NINA'S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS
(UK)

 
A sumptuous feast of love and romance and a heaping helping of wit and charm.  HERE! presents celluloid gourmand/director Pratibha Parmar's savory comedy NINA'S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS.  With a delicious cast, Parmar serves a veritable feast of Eastern and Western flavors.  It sounds foreign.  It looks exotic.  And yet it tastes scrumptiously familiar and comfortably yummy.  A recipe for a mouth-watering confection.
 
Estranged from her traditional family, Nina, a Scottish East Asian woman returns home to Glasgow following her father's sudden death.  Independent, young, and deep in the closet, Nina bitterly reunites with her mourning family of misfits including her brother's gorgeous girlfriend Lisa (Laura Fraser), a Scottish lass with a secret of her own.  A spoonful of spice and a dash of bravado adds zest to the zeal.  Nina learns that Lisa owns half of her father's restaurant, The New Taj, due to an unsettled gambling debt.  Emotions sizzle.  Perturbed and confused, Nina reluctantly falls for the woman that may control the legacy of her father.
 
While juggling family secrets and dealing with a personal identity crisis, Nina's attraction to Lisa is percolating to a boiling point.  To add more spice to the simmering pot, Nina, as a tribute to her father, accepts a personal challenge of competing in the national "Best Of The West Curry Competition", a highly coveted prize in the world of Indian cuisine.  From the back burner to the front, Nina must face her feelings if she wants to win the competition and the girl.  Welcome to kitchen stadium!
 
Nina's Heavenly Delights reigns supreme!  It's a heartwarming and sincere love story where Scottish humor meets Bollywood spectacle.  Parmar's narrative feature debut is a banquet of global treats.  It's light and frothy, yet full of zing.  As an homage to a family challenged by change, Parmar succeeds in serving up a delightful menu of love, life, and joy.  Parmar's secret is not the ingredients, but the skillful blend.  Go ahead and chew.  You know you'll swallow.  It's hot.  It's spicy.  And it'll never go to your hips.  Nina's Heavenly Delights will satiate the most finicky of film-goers.  Bon Apetit.

ANOTHER WOMAN
(France)

The past is forever in the present.  Broadly based on a true story, director Jerome Foulon's ANOTHER WOMAN is a heart-wrenching drama about the journey of one woman's fight to reclaim her family. 
 
Having abandoned a life as a doctor in Paris with a flourishing practice and a loving family, Lea (Natalie Mann), a male to female transsexual is a new person with a new name, and a new life as a pharmaceutical representative in Geneva, Switzerland.  With her Tran sexuality a secret and her past a mystery, Lea has created another woman - a rebirth.  Resisting the advances of her colleague and assisting her friend, a transitioning prostitute, Lea successfully juggles a secretive life of purpose and regret.  Lea's fortunes within the company are soon tested when she reluctantly accepts an assignment in Paris.
 
Seduced by the city of lights and the comfort of familiarity, cracks emerge in Lea's fragile facade.  Terrified and staunchly unwilling to revisit the past, she is enticed into the lives of her children.  Lea's past and present collide when she creates a ruse to visit her daughter, a burgeoning pianist.  Soon Lea is introduced to her ex-wife, Anne (Micky Sebastian) and their young son, who are oblivious to her true identity.  Lea becomes emotionally constrained and overwhelmed with juggling the truth and the inherent restrictions of deceit.  She surrenders and reveals her self.  Her fears materialize into horror and rejection.  With her parental rights threatened, Lea's carefully constructed life unravels.  With nothing to lose and so much to gain, Lea decides to risk notoriety to legally claim her paternal rights.
 
Another Woman is an absorbing and timely drama with a superlative cast.  It's a testament to the will and determination of an unfulfilled heart and the power of honesty.  For a complete and integrated life, capitulation is not an option.

BACK SOON
(USA)

Director Rob Williams (Long Term Relationship) returns with a film that examines the mystery of attraction.  BACK SOON is a clever and subtle movie that inexplicably woos the viewer into its puzzle of love, loss, and redemption.
 
Shrouded under a cloud of grief, Logan (Windham Beacham, Long Term Relationship), an aspiring actor, elects to sell his house following the death of his wife.  During an open house, Logan meets Gil (Matthew Montgomery, Long Term Relationship), a reformed drug dealer, and unexpectedly starts a friendship of casual comfort and strange familiarity.  Without design, Logan and Gil, two men from disparate backgrounds are inevitably drawn together.  Their friendship evolves from serendipitous circumstances to passion and compulsion.  As the mystery of their attraction unfolds, Gil's dangerous past threatens their fragile bond.
 
Back Soon weaves a web of hope and fate with a touch of the supernatural.  It boldly explores the laws of attraction and emphatically states gender is not an arbiter of love.  In fact it's the heart and the soul that governs our passion.  From beginning to end, Back Soon is an engaging and effortlessly detailed drama that beautifully tells the story of two hearts destined to be united and achingly bound by the forces of nature.  OUT OK is excited that Rob Williams is back soon!

 
THE BUBBLE
(Israel)

Passionate.  Tender.  And politically explosive.  Acclaimed director Eyton Fox's triumphant return to OUT OK is a film that successfully captures the essence of life and death amidst the Palestinian-Israeli turmoil.  Following the international success of Yossi and Jagger and Walk on Water, Fox focuses his astute eye on the tenuous lives and loves of the young and the beautiful shrouded by horror and danger in the progressive city of Tel Aviv.  THE BUBBLE is a gut wrenching reflection of the fragility of dreams and the power of hope.
 
In one of Tel Aviv's fashionable neighborhoods, secluded from the tensions and insulated from the maelstrom, Noam (Ohad Knoller, Yossi and Jagger), a music store clerk and weekend army reservist, shares an apartment with Yali (Alon Friedmann) and their female friend Lulu (Daniela Wircer).  The "bubble" of their tranquil existence bursts when Noam accidentally meets and hopelessly falls in love with Ashraf (Yousef 'Joe' Sweid), a sexy closeted Palestinian from the neighboring occupied territory, Nablus.  Infatuated with permissive and liberated city life and bewitched by Noam, forbidden liaisons and cultural taboos cannot suppress Ashraf's feelings.  Sympathetic to Noam, but reluctant to break the law, Yali and Lulu devise a plan to assist Ashraf's illegal stay in Tel Aviv.  Adopting a Hebrew name and laboring in Yali's cafe, Ashraf surrenders to the temptations of the "bubble."  Noam and Ashraf are the embodiment of a peaceful resolution.  Empowered by youth and naive entitlement, the young Israelis organize a rave against the occupation of Palestinian territories.  Activism never looked better.
 
Soon Ashraf is called back home to his sister's wedding.  Leaving Tel Aviv, the illusion of security is soon shattered.  Unfortunately, the harsh reality that is the Middle East wears its foreboding head on a weary populace and a scarred landscape.  Noam, Ashraf, Yali, and Lulu defiantly face the bitter truth of the dichotomy and the disparity that is their home.
 
With great performances and real chemistry, Ohad Knoller Yousef 'Joe' Sweid carry the weight of their cultures and the complexities of their characters with subtle intensity.  The Bubble is a compelling portrait of human desire in a surreal world frequently seen in headlines and news flashes.  Fox, with fellow screenwriter and life partner, Gal Uchovsky, have the daunting task of exposing the beauty and hope among the ashes of incessant conflict.  It's romantic and it's heartwarming.  The need for love and the desire for intimacy will always prevail.  The Bubble is a cinematic triumph.

DOG EAT DOG
(USA)

Sparky's bringing sexy back!  Welcome to The International Mr. Leather Contest where man's best friend is a leather harness and a dog named Sparky.  Director Charles M. Lum presents DOG EAT DOG, a never before seen glimpse into the first IML sanctioned Puppy Party,  Butt sniffing just became a sport.  Sexual identity is as diverse as canine breeds.  The inherent nature of performance and its spunky charm is gloriously observed through this dog and pooch show.  Watch the fur fly as our feral brothers frolic.  Who will be the best in show?

EAST SIDE STORY
(USA)
 
EAST SIDE STORY is a sexy and witty romance.  Carlos Portugal's directorial debut takes a rare and comedic look at the gay American Latino experience.  East Side Story is a timely examination of a unique group of individuals bound by the parameters of conservative East Los Angeles.  It's bold.  It's beautiful.  And it's refreshingly original.
 
Assisting his grandmother in the family restaurant, Diego (Rene Alvarado), a young, hot, closeted Latino, dreams of another life in a new city managing his own upscale bistro with equally closeted hunk, Pablo (David Beron).  Their secret relationship of Latin bravado and hilarious role-playing is brought to an abrupt end when Diego discloses his true feelings and intentions.  Pablo, content with the status quo, abruptly dumps him and dates Diego's Aunt Bianca (Gladise Jimenez), a sexpot of simmering proportions.
 
Wallowing in doubt and resentment, Diego meets Wesley (Stephen Callahan) and Jonathan (Cory Schneider), a handsome Caucasian couple who are one of many gay couples "invading" the neighborhood.  Faster than a home show makeover, the gentrification of East LA has begun.
 
The attraction and chemistry between Diego and Wesley is immediate and palpable.  Not even the forces of nature and the clash of cultures can contain the inevitable.  Diego and Wesley suddenly see the possibilities of a future that may change the foundations of convention and familiarity.
 
East Side Story is fresh, intelligent, and devoid of cliché and self-importance.  It's a movie that boasts a merging talent.  Rene Alvarado is magnificent and charismatic as the brooding Diego.  With a hot cast of incredibly talented actors, Portugal has fashioned a true romance that dares to bare the biases of a community that has claimed diversity and inclusion as their moniker.  Somewhere, there's a place...and it's in East Side Story.

ENTREVUE
(France)
 
Director Marie-Pierre Huster's ENTREVUE is an unorthodox guide to surviving the dreaded job interview.  Alix (Mathilda May), a sexy, young candidate for a coveted position with a prestigious wine company is drowning in the after glow of a tremendous tryst from the past evening.  Instead of impressing the general director, she's distracted by more sensuous and seductive thoughts.  Heart pounding, cleavage heaving good fun.  Entrevue has a clever curve matched only by the curves of its perpetually pleasuring protagonist.  "Take this job and shove it" has new meaning.
 

HOLDING TREVOR
(USA)
 
An intimate portrait of friends and lovers is the focus of Rosser Goodman's accomplished directorial debut.  HOLDING TREVOR explores the murky depths of the twenty-something generation with wit, candor, and bittersweet irony and their search for a place in the world.
 
Trevor (screenwriter Brent Gorski) is young, cute, and intelligent.  Yet he's embroiled in an unhealthy codependent relationship with on-again/off-again boyfriend, Darrell (Christopher Wyllie), a heroine addict.  Furthermore, he's trapped in a mindless and soul-sucking telemarketing job that leaves him comfortably numb.  His relationship with his friends Andie (Melissa Searing), a clothing designer and Jake (Jay Brannan, Shortbus), a musician and proud sex addict are strained and estranged by Trevor's inability to move forward.
 
While rescuing Darrell from a heroine overdose, he meets Ephram (Eli Kranski), a tall, dark, and handsome doctor.  As Trevor moves closer to Ephram and further away from Darrell, he's poised for positive change.  As Andie and Jake's problems percolate, unbeknownst to Trevor, Darrell makes a final attempt to hold onto Trevor.  As Trevor's world unravels, will he discover that some people are too precious to abandon and some souls are too tormented to save?
 
With a tight script and taut close-ups, Goodman and Gorski peel back the layers of saturated media and constrained freedom to reveal a raw and authentic story and a quiet intensity in their actors.  Holding Trevor is about a lost generation of the young and the beautiful.  It's darkly funny and unsentimentally moving.  A wry examination of the flaws and foibles of a generation overindulged, over gratified, and underestimated.
 

HUNTER4LOVE
(USA)

In a world of internet hook ups and web ready entanglements, how does Hunter (Gregory Guy Gorden) desperately seek love?  According to HUNTER4LOVE, the answers are in the stars.  Director Robert L. Camina presents a hilarious day in the life of Hunter and his horoscope.  From Chelsea to Bryant Park, Hunter zig zags through Manhattan in search of the man of his wet dreams.  On his journey to romantic enlightenment, he encounters a cast of colorful characters that makes his search that much more challenging.  With the moon in Sagittarius and the sun in mercury. Mr. Right may be in the seventh house of eleven.

MAN OF MY LIFE
(France/Italy)

Poetry in motion.  Visually stunning.  Quietly intense.  Director Zabou Breitman's THE MAN OF MY LIFE is a film that stimulates the senses.  Soaring music, painterly visuals, and a cast of magical actors embody the spirit and the soul of Breitman's celluloid tour de force.  It's a dreamscape of cerebral sensations.
 
Frederic (Bernard Campan), his wife Frederique (Lea Drucker), and their merry clan spend their annual summer vacation in their rustic house deep in the lush Provencal countryside.  One fateful evening, they invite their new neighbor, Hugo (Charles Berling) to dinner.  With casual ease, Hugo flippantly declares his homosexuality to the astonishment of Frederic and his family.  After a festive evening of food, wine, and pronouncements, Frederic and Hugo settle onto the terrace until dawn discussing love, relationships, family responsibility, emotional commitment, men, and sex.  Over the next few days, Frederic and Hugo occupy more and more of each other's company.  Jogging in the morning followed by chats over cappuccino and frequent instant messaging, family histories and bitter secrets are exposed and discussed.  After long conversations of shared intimacies and furtive glances, Frederic and Hugo undergo a gradual, but subtle transformation.  Frederic, enamored with his new neighbor slowly begins to doubt his sexuality.  Frederique becomes cognizant of  a rift between her and her husband, as well as the bond developing between Frederic and Hugo.
 
Breitman and co-screenwriter Agnes De Sacy, two women, share insights on the male condition through their rich and vibrant characters.  Using homosexuality as a catalyst, the unconventional and the foreign are explored free of judgment and presumption.  With its dream-like pace and non-linear flow, The Man Of My Life is an audacious example of cinematic story-telling.  Remarkable in its execution.  Profound in its message.  The Man Of My Life is a clever romance of rare seductive power.  Prepare to fall in love.

NAKED BOYS SINGING!
(USA)

" Gratuitous Nudity"
 
From the stage to the cinema.  NAKED BOYS SINGING! is huge and it's coming to the big screen...uncut...and cut!  Continuing its (a)rousing success in more than 20 countries.  OUT OK is proud to bring off-Broadway to Oklahoma.  With a chorus line of buff bods, bare butts, perky penises, and a cadre of clever show tunes, co-directors Troy Christian and creator Bob Shrock bare their posteriors for posterity's sake.
 
Naked Boys Singing! is an uproarious and sexy musical revue that leaves nothing to the prudish imagination.  The long running off-Broadway musical features a ten-member chorus of gifted performers of varying shapes and big sizes who kick up their ankles and belt out songs of love, loss, and lustful yearning.  Endowed with lyrical lungs and musical chops, the multi-talented cast of crooners pushes the house down and pumps the heat.  With witty barbs and toe-tapping tunes, the hunks of spunk jiggle and jerk and swing and sway to the choreography of Jeffrey Denman. 
 
Though wildly successful, the gay-themed production has not been staged without controversy.  It was closed by the vice squad last year in Milwaukee and it incurred the wrath of local lawmakers in Atlanta (2004) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (2003). 
 
The all singing, all dancing members with their members proudly perform the songs of a dozen writers and lyricists.  This restaged version of the play contains new arrangements of original songs like Perky Little Porn Star, Bliss Of A Bris, and the audience anthem I Beat My Meat.  With seasoned performers and talented stage actors, Naked Boys Singing! is a must-see for Broadway novices and for theatre buffs who enjoy their boys in the buff.
 
Naked Boys Singing! is the little show that grew and grew.  And now it's coming... coming to Oklahoma.  Gratuitous nudity; virile dancers; gifted singers; and great harmonies: $10.  Naked Boys Singing! The Movie: Priceless.
 
*WARNING*  Graphic Content.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
(USA/UK)
 
Pure genius.  Sheer brilliance.  A dazzling cohesion of narrative and style.  OUT OK is proud to welcome the triumphant return of auteur, visionary, and master filmmaker, Duncan Roy.  THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is a masterpiece.  Period.  Flawlessly executed, Roy's third film following the award-winning success of AKA (OUT OK, 2002), is an audacious and ambitious portrait of Oscar Wilde's notoriously vain character.  Based on Wilde's beloved works including the rare first edition of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Roy has reintroduced gay elements with blatant homosexual storylines, previously censored and unprintable during the Victorian era.  Roy's technical prowess and flamboyant style are evident from the first frame to the final credit.  A unique voice, a bold vision, and an impressive delivery.
 
Roy transposes Wilde's legendary anti-hero and shallow victim from 1890's London to 1990's Manhattan.  The world of salon decadence is supplanted with the sexual promiscuity of chemically numbed aesthetes of modern day New York amidst the high stakes art market and the early devastation of the AIDS epidemic.  Enter Dorian Gray (David Gallagher, 7th Heaven), the embodiment of beauty, youth, and vitality with a hint of mystery and casual arrogance.  When l'enfant terrible artist Basil (Noah Segan) meets and obsesses over Dorian, he creates an homage/video installation to memorialize the rarity and the fleeting nature of Dorian's haunting beauty; the eponymous picture of Dorian Gray.  Basil's multi-media creation becomes a sensation within the art community.  For Dorian, the video feeds his swelling ego and his tumorous vanity.  With his fear of age and disease, Dorian willingly agrees to a deal with the devil.  Emboldened and indestructible, Dorian pursues a monstrous life of increasing cruelty and absolute decadence.  Through the passage of time and Dorian's callous and heinous crimes, the video installation reflects the ravages of a life of obscene consumption and sexual gorging.
 
Duncan Roy's The Picture Of Dorian Gray is arguably OUT OK's most visually spectacular and challenging film.  It's visionary in its use of text and multiple screens.  Sensory overload.  Every frame is perfectly composed and a feast of sensations.  The Picture Of Dorian Gray is a celluloid gem.  Duncan Roy is cinema's shining star.

ROCK BOTTOM: GAY MEN AND METH
(USA)
 
Gut-wrenching, deeply disturbing, and intensely provocative.  Not for the faint of heart.  Director Jay Corcoran's ROCK BOTTOM: GAY MAN AND METH is a raw and unsettling examination of the crystal methamphetamine crisis against a backdrop of an emerging second wave of HIV infection within the gay community.
 
Following the journey of seven gay men over two years, Corcoran focuses his camera on the physical and psychological complexity and temptation of addiction and the frailty of recovery.  From internet hook ups to sex clubs to hospitals to family gatherings, Rock Bottom delivers a chilling portrait with an unflinching voyeuristic eye on a community in crisis.
 
Devoid of judgment, Rock Bottom intimately delves into the various motives for addiction such as low self-esteem, internalized homophobia, sexual desire, shame, guilt, depression, and HIV burn out.  It reveals the glamorous and thrilling highs and the dark and devastating lows.
 
Brutal in its presentation.  Honest in its portrayal.  Rock Bottom is a simple documentary of the multiple and complex layers of personal and collective trauma that torments the modern gay male identity.  From an aspiring singer and adult film star to a recovering addict, all face the illusion of control and the consequences of surrendering.  This is the gay men's health crisis of the 21st century.
 
*WARNING*  Graphic Content.

Panel Discussion will follow the film.
Oklahoma City: Saturday, October 13, 12:00pm.  Pegasus Theatre, UCO.
Tulsa: Thursday, October 18, 7:00pm.  Kendall Hall, Room 140,TU

SERENE HUNTER
(France) 
Luc is "The Copulator."  He loves men.  He loves sex.  Luc loves sex with men.  He's an equal opportunity flirt.  Director Jason Bushman's (Days Of Our Lives) SERENE HUNTER is the story of an uncomplicated man on a simple mission.  Luc (Eric Debets) is a hunter gatherer of the wanton kind.  His care-free life of copious amounts of coitus veers into unknown territory when he meets Sebastien (Jonathan Stringat) -  young, hung, and ready for action.  Reluctantly, Luc sets up house in Sebastien's tiny boite just as Jon (Jason Bushman), his enigmatic and unavailable lover from Los Angeles arrives into town.  Will "The Copulator," suppressed and dormant, rear its hard head?  He'll be back...
 
*WARNING*  Graphic Content.

SURVEILLANCE
(UK)

Director Paul Oremland's (Like It Is) intriguing thriller is an absorbing and imaginative mystery from beginning to end.  In an age of Homeland Security and questionable espionage in the name of safety, SURVEILLANCE is disturbing in its grand assertions that privacy is extinct.  Employing images from a variety of security cameras recorded throughout London, Oremland edits and enlarges the parameters of narrative drama.  With clever camera work that mimics the voyeuristic surveillance images from the streets of London, Oremland's lens lurks in the shadows and peeps through the cracks creating a moody film with darkly comical undertones.  Inventive in technique and deliberate in delivery, Surveillance is a fascinating mix of suspense, drama, and cinema verite.
 
Adam (Tom Harper) is a hot physical education teacher joyously single and forever on the prowl.  Following an habitual evening in a gay nightclub and a fateful tryst with Jake (Sean Brenden Brosnan), Adam's life takes an aberrant turn to the strange and treacherous.  Jake disappears while Adam is stalked.  Adam is compelled to become an apprehensive player in the nasty business of political intrigue.  A cabal of suspects lay furtively in the shadows: a tabloid reporter, a powerful media baron, and a government spy.  Adam uncomfortably moves from victim to sleuth.  With assistance, he clandestinely meets "The Saint" (Simon Callow, Four Weddings And A Funeral), a dubious figure with questionable ethics who may hold the key to Adam's involvement in a British Royal scandal.
 
Surveillance is a fascinating and thoughtful mystery loaded with twists and turns.  Visually original with a gripping storyline, Oremland delivers a poignant mystery of the limited and questionable freedom that is conferred upon us, the violations of privacy that we willingly permit, and the rights that we fearfully surrender.