Jun 10, 2005  |  By: BRIAN MOYLAN  | COMMENTS     

them together, but also emphasizes the distance between them.

When we discover both parents’ secrets, the film is as interesting in substance as it is in style. Hopefully, this great start will be expanded into an amazing feature.

“Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family” (Friday, June 17, 9:15 p.m.; 95 minutes): It is truly a postmodern family that both gay audiences and conservative audiences may have trouble understanding. Here gay couple Sam Cagnina and Steven Margolin decide that they want to bring a third person into their relationship. No, not a third man — a woman.

After dating several women, they both fall in love with Samantha Singh. The three get married, move in together and start a business.

Director Susan Kaplan has eight years of interviews with the trio, and shows their relationship changing and evolving over time, including Singh’s pregnancy.

Frank, funny and fearless, this unconventional relationship will challenge the way everyone thinks about love, commitment and orientation.

“Positively Naked” (Shorts Program 3: Saturday, June 18, at 9:30 p.m.; 38 minutes): A sequel to 2001’s “Naked States” and 2003’s “Naked World,” directors Arlene Donnelly Nelson and David Nelson again follow photographer Spencer Tunick, known for his vast assemblages of nude people.

Unlike the last two films, which aired on HBO and concentrated more on the artist, this 30-minute short focuses on a few of the 85 HIV-positive subjects who agreed to be part of a shoot for POZ magazine’s 10th anniversary cover.

Using the photo shoot as the center, it soon spins off into several stories about the subjects, both gay and straight.

Smartly, the Nelsons use the shoot to examine the collective experience without minimizing the effects of the virus on individuals. The end result is a 40-minute tale of survival, an empowering story about being HIV-positive in the United States.

“The Joy of Life” (Sunday, June 19, at 5:30 p.m.; 65 minutes): There are some movies that audiences will either love or hate, and “The Joy of Life,” which screened at Sundance this year, is definitely one of them.

Half narrative dialogue and half statistical analysis, there are no people in this entire 65-minute film. Instead, director Jenni Olson depicts beautiful scenes from San Francisco — empty streets, walls, hills, neighborhoods, and abandoned buildings. They just languish on the screen for extended periods of time. And the result is extraordinary.

During the first half of the film, narrator Harriet “Harry” Dodge tells a sexually graphic, first-person tale of a butch lesbian living in the city and her unsuccessful quest for love. Halfway through, the visuals switch to scenes of the Golden Gate Bridge, and Dodge talks about the h