Who said you should clear your history? These films are made up of all the traces of our lives that we don’t always hold up to the light of day. We’re rummaging through the queer cupboards of history and pulling out the good, the bad and the (sometimes) cringe archives of past generations and dusting them off for the future queer kids. A bracelet here, some video tapes or magazines there, everything has its stories to tell if you know how to look.

Letz Meet @ The Internet Cafe | dir. Cyber Shanahoy | 2023 | Australia | 7’

A video scrapbook looking back at the band the filmmaker was part of as a teenager in the mid 00s, featuring MiniDV tapes, livejournal screenshots and subcultural throwbacks galore.

Vollúpya | dir. Éri Sarmet, Jocimar Dias Jr. | Brazil | 2024 | 21’

In a post-apocalyptic intergalactic future, an explorer landing on Earth looking for the people who used to live on the planet finds material documenting a 90s Brazilian queer club.

OCEANIA | dir. Valentin Noujaïm | 2024 | France | 24’

When 16-year old Najib’s mysterious elderly neighbour dies, the teenager starts searching through what he left behind, finding a love kept hidden in old letters, photographs and a bracelet.

Les fantômes du hard | dir. Lazare Lazarus | 2024 | France | 28’

After his death, squatters occupying a Frenchman’s house uncover a hidden documentary archive which takes us into Marseille’s queer fetish scene and the Mineshaft club.

Victim of Circumstance | dir. Kalil Haddad | 2024 | Canada | 22’

Scott and Brandon met in a 1980s orphanage before Brandon set off in search of the Californian dream. Following in his footsteps, the reality of this dream is unpicked through fragments of gay porn videos, magazines and other material.

CW: Sustained strobe lighting and images, HIV/AIDS, nudity, depiction of sexual and fetish acts, drugs, death, depiction of butchery, references to child sexual abuse