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Review

As a short film programmer for Philadelphia QFest, I am very lucky. Each year, I get watch hundreds (seriously, hundreds) of short, gay-themed films. With the input of a large screening committee, I get to narrow down a long list of submissions, choose the best short films of the past year and decide which ones will play during the film festival and in what particular programs. I don’t get paid to do this – it’s a strictly voluntary position – but I love doing it because it gives me the opportunity to see a lot of surprising cinematic brilliance that I might otherwise miss.

Sure, there are a lot of flops and half-assed attempts in every year’s batch of screeners, but I can always count on at least 30-50 marvelous short flicks from up-and-coming directors with talent that sets them apart from the pack. Reid Waterer is certainly one of those directors and we’re thrilled to announce that his two wildly acclaimed short works are coming to DVD on the new compilation Global Warming - available exclusively from TLAgay.com!

The first short, You Can't Curry Love, follows a handsome East Indian from London named Vikas (played by Ashwin Gore) who visits India on a work assignment and ends up falling for a local hotel clerk named Sunil (Rakshak Sahni). Sunil takes Vikas on a tour of India that introduces the young traveler to a country he only thought he knew.

Their early courtship is completely adorable. The two are smitten with one another, but their whirlwind romance is cut short when Vikas is due to return to London and serve as the right-hand man of his straight, but seductive and subtly manipulative boss (G. Russell Reynolds). Vikas suddenly has a very important decision to make. Does he return to life in the big British city and continue to fawn over a handsome, but off-limits supervisor who might never love him in return or does he completely alter his course, give up on his career and move to India to be with Sunil for the long-term?

Audiences swooned over You Can't Curry Love when it premiered in Philadelphia – so much so that the film won the Audience Award for Best Short Film. It went on to take in numerous other awards at film festivals around the world. Ashwin Gore and Rakshak Sahni have great chemistry and lend their characters an innocent charisma that tugs at the heartstrings. Also impressive is what Reid Waterer is able to do on such a tiny budget. Though the film takes us to London and India, it was filmed entirely in Los Angeles. Believe it or not, you’d never know it!

Next up is the relentlessly funny and supremely sexy Performance Anxiety. This film focuses on two smoking-hot straight actors who have to navigate their way through a graphic gay sex scene. How do they do it? They man-up and act, of course! They also manage to make it look passionate, authentic and highly arousing (make sure to watch this one ALONE with the shades drawn).

Performance Anxiety, which played at QFest in 2012, had audiences howling with laughter. Lead actors Danny Lopes and Lawrence Nicols both give fearless performances as two guys who are open-minded and gay-friendly, but embarrassed to sexually embrace one another and risk seeming vulnerable or overly-excited. After lots and lots of nervous, underwear-clad rehearsal (which is delightful to watch), the boys come around to the idea for the good of their careers and artistic integrity.

The hilarity of the piece comes from the unrelenting sexual tension - which Waterer kindly breaks by showing us the finished product: a lavishly produced, graphic gay sex scene (and 1950s-based period-piece, no less), complete with delicious full-frontal nudity and explosive, expertly-simulated bumping, grinding and moaning. These boys may be straight, but they look like they are having A LOT OF FUN.

You Can't Curry Love is 23 minutes long, Performance Anxiety is 15. Though both of these films are short, this DVD is packed with nearly an hour of special features to ensure that you get your money’s worth!

With Global Warming, not only will you get to see two beloved, but criminally under-seen film festival hits, but you’ll also get outtakes, cast interviews, sexy audition footage, behind-the-scenes documentaries for both movies, a “Kissing Montage” and much, much more. I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy every second of footage. And make sure to keep an eye out for Reid Waterer – this kid is goin' places, I tell ya!

 -- Robert O'Neill