A hookup message opens the door to a devastating discovery in Fadeaway, Brendan Prost's dramatic short about a closeted bisexual man, a fatal overdose and a connection that lingers. The Canadian film has travelled through queer film festivals, but its most affecting question is more intimate: what happens when the search for connection still leaves someone feeling alone?
A message turns into a devastating discovery
Fadeaway begins with a hookup text and the discovery of a fatal overdose. The loss sends a closeted bisexual man back through memories of his first connection with the person who has died, while an old omen takes on a different meaning.
The premise has the pull of a mystery, but the emotional centre is grief and regret. BC Creates describes it as a performance-driven drama about loneliness, placing the human cost of a brief, failed connection front and centre.
The film grew from its director's own experience
Director Brendan Prost has described Fadeaway as a deeply personal story informed by his experience as a bisexual person. He had hoped dating men would bring fresh opportunities for connection, but found that relationships could still be shaped by patriarchal and heteronormative expectations.
That tension gives the film its wider theme. Prost says heteronormativity, toxic masculinity and internalised homophobia can combine to alienate men, and imagines how damaging relationship patterns might persist until intimacy feels increasingly out of reach. It's a sobering idea, handled through the particulars of one relationship rather than a broad lecture.
A short with a festival life
Fadeaway has appeared in a range of queer and independent film programmes. Brendan Prost's screening archive records its world premiere at the Reykjavik International Film Festival in 2025, followed by appearances including Flip the Script Queer Film Festival, Chilliwack Independent Film Festival and Queer Shorts Vienna.
The film's Vimeo listing also records a Golden Egg Award at Reykjavik and Best Director at Chilliwack. BC Creates lists it as a Vancouver premiere at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, where it sits among regional short films by 2SLGBTQIA+ filmmakers. That festival context gives the story a natural home: a personal drama about queer loneliness, shown alongside other queer voices.
What to know before you watch
The filmmaker's Vimeo listing identifies Fadeaway as a 2025 Canadian short in English, running for 13 minutes. It credits Riley Davis, Matt Dejanovic and Sydney Eberwein as stars, with Prost as writer and director.
One listing from Open Space Arts gives the running time as 14 minutes, so the published duration varies slightly by source. Either way, this is a compact drama rather than a feature-length commitment, and the synopsis suggests a story built around loss, memory and the uneasy meaning of an omen.
Why its theme may stay with you
Fadeaway's premise turns on a brief connection, but its director's account points to a bigger unease: intimacy doesn't automatically dissolve isolation. The film asks what happens when social expectations and private fears keep getting in the way, even when someone is trying to reach out.
That makes its focus on loneliness more than a plot device. For viewers drawn to queer dramas that explore grief and the pressures surrounding relationships, Fadeaway offers a concise, personal starting point. Just don't expect its central question to come with an easy answer.
A short film can leave a long shadow, especially when its story turns on the connections we almost manage to make.
Source Reference Map
Story idea inspired by: [1]
Sources by paragraph: