"My mother and I have lived like strangers under one roof for decades. The only exchanges between us are the meals she cooks for me since we never talk to each other. One day, I finally summon up the courage to sit her down and make her talk. But am I ready to hear what she has to say?" Anu is a tomboy. Although she was married off at a young age – as was customary in Taiwan in the 1970s – and had two children, she quickly divorced her violent husband and brought up her daughters alone. Since then her only relationships have been with women who, like her, earn a living as professional mourners at funerals. One of her daughters is filmmaker Hui-chen Huang. It’s considered taboo in Chinese culture to question a mother’s unconditional love, and yet this is exactly the topic of Huang’s intimate portrait. Mother and daughter set off on a journey together into the past during which Anu is confronted with questions that have tormented her daughter for years. In a series of long shots the two women discuss such topics as trust, abuse and cognisance, and yet most of these discussions end in painful silence. Shifting focus in order to plumb the depths of the depicted room, the director attempts to understand her mother by also talking to her mother’s siblings and ex-lovers. In doing so she paints a picture of changing living conditions for three generations of women in Taiwan.

Fernando is on holiday with his closest male friends in a beautiful country house in a suburb of Buenos Aries. On their own without their girlfriends in a “men only” environment, the hunky young studs bask in the hot sun, play in the pool, smoke pot, and drink, most often semi-clad or naked. In this freewheeling and testosterone-infused environment, they talk of their desires and strengthen their individual bonds. Fernando invites a new friend from his taekwondo class, Germán, a dark-haired Brad Pitt look-alike to join them. Germán is easily accepted by the others but he brings something different to the group that he hasn’t shared with them – he’s attracted to men. As the emotional intimacies and the sexual lethargy ripen in the baking heat, Germán begins to realize that he might not be the only gay man in residence. The latest homoerotic slow burn from director Marco Berger (co-helming with Martin Farina), TAEKWONDO is his most sensual treat yet and is sure to raise the temperature of male voyeurs to the boiling point. Desc. courtesy of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ International Film Festival.

One sleepless night as Sadie is surfing the web her suspicions that her and her bestie since the 7th grade are growing apart are confirmed, when she discovers that he has unfollowed her on Instagram. Over the winter Sadie becomes a social recluse, going to Normy Suburbs Public High by day, working at the Bogus Burger Barn by night, reading zines alone in her bedroom and day dreaming while wandering the streets of suburbia. On her 17th birthday her mother gifts her a 3 zone one year transit pass telling her to “go out and explore, discover new things and have adventures close to home.” Downtown Sadie is randomly befriended by Miami, a self identified teeny bopper who is the first out trans girl to attend North Shore Private Girls College. Miami introduces Sadie to her token straight, musical theatre loving BFF Cynthia, her angsty emo boyfriend Zeke, and the rest of her clique: Ellen, an astrology loving lesbian and Jersey, a twinky bisexual highschool drop out. Sadie quickly starts to hang out with them all on the regular, but has she really found a place where she belongs? Or will old insecurities, crushes and drama get in the way?