Winner of the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ themed feature film at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival Hard Paint, by precocious Brazilian Co-directors Filipe Matzembacher and Marco Reolon (Seashore), paints a picture of a socially repressed young man who finds confidence as his alter ego ‘NeonBoy’, an erotic performer who smears neon paint on his body.

Set in Brazil’s southern city of Porto Alegre, it revolves around Pedro (Shico Menegat), a timid, emotionally closed late teenager. When Pedro’s older sister Luiza (Guega Peixoto) moves out of the city leaving her younger brother alone, his isolation and alienation from those in school leaves his only social outlet (and way of income) in online chats and webcam shows where he has gained a following with his erotic show of sensual dancing involving neon paint. However, when Pedro learns of another webcam model in Porto Alegre using the same material in his performances, he arranges to meet him...

An atmospheric, haunting portrait of alienation and disaffection in contemporary society, Hard Paint is as vivid in its cinematography as its story telling.

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