Short films are not usual my cinematic drug of choice, so I love that THE MALE GAZE: STRIKERS & DEFENDERS blew away my expectations -- it's a brilliantly cohesive curation of gay stories set in the universe of high school team sports. No, these films do not try to collectively be the gay man's answer to predictable sports movies like HOOSIERS and VARSITY BLUES. In fact, very little time is spent on the the soccer field and the endings aren't Hollywood-pat. What we get are the raw, deep, and real journeys of queer characters which nail many of the details of high school that play in my mind to this day with haunting perfection - the bullying, the toxic masculinity, the locker room banter, the need to fit in, and the complex emotions that can nearly cause a queer boy's heart to implode.
A teenage boy's need for connection is portrayed with heartfelt simplicity German filmmaker Ron Jäger's Inseln (Islands). Darker themes of abuse, revenge, and homophobia are effectively captured in both French filmmaker Laurent Lunetta's Un été viril (Play it Like a Man) and U.K. filmmaker Peter Lee Scott's Colours. The final film Passer Les Champs (Through The Fields), from French filmmakers Camille Melvil and Fabien Cavacas, gently touches upon the dynamic between a young teen starting to explore his sexuality and his lovingly protective older brother.
Each of these stories immediately captivated my attention from their first frames, to the point where I nearly forgot I was reading any subtitles for the French and German entries. Definitely check out this incredibly satisfying collection of films.
