Fags

On a warm star drunk night, a young gay couple, Isaac and Arlo, are confronted by a stranger’s slur. Hand in hand, they reclaim the word through Isaac’s poem, transforming an act of hate into a moment of love, art, and queer pride.

  • Hunter Somerled
    Director
  • Hunter Somerled
    Writer
  • Hunter Somerled
    Producer
  • James-paul Mountstevens
    Producer
  • Jez Underwood
    Key Cast
    "Issac"
  • James-paul Mountstevens
    Key Cast
    "Arlo"
  • Marz Cooper
    Key Cast
    "Tradie"
  • Bryce Padovan
    Editor
  • Dominic "Mini" Altamore
    Director of Photography
  • Joel McNamara
    Assistant Camera
  • Adrien Marks
    Script Supervisor
  • Zoe Stragalinos
    Production Assistant
  • Minimae
    Music
  • Weston Symes
    Visual Effects Artist
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    LGBTQIA+, Drama, Poetry Film
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 30, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    B-RAW
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Hunter Somerled

Hunter Somerled is a Naarm/Melbourne-based emerging filmmaker and writer whose work centres queer Australian voices through intimate, lyrical storytelling. Currently studying Creative Writing and Screen & Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne, his films blend poetry, vulnerability, and defiance, often exploring the complexities of identity and desire within the overstimulating twenty-first century.

He founded Green Carnation Productions to develop community-rooted projects, with the main focus of voicing the untold creative works of young Australians who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

His latest short film, Fags, adapted from his poem ‘Faggots’, reclaims a slur by transforming hate into art and pride. Hunter is committed to creating emotionally charged cinema that amplifies and celebrates the queer experience.

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Director Statement

One night after a late bartending shift, my partner and I walked home through Melbourne’s CBD, hand in hand. As we passed a tradesman, he hurled a slur at us, faggots. The word hit like a bolt of lightning. I felt a rush of anger, the urge to shout back, to meet violence with violence. But when I told my partner how I felt, we found ourselves in a conversation about morality. Acting on those impulses wouldn’t heal anything; in fact, it would only mirror the hatred we’d just encountered.

So instead, I asked myself how I could reclaim my pride, my queer pride, without surrendering to spitefulness. The next day, a poem clawed its way out of me, and through writing it, I felt something soften. Art became the place where I could transmute the moment, turning harm into something tender and defiant.

When the poem was later selected for publication in the BlueBird Anthology, I realised the story still wasn’t finished. I wanted to give the words a body, a pulse, a world. That impulse became its visual adaptation: a short film that brings the poem to life and transforms a moment of bigotry into one of love, resilience, and reclamation.