FILM TYPE:

Short

SYNOPSIS

Billy passionately welcomes home his boyfriend, Kevin... but their relationship is not what it seems. Based on a true story, Boyfriends explores modern gay culture and the desperate things we do to find intimacy.

DIRECTOR BIO

C.J. Arellano creates empathy-driven narratives that center underrepresented voices. His short "Griffica" won several awards, including Best Director at the Artists' Forum Festival of the Moving Image and the Audience Award for Best Horror Short at Out on Film: Atlanta's LGBTQ+ Festival. It premiered digitally on Omeleto in 2023. His screenplay “The Ampersand Inn” won First Place at the New York International Screenplay Awards in May 2022. C.J. wrote “Case Unsolved,” which won the Asian American International Film Festival's Screenplay Competition in October 2020.  View his work at CJarellano.com

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

It was an emphatic “yes” from me when writer-comedian Adam Guerino asked me to direct "Boyfriends," inspired by events from his life that occurred not too long before he put pen to paper. With aching insight into human vulnerability, his tender and surprising script explores the lengths we traverse to find intimacy. I relished working with two soulful actors Elijah Olachea and Derek Kelly to fling the viewer from the heat of fantasy to the cold return to reality. Please enjoy "Boyfriends."