Many film festivals feature independent films made in societies which function quite differently than the United States or Canada. Such films offer a chance for American audiences to view life from a very different perspective. On good days, the end result involves some consciousness raising and a reminder to count one's blessings. Three films screened during the 2019 Frameline Film Festival stand out for the personal dramas they capture as well as the mirrors they hold up to the societies in which they were made.
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A painfully poignant portrait of a young black teen struggling to stay afloat under devastating circumstances, Socrates focuses on a 15-year-old who has just discovered his mother's dead body. This debut feature film by Brazilian-American director Alexandre Moratto captures the anguish of a desperate teenager who was forced to break away from his violent, hyper-religious father (Jayme Rodrigues) and will go to any length to cover for his dead mother on her job while trying to earn enough to pay for her cremation. |
| Christian Malheiros stars in Socrates |
Co-written by Moratto and Thayná Mantesso, the film stars Christian Malheiros, who delivers a deeply moving performance in the title role. Already living on the margins of society in a favela in São Paulo, Socrates quickly learns that the landlady won't allow him to stay in his mother's apartment if he can't pay the rent. After being referred to a job that requires manual labor, the teenager gets into a fight with Maicon (Tales Ordakji), a closeted bisexual laborer who doesn't mind fucking and kissing Socrates but refuses to show any signs of affection when they are in public view.
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| Christian Malheiros and Tales Ordakji in a scene from Socrates |
Though determined to find work, Socrates continues to have doors slammed in his face. Some are due to his poverty, others to the fact that he is underage. Upon learning that his homophobic father has claimed his mother's ashes, Socrates visits the bitter old man, only to be rejected one more time for his sexual orientation.
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| Christian Malheiros stars in Socrates |
In his Director's Statement, Moratto writes:
"In 2009, I volunteered at the Querô Institute in Brazil – a UNICEF-supported non-profit that provides social inclusion to teenagers from low-income communities through the transformative power of filmmaking. The dedication of these young people to make a better life for themselves despite their unequal social status astounded me and inspired me to make films about people from underrepresented cultures and communities. Socrates is a film that revisits the people and places that helped shape me into the filmmaker I am today. The film is also very personal in its depiction of the death of Socrates's mother, his struggle with grief, and his efforts to find acceptance as a gay teenager. The result is a film that is embedded in a unique time and place in Brazil but that also tells a universal story about the strength to live despite insurmountable hardship."
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| Tales Ordakji and Christian Malheiros in a scene from Socrates |
The Querô Institute is an organization headquartered in the city of Santos, Brazil that, for over 12 years, has used filmmaking as a tool to transmit values, develop entrepreneurship, promote volunteer work, and give access to the workplace for young people in situations of social vulnerability. The social impact of the organization is to transform young people to reflect more on their role in society, making them better equipped to cope with problems and become the entrepreneurs of their own dreams.
In its 12 years of working with teenagers from low-income households in the Baixada Santista region of São Paulo more than 400 boys and girls have been trained at Querô workshops in audiovisual production. More than 150 graduates are currently employed as professionals in the Brazilian film industry and more than 111 audiovisual works have been completed (winning over 55 awards at Brazilian and international film festivals). To date, the "Querô at School" project has served more than 6,000 students in public schools and produced 182 one-minute short films.
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| Poster art for Socrates |
Co-written, produced and acted by a crew of 16-20 year-olds from the Querô Institute, Socrates is the first feature film produced by the nonprofit organization. It's a powerful drama that delivers quite a punch to its audience. Here's the trailer:
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Written and directed by Michael Elias Thomas, First Position is an achingly poignant short film about a young dancer named Zachary Campbell (Anthony Sorrells) who arrives in San Francisco in the mid 1980s hoping to join a ballet company. While visiting a gay bar, he meets Jamie Callahan (Mark Wax), a local choreographer. As they fall in love, Zachary starts taking class at Jamie's dance studio and moves in with him. |
| Poster art for First Position |
Just when Zachary thinks his life is starting to come together, he notices two purplish lesions on his body. Thinking they're just bruises, he shows them to Jamie (who instantly recognizes signs of the dreaded Kaposi's sarcoma). From that moment on, Zachary's situation stars to spiral downward to the point where, despite his urgent need to keep dancing, he no longer has the strength to do so.
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| Zachary (Anthony Sorrells) is a young dancer with Kaposi's sarcoma in a scene from First Position |
First Position captures the confusion and fear during the early onset of AIDS as well as the staunch determination of some partners to be emotionally and financially supportive. For many Millennials, the film may put a shockingly human face on the tragedy. But for those who lived through the horror and grief of the 1980s, First Position offers a sober reminder of the vast wealth of talent that was lost and how lucky some of us are simply to be alive.
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Written and directed by Ali Jaberansari, Tehran: City of Love focuses on a handful of Iranians whose social and sexual dreams are constantly thwarted by the culture in which they live.Mina Shamsi (Forough Ghajabagli) is a fat woman working as a receptionist at a beauty clinic in Tehran. Friends and relatives are always trying to set Mina up with an eligible bachelor but, as much as she resents their good intentions and tries to avoid such meetings, she still has hopes, dreams, and repressed lust. Whenever a handsome male patient arrives at the clinic, she carefully checks out his medical record and ring finger to see if he is available. In some instances, she'll even engage in tempting a man by making seductive phone calls using her sexiest voice, sending him enticing pictures of another woman, setting up a date at a local coffee shop, and then standing him up as a fat woman's form of revenge.
Mina finally meets a man in a dating class for singles entitled “Geometry of Love and Relationships” and is momentarily swept off her feet by his kindness and attention. But the day eventually arrives when he confesses that he's married (but separated from his wife) and has a son. Whether soothing her wounded ego with a mouthful of sweets, indulging in ice cream, or going home with a consolation prize (a giant stuffed teddy bear), she will probably spend the rest of her life as a single woman.
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| Forough Ghajabagli portrays Mina, a fat and lonely woman in Tehran: City of Love |
Vahid (Mehdi Saki) is a funeral singer who works at a local mosque. When his fiancée dumps him, he falls into a deep depression. A chance meeting with wedding photographer named Niloufar (Behnaz Jafari) who is a female friend of Mina's, leads Vahid to an opportunity to perform at secular weddings performed at secret locations where alcohol is served (free from Iran's "Guidance Patrol"). With guidance from Niloufar and some of his friends, Vahid lightens his wardrobe and musical repertoire (moving from funeral dirges to happier songs) and starts to enjoy his new job as he feels a growing attraction to Niloufar.
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| Mehdi Saki portrays a funeral singer named Vahid in Tehran: City of Love |
Vahid's happiness comes to a sudden end when, along with other attendees, he is arrested at one of the weddings and forced to ask for his job back at the mosque. To make matters worse, Niloufar informs him that she is leaving Tehran to start a new life in Australia.
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| Vahid (Mehdi Saki) and Niloufar (Behnaz Jafari) take a work break in a scene from Tehran: City of Love |
Hessam Fazli (Amir Hessam Bakhtiari) is a former competitive bodybuilder who earns his living as a personal trailer. After he shows up for an appointment at the beauty clinic, Mina starts calling him in her most seductive voice. When he tells her to stop bothering him, she instantly crosses him off her list of potential men. The next time Hessam appears at the clinic, she is extremely rude to him, insisting that he has no appointment scheduled for that day.
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| Amir Hessam Bakhtiari is a former competitive bodybuilder turned personal trainer in Tehran: City of Love |
The truth is that the heavily tattooed muscleman had been attempting to get into film acting when a new client was referred to him by one of the men he knows from the mosque where Vahid sings. As the older man explained, his nephew Arshia (Amir Reza Alizadehis) feels he has outgrown his current trainer and is looking for someone who can take him to the next level.
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| Amir Hessam Bakhtiari portrays a personal trainer working with Amir Reza Alizadehis in a scene from Tehran: City of Love |
As he begins working with the eager and gregarious young bodybuilder, the two men start to develop the kind of potentially homoerotic friendship that can be found in many gyms. Having grown up in a notoriously homophobic culture, neither one is willing (or able) to articulate such feelings. After Hessam has dropped his other clients so that he can concentrate on training Arshia, a late night sleepover at the home Hessam shares with his father mysteriously causes Arshia to stop training with Hessam, suddenly claiming that he has to travel to China on business.
Tehran: City of Love benefits immensely from the cinematography of Mohammad Reza Jahanpanah and a musical score by Hamed Sabet. In his Director’s Statement, Ali Jaberansari explains that:
“A revolution, an ensuing eight-year war, a theocratic government, the harsh divide between the private and the public and religious rules and customs have all made social realism the cornerstone of popular contemporary Iranian films in recent years, especially those that have been internationally successful. While sociopolitical issues remain at the heart of the Iranian way of life, I am fortunate enough to hold a slightly different perspective. Having lived outside of Iran for a number of years while still maintaining strong ties to my country has afforded me the liberty to retain a certain amount of distance from the harsh realities of life in Iran. This in turn has enabled me to have a darkly humorous point of view that runs at the core of this film and dictates my style as a filmmaker."
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| Amir Hessam Bakhtiari is a former competitive bodybuilder turned personal trainer in Tehran: City of Love |
“Lonely and disenchanted, the characters in my film are estranged from themselves and the society at large. Failing in their attempts to find meaningful relationships and truly connect to those around them, they face rejections they are not equipped to handle and are forced to find ways to persevere in a city that does not embrace them. While their predicaments may serve as the perfect context for a gritty social drama, I wanted to convey the hilarity and absurdity of their respective situations while still allowing the audience to identify with them. My goal in making this film was to tell an emotionally engaging story, however minimal and absurdist, with a different slant on the modern Iranian society.”
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| Three lonely Iranians end up riding public transit together in a scene from Tehran: City of Love |
Tehran: City of Love is a quiet film with no violence, car chases, or hysterics. While it gives the viewer the feeling of being a fly on the wall watching the futile attempts of its characters to find love, it also leaves viewers with the suspicion that (whether or not by default) the lonely and unloved eventually end up riding alone on public transportation. Here's the trailer:
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