Like the seasons, our lives are a series of beginnings and endings, hello’s and goodbye’s. When we are young, we think everything is eternal, but as we age, we quickly realise that everything has an end. NQV Media’s latest collection of short films from Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, Spain and France, The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet, is a hauntingly beautiful tapestry of bittersweet beginnings and endings. The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet is now available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
Like the seasons, our lives are a series of beginnings and endings, hello’s and goodbye’s. When we are young, we think everything is eternal, but as we age, we quickly realise that everything has an end. NQV Media’s latest collection of short films from Mexico, Portugal, Brazil, Spain and France, The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet, is a hauntingly beautiful tapestry of bittersweet beginnings and endings. From a friend who vanished to the haunting presence of a long-lost brother and a random summer encounter between two lost souls, each short film in The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet reflects the pain, joy, apprehension and release of the beginnings and endings that make us human.
Opening the collection is MEMORY OF AN AFTERNOON ON THE ROOF (Recuerdo de una tarde en la azotea), directed by Tavo Ruiz. Playing out like a dream or a collection of unresolved memories from a not-too-distant past, we join two teenage boys on a deserted rooftop in Mexico. Their friendship changed suddenly on this rooftop, and a new beginning was born, but that new beginning ended abruptly and unresolved not long after.
Ruiz’s short film is purposely ambiguous about the nature of this meeting or memory and whether events are being viewed through one boy’s eyes or both. However, the joy and excitement of a beginning can quickly turn bittersweet under social, family, and community pressures to conform.
Next in The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet collection is AFTERNOON SUN, directed by Gonçalo Pina. Some beginnings are internal, not external; they are the moments we accept our feelings or emotions or bravely step into a new version of ourselves. These silent beginnings shape us for years to come, and no words can fully convey their lasting impact.
In the heat of a Portuguese summer, Carlos lies beneath the sun’s rays, discontent, uncertain and silent, firmly holding his emotions and internal questions inside. But when he sees Mateus, he suddenly finds peace, excitement and joy, even if Mateus doesn’t see him. Gonçalo Pina’s short film doesn’t need words to convey the moment we internally accept our desires and feelings of attraction, often with the help of someone who doesn’t even realise their important role in ushering in a new internal beginning.
SWEET WATER (Água doce), directed by Antonio Miano, is a chilling tale of unresolved pain that will always find an ending, no matter how far we run or attempt to repress its inevitable conclusion. In the shadow of a sugar mill pumping acrid smoke into the air, a farm sits empty, its rooms gathering dust, its fields now overgrown.
The farm is scheduled for sale to the sugar mill company, which will demolish the buildings, block the cold-water streams, and integrate it into the industrial landscape they have created. But this farm holds memories, especially for cousins João and Pedro, who stand to gain financially from the sale. João and Pedro haven’t seen each other since childhood, running around the farm, playing and swimming in the streams, but now they have returned to say goodbye. However, while one cousin is eager to sell, the other has unfinished business, painful memories, and unresolved feelings to address, leading to an explosive act that cements the end of something that began many years earlier.
Dark, hallucinogenic and shrouded in mystery, Sweet Waters is about the destruction of Brazil’s natural landscape in the name of industry and two cousins on a collision course due to repressed memories.
The fourth film in The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet is an equally dark tale of guilt, unresolved grief and art as a vehicle for healing. COR PETIT, directed by Manu Roma, explores the interface between guilt and grief and one theatre director’s attempt to resolve those feelings through art.
Luca is a well-known and highly respected writer, performer and director of stage productions, and no one admires his work more than the mysterious young Gael. Gael is determined to join Luca’s next production and will do anything to get the leading role. But while Luca sees potential in Gael, he is also unsure about this strange and mysterious boy, who carries more than a passing resemblance to his young brother, who died years before.
To make the situation even more bizarre, Luca’s next play, Cor Petit, is about his brother and marks his attempt to face the guilt he has carried for many years and resolve a host of repressed emotions. Luca decides to cast Gael, but not in the leading role. However, as a series of strange events leads to his cast dropping like flies in unexplained situations, it’s not long before Gael takes the leading role, and Luca must finally face his past.
The penultimate film is about an uncertain yet exciting beginning that risks ending before the summer has turned into Autumn. HAÏKU, directed by Tim Rousseau and Florian Lesieur, follows two lonely and lost souls as they find an uncertain yet urgent connection during a summer vacation where a hand of friendship has never been more needed. Adam and Evan couldn’t be more different, and although they attend the same school, neither has ever spoken to the other. But when Evan drops a fabric bracelet his sister made at the local village bakery, Adam finds it and decides to return it to Evan.
Adam is sensitive and nervous and has no real friends. For Adam, the summer holidays offer nothing but loneliness. At the same time, Evan is rebellious and confident yet scarred by a troubled home life that has seen the family separate and him board at school over the summer. When Adam returns the bracelet, all Evan sees is a polite but insecure and nerdy kid whom he wouldn’t usually talk to. However, for Adam, Evan represents an opportunity for something new —a much-needed jolt of electricity in an otherwise dull summer.
Slowly, a friendship develops between these unlikely boys as two lost souls find a new beginning in each other’s company. Tim Rousseau and Florian Lesieur’s short film is a beautiful exploration of how new friendships and relationships form, and a reminder that the bumps along the way should never be viewed as an ending, but as an opportunity for further growth.
The final film in The Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet collection is the emotional and beautiful THE BOY WHO WANTED TO FLY (El niño que quería volar), directed by Jorge Muriel. How old were you when you realised that endings and beginnings were complicated, painful and confusing? For most of us, endings are first explored through the death of a pet, the loss of a grandparent, or the sudden dissolution of childhood friendships. Beginnings often take the form of a newborn sibling who suddenly captures our parents’ attention, or a new friend who opens our eyes to things we never knew existed.
For five-year-old Ivan, beginnings and endings have suddenly invaded his life without warning, and they are more than confusing; they are scary, unclear, and obscure. Ivan’s new baby brother is all his parents seem to love, and his new friend at school is happy to show him hers if he shows her his. Meanwhile, his cat gave birth to new kittens, and his father no longer seems to love him. It is all very confusing, and Ivan dreams of flying away from his troubles.
Jorge Muriel’s delicate and exquisitely crafted and performed short film is about the moment, as children, when we realise that just like the seasons come and go, life is full of endings and beginnings, but love is eternal, and even if we think it’s left us, it’s usually just a hug away.
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