@kimonWhat stays with you isn't always the relationship itself, it's the decades of quiet after. Nuovo Olimpo (2023) takes two men, one encounter in 1970s Rome, and lets the ripple run for years. That's the kind of thread pulling through this set of nine Italian LGBTQ+ films, a lineup that stretches from Fascist-era Rome to 1980s Sicily. A Special Day (1977) puts a housewife and a gay man together on the day Hitler visits Rome, and the bond that forms under Fascism is the quiet devastating kind. Death in Venice (1971) is Luchino Visconti working through beauty, obsession, decay, and desire that never gets to breathe. Darker Than Midnight (2014) follows an androgynous teenager who bolts from an abusive father and lands among Catania's street outcasts, where the freedom comes with its own dangers. Lord of the Ants (2022) is built on the true story of poet Aldo Braibanti, prosecuted over his relationship with a younger man, and it's persecution and prejudice as much as personal freedom. Fireworks (2023) gives you two teenage boys in 1980s Sicily, falling for each other while intolerance closes in, inspired by real events. Giorni (2001) is an HIV-positive man torn between the steadiness of a partner and the pull of something new, which means love, mortality, and freedom all sharing a room. Call Me by Your Name (2017), from Luca Guadagnino, is a coming-of-age romance about first love and letting go. One Kiss (2016) rounds it out with three teenage outsiders working through friendship, bullying, and finding the nerve to be themselves in a world that doesn't make it easy. The collection runs on darkness, desire, and the fight for freedom, and honestly that's the whole pitch 🍿

@kimonWhat stays with you isn't always the relationship itself, it's the decades of quiet after. Nuovo Olimpo (2023) takes two men, one encounter in 1970s Rome, and lets the ripple run for years. That's the kind of thread pulling through this set of nine Italian LGBTQ+ films, a lineup that stretches from Fascist-era Rome to 1980s Sicily. A Special Day (1977) puts a housewife and a gay man together on the day Hitler visits Rome, and the bond that forms under Fascism is the quiet devastating kind. Death in Venice (1971) is Luchino Visconti working through beauty, obsession, decay, and desire that never gets to breathe. Darker Than Midnight (2014) follows an androgynous teenager who bolts from an abusive father and lands among Catania's street outcasts, where the freedom comes with its own dangers. Lord of the Ants (2022) is built on the true story of poet Aldo Braibanti, prosecuted over his relationship with a younger man, and it's persecution and prejudice as much as personal freedom. Fireworks (2023) gives you two teenage boys in 1980s Sicily, falling for each other while intolerance closes in, inspired by real events. Giorni (2001) is an HIV-positive man torn between the steadiness of a partner and the pull of something new, which means love, mortality, and freedom all sharing a room. Call Me by Your Name (2017), from Luca Guadagnino, is a coming-of-age romance about first love and letting go. One Kiss (2016) rounds it out with three teenage outsiders working through friendship, bullying, and finding the nerve to be themselves in a world that doesn't make it easy. The collection runs on darkness, desire, and the fight for freedom, and honestly that's the whole pitch 🍿