2021 Damn These Heels Queer Festival

SHORTS PROGRAM 2: MISSED CONNECTIONS

Expired July 19, 2021 5:59 AM
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10 films in package
BABYDYKE
A heartbroken teenager goes to a queer techno party to win back her first love.
A VOICEMAIL TO TRY AND MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER
Weeks after a brutal breakup, Sam, receives a voicemail from his ex-boyfriend, Aaron, reading a poem he has written him.
Closed captions available
DUET
An unspoken romance inevitably resurfaces when a high school music teacher meets an old colleague again and decides to perform together for the first time as piano duet partners after they’ve long since drifted apart from each other.
CYNTHIA
A dinner party with old friends takes a shocking turn as wounds are exposed, revelations are made, and the past resurfaces. Over one tense evening, Cynthia learns that some things can never be unsaid. An emotionally bold and uplifting story about truth, love and finding the strength to move on.
Closed captions available
TALK SOON
During the course of an overnight visit, Sasha and Rae grapple to return to an emotional place that’s just beyond reach.
Closed captions available
WHILE WE STAYED HOME
Boy meets Girl meets Covid-19.
FRANKIE
Frankie, a non-binary trans person, crashes their ex-partne's men-only 12 step meeting, determined to be heard... no matter the cost.
Closed captions available
OF HEARTS AND CASTLES
Marcus has recently broken up with his boyfriend. One night out he meets Angel, an attractive and attentive man, who will make Marcus live an emotional experience that will spark a break through, and set him in the right path to get over the breakup.
MARLON BRANDO
In the last weeks of being high school students, Cas and Naomi, both out of the closet, prefer to spend their days together. As "brother and sister" of other parents, they experience a security and love that they cannot find elsewhere.
MISSED CONNECTIONS - Post-Film Q&A
Director of Programming Ash Hoyles Q&A with the filmmakers from Frankie, Talk Soon, A Voicemail to Make Yourself Feel Better, Duet, While We Stayed Home, Of Hearts and Castles, and Babydyke
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Missed Connections makes a home for stories about rupture, failure, longing, and accident. Heartbreak as well as hope permeates these short films that each exist in the space between people, space that is sometimes bridged and sometimes not, but always present. While the relationships in these stories perhaps miss the mark, triumph finds its way into the program through self discovery, independence, boldness, empathy, music, and kindness.

When her ex-girlfriend, Rosa (Nikoline Husmer Marquardsen), rsvps for an upcoming “queers ONLY” party on Facebook, Frede (Anna Zerbib Streitz) makes up her mind to attend. After some persuasion, her older sister, Nastasja (Levi Eja Roepstorff), agrees to let her tag along, but enveloped by Natasja’s friends, Frede’s discomfort among older, confident queers is palpable. She strains against their teasing and the identities that they impose upon her. When a game of truth or dare ensues, Natasja corners Frede and labels her definitely, albeit semi-permanently. A peace offering is made, but at the party, Frede’s sensitivity heightens in the presence of her ex. Natasja’s ill-received attempts at sisterly advice, encouragement, and meddling escalate, until the two siblings come to a head.


Ottilie’s third short film, Babydyke, at its core, is a poignant portrait of two sisters. Ottilie’s characters are delicately and sensitively wrought to bring to life this rare gem of a queer narrative, that highlights the differences of siblings, even those with shared identities, and the internalized homophobia that arises within us, even—and sometimes, especially—in queer spaces. 


Tone Ottilie’s sensitively drawn Babydyke, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding International Narrative Short at Outfest.


– Laure Bender, Damn These Heels programming committee member

  • Year
    2019
  • Runtime
    20 minutes
  • Language
    danish
  • Country
    Denmark
  • Premiere
    Utah Premiere
  • Rating
    Not Rated
  • Director
    Tone Ottilie