Acts of Love

A romance from the past creeps into the present. When his older boyfriend loses interest in him, a filmmaker relocates to Chicago and, looking for a way forward, arranges meetings with strangers on dating apps and asks them to make a film with him. He spirals into a series of unconventional relationships, and what results is a fragmented, candid story about love, disappointment, and desire. Throughout, he receives phone calls from his mother, who reluctantly offers her son criticism and devotion, other forms of love that are no less complicated. Co-directed by Isidore Bethel and Francis Leplay, Acts of Love blurs the line between documentary and fiction to ask what we owe the people we let into our lives, and what we are willing to give up to be understood.