BREAKFAST WITH SCOT - LA LEÓN

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Breakfast with Scot / Canada, 2008

Eric (Tom Cavanagh) and Sam (Ben Shenkman) have been in a gay relationship for four years. Eric's a former Maple Leaf hockey player turned sports caster, Sam’s a corporate lawyer. They live discreetly on a tree-lined street in Toronto. All this changes when they receive news that Sam's brother Billy (Colin Cunningham)’s ex-girlfriend has died, leaving custody of her son Scot (Noah Bernett) to Billy. But adventure-seeking Billy is somewhere in South America, and that leaves Scot without a guardian. Until Children’s Aid and the insurance company can locate Billy, they ask Sam if he can take temporary custody. Much to Eric’s disapproval (he’s never liked kids), Sam agrees to take Scot in - convincing Eric that it is only for a short period. Enter Scot - a swishy, mincing, 11-year-old sissy-of-a-boy who is Eric’s mirror opposite. Dressed in vibrant colours, his mother’s charm bracelet and with a penchant for musicals and Christmas carols – he’s not quite the ‘boy’ they expected. Their household is thrown into confusion as Eric and Sam try to deal with the realities and expectations of their flamboyant charge and realize that he is much more ‘gay’ than they are. Each deals with his own issues while observing the behavior of a queeny kid being joyously and unashamedly himself. At school Scot begins to make friends and even manages to win the company of the neighborhood bully. But Eric decides Scot needs toughening up and signs him up for local Pee Wee hockey. Eric becomes recruited as the team’s assistant coach and begins to build a relationship with Scot. But after Scot’s disastrous first game, Eric begins to rethink the compromises he’s made in his own life in order to be ‘accepted’.

La León / Argentina, 2007

Alvaro's world is one of rivers and streams. This remote island off the Argentinean coast is where he ekes out a humble existence. Fishing and reed-cutting are his only sources of income. Out here, it is as if time has stood still. Alvaro's homosexuality makes him just as much of an outsider as does his love of books. The only link between this forlorn part of the world in the middle of the wide ocean and the city on the mainland is skipper El Turu's little boat, "El Leon", that carries islanders back and forth, once a day. El Turu himself takes the helm every single day. A rough and sometimes violent man, El Turu is convinced that Alvaro poses a threat to the remote island community and its prevailing values and virtues. Moreover, since he regards himself as the tacit ruler of this world, he is determined to enforce these values. Intolerant and unrelenting, he bullies Alvaro whenever he can--although his actions display an increasing lack of propriety and dignity. Yet if truth be known, his aggressive rejection of an alternative existence only serves to conceal his inner emotional turmoil.