Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)
LGBTQ+
•
1h 42m
Directed by Ira Sachs • Drama • With Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth; Julianne Nicholson • 2012 • 106 minutes
Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and closeted lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth, Damages) meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself. Director Ira Sachs’s fearlessly personal screenplay is anchored by Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence. Harrowing and romantic, visceral and layered, Keep the Lights On is a film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace.
“Stunning! Moving and totally engrossing.” —Indiewire
Up Next in LGBTQ+
-
The Transformation
Directed by Carlos Aparicio, Susana Aikin • Documentary • 1995 • 58 minutes
Carlos Aparicio and Susana Aikin’s The Transformation follows one person’s journey to reconcile their identity, religion, class, and sexual orientation following harrowing news. In the groundbreaking 1990 documentary The...
-
Boy I Am
Directed by Sam Feder, Julie Hollar • Documentary • 2006 • 72 minutes
Sam Feder’s first feature Boy I Am, co-directed with Julie Hollar, explores issues rarely touched upon in films portraying trans male subjects. Tackling the extreme feminist view of transitioning as an anti-feminist act that t...
-
Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant ...
Directed by Sam Feder • Documentary • 2014 • 72 minutes
Kate Bornstein Is a Queer & Pleasant Danger is a portrait of trans icon Kate Bornstein, the charming, ebullient self-described “transdyke” taking the viewer on a journey into the inner and outer life of the tattooed and pierced septuage...
