The new short film compilation from NQV Media is out now, with Volume 2 of their 'Latin Boys' collections. This time there are films from the Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia. Take a look at each of the films in the collection below...
SEAT BELT (Mexico)
Starring: Fernando Siqueira, Marcos Oliveira, Igor Pushinov
Director: Jonathan Anzo
Julio and Damian have adopted a shy five year old, but where Damian is wholly ready for fatherhood, Julio is more reluctant. But when a tragedy strikes the little family, the latter is forced to step up to the plate and face his responsibility head on. About adjustment and loss, this is a mournful short that insists family is the most important thing in the world. A film that’s innocuous enough, it struggles to pick itself up from a trudge, even if its child star is absolutely adorable.
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE (Brazil)
Starring: Fernando Siqueira, Marcos Oliveira, Igor Pushinov
Director: Leandro Goddinho
In the first week of Bolsonaro’s presidency, Brazil’s streets are rife with violence, anger and right-wing hatred. After leaving an awards ceremony, a county music duo hide away in their hotel room, trying to process what is happening to the world outside their window. Inside, their life is frivolous and silly, but they know that sooner or later they will have to address their sexuality in public and reveal to the world outside these four walls that they are actually a couple. An extreme depiction of Coming-Out-Anxiety, the safety of their closet really is amazing and the world outside absolutely terrifying, with rioters on the street directly outside. Their love for each other is palpably tender and the film illustrates just how easily the rise of the iron giant of populism can crush the hopes and dreams of an entire generation with the furious heel of its boot.
AJAR (Uruguay)
Starring: Gabriel Manfrú, Santiago Musetti, Vanessa Cánepa
Director: Camila Souto
When a new flatmate moves into his flat, Felipe is greatly confused to find himself attracted to him; a feeling he was not expecting. As the tension between them builds, Felipe’s uncertainty mounts, unsure of what he wants. A film about the awakening of desire, this is a carefully observed short that places great emphasis on moments of domestic normalcy and its influence on sexual fantasy.
GUACHO (Argentina)
Starring: Mariano Cornejo, Mariano Ludueña
Director: Matias Magnano
Over the course of one day, two teenage boys spend their last money to escape the city and head to the mountains for a moment of solitude together. Though they don’t speak of why they want to be alone, they are both wanting a moment of freedom, both from the crushing sadness of their life of poverty and from the prying eyes of the society that won’t understand who they are. But even the countryside isn’t a big enough escape, because they are only free when there is nobody else around them at all. A heart-breaking short about the crushing reality of enduring homophobia, you’ll find yourself rooting for this desperate couple who can only find solace in each other.
THE GREY ZONES (Colombia)
Starring: Sebastián Ramírez Porras, Carmen Emilia Porras, Uribe Juan José Villegas Agudelo
Director: Daniel Mateo Vallejo
21 year-old Nicolás goes for his first HIV test and after the humiliating questions about his sex life, he has to wait for his results over the weekend. As time passes, he gets more and more worked up that he has the disease and it affects his relationships with everyone around him. A slow-burning observational short that watches the young man’s emotional crisis, this is the dramatisation of that excruciating wait that many of us will absolutely relate to. With the potential for impending doom lurking on the horizon, this is a film laden with dread as we see Nicolás at his most vulnerable.
ORIZABA'S PEAK (Mexico)
Starring: Luis Alberti, Juan Pablo Castañeda
Director: Jaime Fidalgo
Two best friends chat in a bar about a book one has read, which leads their personal prejudices to be revealed as crossed wires force them both to confront their sexuality. As the two plough through a bottle of mezcal, they examine their friendship until one finally reveals the truth. A fun but heated duologue, this is is a fiery short that would have worked better as one stream of consciousness, instead of the film’s many fragmented time shifts.