BOYBy Auraeus Solito / Philippines / 2009 / 80 MIN
Producer: Auraeus Solito, Endi “Hai” Balbuena
Screenplay: Jimmy Flores, Arturo Calo
Cast: Aeious Asin, Aries Pena, Madelaine Nicolas
A coming-of-age story about a boy who falls in love with a Macho Dancer.
A young budding poet, who is unnamed, observes lip-synching drag-queens and dancing rent-boys in a gay bar one evening and finds himself attracted to Aries, who comes from a poorer part of town. Selling his action heroes and comic books so as to be able to afford Aries for one night, he buys Aries at the bar and brings him home for the new year. Sparks fly while celebratory fireworks go off outside the house and the boys forge a fragile connection that neither of them is certain will last. This is an idealistic, coming-of-age tale of a sensitive boy who arrives at his first lesson about love and who learns to grow confidently into his own sexuality.
Auraeus Solito's first feature film The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros won 15 international awards. A gay love story set in Manila, Solito's film was a part of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the Las Palmas Film Festival, and the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and won three awards at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. His film also earned a Best Foreign Film nomination at the 2007 Film Independent's Spirit Awards. Circumcision, his second feature film, won Best Picture and Best Director at the Digital Competition at the 2005 CineManila Film Festival and the NETPAC Jury Prize at the Berlinale, International Forum for New Cinema; 2nd Prize for Best Feature Film at the Montreal Film Festival. He made Philippine Science, his third dramatic feature film, in 2007, which won awards at the 14th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in France.
For tickets and more information about the 24th Torino GLBT Film Festival, visit:
http://www.tglff.com/cmz855-2957-14127/First_Festival_Guidelines/a.html
