana Kaiser became well known in the first season of the German version of the Idol television franchise. At only 17 years old she polarised the audience with her androgynous appearance and open bisexuality. When in 2018 Lana disappeared from a cruise ship, most media outlets and the majority of the public didn‘t consider calling her by her chosen name, Lana Kaiser.
Running Time: 0:03:01
Project Type: Animation, Short
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
Director(s): Russell Atkinson
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm
Everyone has my jacket. is intended to be a light-hearted love letter to self-expression and the journey of self-discovery every queer person goes through. The internal struggle that latches onto fear, and being able to overcome whatever fear that may be.
Running Time: 0:11:54
Project Type: Experimental, Short
Language: Italian
Country: Italy
Director(s): Lorenzo Marsella
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
“Stay” is the story of Ana, a woman who struggles with her sexual and spiritual identity, caged in a senseless life, where her career and money are her only reason to live. She clashes with Bibi, an open-minded prostitute, who loves philosophy, Latin and gets into other’s people stories.
Running Time: 0:21:49
Project Type: Documentary
Language: English, Swahili
Country: Norway
Director(s): Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 03:15 pm to 04:00 pm
In a secluded house in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, ten young Tanzanians meet to share stories of suppression, violence and harassment, but also of dreams, hope and their illegal love for one another.
Running Time: 0:23:41
Project Type: Short
Language: Bengali, Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Sahil D. Gada
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
Dev is caught wearing a saree by her widowed father one day. Her father beats her up and Dev decides to leave her house. Dev finds sanctuary in a theatre - performing Kinner Akhada. Here, she starts to uncover and embrace her trans-identity.
Running Time: 0:42:15
Project Type: Documentary, Feature
Language: English, Hindi
Country: India
Director(s): Zara Raj Parwal
Screening Date: Day 3 - 16.05.2021
Screening Time: 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
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