Pixote

Struggling with the pressures of homophobia when her partner is taken away by a hateful mother, a young gay woman struggles to cope with the traumas and anxieties of her life. Her dreams descend, taking the shape of shadows which reach into her life.

Uwe Friessner’s first feature, At the End of the Rainbow, follows the exploits of a West Berlin teenager named Jimmi who ekes out a living through petty theft and part-time hustling, hangs out in punk clubs, and who, for reasons which this film subtly details, is thoroughly unemployable. Drawing on his own experience in trying to help a young runaway who eventually committed suicide, Friessner wrote into Jimmi’s story several older students who attempt to find work for him, and who give him shelter for a time in their commune.

Koji Nanjo, a young rock star, falls in love with soccer player Takuto Izumi. Koji eventually learns that Izumi's mother killed his father out of severe and intense love. Izumi took all the guilt for his father's murder and refuses to go pro because of fear that his past will be discovered by the media. Izumi detests Koji's company and encouragement and severely dislikes the attention from the press, but Koji cannot stay away for he soon realizes that his love for Izumi is very similar to the love that Izumi's mother felt for his father.

In a quirky, small town, situated in the outskirts of everything, 14-year-old Martin is getting ready for one of the most formal transitions from boy to man; the communion. It's 1976, music's in the air and hormones are blossoming. But in the midst of it all Martin's mother suddenly passes away and her tragic death trickers a series of events that not only changes Martin's life forever, but also affects everyone else in the local community. Overwhelmed with grief neither Martin's dad, nor his older brother, is capable to comfort Martin. He enters adulthood in a mixture of drunken happiness and immense sadness over the loss of his mother, and his relationship to both his friend Kim and girlfriend Kristine comes to its natural conclusion.

Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.