26th OutSouth Queer Film Festival

OPEN UP YOUR CLOSET - Transgender Shorts

Expired August 23, 2021 3:59 AM
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Viewer's Guide: "Shedding Skin" contains nudity. Please be informed before watching or purchasing.


Here is a 85-minute collection of transgender shorts from around the world.

MAKING SAMANTHA: “I Am Samantha," by singer-songwriter Benjamin Scheuer, was inspired by his friend, Samantha Williams. Director T Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper gathered 27 trans actors to make the music video, and to tell the story of the universal human journey to find identity, acceptance and love.

POOL BOY: Austin, a college jock home for the summer, unexpectedly develops feelings for Star, his parents' non-binary pool cleaner, and struggles to hide his growing feelings from his clique of straight friends.

BETWEEN US: Kei longs for a “normal” life in rural Japan. But for a transgender man who is jobless in his own hometown, getting to normal is one steep climb, especially since Erin, his Canadian partner, longs to move to Tokyo, where they can live openly and freely. On his way to a job interview in the city, Kei meets a stranger. Abandoning his journey to help her, he discovers she is the owner of the hot springs—a place he once loved, as a child. Kei's encounter with the healing waters is complicated by Erin’s turning up as well. Finally, the couple—one on the men's side, the other, on the women's—must face the truth about their divergent wishes, identities, and murky notions of belonging.

BEFORE THE ERUPTION: Although a volcanic eruption can occur without any prior signal, volcanoes will most likely issue different types of warnings before the eruption begins. We barely saw it coming.

OUR PAIN: Two women seek refuge from inevitable limitations of a reality which denies their very existence.

SHEDDING SKIN: Alicia is a seamstress. She works designing and making women's clothing, but behind the fabrics she hides the secret of her own body; the nuisance and disconformity that she feels with it after having been mastectomized as a result of breast cancer. After the accidental flooding of her apartment she meets Lucia, a transsexual woman who is her new neighbor. Despite the tense first encounter they have, these women meet again and start spending more time together. As day and night pass, they begin to be acknowledged in each other, helping one another. With the dawn, both women will find healing and freedom in the middle of the sea.

KIND OF: Kind Of follows two trans masculine folks in a newly open relationship as they prepare to host brunch -– while hashing out their insecurities about their relationship in the minutes before their friends arrive.

COST YOU NOTHING: A mother's fractious relationship with her son disintegrates when she cannot accept the man he has become.

NORTH CAROLINA PREMIERE!

Kind Of follows two trans masculine folks in a newly open relationship as they prepare to host brunch -– while hashing out their insecurities about their relationship in the minutes before their friends arrive.


Director Biography - Noah Schamus


Noah Schamus is a Brooklyn-based director, editor, and writer, passionate about telling stories that deepen and humanize queer and trans narratives. Their short film work includes “Kind Of” “Across, Beyond, and Over,” “Here With You,” and “Chemistry of Mood.” This work has been presented at film festivals including BFI Flare, Outfest, Inside Out, NewFest, Maryland Film Festival, Provincetown Film Festival, and New Orleans Film Festival (where their short film, “Chemistry of Mood” garnered an Honorable Mention for Best Performance by Naian Gonzalez Norvind). “Across, Beyond, and Over,” co-directed with Brit Fryer, was featured on NoBudge and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. 

  • Year
    2020
  • Runtime
    9 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Premiere
    North Carolina Premiere
  • Director
    Noah Schamus
  • Screenwriter
    Arno Mokros & Noah Schamus
  • Producer
    Brit Fryer & Harper Makowsky
  • Cast
    Garcia, Avi Roque
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