It is said that if one succeeds in catching a falling leaf in mid-flight, then a wish will be granted. Leung and Will, two teenagers, venture into the woods to catch themselves a wish but Leung longs for something that Will isn’t willing to give.

A touching tale about the anxiety and excitement of a boy wanting to kiss his best friend, Summer is directed by Hong Khaou and is one of nine short films selected for Boys on Film 1 – Hard Love.

We spoke to Hong Khaou about inspiration, experience and kissing his best friend!

Tell us a little about Summer, what can we expect?
Summer is a nice intimate honest tale about friendship.

Where did the inspiration for the film come from?
My friend once told me about a folklore where, if you can catch a falling leaf, you get a wish. I thought it was a wonderful premise to write a short film around.

Is it at all autobiographical?
When I write I do draw from my own experiences, but I also embellish them a little so that it can work in a dramatic context. Summer was my first attempt at writing anything with a gay theme, so I guess it is partly autobiographical in that the reverse happened to me. When I was 14 or 15, a friend told me he loved me and I rejected him and called him a fag!

So did you ever kiss your best friend?
Not recently.

So is summer your favourite season?
Yeah, I love the sun and hot weather - any excuse for me to wear flip flops.

What would you say is the message of Summer?
I don’t have a specific message in Summer. Some people think it’s a coming out film, but that’s not what I intended it to be. The idea behind Summer was to make a small intimate film about two very good friends, one wants to kiss the other but doesn’t know how to do it. It is a familiar theme but I knew if the acting was honest and genuine enough without the cheese then it can be really charming.

What is it you like about the film short format?
I do like the short film format. It’s a great format to be creative and playful with. You have a very short time span to grab the audience’s attention - it forces you to think in very creative and resourceful ways.

What’s the hardest obstacle to overcome with the form?
Some short films can suffer from too much narrative and clichéd symbolic structural/narrative devices, being the nature of the form, or they can be over poetic and esoteric. It’s hard to strike a balance.

For you, what’s the perfect length for a short?
Whatever your story is will determine the length of the film. It’s hard to just set a specific length and say that’s the perfect length for a short film.

So would you ever want to expand the short into a feature film?
I wouldn’t want to expand Summer into a feature film, Summer works very well as a short film. But there’re a few short film ideas I’ve written that can also be feature films.

Is there a scene or moment in Summer that you’re most proud of?
I really love the clumsy way Leung kisses Will. I was worried sick about how to shoot that scene and whether to rehearse it or not, so I decided not to rehearse it. The actors are so straight and laddish, they kept making these jokes about the kissing scene, so I knew they were nervous and slightly uncomfortable too, which was perfect for the story. You can see that on the screen.

"The actors are so straight and laddish, they kept making these jokes about the kissing scene, so I knew they were nervous...which was perfect for the story. You can see that on the screen."

And anything that looking back on you’d do differently?
It was a friggin' struggle to get any agency to allow their young actors to audition for the film. Once they knew of the subject matter, they’d run a mile or slam the phone down on me politely. Ideally, I would have liked the actors to be even younger, but it was impossible to get actors willing to do that. I would also have less music.

There seem to be a few more gay films coming through that aren’t about sex and naked bodies (not that there’s anything wrong with that?!). Why do you think this is?
These trends seem to come and go in cycles. I think as gay men we’re less prudish and more honest with sex and our bodies. It doesn’t work if the story/direction hasn’t earned it. If it feels right for the story to have bums or cocks, then so be it. There’s enough room for all kinds of film, be it frivolous with loads of gratuitous sex and nudity or the serious type without.

So what do you think of the state of gay cinema at the moment?
Is there a gay cinema? To be honest, I think it's really poor. The odd high profile ones with superstars attached will get into the cinemas, but if you think about it, it’s only every two or three years that you see a Hollywood gay film. I think it’s fantastic that ‘gay’ is entering the mainstream - my quiet concern is that the mainstream tends to sanitise us and, when we get sanitised, we cease to become interesting.

"It was a friggin' struggle to get any agency to allow their young actors to audition for the film. Once they knew of the subject matter, they’d run a mile or slam the phone down on me politely."

Is it harder to get a gay themed film financed?
I don’t know the answer to this - I would think maybe it’s easier at this moment because gay themed films are really in vogue right now. Milk was a huge success, XXY before that, Brokeback Mountain, of course, and so on.

What are your favourite gay-themed films?
I remember My Beautiful Launderette was amazing when I first saw it on TV. It was so ground-breaking and daring, still now in many respects. I like Querelle by Fassbinder, though it’s not his best film, my favourite by him is Fear Eats the Soul, even though that’s not a gay film, but Fassbinder is a wonderful filmmaker. Lan Yu by Stanley Kwan and Wild Side by Sebastien Lifshitz are also good.

What would be your dream movie to make?
My dream would be just to make a feature that I like. But I think if I had written and directed the Three Colours Trilogy by Kieslowski or the first two Indiana Jones movies, then I would be very content.

And finally, what’s next for you?
Trying to make my next short called Spring, then Winter and, finally, Monsoon.

Read The Boys On Film 1 - Hard Love Review »
Click for our review including image gallery, trailer, verdict, plot and queer ratings.

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Read Our Interview With Brad Bilanin »
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Read Our Interview With Timothy Smith »
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Boys On Film 1- Hard Love [2007]
Studio: Peccadillo Pictures
Released: 09 March 2009
ASIN: B001L5JMQ6

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