ABOUT
Kalil Haddad is an experimental filmmaker based in Toronto. He has written, directed, and edited over a dozen short films, including The Beautiful Room is Empty (2020), The Taking of Jordan (2022), His Smell (2023), and Victim of Circumstance (2024). His films have screened at Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Kasseler Dokfest, Fantasia, Indie Memphis, London Short Film Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Onion City Experimental, where The Taking of Jordan won the Jury Prize for Best of the Festival.

He Never Dies, a touring showcase of collected works, launched July 2025 at Spectacle Theater and LA Filmforum. See Upcoming for future dates.


PRESS

Bleeding Edge - Cinema Year Zero - In Review Online

Reverse Shot - Tone Glow - Ultra Dogma


SITE INDEX
Films - Image Gallery - Other Credits

Notable Screenings - Upcoming
FILMS


YOU SORTA KNOW IT’S GONNA END
2025 | 62:00 | Canada | English

VHS COMPILATION with Ryan Steel

Featuring
  • Muscle Monsters
  • Honeypot
  • The Boys of Summer
  • His Smell

“What ‘it’ is - summer, youth, or something else entirely - is never spelled out. The enigmatic ‘it’ lands like a sobering gut punch, the dull ache of leaving a party too late or the lingering throb of an emotional hangover.” (Madeline Bogoch, Official Zine)


MY SECRET BOYFRIEND DIED IN A MASS SHOOTING
2025 | 6:32 | Canada | English

He Never Dies IV

THE FILM THAT GOT MY VIMEO BANNED

“In voice over, a narrator recalls inviting a boy over while his parents are out of town, while chopped and screwed R&B music accompanies scenes of hand jobs and kissing. The narration and the sudden sounds of gunshots reiterate the themes of the tragic fates of gay youth that unite Haddad’s works.“ (Sarah Fensom, In Review Online)




VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE
2024 | 20:32 | Canada | English

He Never Dies III

Scott and Brandon meet at an orphanage in the 1980s. When Brandon sets off for California, Scott follows close behind. Their story lives in the margins of an adult magazine.

“The ambitious project sets its sights on the failures of the gay liberation movement to protect its most vulnerable during the sexual revolution that accompanied it, wielding various artifacts of pornography’s so-called Golden Age for maximal distress.“ (Alexander Mooney, Reverse Shot)



THE BOY WAS FOUND UNHARMED
2024 | 2:32 | Canada | English

He Never Dies II

Jody remembers being eleven.

“In narration, an adult Jody, his voice slowed and deepened in a manner equally reminiscent of news shows and Vaporwave remixes, reacts to details of his story, while footage of a young karate student besting his adult sensei plays on screen.” (Sarah Fensom, In Review Online)



MUSCLE MONSTERS
2017-2023 | 4:39 | Canada | English

Glue Trilogy I

Advice, man to man.

Featured in You Sorta Know It’s Gonna End.

“Muscle Monsters follows a quieter teen gently radicalized by his loudmouth friend, who preaches a testosterone-soaked gospel of bro-y maxims: no-fap, get swol, and so on.” (Madeline Bogoch, Official Zine)


PAUL AND EILEEN HAD FOUR CHILDREN
2023 | 11:51 | Canada | English

Standalone

A remembrance of things past.

“Kalil Haddad’s hypnotizing documentary chronicles decades of family history without the use of interviews or voiceover. The result is a haunting portrayal of the passage of time as slo-mo horror.” (Insomniac Film Festival)

Winner: Best in Show, Ithaca Experimental Film Festival
[currently unavailable]


HIS SMELL
2023 | 13:54 | Canada | English

Standalone
Starring Sebastian Neme

Sebastian’s roommate is away for the weekend.

Featured in You Sorta Know It’s Gonna End.

“Haddad’s film, though only 14 minutes in length, captures perfectly a life lived in a kind of purgatory. Its looping, almost hallucinatory sampled score, which largely consists of two different looped beats, is largely responsible for the film’s uncomfortable repetition.” (Reece Beckett, Counter Arts)


THE TAKING OF JORDAN (ALL AMERICAN BOY)
2022 | 7:39 | Canada | English

He Never Dies I
Jordan, an amateur adult performer, recalls the horror of his many former lives.

“Through its seemingly endless loop of real and symbolic deaths and disappearances, The Taking of Jordan links the ways in which true crime and a certain type of gonzo-style gay pornography both obsess over the fragility of youth and make its destruction the locus of their action.“ (Sarah Fensom, In Review Online)

WINNER: Jury Prize Best of the Festival, Onion City Experimental


VAMPIRES DRINK BLOOD... I DRINK SORROW
2021 | 5:43 | Canada | English

Standalone

Starring Kalil Haddad and Josiah Dyck

A love story at the end of time.

“Haddad shoots his object of desire in sultry, swooning closeups, while his nocturnal wanderer is captured in isolating wides and long-lensed tracks as he broods through dark alleyways.“ (Alexander Mooney, Reverse Shot)

[currently unavailable]


THE BOYS OF SUMMER
2017-2021 | 5:22 | Canada | English

Glue Trilogy III

Boys will be boys.
Featured in You Sorta Know It’s Gonna End.



HONEYPOT
2017-2021 | 3:42 | Canada | English

Glue Trilogy II

Boys will be boys.

Featured in You Sorta Know It’s Gonna End.


THE BEAUTIFUL ROOM IS EMPTY
2020 | 19:45 | Canada | English

Standalone

Marie, a retired elementary school principle, must confront spaces both concrete and virtual, as she attempts to navigate the ghosts of her childhood.

“Haddad conducts interviews with his aunt Marie, a retired high school principal. She reflects on her childhood, unravelling the knotted dichotomy between her lesbian identity and the demands of a feminine role in a strict Arab household. “ (Alexander Mooney, Reverse Shot)




TIGER EATS A BABY
2020 | 23:01 | Canada | English

Standalone

Starring Cairns Nolan, Everett Major, and Sophy Romvari

Accompanied by his young cub, an orphaned stray roams industrial landscapes, longing for the return of his one true companion.

[currently unavailable]


Early works include: FARM BOY (2019), AS I SAT IN HIS CAR... (2018), LIAM & KIKI (2017), and LATE NIGHT DELIGHT (2017).

Kalil Haddad, 2026