Toto Forever (2010) | Short Film
The Complete Works: Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi
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Drama, Independent, LGBT, Romance, Short Films, Special Interest, 29-Jan-2011
While delivering a package, Toto, a young postman lost in daydreams of freedom and love, discovers an injured man lying by a pool. The stranger, Mark, is a gangster in trouble with the mob. Drawn together by danger and desire, they flee to the open road. But their brief escape becomes a fable of love, loss, and the fragile beauty of hope.
“Toto Forever” is a poetic and symbolic short film by Spanish director Roberto F. Canuto, co-written with Xu Xiaoxi and shot on Super 16mm while studying at the New York Film Academy in Hollywood. The film blends romantic drama, crime, and fantasy to tell a universal story about courage and emotional truth.
🎬 Year of Production: 2010 | Premiere: Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (India, 2010).
Strongly influenced by Japanese BL/Yaoi aesthetics, minimal character design, and fable-like narrative structure, the film transforms a tragic love story into a visual fable about purity, desire, and transcendence. It evokes the timeless moment when the human spirit recovers after loss and rediscovers faith in life and love.
Premiering at the first Kashish Mumbai International Film Festival — one of India’s first LGBT film event after the decriminalization of homosexuality — Toto Forever opened the festival and went on to screen at more than thirty international film festivals worldwide.
🎥 Genre: Romantic Drama / LGBTIQ+ / Symbolic Fable
🕒 Runtime: 14 min
🌍 Language: English (with optional subtitles in Spanish, French and English)
📽️ Format: Super 16 mm Film
🎵 Music: Andrea Centazzo
👥 Cast: Kylan James, Kjord Davis, Diana Grivas, Alexander Aguila, Alexandra Smothers
🔗 Contact: [email protected]
🔗 Official Website: https://almostred.com/toto-forever/
🎞️ IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391130
🎬 TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/283633-toto-forever
📚 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toto_Forever
⭐ Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/toto-forever/
🎥 FilmAffinity: https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film996476.html
▶️ Trailer: https://youtu.be/JupGLTB9m2s
Tagline:
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” — Emily Dickinson
romantic queer short film, LGBTQ cinema, boys’ love aesthetics, poetic gay fable, symbolic storytelling, gangster romance, tragic love story, Super 16mm indie film, New York Film Academy project, road escape narrative, Japanese yaoi influence, visual metaphor cinema, Kylan James, Roberto F. Canuto, Xu Xiaoxi, Almost Red Productions, Kashish Mumbai queer festival, international LGBTQ film festivals.
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