aGLIFF, Austin’s oldest film festival and premiere LGBTQ+ film fest of the Southwest, continues in-person through August 28, 2022, in Austin, TX. The 35th annual festival PRISM 35 features over eighty-five films including features, documentaries, and shorts over, many of them international films from many countries, including Ireland, Poland, Iran as well as from Latin America. aGLIFF will additionally offer a virtual component August 29 – September 5, 2002, after the in-person festival has concluded. The PRISM 35 virtual festival will not be a full line up but will include a majority of titles playing in-person.
Below is a selection of films from several of the countries, with the full list of all films online: https://www.agliff.org/schedule
NARRATIVE FEATURES
A Dice with Five Sides | Italy, Spain | 2022 | 100 min | North American Premiere
Director, Writer and Producer: Riccardo Tamburini | Cast: Alexander Ananasso, Jake Garvey, David Paryla, Eleonora Cucciarelli, Chiara D’Anna, Elena Mazzon, Christian Cánovas, Anvita Pandey
Two strangers meet in an apartment for a hookup. Too afraid to follow their hearts, Marcello and Herman decide to play a game, using and ancient dice made of stone. They establish six actions to perform, one for each side: telling an uncomfortable truth, doing something the other likes, inviting a third person, doing something blindfolded, leaving the apartment, having sex. As years go by, the conflict between the desire to be together and random change of yet another failed relationship takes over.
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Cut! | Spain | 2021 | 78 min | Southwest Premiere
Director and Writer: Marc Ferrer | Producers: Jaume Ripoll, Xavi Vara | Cast: La Prohibida, Marga Sardà, Gregorio Sanz, Maria Sola, Saya Solana, Álvaro Lucas, Paco Serrano, Marc Ferrer
Marcos, a rather awful director, finds his new queer giallo horror film cursed by a series of deaths that matches his script. Strangely the film he is making is about a rather awful director named Marcos trying to make a queer giallo film until his cast starts dying.
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The Emptiness and I | Spain | 2022 | 98 min | Southwest Premiere
Director: Adrián Silvestre | Writers: Adrián Silvestre, Carles Marqués-Marcet, Raphaëlle Pérez | Producers: Marta Figueras, Javier Pérez Santana, Alba Sotorra | Cast: Raphaëlle Perez, Alberto Diaz, Marc Ribera, Isabel Rocatti, Carlos Fernández Guía, Carmen Moreno, Sergio Reverón
After moving from France to Spain, Raphi finds her fantasies about royal romances replaced by actual experiences. Her gender dysphoria makes every date an embarrassing trainwreck, and they just get worse as she begins with her transition. Her job at a call center does little to give her life meaning but eventually colleagues, queer friends, and even the men she meets through apps serve as a learning curve that she slowly climbs. Eventually it may just be what she needs most is the time to find herself.
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The Phantom of the Sauna | Spain | 2021 | 92 minutes | US Premiere
Directors: Luis Navarrete | Writer: Luis Navarrete, Martín Spínola | Producer: Paco Periago Cast: Nestor Goenaga, Martín Spínola, Pablo Liñares, Pupi Poisson, Antonia San Juan, Supremme de Luxe, Tavi Gallart, Javier Hernández, Fernando Albizu, Goizalde Núñez, Ginés Garez, Andrés Cheung
When Javi decides to work at the local bathhouse, he’s not anticipating finding love and murder in its steamy, tiled walls. This colorful ghost story with a drag queen chorus celebrates the joy of male bodies and hot sex with stunningly choreographed dance numbers and cheeky lyrics. An exuberant musical, The Phantom of the Sauna calls back to Hollywood studio musicals of the 1950s while finding fresh perspective in it’s queer male gaze.
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The Affairs of Lidia | Canada, Spain | 2022 | 95 minutes | English | US Premiere
Director and Writer: Bruce LaBruce | Producer: Joe Balass | Executive Producer: Erika Lust, Pablo Dobner | Cast: Skye Blue, Sean Ford, Drew Dixon, Markus Cage, Pascale Drevillon, Vanessa Bardot, River Wilson
Lidia, a fashion model, discovers her husband Michelangelo, a boxer, is having an affair with Sandro, a fashion photographer. She deviously plots her revenge in this erotic comedy set against the backdrop of the fashion world written and directed by Bruce LaBruce.
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SHORTS PROGRAMS
All The Awards I Never Gave You | Director: Caio Scot | Brazil | 17 min
An unexpected encounter between two young actors on the rise in the bathroom of an award venue brings up unresolved feelings.
As Simple As That | Director: Luciana Bitencourt | Brazil | 19 min
Suspicious that her son is gay, Joana shares her doubts with her husband. To her surprise, she is the last to know.
Cumyard | Director: Mexicum | Mexico | 15 min
A man visit’s his lovers grave to feel his presence one last time, but today is the day of the dead, and his lover wants to feel his presence too.
Tickets/badges: aGLIFF encourages fans to consider membership to get the best access and support aGLIFF’s year-round programming. Members and badge holders have priority access to reserving tickets for individual films and events upon purchase. Festival badges at agliff.org/badges and single tickets will start at $15, plus applicable service fees. For more complete information on the festival agliff.org/prism
Source: Agliff