This week, FilmDoo is proud to announce the release of At First Glance, the latest in our ever-growing collection of queer short film compilations, offering female-focused stories from the regions of Australia, Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway and France. To mark the occasion, we thought we’d take a look back at the exciting range of lesbian anthologies we’ve released over the years. In these compilations, we find a diverse selection of award-winning shorts, showcasing some of the rising talent of international and independent cinema, and the best part is t ..read more

This week, we bring you a new selection of queer film compilations from NQV Media and Feelsales, featuring acclaimed and award-winning shorts from France, the US, Germany and beyond. Scroll down to learn more!   The Male Gaze: Celluloid Dreams (USA/France/Greece/UK) Embark on a journey through celluloid from 1985 to present day in these freshly digitized cinematic pearls from around the world that explore an array of gay encounters from years gone by. Watch The Male Gaze: Celluloid Dreams on FilmDoo   Between Me and You (USA/Colombia/Kosovo) A soon-to-be-bride takes ..read more

By David Pountain Ping-Wen Wang’s short drama Between Us is the story of a relationship that can never be any more than it already is, chronicling a decisive moment in an ongoing affair between married mother Tara (Sierra Fisk) and the family’s music teacher Ariel (Shakti Shannon). Speaking to FilmDoo, Wang discusses the process behind this intimate picture. Where did the inspiration for Between Us come from? It was inspired by one of my relationships. I was in that struggle when I was making this film. Making it was a way of healing myself and to help me figure out what I want ..read more

By Owen Peters Directed by Michael Winterbottom There is something satisfying to being the first: The band you rated when everyone said they were crap, the company shares bought that market investors said leave well alone or the house bought in the wrong postcode, wrong town, wrong county (they said). So, to anyone who saw Butterfly Kiss, the directorial film debut of Michael Winterbottom and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce back in 1995 and spotted a talented pairing for the future: Congratulations. Although I came to the Butterfly Kiss party 20 years late, thank goodness I eventually ..read more

By Alana Jeffery Directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas Sand Dollars is a delicate and heartbreaking portrayal of a relationship between two women that defies our judgements and is a testament to the fact that love manifests in many ways. Directed and written by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Sand Dollars is the best film to come from the husband and wife duo as of yet, and tells a story of love and loneliness on the dreamy shores of the Dominican Republic. The narrative itself is simple and subtle. A young Dominican woman, Noeli (Yanet Mojica), who is caught u ..read more

By David Pountain Italian director Maria Sole Tognazzi’s latest feature, Me, Myself and Her (original title: Io e lei), is a two-woman love story that takes on an unusually late stage in the relationship. While the early blossoming phases of sexuality seem to be the standard mining territory for lesbian cinema, Tognazzi’s picture begins years ahead of where most such dramas finish, depicting the inner tensions of a long-term couple (played by Margherita Buy and Sabrina Ferilli) as the insecure Federica’s constant social unease about her own sexuality clashes with Marina’s relativ ..read more

By Amy Dunning Directed by July Jung Beautifully filmed in rural South Korea, A Girl at My Door follows policewoman Young-Nam as she is relocated to a small fishing village and becomes intertwined with a young girl and her abusive father, Yong-Ha. Played by Doona Bae, Young-Nam is a striking vision of female authority, her fierce no-nonsense attitude is hinted to be a cover for an equally complicated past, and she uses it as a mechanism to intervene into a dominatingly patriarchal society. The new town she moves to first appears to the viewer as a pastoral idyll, yet as the small t ..read more

By  David Pountain As one half of the New York production team Purple Milk, director Natalia Leite’s body of work is alive with a spirit of impulsiveness and self-determination. Whether she’s returning to nature in TV on the Radio’s “Million Miles” video or making the move to LA in her hit web series Be Here Nowish, Leite’s oeuvre looks for personal awakening in unconventional places and progressive ideas. The results range from the funny and absurd to the melancholic and provocatively ambiguous. Her vibrant feature film debut, Bare, takes these sensibilities into the realm o ..read more

By David Pountain Directed by Fiona Cunningham-Reid “This is her story – well…one version at least,” the voiceover narration coyly announces in the opening minutes of Croc A Dyke Dundee, the cheeky yet touching new documentary from Fiona Cunningham-Reid about the life of Australian entrepreneur Dawn O’Donnell. It’s a good humoured admission that the facts have yet to be straightened out on the film’s central figure – a woman thought to have played a pivotal role in establishing and defining Sydney’s gay and lesbian club scene from the late ‘60s onwards – but it also perha ..read more

By David Pountain Directed by Daniel di Grado Sitges Film Festival review Anyone who remembers Kimberly Peirce’s 2013 Carrie remake (and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t) will be wary of how easily female-centric troubled teen horror dramas can slip into ‘issues movie’ blandness. So when a clear descendent of Bran De Palma’s masterful original bucks the trend with a helping of personality to back up its sense of tragedy, it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Alena, the debut feature from Swedish director Daniel di Grado, may not always get the balance of the various facets of its ..read more