Renee De Palma

"Ballroom" is an inclusive wheelchair ballroom dance movie about a struggling dancer, Violet, who needs the help of the charming ballroom dance instructor, Petro Saenko, to learn all the Latin dances in two weeks for an upcoming crucial audition. When Violet's depressive mother, Janet, causes her to have a devastating car accident and become paraplegic, Petro helps Violet regain her love for life by showing her she can still dance and audition -- in a wheelchair. However, Violet's controlling mother and Petro's fiery jealous business partner, Emery, will stop at nothing to prevent Violet from realizing her dreams.

Mark Huestis' low-budget, shot-on-video feature casts Doug Self as Steven, a young San Francisco man whose lover Victor has just died of AIDS. Following Victor's dying wishes to have his ashes scattered in Maui, Steven travels to the Hawaii-based New Age community founded by Victor's former partner Robert (Emerald Starr). Despite an edgy relationship with Robert, who never visited Victor in his final months, Steven finds romance with the camp gardener Peter (Joe Tolbe), a matter complicated by the fact that Steven has never undergone an HIV test. Robert admits that he, too, has never had an AIDS test--his fear of death is the reason why he built his closed-off island community. After hearing of another friend's AIDS-related death, Steven leaves Peter behind to return to California