Sydney filmmaker Craig Boreham’s short film Love Bite is sinking it’s teeth into the international film festival circuit with much success.
The short drama is a play on the traditional teen-coming-out-to-your-best-mate theme, where two boys hang out and smoke pot after school, and features newcomers Aidan Callabria and Will Field. As the munchies kick in, Noah (Field) who is clearly taken by his friend feels compelled to share his secret desire that has been tormenting him. Gus (Callabria) is predictably hostile to this perceived homo-advance, but we soon discover that Noah’s confession is in fact that he is a young vampire and his lust for his friend is less sexual and more of an after school snack.
“It’s a story that a lot of queer people can relate to in a way, being young and having a secret desire for your best friend and the moment you decide to tell them. It might be less about romance and more about lust, really.
"The thing that inspired me to write it was that feeling of being closeted, and the fear of how people will react if you tell them who you really are; like, inside you feel maybe you really are a monster. Although this is really the subtext and was more the jump-off point for me as a writer, the completed film is much lighter and more fun” says Boreham of his film.
Since picking up the Independent Queer Filmmaker Award at this year’s My Queer Career competition opening the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Film Festival, Love Bite has been turning up on screens all over the world.
Kicking off at the prestigious London Queer Film Festival and New York’s Newfest the snappy short has also been selected to screen in festivals in Berlin, Madrid and Philadelphia and as part of a collection of four of Boreham’s earlier short works in the Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Love Bite has also been snapped up by film distributors in both the US and Europe where it will be released on a DVD compilation of queer short horror themed films by Salzgeber & Co Media.
Currently, Boreham is in pre-production, casting a new short with producer Annmaree J Bell of Sydney-based Azure Productions. The team has secured support and funding from the Australian Film Commission to create the new film that follows in the themes of coming out and coming of age.
“It’s less a coming out film and more an exploration of those complex and often confusing final moments of youth… struggles with familial obligation and finding your place in the world. The central character, a seventeen year old young Greek boy, is trying to make sense of the hole left by the death of his brother and his awakening desire for his best friend”, says Boreham.
[Release by Azure Productions]