Kade Alexie | Pit Stop / 2024

talking

by Douglas Messerli

 

Kade Alexie (screenwriter and director) Pit Stop / 2024 [10 minutes]

 

Two men meet up in a car, in what one calls a “pit stop,” after a Grindr connection. The first man,

a Latino named Lalo (Jason Caceres) immediately goes for the cock, while the black man, Justin (Kade Alexie) admits he’s not hard yet.

     So instead, the two sit back and talk a bit, getting to know one another—a rare thing on Grindr dates. Lalo discovers that Justin works at a restaurant to support himself, but is struggling to become a comedian. Lalo, in turn, is a would-be actor who “sometimes” goes to auditions, except that there aren’t many roles for Latino men, just as a slightly overweight black man finds few venues.

     They also discuss relationships, Lalo just wanting a man to support him so that he can cook and keep the house clean, his favorite activities in life. He’s even thought about joining a monastery, where he could just pray and make beer—but then, he admits, he would have to give up sex; not a good choice for him. 

  Lalo finally admits, when asked how his search for a husband going, he reveals an engagement ring. His lover, however, is not truly interested in sex, allowing Lalo to meet up with others for sexual activities.

     Justin admits that he’s just been on a date where the man he met far too serious religion and simply boring.

     They continue to talk, Lalo seeing life as a constant action of suffering, Justin as something that allows one to evolve every day, making him ultimately a better person. He too wants a relationship, but Lalo argues that he himself is not the one for Justin.

      Justin argues that Lalo deserves better than the man he is planning to marry.

      After, they spontaneously kiss, both fully enjoying the experience; but it’s time for Lalo to go in, and he doesn’t see the same person twice, he announces. Justin convinces him, nonetheless, to take his number, even if he later deletes it.

      Before he’s even driven off, however, Lalo has texted him on how he too enjoyed his company.  Except for Justin being unable to support Lalo’s home-bound life, they seem to be the perfect couple, and director Alexie leaves us with that vague possibility, even if it is without any likelihood.

      Nonetheless, both have experienced something about what a relationship is truly like, with the ability to discuss freely and openly about one’s feelings and ideas.

      This has been for both an enlightening “pit stop,” allowing both men to see new possibilities in their love lives.

 

Los Angeles, June 20, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2025). 

Abdulbasit S. Hadji Abdullah | Under the Crescent Moon / 2022

a sword that cuts through the ties of love

by Douglas Messerli

 

Abdulbasit S. Hadji Abdullah (screenwriter and director) Under the Crescent Moon / 2022 [15 minutes]

 

The short film by Pilipino writer and director Abdulbasit S. Hadji Abdullah is yet another example of the age-old split between the spiritual and the physical played out in cultures that have not yet been able to recognize LGBT behavior as a form of normative love.

     Abby (John Gerad Majen), from a conservative Muslim family, is a high school student highly attracted to and close to revealing his love for his best friend, Jerryl (Francis Ramil Fernandez). Jerryl speeds Abby to his morning prayers and school on his motorcycle, the two sharing meals and the little free time Abby possesses, the couple flirting with one another, and even holding hands, but evidently have carried it no further. Yet we easily perceive that they are clearly in love and almost at the verge of openly expressing what they latter describe as “this thing” between them.

     But with his religion intervening, Abby finally makes a decision to break-off with Jerryl, believing their growing relationship to be an affront to Allah. It is a tearful breakup for both boys, particularly for Abby, who finally explains to Jerryl his decision, Jerryl trying to argue that they’ve done nothing wrong, that they’re just friends.

     Abby, however, fully sees the implications of their relationship, asking outright, “Are we just friends?” and bringing both boys to the open recognition of their true “friendship.” Yet, of course, it is just for that reason, steeped as he is in religious dogma, that Abby must go it alone, leaving both to deep loneliness in their small Philippines town, and which will surely lead Abby to unhappy life with probably an arranged marriage of which he and his wife will remain forever resentful.

     Yet Abdullah does move in that direction and does not preach or even fully question Abby’s harsh decision. Thousands of such relationships have been broken up not just by societal and family pressures, but religious beliefs of various faiths as well. And there are very few, except for liberal-minded protestant groups that have fully embraced the LGBTQ+ community, and even that seems at times to be gradually eroding.

      Even though most religious groups tout “love” as among their major tenants, gay love does register in their minds as a legitimate form of love’s expression. Why is quite inexplicable since these religions came into being in a time when there was no such thing as something called “homosexuality,” and men, particularly Muslim men, often kept company with both young men and women. One need only recall the ending of Paul Bowles’ fiction The Sheltering Sky; or recall the popularity of the dancing boys of Afghanistan (the subject of the short film When You Hear the Bells from 2015).  Over the centuries, limitations have increasingly been put upon gay sexuality, particularly that involving men.

 

Los Angeles, June 20, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2025).

Christian Candelaria | Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? / 2019

fear

by Douglas Messerli

 

Christian Candelaria (director) Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? / 2019 [7 minutes]

 

In this short horror film from The Philippines, director Christian Candelaria brings together two young men (Matthew Gador and Teddi Avelino) for quick car sex.

     One seems inexperienced and clearly a bit frightened about the entire activity. Even if he has previously had sexual experience, you can tell that he prefers the gentle “old fashioned” methods of meeting up with someone and taking him back to his house, even if for someone his age that is impossible.

      The other is clearly experienced in on-line sex, and dares to park near a street-light in a place the other feels is not at all appropriate. He even makes the other promise that their sex will be “just for pleasure” and that there will be no emotions attached, clearly a student of what he later describes as the KKK school—sex in which the other is “liked, banged, dumped.”

     In the back seat, however, they seem to both enjoy quite sensual sex, and afterwards, while taking a smoke the experienced boy seems to be trying to get to know his new conquest. They exchange their real names and the second, more experienced boy, even admits regret for following the KKK method of sex. Yet he still wants no commitment, in part because he fears for his later sexual desires others and rejection from anyone he truly loves.

      The fearful boy wonders how long they will be hanging around the place, but the other reassures him that there is no hurry, suggesting that he has some beer in the truck, and asks him to retrieve it.

      To his horror, the fearful boy encounters mason jar after mason jar of what appear to be pickled penises. Like the boy, the audience must immediately jump to conclusions: the other boy is a serial killer who collects his sexual partner’s penises as reward for his sexual prowess.

      When the now perceived killer approaches, our young innocent attacks, eventually picking up a rock and hitting the apparent assailant again and again, blood everywhere.

      The KKK’s boy’s phone rings, and in a daze, the now killer picks it up only to hear a worried mother say, “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you for hours. Why haven’t you been answering my calls? Where are the mason jars?  Direk is pissed off already! He wants to see the props.”

      Suddenly the boy and audience together comprehend his terrible mistake, the horror of his reaction, and the reality he will have to face for the rest of his life. The innocent boy’s fear has overtaken his reason, as it has the viewer’s logic as well.

      Although one may well wonder what kind of stage play or movie—except for this one—might have several jars filled with what look like penises as a prop. In this short film we once more see the hysteria that emanates from fear.

 

Los Angeles, June 20, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2025).