Across five short films, The Male Gaze: Wild Youth takes us from a conversion therapy centre in rural Mexico to a transformative solo vacation in Corsica and a farming school in Italy, where friendships are tested.
We all carry inner doubts, insecurities, and fears; some of us are good at hiding these from others, while others wear their feelings on their sleeve for all to see. Many men view these insecurities, doubts, and fears as weaknesses. Yet, in truth, they are the roots of our strength, as we learn to embrace them and challenge them through our environment, connections, and the path we choose in life. In The Male Gaze: Wild Youth, we journey into the complex intersections between place, peers, passion and personal courage.
Opening The Male Gaze: Wild Youth is AUTUMN (Otoño), directed by Luis Pacheco. Filmed on a mix of 16mm and digital, in Autumn, we follow sixteen-year-old Adam as he is sent to a small rural Mexican conversion therapy centre by his mother, who he thought loved him unconditionally. As Adam attempts to navigate a harsh regime led by the centre matriarch, where his personal feelings, wants, and desires are repressed, he is guided by his inner voice and a dormant strength. He is told that ‘he’ is wrong, corrupt, and dirty, and must change to fit the society he inhabits; when, in reality, he is bright, beautiful, and unblemished just as he is.
Otoño is based on Pacheco’s lived experiences, and his understanding of the damage conversion therapy inflicts sits centre stage in this powerful short film. Speaking about his short, Pacheco said, “When I was 16 years old, I was put into a conversion therapy centre by my family. They hoped to change my preferences into heterosexuality. Since that event, my work as a filmmaker has been to question and confront the discrimination and violence that exists toward the young LGBTQ+ community in Jalisco, Mexico. I made this short film to spark reflection on what happens in family relationships characterised by the rejection of queer kids and to deliver an informed message to parents who have been violent toward their queer children or who have considered entering their kids into these kinds of centres, which are still operating”.
The second short film in the NQV Media collection is PURE BREED (Razze pure), directed by Giuseppe Zampella. Several of the movies in The Male Gaze: Wild Youth focus on the transformative effect of friendship, new connections and desire in shaping the path we choose to take. In Pure Breed, a transformative summer at a farming school in the Italian countryside, where pure-bred goats are brought, raised and sold, provides the backdrop for conflict and change among three friends.
Danilo has two close friends at school: a boy with whom he shares accommodation and a girl whom he finds alluring. Danilo is well aware that his male friend also finds the girl attractive, but to add to the complex desires and feelings at play, he also finds his male friend attractive. Can their newly formed friendship continue as Danilo expresses his passion for both his friends? Or will jealousy, uncertainty, and uncontrollable desire end their hormonal trio before it has begun?
Zampella’s slightly uneven short film never quite delves into the feelings, emotions, and frustrations of each young person as desire turns to anger, questions, and uncertainty over the course of an explosive night of partying. However, despite this weakness, the brilliant young cast and cinematography hold this story of an emerging and ultimately unmanageable love triangle together as jealousy and emotion creep in.
Next in The Male Gaze: Wild Youth is COUNTERCURRENTS (Les contre-courants) directed by Aurélien Rapatel. Our twenties can be a confusing time as we navigate the adult world and a whole host of expectations placed on our young shoulders by family, friends, and society. Our teenage years are over, and suddenly we are expected to know where we are going, what we want and what we are doing. Yet in reality, while our teens may have slipped into the past, we are all still cooking in our twenties, and our direction of travel often remains obscure and prone to doubt.
On the surface, Nathan appears settled and in control of his future; he is studying to be a doctor, and his life seems set out before him. But in reality, he is lost, confused, and uncertain whether the path he has chosen is the right one.
Like many of us, Nathan decides to reflect on his feelings by escaping his hometown and vacationing alone, choosing the sun and beaches of Corsica as his destination. But Nathan’s plans to lie on the beach and read, as he attempts to unpick his life and form decisions, are about to take a sharp turn when he meets Léana and Félix, two expressive young people who challenge him to come out of his shell. As the sun beats down, Nathan, Léana and Félix grow closer, allowing him to find himself, his passion, and the emotions he has long suppressed out of fear of losing control.
Rapatel’s sun-soaked story of transformation is beautifully shot and performed as Nathan’s world suddenly opens up, allowing him to escape the expectations that have kept him imprisoned for too long. Léana and Félix are not just the key to Nathan’s summer rebirth; they are his mentors and guides into a new world where indecision is okay, passion and belief are celebrated, emotion is encouraged, and sexuality is fluid, loving and fun.
The penultimate short film in the collection is HIDE & SEEK, directed by Ran Baruch. Long before we decide to come out, if we do, we hide. Although things have improved over the past two decades, many LGBTQ+ people still hide their feelings for much of their teens, often in fear of people’s reactions, social isolation or peer group pressure. At a British International School in Mexico, one young man is hiding, but he isn’t sure how much longer he can keep walking in the shadows. Everything around him is confused, every interaction uncertain, and every word feels like a risk. As he skips class, he must face the roots of his anxieties and fears or forever be trapped by the feelings he keeps locked away.
Based on his own lived experience, Baruch said, “When I was 12, I studied at a British international school in Mexico, where I grew up as a child. There, I discovered my attraction to men and the loneliness that came along with it. I wanted to explore this morally complex perspective on childhood, recognising the fear behind the excommunication of the boys I grew up with. I wanted to observe their fear of homosexuality, the fear that I myself had of my homosexuality, the great hatred that grew inside me towards myself and towards the other boys who felt uncomfortable in my presence”.
The final film in The Male Gaze: Wild Youth is IN THE NIGHT (Dans la nuit), directed by Corentin Vouzellaud. In the Night explores a transition we all make in life as the party days of our youth draw to a close. This transition can be slow or sudden, as we realise our bodies and minds no longer need the alcohol, sweat and drugs of the club scene we once found so exhilarating. As two young men leave a club and head into the night alongside friends, one is already doubting the nightlife that once held so much appeal. At the same time, the other is so immersed in his nighttime rituals of dance, drugs and sex that the end of his dance feels alien, even if the drugs he deals often lead to casualties, as he is about to discover.
Vouzellaud’s short film never allows the audience to fully enter the minds of both young men as they embrace and enjoy each other’s company in a small apartment until the sun rises. But it’s clear that this fleeting connection spells the continuation of a nightlife journey for one and the end of that journey for another as night turns to day and a new dawn breaks.
The Male Gaze: Wild Youth is now available on selected platforms worldwide, including Prime Video and Payhip.
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