Customer Reviews

Begging for Shorts

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased BEGGING FOR SHORTS because I had seen some of director J.T. Tepnapa's short films and other work at various GLBT film festivals in the United States. This DVD compiles four of his award-winning short films (plus one new one) into one DVD (it's a great value!). Here are my little capsule reviews of each, to give you an idea of what is on this amazing DVD:

"Sunflowers" is a tender and beautiful short film about blossoming young love, and the heartaches that sometimes accompany it. Tepnapa has captured some awkward adolescent emotions spot on, and his cinematograpy is beautiful, too.

"Drag Queen Heist" is... indescribably funny. It's a comedy of errors about two average gay guys who need a change of direction in their lives. So, as anyone might do, they dress up as drag queens to pull off a bank robbery. Needless to say, nothing goes right. Guaranteed to make you laugh. A lot. Tepnapa directs and stars in this one, and it was definitely a crowd favorite at film festivals.

"Masturbation..." is nowhere near as gross as it might sound... and 100 times funnier than you can imagine. Tepnapa has recreated a grainy, health education film from sometime in the 1950's to discuss this important issue. Except this is health education as you've never seen it before. 9 out of 10 doctors agree that this parody is funny as hell.

"Begging for Change" sneaks up on you. Unlike the other films in this collection, which are mostly light-hearted and somewhat comedic, Begging for Change is a serious, well acted, intriguingly presented film that asks "What if..." and shows how changing one simple event in someone's life can make serious, life-altering differences (both good, and bad. Very, very, bad). Tepnapa attempts and successfully achieves a dramatic sense of seriousness, urgency, and interrelatedness with this film. He delivers it in a style that speaks much about the depth of his abilities as a young director. You will watch this one several times.

"And the Award Goes To..." is an amusing parody of the success Tepnapa received with the successes and critical acclaim of his short films on the GLBT film festival circuit. The film presents a fictional night at some Academy Award-like Hollywood event where Tepnapa is up for the best film award for his well-received "Masturbation" film. On a second layer, Tepnapa also makes some humorous but harsh commentary on what it takes to make it as a struggling independent film producer in Hollywood. The "other films" up for awards, and the clips shown to the audience from them, are disastrously funny, too. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll love it.

I am so glad I found this DVD. I'm going to show it to everyone! And hopefully they will purchase their own copy to show to their friends. I look forward to seeing more of Tepnapa's work (I saw on IMDb that he is currently working on a full-length feature film called "Judas Kiss." Based on what I see on this DVD, I will be first in line for his next film!

This is the best collection of shorts I have ever seen! What a talented team!

Unlike other gay short DVDs that tell the same story 5 different ways, this DVD tells 5 great, unique stories that make you laugh, think, and sometimes cry. "Masterbation" is a great party short that I have shown many times. "Sunflowers" reminds you of the first time you fell in love. "Begging for Change" makes you think, and look at the people you pass on the street a little bit differently. I could go on and on, but you really need to buy this video to see what I'm talking about. It will be well worth the purchase price. Plus, your supporting independent film making, fight the power! :)

I haven't had a chance to see each segment yet but it's a five star winner for sure. Drag Queen Heist was sheer fun campy goodness as a heist goes wrong and then...well you'll see.

Sunflowers was a heart warming introspective short that had touched me on a personal level.

Masturbation: Putting the Fun Back Into Self-Loving was one for the shelf. I have shown this at parties and to nearly everyone I know since it came out a few years back. It's the 1950's classroom film that you wish could have been shown in your sex ed class.

Get this DVD now!

Great collection of drama and comedy! With Drag Queen Heist, Masturbation:Putting the Fun into Self-Loving, and The Award Goes to... for great funny moments and Sunflowers and Begging for Change for some seriousness, there's something for everyone (or every mood of your own). Loaded with awesome special features and a fun menu, it's a great DVD. I enjoyed my copy and have bought several more to give as gifts.

If you love both comedy & drama, you'll find both masterfully exhibited in the 5 short films on "BEGGING FOR SHORTS". From the delightfully campy "Masturbation: Putting the Fun into Self-Loving" to the hilarious "Drag Queen Heist" & "And The Award Goes to", the sweet "Sunflowers" and the riveting, split screen "Begging for Change", each feature is refreshingly different and thoughtfully written and directed. JT Tepnapa has an uncanny knack for telling both comedic & dramatic stories in a very unique style. A five star KNOCKOUT!

There are many strengths to this excellent collection of short films. One of them is that you can watch Tepnapa develop his directing skills, his technical abilities, his script writing abilities, and his vision of what gay films can be over the course of the several years represented by this selection of his work. Mr. Tepnapa's sense of humor is both pointed and good spirited - which makes it rare. He has a gift of kindness that the Argentine writer Borges pointed out comes only with considerable intelligence. That, coupled with the fact that he seems genuinely to like the objects of his satire, make his work much more effective. The humorist Tom Lehrer once remarked that one can only produce first rate satire (of which he is a master) if at some level one likes the object of the satire. Tepnapa also has genuine sympathy for his struggling characters and his potentially ridiculous characters that makes them substantial and that engages the viewer in their circumstances.

Hence Tepnapa's films are generous spirited examinations of aspects of gay life that are not traditional, show originality, and yet don't depart from the needs and interests of gay men watching them. I wouldn't have expected a film that explores the concept of counterfactual history to be anything but a major snoozer. In fact it presents a quite thoughtful and penetrating examination of the plight of gay homeless youth, introduces a character who seems to have exiled himself rather than having been thrown out of his house by his parents, and provides intriguing complimentary visions for the outcomes for the two alternative paths. Even more pleasingly, one outcome has an ending shaped so that you know more or less what is going to happen to the main character, but the other outcome is much more open in its vision of the character's future. That makes a deeper comment on the nature of the two choices without being didactic or dull.

Tepnapa's comedic gift is considerable, and he deploys his acting company well. If anybody in history has topped Adam Browne's delivery of the exclamation "Jeepers", I have yet to see it. Browne appears as the French Prostitute in And the Award Goes to ...... and is equally funny there. And I seem to remember that the credits for the films include small, but enriching, details such as the fact that Mr. Browne had a "freckles wrangler" and the J.T. Tepnapa's personal assistant was..... J.T. Tepnapa.

Tepnapa does have a tendency to use easy transition elements to advance the plot rather than coming up with more plausible circumstances. Even Charlton Hestons's pug wouldn't have left a gun where it appears in one scene of one stream of Begging for Change, but the decision to employ or to not employ the gun is the crux of that film. Hence it has to be somewhere. In fact, in the corresponding scene of the other stream it appears in a much more plausible spot. Perhaps the alternative stream might have been improved by having the gun also be placed in a more likely location. Of course, I could be being unduly committed to a realist's vision of the film. They are short films, after all, and are really fine films, so I may being unduly grouchy here.

I have watched and very much like all of the short films on this disc. In fact I have watched them several times, because the humor wears well, and the more serious pieces have weight and thoughtfulness. Definitely a set of films that belong in your collection. If you buy it, you will almost certainly be glad that you have stenghtened your collection of gay films, and/or short films, and/or hysterically funny films.

I stumbled across this DVD by accident, and was amazed. Five short films by and about gay men, recommended for mature film lovers of any orientation.

"Sunflowers" is your traditional boy-meets-boy story. Devon is young, recently out of the closet, and ready for love. Trouble is, all the boys at his school are "stupid" and he doesn't know how to meet guys. Then one day, fate catapults Devon (literally) to the man of his dreams. Can Devon work up the nerve to make the phone call? Will Devon's well-meaning but clueless parents scare the guy away? What about his roommate, who also has a thing for Devon? And what about that letter in Devon's pocket?

The conceit of "Masturbation" is that in the 1950s, a progressive MD made an educational film on the subject. The authorities were scandalized and ordered all copies destroyed. But recently a surviving copy was uncovered, and here it is. Only slightly more ludicrous than the health films we actually had to watch in high school.

"Drag Queen Heist" is about Jared and Bobby, two down-and-out gay men. Jared hatches a plan to reverse their fortunes by robbing a bank in drag. Unfortunately, while all Jared can see is dollar signs, Bobby is more concerned with finding just the right nail polish to make his ensemble complete.

Liked "Sliding Doors?" "Begging for Change" tops it. Tyler is a runaway teen living on the streets and is just about at the end of his rope when a stranger gives him a silver dollar. When Tyler drops the coin, it might bounce either way. One way leads to redemption, the other to oblivion.

"And the Award Goes To..." J.T. Tepnapa. The filmmaker imagines himself winning an Academy Award. Hilarious clips of the competition. "Oatmeal Story?" "Heart Like a Carburetor?" His acceptance speech contains the usual Hollywood platitudes...with quick cutaways to show us what those pleasant-sounding words really mean.

The most remarkable thing about this remarkable collection is the filmmaker's range: from gentle romance to gritty street drama to Pythonesque absurdities. Get this DVD now, so you can brag later about how you discovered J.T. Tepnapa before everyone else did.

From the humour and nostalgia of "Putting The Fun Into Self-Loving" to the gritty worlds of "Begging For Change", this collection of shorts is guaranteed to entertain. If you enjoy nostalgia, romance, comedy, or have ever been robbed at gunpoint by a couple of drag queens, you'll enjoy this compilation. See the beginnings of young love. Witness the dramatic turns a life can take with just the toss of a coin. Watch one man's journey for that ultimate reward, and take a trip back in time to those wonderful "health films" of the 1950s. Oh yes, and enjoy the eye candy along the way.

I have to agree with the reviews here - "Begging for Shorts" is a great compilation of 5 unique tales from a very unique new voice. If you're queer and want to see some quality short features, both serious and comical, pick up this DVD - you won't regret it!