0.01: Seeing is Believing
Six countries. Six stories of men and boys learning to be seen.
From a mother confronting the secret life her late son kept hidden, to a burlesque performer renegotiating fatherhood, a marriage staged to mask a real love, and two school friends stumbling into a desire neither can yet name.
This collection of short films moves between documentary, drama and coming-of-age tenderness. Funny, aching and quietly bold, Seeing Is Believing is a portrait of what gets concealed, and what it costs — and takes — to finally live in the open.
Episodes
Adult
12ma woman discovers her late, drug-troubled son had secretly been a soft gay porn star in LA, and works through her grief by watching his work.
Hello Stranger
19mArthur is a single dad, struggling with the care for his seven-year-old son Max and the combination of his secret life as a drag queen.
Little Potato
14m‘Little Potato’ is Wes Hurley’s autobiographical tale about growing up gay in Soviet Union Russia, only to escape with his mother, a mail order bride, to Seattle to face a whole new oppression under his new Christian fundamentalist American dad.
Juan Gabriel is Dead
15mOn the day famous Mexican singer Juan Gabriel dies, best friends Beto and Daniel will redefine their friendship. Daniel imagines how his day would be if he were a girl. Maybe this way his feelings toward Beto would be seen as normal…
Le Convive
20mEven though he’s been living with Fouad for three years, Malik is going to marry Halima. Since Fouad doesn’t accept this marriage, which would imply a total upheaval of their everyday life, Malik makes him promise not to attend the wedding, which will take place in his parents’ village.
As the ceremony approaches, the pressure builds. Will Malik choose to save face in front of his family and the wedding guests or will he choose to save the relationship with the one he loves?
Contestant #4
19mA young boy frequently visits an old man who lives alone, to keep him company. One night, he chances upon the old man watching a dated clip of himself as a cross-dressing boy. This sparks within the young boy an interest to find out more about the old man’s past.
What he ultimately discovers aids both him and the old man towards a richer understanding of how the weight of life and identity should be carried.