Dir. Rohan Kanawade
Saturday 14th June 2025 | 20:20
1 hr : 50 mins, India, 2025,
Subtitled

Anand, a 30-something city dweller compelled to spend a 10-day mourning period for his father in the rugged countryside of western India, tenderly bonds with a local farmer who is struggling to stay unmarried. As the mourning ends, forcing his return, Anand must decide the fate of his relationship born under duress.

Cactus Pears (साबर बोंडं) made history as the first Marathi-language film to screen at Sundance, where it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic. It’s a rare, tender portrait of queer rural life, class, and micro-migration — rooted in lived experience and raw intimacy.

As we close this year’s festival, we honour the long-overlooked queer stories that have always existed beyond the urban, beyond the spotlight — and now, finally, take their place on screen.

This screening marks the official Irish Premiere of Cactus Pears — bringing this ground-breaking queer love story to Irish audiences for the very first time.

Presented in partnership with our friends at GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival

Dir. Fernanda Faya
Friday 13th June I 6.30
72 mins, Brazil, 2023, Digital,
Subtitled

Brazilian wrestler Neirud died shrouded in mystery, leaving behind no trace of her past. Confronting family secrets, the filmmaker pieces together the life of her enigmatic aunt, who toured Brazil as a wrestler in an underground all-female circus troupe throughout the '60s and '80s. As she investigates Neirud’s controversial ring persona, Gorilla Woman, the filmmaker uncovers a fascinating story about race, identity, and queer life.

Dir. Sarah Griffin
Friday 13th June I 6.30
13 mins, Ireland, 2025, Digital, Subtitled
Nine unique people from different countries are joined by one commonality: they are seeking international protection in Ireland because their identity as LGBTQ+ made living in their home countries unsafe. In this film, they gather at their local LGBTQ+ Community Centre in Dublin to discuss why they were forced to leave their home countries, what life has been like since arriving in a country where it is safe to be who they are, and what their hopes and dreams are for the future.

This short documentary is being screened for the first time in Dublin.

Dir. and Performance by Samir Mahmood, 9:35 mins, Ireland, Experimental, 2024
SATURDAY 14 | 13:00

The video presents a conflict faced by a queer migrant in their new country. Filmed at various locations in Galway and Dublin, it depicts a human (the artist) performing an ablution ritual to purify themselves, yet struggling to suppress the interjecting memories of their queer self. The conflict is resolved through a Sufi approach, guided by the poetry of the Punjabi poet Shah Hussain, translated by Colm de Bhaldraithe and sung by Aine ne Fhaolain.

The video debuted at INTERZONE ZK/U Berlin, Germany, in 2024.

Dir. and Performance by Luis Noguera, 3.55 mins, Ireland,
Experimental, 2024
SATURDAY 14 | 13:00

Journey is a video poem that fuses film, performance, and spoken word into a raw and celebratory chronicle of living with HIV for ten years. It’s a visceral testament to survival, transformation, and the quiet power of everyday resilience — a punch of truth and hope against the stigma that still lingers.

At its core, Journey is also a love letter to U=U activism in Ireland, reminding us that undetectable means untransmittable, and that visibility is a radical act.

Dir. Larry Tung, 14:45 mins, Thailand,
Documentary, 2024
SATURDAY 14th JUNE | 13:00

Not Just Another Pageant (2024, 15 mins) is a powerful short documentary that spotlights the inaugural Mr. Bear International competition in Bangkok, celebrating plus-size gay men and challenging mainstream LGBTQ+ beauty standards.

By centring the voices and bodies of underrepresented plus-size gay men and challenging mainstream LGBTQ+ beauty standards, the film boldly redefines masculinity, body image, community and pride, offering a refreshing and necessary narrative of inclusivity and self-love in queer culture.

Presented in partnership with our friends at Dublin Bears

Dir. Saman Hosseinpuor, 15:00 mins, Iran/Switzerland,
Drama, 2024
SATURDAY 14th JUNE | 13:00

Son, directed by Saman Hosseinpuor, delicately explores the emotional terrain of those left behind — the mothers, families, and communities navigating absence and uncertainty in lands where tradition and duty often overshadow individuality. Son reveals how migration isn't always physical — sometimes it's emotional, generational, and internal. The film's stark, intimate storytelling captures the moment of rupture when identity, belonging, and transformation collide — offering a rare window into queer experience in Kurdish society and the quiet revolutions that unfold behind closed doors.

The film is a poignant, layered short that resonates deeply with the Queer Spectrum Film Festival 2025’s theme of migration, nostalgia, and transformation. Set in a remote Kurdish village, the film follows a mother awaiting her son’s return from military service, only to discover a truth about his identity that challenges everything she thought she knew. As she grapples with loss, longing, and revelation, Son becomes a powerful meditation on generational silence, cultural expectations, and the unspoken complexities of love.

Dir. Pradeep Mahadeshwar, 10 mins, Ireland,
Experimental, 2024
SATURDAY 14th JUNE | 13:00

Not Just Another Pageant (2024, 15 mins) is a powerful short documentary that spotlights the inaugural Mr. Bear International competition in Bangkok, celebrating plus-size gay men and challenging mainstream LGBTQ+ beauty standards.

By centring the voices and bodies of underrepresented plus-size gay men and challenging mainstream LGBTQ+ beauty standards, the film boldly redefines masculinity, body image, community and pride, offering a refreshing and necessary narrative of inclusivity and self-love in queer culture.

Dir. Barbara Malaran, Desireena Almoradie,
41 mins, United States,
Documentary
SATURDAY 14 | 17.45

Joyful, raw, and revolutionary, Because of You: A History of Kilawin Kolektibo is a landmark archival documentary that captures the radical tenderness and political urgency of a queer Filipinx collective that dared to exist — loudly and unapologetically — in 1990s New York City. Against a backdrop of racism, lesbophobia, and cultural erasure, Kilawin Kolektibo carved out a space where queer Filipinx identity could be celebrated, not just tolerated. This film honours that space — one built on friendship, defiance, and chosen kinship — and offers a vital counter-narrative to both mainstream LGBTQ+ histories and diasporic silences.

Weaving together 25 years of rare footage, photos, zines, and intimate interviews, directors Desireena Almoradie and Barbara Malaran unearth a forgotten legacy of protest, joy, and messy, beautiful love. As former members reunite and reckon with shifting dynamics and lost time, the film becomes more than an archive — it’s a living act of reconciliation. In telling the story of Kilawin Kolektibo, Because of You becomes both a memorial and a manifesto: a tribute to queer resilience, a reflection on fractured solidarities, and a celebration of how chosen families can make revolution possible — and unforgettable.

Dir. Sein Lyan Tun
15:00 mins, France, Drama
SATURDAY 14 | 17.45

Everybody’s Gotta Love Sometimes is a raw, intimate portrait of queer migration. Set against the myth of Europe as a safe haven, the film lays bare the emotional toll of leaving behind land, language, and self to chase a freedom that is often conditional. This is Queer Asian Pride Ireland’s Pride Month 2025 theme in motion: migration, nostalgia, and transformation.

“ Everybody’s Gotta Love Sometimes" by Sein Lyan Tun is a hauntingly tender portrayal of what it means to search for love when the world has tried to make you unlovable. Set in Paris, the film follows Phyo, a queer Burmese immigrant attempting to rebuild his life after fleeing trauma and violence. Beneath the city’s romantic surface lies the quiet loneliness of displacement — the ache of navigating foreign streets with a heart still heavy from home. Tun captures the raw, unscripted moments of survival and desire that exist between broken languages, uncertain status, and the desperate need for belonging.

Dir. Jijo Jessy Kuriakose,
25 mins, India, Drama, 2024
SATURDAY 14 | 13:00

Against the sensory landscape of central Kerala, Johnny, a soon-to-be priest, must navigate his way out of his dissonant life towards self-discovery. The film reanimates Malayali gay desire through an expressionistic use of Christian music, intimate tastes and unabashed touches, while depicting delicate specifics of same-sex fondness. Resisting popular narratives, the film explores the plural possibilities of romantic relationships. Interspersing semi-autobiography with fiction, Velipādu: "The Revelation" is a bitter-sweet rhapsody that sings of love and faith– both lost and regained like some Miltonic Paradise.

The film is also an attempt to portray queer gaze from the perspective of regional, linguistic and musical elements with a novel narrative on desire and relationship dynamics.

Dir. Naireeta Dasgupta,
29mins, India, Drama, 2023
SATURDAY 14 | 17.40

More than a story of gender identity, Night Queen is a film about the internal migration queer people often undertake — navigating the terrain between who they are and who they are allowed to be. In Lakshmikant’s longing, we see the weight of cultural memory, the ache of delay, and the transformative power of self-recognition. Dasgupta’s lens captures not only the complexities of queer life in India, but also the fierce tenderness of becoming — even when the world isn’t ready.

Night Queen, directed by Naireeta Dasgupta, is a quietly powerful film that resonates deeply with Queer Spectrum Film Festival 2025’s theme of migration, nostalgia, and transformation. Set in the layered, crumbling beauty of Old Lucknow, the film follows 48-year-old Lakshmikant Sharma — a man living an unremarkable public life, while secretly yearning to express her true self in sarees, pink lipstick, and feminine grace. Beneath the surface of tradition lies a quiet revolution, unfolding in silences, stolen moments, and dreams too dangerous to speak aloud.

Dir. Tathagata Ghosh,
25:41 mins, India, Drama, 2023
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

In 'If' (2023), director Tathagata Ghosh delicately unravels a story rooted in the quiet, painful fractures of love under cultural expectation. Set in India, the film follows a lesbian couple torn apart by an arranged marriage, capturing how familial duty and societal shame continue to corrode queer intimacy in the Global South. Yet, this narrative doesn’t settle in despair. Instead, it traces a slow, courageous departure from inherited shame—offering a glimpse into what happens when cultural bonds, instead of binding, begin to heal. The mother’s evolving gaze—once complicit in erasure—becomes a portal to possibility, challenging rigid traditions with the tenderness of acceptance.

'If' is more than a love story; it is a tactile act of mending. It imagines a world where relationships transform not through rebellion alone, but through the quiet revolution of empathy and emotional risk. Shedding the skin of a darker past, the film weaves a new cultural cloth—one stitched with maternal understanding, self-recognition, and emotional truth. In doing so, it speaks to a wider queer experience in the Global South: that love, once condemned to shadows, can resurface as a vivid declaration of life, continuity, and hope.

Dir. Estevan de la Fuente,
14.57 mins, Brazil, Drama
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

'Mermaid' beautifully echoes the Queer Spectrum Film Festival 2025’s theme of migration, nostalgia, and transformation, capturing the quiet resilience of a queer child navigating emotional exile within his own home. Set in a coastal Brazilian village devastated by climate change, young Lúcio finds refuge in his imagination, drawings, and the silent love of his mother, even as he endures the violence of a patriarchal household.

This tender, visually rich film explores the emotional landscapes queer children must cross to survive.

Through Lúcio’s world of mermaids, secrets, and dreams,'Mermaid' becomes a story of resistance, soft defiance, and the quiet hope of freedom — a reminder that transformation often begins in the most intimate rebellions.

Dir. Hyeryeong Song,
10:30 mins, Republic of Korea,
Drama, 2022
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

Mountain Lingers quietly yet powerfully reflects Queer Spectrum Film Festival 2025’s theme of migration, nostalgia, and transformation. Set in the stillness of rural Korea, the film explores the emotional landscapes we carry long after leaving — not just places, but people, identities, and unrealised possibilities. When Myeong-jin, now a shaman, reunites with In-ho, an old flame turned family man, the past returns not as memory, but as a living presence that reshapes the present.

Through subtle gestures and lingering silences, Mountain Lingers reveals how queer desire persists across time, even when buried under duty, tradition, and societal expectation. It is a story about love deferred but not erased, about spiritual migration as much as physical. In Myeong-jin’s transformation — from lover to shaman — we witness a reclamation of power, identity, and self. The mountain may be still, but the heart is never settled.

Dir. Louis O. Utieyin,
6:51 mins, UK,
Comedy/Drama, 2025
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

By diving into the digital underworld of queer hookup culture. When Max accidentally summons a demon on Grindr, what begins as a comedic mishap quickly transforms into a biting reflection on desire, survival, and queer fear wrapped in humour. It’s a playful yet poignant reminder that even in modern queer spaces, the line between fantasy, danger, and self-discovery can be razor-thin.

Set in the UK but echoing queer realities across borders, Taps channels the absurdity of dating apps as both sanctuary and minefield. In just under seven minutes, the film explores how queer people navigate intimacy in spaces shaped by algorithms, stigma, and secrecy — and how even the most surreal encounters can lead to unexpected moments of clarity and transformation.

Dir. Ku Ki,
22:00 mins, Myanmar,
Documentary, 2024
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

This film explores the challenges faced by a bus conductor and his wife as they try to make ends meet, coping with long working hours and daily power cuts in Myanmar. Yet, this queer couple seems to be completely integrated and accepted in their community despite LGBTQIA+ being legally persecuted by the military regime.

Dir. Sai Selvarajan,12 mins,
United States,
Documentary, 2023
SATURDAY 14 | 15:30

We Clap For Airballs is a layered documentary - visually, expressively, and thematically — where the basketball court is a safe space for queer and trans BIPOC people to play, feel seen, and valued by one another.

With Swish, healing in community happens on the blacktop.

Presented in partnership with our friends at Shamrock Sióga.

Dir. Hadi Moussally
Saturday 14th June 2025 | 20:20
4:27 mins, Lebanon, Experimental, 2024

In the 19th-century Levant, Salma Zahore posed with family and neighbours for a long-exposure photograph. At the end, she removed her coat, unaware her simple gesture would spark scandal and shame (عيب) in her community.

Dir. Matthew Thorne, Derik Lynch,
24 min, Australia,
Documentary
SATURDAY 14 | 13:00

Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) resonates deeply with Queer Spectrum Film Festival 2025’s theme of migration, nostalgia, and transformation. This tender, haunting film follows Yankunytjatjara artist Derik Lynch as he journeys from the isolation and erasure of white city life in Adelaide back to his Country, Aputula — a return driven by the need for healing, reconnection, and truth. It’s a reclamation of spirit and self, where queerness and culture are no longer in conflict but deeply intertwined.

Co-directed by Derik Lynch and filmmaker Matthew Thorne, the film is rooted in deep trust, collaboration, and care. Through the sacred practice of Inma — a traditional Anangu form of storytelling passed down for over 60,000 years — Lynch honours his ancestors while asserting his presence as a queer Aboriginal man. Dipped in Black is not just a film about return; it is about survival through story, memory, and the power of coming home to oneself.