The festival, formerly called the Adam Baran Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, this year inhabits two venues — besides the more traditional Duke setting, screenings also will be at the new Cupola Events Theatre at the Honolulu Design Center at 1250 Kapiolani Blvd.

The premiere film, about two men from differing cultural and economic strata, explores sexual orientation with a blend of comedy and drama. The indie film, which has opened only in nine theaters, attracted 40,000 film-goers, setting a new box office record for an independent film in South Korea and put an edginess to the K-drama phenomenon.

Leesong Hee-il is the breakthrough writer-director, whose work features actors Lee Young-Hoon and Lee Han as cultural opposites in a relationship that exposes real-life challenges for social acceptance.

The other films slated at Duke:

i "Nina's Heavenly Delights," at 8 p.m. May 25, a cultural stew combining Scottish and British humor and Bollywood spectacle, about a Scottish lass of Indian descent forced to take over her family's restaurant with the help of her Bollywood drag queen friend.

i "The Sex Movie," at 10 p.m. May 25, about a foursome from a gay porn shoot — one gay, one straight, one lesbian, one bisexual — who engage in verbal fisticuffs about their sexual identities.

The screenings move to Cupola on May 26 with a diverse range of films — shorts, features, documentaries — tapping themes from transgender issues to political bigotry when dealing with sexual orientation, from social outcasts to a musical documentary.

The festival is a presentation of the Honolulu Gay & Lesbian Cultural Foundation.

Ticket prices vary, from individual sales ($10 per film) to festival passes at prices ranging from $40 to $500. To order tickets, go to www.hglcl.org or call 381-1952.