BRO

Noah Berc

My name is Noah Berc, and I am a filmmaker, curator, and researcher from Burlington, Ontario, Canada. I recently graduated with an MA in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies from Queen’s University. My research examined contemporary body horror cinema, interrogating genre as a site of psychoanalysis and cultural study, bridging my creative practice with critical inquiry. Alongside my studies, I curate the film series Beyond the Flesh at Kingston’s independent cinema, The Screening Room, where I program and introduce screenings of international body horror cinema. My previous short film, Pimple Patch (2025), has screened at festivals in the UK, Austria, the US, and across Canada. As a Deninu K??? scholar, I also contributed to public history as the commissioned writer of Unmarked Waters, an Indigenous history tour for the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes. As a multidisciplinary enthusiast of cinema, my work aims to underscore the merits of filmmaking as a medium of creative expression and a catalyst for cultural production.

Director Statement

I made BRO to express my insecurities as a gay man navigating the suffocating and, at times, terrifying social pressures that reinforce traditional masculinity, which orient queer bodies towards heteronormativity. Inspired by my recent search for housing, BRO visualizes the complex emotions I felt when I noticed that I would try to appear more traditionally masculine when meeting male roommates. Upon reflection, I felt disgusted and scared of hiding a part of myself I had grown so proud of, and I felt confused about why I was doing it, even if it was subconscious. Confronting this impulse produced a mix of disgust and fear, particularly in recognizing how easily I concealed a part of myself I claim to embrace. The reflexive nature of that response prompted me to interrogate the perpetuation of heteronormativity as it circulates in the media and in my life to demonstrate how these pressures can materialize into something sinister and violent. As a lifelong horror fan, I found no better way to tackle these idiosyncrasies than through genre storytelling and a bit of bloodshed.