Since unleashing his outrageous debut No Skin Off My Ass in ‘91 and with successive art-porn assaults such as Hustler White and The Raspberry Reich in his filmography, Bruce LaBruce has gained international notoriety as the enfant terrible of Canadian gay cinema - a reputation that now encompasses horror, with his latest:

Otto; or, Up with Dead People

The awkwardly punctuated title (a nod to Herman Melville’s 1852 novel Pierre; or, the Ambiguities) refers to the two films within the film. The first one "Otto," is a documentary about a boy who may or may not be a zombie. The second, "Up with Dead People" is a political zombie porno flick. Both films are directed by an avant-garde lesbian filmmaker character named Medea Yarn (an anagram for legendary experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, 1917-61).

Un-death is only the beginning of Otto’s identity crisis, however, as he’s also a zombie with an eating disorder. As a vegetarian in his previous life, he abbors consuming human flesh. Instead, he sustains himself on a predominantly roadkill diet. As an effiminate, vegetarian, gay zombie, Otto is particularly vulnerable to his human enemies, so in order to stay under the radar, he auditions for a role in "Up with Dead People" in the hopes that people won’t think he’s a genuine zombie, they’ll just think he’s playing one.

LaBruce exploits the zombie subgenre not merely as a convenient metaphor to comment on contemporary consumerism but to tackle issues very specific to contemporary gay culture. "the old horror monsters like vampires and werewolves, they’re more like individuals," he explains "They’re on the fringe of society. They’re marginalized characters. But zombies are the ultimate conformist. They come in masses and they’re the ultimate consumers. Part of the thesis of the movie is that gays are now model consumers. Gay culture has become extremely conformist; gays are getting married and having children and they’re very upwardly mobile and bourgeois. But the zombie template fits AIDS as well because AIDS is viral. It’s the idea of the body decaying, and I’m shifting the paradigm so my zombie is the outsider, and, just as in Night of the Living Dead, where the rednecks are beating and burning the zombies, that’s essentially what has happened to homosexuals as well."

LaBruce is confident that his traditional audience will accept his foray into horror, firmly convinced that "gays are very much into blood and guts." But it’s the mainstream horror fans he’s more worried about. "They’re able to watch the most extreme torture porn and decapitation disembowelments, but then if they see two men kissing they’ll puke," he says with a laugh "That’s what I’m expecting. One of my initial impetuses was I thought it would be really cool to make a zombie porn movie, partly because zombies are so rotten that you can just make your own orifice so it’s perfect for pornography."

   

UPDATE:
Otto läuft jetzt bei uns im Kino – allerdings, wie es eben mit den meisten coolen Filmen, Austellungen und Veranstaltungen so ist, nur in Berlin. Wer soweiso da wohnt oder in näherer Zukunft einen Trip dorthin plant: Hier findet ihr die betreffenden Kinos. Viel Spaß! :)

Und wenn wir gerade dabei sind, hab ich auch nochmal ‘nen deutschen Artikel über Otto rausgekramt:

Bruce La Bruce, dessen so verspielter wie melancholischer Zombiefilm "Otto - Or Up With Dead People" heute seine Premiere feiert, weiß viel über die Schattenseiten des Kinos. Er ist dort quasi zu Hause. Und sein "Otto" ist ein klassischer Outsider-Film. Das hat sich auch im Zombiegenre, das er mit seinem neuen Film erstmals konsequent durcharbeitet, nicht geändert. Denn die Zombies sind schwul. In messerscharfen Schwarzweiß-Bildern sieht man sie durch die Straßen Berlins schleichen und sich zu kleinen Gruppen formen. Vom libidinösen Hunger getrieben, fallen sie über einander her und reißen sich die Gedärme raus. Oder schlafen miteinander. Oder machen beides auf einmal.

Weiterlesen…

The story of Mysterious Skin follows two teenage boys living in small-town Kansas: Brian, a clunky and awkward fellow with no discernable social life; and Neil, a rebellious gay youth whose fragile beauty and cruel indifference make him a successful hustler to the area’s older men. Having suffered from blackouts as a child, Brian believes that these voids were actually alien abductions, and goes on a quest to confirm this. As his memories become increasingly vivid, Brian convinces himself that Neil, the star player on his childhood Little League team and a regular presence in his dreams, knows the truth. Neil does, in fact, know exactly what happened: the boys were sexually abused by their Little League coach. While Brian has suppressed the incident, Neil has held it deep within him like a treasure, considering it to have been a loving relationship of respect and tenderness, the absence of which has left him emotionally empty. The two strands of narrative are braided together elegantly, slowly leading up to a devastating final scene. Director Araki unifies the stories through an elegiac, celestial tone that manages to avoid preachiness via doses of appropriate humor.

The performances are extraordinary, pulsing with veracity and a bitter sweet naturalism, painful and profound. Savage in its depiction of Neil’s gay hustling encounters, graphic in its revelations of the inner pain inflicted on its characters and unflinching in its closing resolution, the film is a riveting original that some may find almost too agonising to experience. – Urban Cinefile

Tom Brown’s Schooldays charts a young boy’s first steps towards adulthood as he attends a troubled British school. As Tom Brown (Alex Pettyfer!) arrives at Rugby Public School, so does the new headmaster, Dr. Arnold (the wonderful Stephen Fry), a man who intends to stamp out the bullying and drunkenness that sow corruption in the school. Brown and Arnold collide, but Brown’s true enemy is the brutal Flashman, an upperclassman who dedicates himself to making Brown’s life miserable. Tom soon meets and quickly befriends the most popular boy in school and begins to rebel against Flashman, and Dr. Arnold, the Headmaster.  When his closest ally leaves, Tom soon realizes that his new-found rebellion makes him the whipping boy of Dr. Arnold, and Flashman, but a hero to the rest of the younger boys of the school.

The adaptation of this classic English novel is extremely abridged (only 93 minutes, as opposed to the almost four-hour 1971 version) and takes some liberties with the story (Flashman’s crimes are much more dastardly here). But the results are strong; though the exposition may feel a bit choppy and episodic, the mixing of storylines leads to an emotionally compelling second half. This version retains the novel’s greatest strength, the complexity of Tom Brown himself; far from a cardboard icon of virtue, Brown’s character allows for both courage and insolence, loyalty and rebelliousness. But the movie’s greatest strength is Stephen Fry’s performance; his magnetism, intelligence, and empathy drive Tom Brown’s Schooldays forward.

Jannis, a cute gay post-adolescent, and his adorable mute boyfriend, Patrick, infiltrate a circus to shoot an undercover documentary exposing an underground political conspiracy responsible for a recent spate of assassination attempts.  But when Patrick meets Mo, a young woman whose sensitivity to sunlight forces her to live by night, Jannis’ jealousy threatens the entire project.  Only Patrick’s unwavering devotion to the boy he loves will help save the day and reveal the truth of who is behind the conspiracy.

Official Website

Set in the not so distant future, Whispering Moon is visually stunning like nothing seen before it.  Blending media, narratives and skin to tell an enticing story about storytelling the film uses cutting edge techniques to move the plot along.  As we see the story unfold, Jannis, the storyteller, interacts with the characters and their environments, creating an eye-catching visual landscape that challenges the audience even as it entertains.

Whispering Moon (Das Flüstern des Mondes) is a quirky film with quirky characters that bring you on a quirky journey!  The story is full of weird twists and just when you think the script is going one way, the plot thickens and sends you in another direction.  The whole story surrounds Jannis and his quest to uncover the truth about some mysterious deaths, crooked politicians, and poisonous frogs.  Jannis’ mute friend Patrick (unable to speak since early childhood), is helping out by using his connections within the local television media; Patrick’s mother is an investigative journalist.  Complicating things slightly for young Jannis is his inability to get inside Patrick’s pants.

Boku no Pico (My Pico) (ぼくのぴこ) is a Japanese series of erotic anime produced by Natural High featuring shotacon. It consist of 2 full-length episodes and 1 re-edited version of the first episode. The series were also supported by a short manga and a limited edition doujinshi. A third episode is currently in making, and is planned to be released later this year. Also, a PC game is currently being planned, and it’s based around a completely new scenario. [more info]

Episode 1 ~ My Pico

    

    

Pico to Chico is the next installment to the Boku no Pico OVA. The story opens during summer vacation with Pico watching Chico skinny dipping in a creek. Chico then takes Pico-oniichan home and introduces his big sister cheerfully adding that "she does the housework." After having a little snack and talking about how in the middle of nowhere they are, the two youths go out to play. A majority of that time is spent nude. Later that night Chico invites Pico into the attic to spy on his sister masturbating with a banana. Which leads to Pico showing Chico the joys and wonders of boyhood. [full review]

Download Full Episode 2
[password: milkboys | XviD | 231 MB | 00:34:18] 

    

    

Robert Stadtober in Schwarze Schafe

Logan, soft spoken, lonely and 13 years old, is a boy with a crush.  Unlike his equally lonely friend Joey, who obsesses over the sexual exploits of the slightly older, postpubescent boys, Logan is fixated on the boys themselves, particularly Rodeo Walker.  Rodeo is the only one of the group of cool kids who shows any friendliness toward Logan, meaning he doesn’t go out of his way to make Logan’s life miserable.  As Logan and Rodeo strike up a mismatched friendship, the kind that only works on walks deep into the forest when no one else is around, Logan’s infatuation with Rodeo inspires him to create a new persona named Leah.  Leah and Rodeo grow close through whispered phone calls, and when Leah agrees to meet Rodeo face to face, it is Logan who must finally prove that he can ask for what he so achingly wants.

Painfully surreal and remarkably accurate, Wild Tigers I Have Known has all the makings of a controversial movie that will make some right-wingers down right angry.  Logan, brilliantly played by Malcolm Stumpf, is an effeminate acting boy who masturbates to visions of boys wrestling in singlets, and doesn’t seem to care what the other school kids say about him.  Publicly humiliated and continually called a "Fag" at school, Logan’s only sanctuary from all this ridiculing is his basement and Joey’s bizarre, space-age bedroom. Joey, an equally geeky, but non-gay friend, is a little too dense to see what Logan is all about (even after a penis measuring contest in the closet), but enjoys the sexually-based conversations they usually have about the other boys in the school.  When Logan and Rodeo become closer friends, Joey quickly fades from the scene until one day Logan invites Joey over to "show him something."

Violent Femmes and wrestling boys. The same boys watching TV, huffing glue, jerking off, playing soccer, dodging water balloons, sharing headphones, and dancing, singing, and drumming at punk rock shows. Listed in this manner, the basic ingredients of Alexis Dos Santos’s Glue don’t sound that different from those of a dozen other teen films. But the way Dos Santos views such material is something else entirely. Glue is that rare kind of filmmaking so attuned to pleasure and spontaneity that it tickles your palate, opening up new possibilities about how to live. The film’s chief subject matter — bisexuality that takes exhilarating form before the constraints of adulthood can arrive — is ideally realized through Dos Santos’s sensual and whim-driven approach.

“If my parents made love before I was conceived, would it be me being born or another boy?” skinny, wild-haired, and sleepy-eyed Lucas (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) wonders to himself at the beginning of Glue, before his jock friend Nacho (Nahuel Viale) and their mutual crush, the gawky yet beautiful Andrea (Inés Efron), arrive on screen. When Andrea is eventually introduced, it’s via a poolside scene in which polite kisses through a steel fence provide one typically fleet example of Dos Santos’s ability to land on the right use of foreground, background, and happenstance scenic detail to convey a shot or scene’s emotional temperature.

This symbiosis between director and actors — and perhaps even more important, between actors — results in some extraordinary passages. Glue meanders near its end, when, in true teen spirit, it doesn’t want a good time to end. But in its best moments, Dos Santos’s debut feature is an important and exciting addition to Latin American cinema’s evolving views of masculinity. (Sergio de la Mora’s recent book Cinemachismo is an excellent source for historical background on the subject.) Glue’s ménage à trois is more radical than the ones in both Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También and Fernando Eimbcke’s chaste Duck Season, though one suspects those more commercial movies helped pave the way for the spaces that Dos Santos and his actors discover. Like Julián Hernández’s Broken Sky, in which a trio of young lovers meet and kiss repeatedly in public, Dos Santos’s insular and gutsy film charts territory where people don’t repress their desires.

Pablo is a lonely boy of 13, with a troublesome past. Much of the reasons for this remains a mystery until a stranger arrives on the scene. An oddly calm and well-dressed man ‘meets’ the young boy on a quiet country road, where, supposedly, his car just broke down. The stranger appears, nonetheless more interested in the boy than attempting to solve his problem. Despite at first maintaining a precautious distance, despite warnings from certain villagers, Pablo slowly loses all his protective layers, opens up to the man, and gradually sees in him a friend.

I wanted this film to be nothing else than a reference point in the world of film, in terms of hyper indie films. I wanted to give back what indie films so rarely ever attempt to portray: visual poetry. – Iván Noel, Director

En Tu Ausencia (In you Absence) covers very vividly the transition of childhood to adolescence, the discovery (the confusion) of sexuality (also through his only friend, the shameless 15 year old Julia), and the importance that seemingly meaningless events can take in the mind of a growing boy. From a friend, to close friend, the boy finally sees in this stranger, the one person who appears to understand him : almost a replacement father. And thus his affection for this man grows as he nears, quite unknowingly, blindly towards the tragedy that is to mark him permanently.

He had no problems (nor did his parents) with masturbation scenes and nude scenes, which is no big deal in coming-of-age-films in Spain. Spain is still a far cry from the absurd repressions of neighbouring countries. – Iván Noel about Gonzalo, the leading actor, in an interview with Destroyer

18-year-old Taavi, who never goes anywhere without his video camera, and his young and wealthy friends find themselves on the cusp of adulthood. After throwing a wild party at the mansion left to him by his deceased parents, Taavi shoots video of the party-goers in their various states of undress and drunken sexual congress. What begins as a prank spurs Taavi and his friends Jere, Sami, and Markus to form a club, the only requirement for admission being that each young man must bring a tape of his latest sexual conquest to every club meeting. This risqué game quickly degenerates into dangerous compulsion as relationships implode and the boys forsake their girlfriends in favor of prostitutes and "swingers". As currents of coercion and abuse enter the picture, each young man must ultimately confront his own morality in the viewfinder.

Young Gods is the ironically-titled film that examines the vapid world of mesmerizing images we live in. We experience this confusion through the eyes (and lenses) of four Finnish boys, all recent high-school graduates. Taavi has just inherited his deceased father’s mansion and wealth, but has blocked out the memory of his death, and moves through life at a distance, viewing everything possible through his camcorder’s viewfinder. Jere is emotionally dead. He has a girlfriend and finds comfort in sex, but is unable to open his heart. Sami, homely and overweight, has zero self-esteem. Markus is extremely immature, but otherwise well-intentioned.

The four make an odd pact to film their sexual conquests, and the four find themselves living in an even more illusory meta-world, as their desire to film sex takes precedence over their actual desires, and recording an event becomes secondary to experiencing life.

An unsolved murder at Portland’s infamous Paranoid Park brings detectives to a local high school, propelling a young skater into a moral odyssey where he must not only deal with the pain and disconnect of adolescence but the consequences of his own actions. As director of “My Own Private Idaho”, “Good Will Hunting”, “To Die For” and “Elephant”, Gus Van Sant has created some of the most memorable films about youth ever committed to film. At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, he was awarded the 60th Anniversary Prize for “Paranoid Park” which is largely considered one of his finest films. Based on the novel by Blake Nelson & photographed by the incomparable Christopher Doyle (”In the Mood for Love”; “2046″), the film has captivated audiences worldwide, becoming a unanimous standout at the Cannes, New York and Toronto Film Festivals.

A teenage art-flick, Paranoid Park proves the most fluent and coherent of Gus Van Sant’s recent experiments. Part crime mystery, part coming-of-age story, it’s positively overflowing with burnished imagery and adolescent turmoil.

Official Site (English) | Review (English) | Review (Deutsch)

From Peggy Rajski comes a powerful and disturbing story that handles the concepts of coming out of the closet and suicide with wry humour and pathos.

Emerson Thorsen, 13, lives with his parents in their eco-home in the wilds of Nova Scotia. He’s just had his first wet dream and completed writing and illustrating his first book, all 1000 pages of it. Meanwhile, the home-schooled youth can barely add 2 + 2, so his mother enrolls him in the local junior high. There, Emerson’s 42-year-old English teacher, Don Grant, has settled into a life of perpetual adolescence, paying regular visits to a park restroom for anonymous sex. In the classroom, Emerson stirs things up. Surprisingly, Don sees a bit of himself reflected in Emerson. Emerson, initially scornful of his teacher, soon develops his first crush on Don. The precociously confident boy, raised in a household of casual nudity and sexual openness, throws himself into this awakening of his heart with dangerous abandon. This is going to be a Whole New Thing. For everyone.

To its enormous credit, the movie remains on high ground. It recognizes that growing pains don’t inevitably lead to scandal and catastrophe. They are discomforts to be endured for as long as they last. If you’re lucky, they can also be valuable learning experiences. — The New York Times

Not your average teen movie. The entire drama unfolds with the sense that these are real people living real lives, not facile movie fictions. The cast is uniformly excellent, but (Aaron) Webber in his first feature role is a stand out, delivering a subtle performance that offers a fully realized portrayal of a smart, sensitive, confused, and sometimes bratty and obnoxious youth. — Pam Grady

Enter the Pirate Bay!

This is a typically laid-back Scandinavian coming-of-age film about a school trip to the Swedish wilderness. Vil Du Se Min Smukke Navle? (Do You Want to See My Beautiful Navel?) is pleasant and nothing to get too excited about. There is the usual experimentation with the opposite sex, a couple scenic views of Sweden, but nothing much happens. Happily, the dialogue is refreshingly free of clichés, and director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen — little more than a teenager himself at the time — gets fine performances from a mostly amateur cast. [All Movie Guide]