“Afternoon Delight” (shorts program)
Friday, June 26, 2026, 11:00 AM, Castro
⚠️🔞 adult content
- 😁 Dr. Poppers, dir. Arthur Morard, 2025, France, 18 min., in French with subtitles • 🌊 West Coast premiere
- 🤩 Morpheus and Charon (Morfeu e Caronte), dir. Luiz Ulian & Jocimar Dias, Jr., 2026, Brazil, 14 min., in Portuguese and English • 🌐 World premiere
- 😁 The Motorcycle (La moto), dir. Matteo Giampetruzzi, 2025, Italy/Spain/Denmark, 20 min., no dialogue • ⚠️ Content warning • 🌎 North American premiere
- ❓ The Pleasure Dome (A Cúpula dos Prazeres), dir. Valter Pereira, 2026, Brazil, 18 min., in Portuguese • 🇺🇸 U.S. premiere
- 🙂 Talk Me, dir. Joecar Hanna, 2025, Spain/USA, 20 min., in Catalan, Mandarin, Spanish, Cantonese, and English • ⚠️ adult content 🔞 • 🌉 Bay Area premiere
(The films may not be screened in the order shown here.)
😁 Dr. Poppers, dir. Arthur Morard, 2025, France, 18 min., in French with subtitles • 🌊 West Coast premiere
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| Dr. Poppers |
Frameline blurb: Following a poppers accident, Antoine's hookup turns into an unexpected heart-to-heart.
Antoine is a chic Parisian guy, stuck overnight in the provinces by a travel snafu. He decides to pass the time with a Grindr hookup, but accidentally pours the bottle of poppers up the trick’s nose. [It is true (according to the National Capital Poison Center) that swallowing even a small amount of poppers can cause a life-threatening condition. That part of the plot is real life.]
Antoine and Jérôme call for medical advice, which eventually leads them to the Emergency Room. In the ensuing hours, Antoine has probably more conversation than in his last hundred hookups, slowly penetrating his aloof outer shell. The color scheme of the film is aggressively “in your face” vibrant, with day-glow pastel colors everywhere. It’s fun, but has some substance hidden beneath. Highly recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
🤩 Morpheus and Charon (Morfeu e Caronte), dir. Luiz Ulian & Jocimar Dias, Jr., 2026, Brazil, 14 min., in Portuguese and English • 🌐 World premiere
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| Morpheus and Charon (Morfeu e Caronte) |
Frameline blurb: A throuple of queer elderly men deals with the proximity of death — Zito, who has been diagnosed with dementia, and his two lovers, Morpheus and Charon. As the illness progresses, the boundaries between dream and reality blur: Zito imagines his last days as if his whole life was a Brazilian samba musical extravaganza, while his partners in life take care of him until their last farewell.
First of all, in case your Greek mythology is a little rusty, Morpheus is the god of sleep and dreams, and Charon is the ferryman who takes the dead to the Afterlife. Zito and his two lovers lip sync to classic songs that they all know by heart. [Note that some of the songs are in English, without subtitles.] It’s their way of grappling with dementia and approaching death. It’s full of tenderness and joy, and indeed a beautiful way of dying, capped with the perfect song for the finale. Must see.
• IMDb: Dias • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
😁 The Motorcycle (La moto),
dir. Matteo Giampetruzzi, 2025, Italy/Spain/Denmark, 20 min., no dialogue
• 🌎 North American premiere
• ⚠️ Content warning:
treads close to the line between rough sex and sexual violence
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| The Motorcycle (La moto) |
Frameline blurb: During a scorching summer in the mountains of southern Italy, young, shy Luca develops an attraction for Valerio, an older boy with a passion for motorcycles. The two meet in secret, in the quiet of the countryside just outside the small town where they live. Chasing a desire that slowly escalates into obsession, Luca is forced to come to terms with the blurred boundary between pleasure and violence.
The obsession is already fraying Luca’s sanity at the beginning of the film, and it only gets deeper with time, until it finally reaches an inflection point. There is no spoken dialogue, only various grunts, groans and animal noises. Luca barks like a dog at Valerio as a form of foreplay. The whole story is deeply disturbing, but well done. Highly recommended, with a caveat about the content warning.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
❓ The Pleasure Dome (A Cúpula dos Prazeres), dir. Valter Pereira, 2026, Brazil, 18 min., in Portuguese • 🇺🇸 U.S. premiere
Frameline blurb: Ruan follows a strange man through the streets of downtown São Paulo into a public bathroom, where he begins an oneiric [dream] journey of pleasure and discovery.
(This short was not available for advance review. Check back later to see if I fill in the gap.)
• IMDb: director • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
🙂 Talk Me, dir. Joecar Hanna, 2025, Spain/USA, 20 min.,
in Catalan, Mandarin, Spanish, Cantonese, and English
⚠️ adult content 🔞 •
🌉 Bay Area premiere
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| Talk Me |
Frameline blurb: In a world where words replace intimacy, a local outsider in a Spanish village must choose between a loveless marriage and the promise of true connection with a kindred stranger.
It’s an interesting angle from which to examine how we define intimacy in a cultural context, but the details get a bit unwieldy. Speaking in public is scandalous, so how do you handle the myriad situations that are readily addressed by a brief, perhaps utilitarian, conversation? There is certainly a bit of shock value in the nonchalant public sex on the bus, on the sidewalk, or in the town square, but that isn’t enough to carry the film. Interesting, but unfulfilling. Recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview (🔞) • other •
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