Guest House Films presents a collection of short films, filled with heartache and handsome young men. Varied locations explore the frustrations of male relationships.
As with their previous collection, Black Briefs, Guest House Films founders Rob Williams and Rodney Johnson started this project with an open invitation for short film entries. The ones they chose have received considerable recognition at gay or independent film festivals.
The resulting DVD offers a wide range in tone, location, and story-telling techniques. As Guest House puts it, the films “focus on relationships and the pain that often accompanies true love.” That focus unifies the collection, much like the first (and best) Boys Life short film collection.
Viewers should not always expect happy or tidy endings from Blue Briefs. They can expect a variety of locations, including some that interact with the stories. They can also expect more handsome men than they might usually find in 93 minutes. While I suggest the overall collection for fans of gay film, I found the following entries especially appealing and evocative.
Directed by Sal Bardo, Requited opens the collection with a familiar situation for gay men, falling in love with a high school friend. The story unfolds in a series of short and sometimes tender scenes between the major characters—usually just two of them at a time. The photography and the shared glances help reveal overlapping narratives of potentially doomed relationships. Despite a nonlinear narrative, the emotional connections kept me intrigued.
Directed by Daniel Armando, Boys Like You stays short by flashing between moments in which a young man finds himself becoming more than friends with his roommate. Can they deal honestly with their feelings?
Directed by Mark Pariselli, Frozen Roads thematically resembles Boys Like You, but with a much darker tone. Three friends can’t quite handle their desires, or the judgments of other people in their small Canadian town. The constant imagery of snow and ice reflects their emotional state: frozen, with so much hidden beneath the ice.
Guest House films co-founder Rob Williams was selected for the 2012 “Filmmaker in Focus” honor from the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, held in Mumbai, India. Williams wrote and directed several films.
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