WATCH: Gays go cruising, hiking & “sexual distancing” in this collection of steamy short films
Queerty, we spend an awful lot of time keeping track of all the upcoming LGBTQ+ feature films you’ll want to know about. But the truth is that some of today’s best queer filmmaking can’t be seen in theaters or your major streaming platforms—we’re talking indie short films!But thanks to the work of distributors like NQV Media (“New Queer Visions”), excellent shorts from all over the world area readily available at the click of a button.The latest entry in their popular, M4M series The Male Gaze is called A Better Tomorrow—a collection five short films all about gay men facing problems big and small in order to find themselves as they push forward to a brighter future.There are stories of cruising, cross-generational bonding, imaginative encounters, and intimacy in the age of the internet.
And it’s no accident that a handful of the shorts address the pandemic, whether directly or indirectly—after the global event confined many of us to isolation, it’s helpful to be reminded that there’s so much more out there beyond our four walls.Featuring up-and-coming filmmakers from Austria, China, Greece, Mexico, and Spain, these stories may be told in different languages, but they all understand the universal message of hope and perserverance.As the official A Better Tomorrow logline puts it, “These five moving short films where gay men overcome various obstacles in accepting who they are, and where they are going—things can only get better.”You can watch the trailer here, and then check out a brief synopsis for each short below:On the tropical island of Hainan, an unexpected encounter sparks a fragile romance between an aspiring astronaut and a village farm boy.
China. Director: Dongni Lanca Li.A father and his son set out on an Alpine hike in the Austrian Alp. The pair have never entirely felt at ease when in conversation, so for the first time, they decide to open up a little bit and get to know each other.
