The beauty of a short film - most of which range from 2 to 20 minutes - is that even if they’re not perfect, they can be easily endured and then you’re onto the next. Gann (see profile, page 20) unearthed 20 LGBT nuggets for us to review, and while, as with any collection of shorts, the quality varies considerably, the collection as a whole captures the entire gamut of the LGBT experience. And who better to curate our mini-festival for us than Gann, executive director of DC Shorts, which, every fall, stages a massive, citywide shorts festival. Since 2009, just prior to the Oscars, we’ve occasionally put together lists of “25 Gay Films Everyone Should See.” When it came time for this year’s list, we thought we’d give feature films a break and turn our attention to an oft-neglected, but much beloved category - the short. In some of the stories, the LGBT portion is very small, but the LGBT component is really critical to how the story unfolds.” Illustration by Christopher Cunetto
I like them because they are about the entire community. In the clip below, Brind and Salky talk about deciding to make the sequel and its fans offer some thoughts on what it means to them.“I’m not sure that these are the greatest LGBT films ever,” says Jon Gann. THE DARE PROJECT is available starting midnight to rent and buy on Tuesday, 9/24 at but before that, the filmmakers would like to give Towleroad readers a look at the exclusive premiere of the trailer, right here:īrind and Salky are also in discussions with Alan Cumming’s production company Club Cumming Productions about developing THE DARE PROJECT into a series. But everything DARE will always end in hope. I like to play off tropes, and then unmask them.
#SHORT GAY MOVIES ONLINE SERIES#
Letting our fans and our community know that there is no right path-just a series of choices and moments. That’s what this short is about-moments of connection in a disconnected world. “What happens if there’s someone out there that makes you feel so alive that it’s addictive? And what happens if you are of potentially differing sexual identities? And in 2019, who really gives a shit-you’re just two humans. “ THE DARE PROJECT is about connection,” Brind added. More and more of my students are non-binary or bi or trans or simply unclassifiable.” As a professor at USC, I see everyday how the world has become so sexually fluid in many ways. The DARE world has never been about a gay guy chasing a straight guy. Which means twists and turns, easter eggs, sex appeal, one-liners, but also questions of existential angst, lack of purpose, the perils of intimacy as a gay man. To give the fans what they wanted, but also what they NEED.
“It was really hard to revisit this world,” said Brind. There’s also a new star, Adam Hagenbuch ( Fuller House). And of course, they get back in the pool…” And when Ben and Johnny meet for the first time since high school, they talk about it all. “And he’s no longer the arrogant bad boy of high school hallways. “Johnny isn’t 17 either,” Brind continued. A real and constant struggle for LGBTQ people, especially in the age of Grindr (which is in the new film) and Instagram ‘influencers’ aka hot guys in underwear.” But he’s still been unable to find intimacy in a real way. Of the sequel, Brind added, “Ben isn’t 17 anymore. And that’s more worthwhile than any Netflix or HBO deal could ever bring me.” He wrote to tell me that he watches DARE over and over when he’s feeling like he doesn’t want to live. Like Jack from a small village in Ireland. “Our legions of fans-13.5M views on YouTube while being suppressed from search by them, but that’s another story-demanded a sequel. “15 years later, I decided to revisit this world with THE DARE PROJECT,” Brind added. And yes, a bit of sadness.”īrind said that after understanding the fan base that the original DARE had developed over the years, he decided to try and continue the story he had begun. That even if it ended here with ‘Johnny,’ something else unexpected would arise. But because for the first time in my life, I believed that connection with someone I desired was possible. Not because I was fetishizing the straight guy-though that’s a real thing. I was the star, he was in the chorus because he got kicked off soccer for smoking. “I was a closeted (sort of?) popular kid.