26th annual SF Trans Film Festival

It’s a bit later than I was planning, but I have posted my reviews of the first four programs of short films in this year’s San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. (I didn’t review the “adult” content in Program 5.)

As of this writing, you still have 27½ hours left (until 11:59 pm on Sunday, November 19th) to catch some of these great films. Go to the website (link above), choose the program you want to watch, and you can stream them for whatever sliding-scale donation you think is appropriate — yes, even $0.00 if that’s the best you can offer.

After that, many of the films are available on YouTube, Vimeo, or other online platforms, although in a couple of cases you’ll have to write to the filmmaker and ask for a password.

Not every film was a masterpiece, of course, but I think it is a pretty good sign that the “MUST SEE” films outnumbered the “not recommended” by 12 to 4. Congratulations to SFTFF on a triumphant return to in-person screenings!

SFTFF 2023 Program 4

Program 4, Friday, November 10, 2023, 7:00 pm Roxie and streaming online

• Fernanda, dir. Mar Angélica Molina, 2021, USA, 12 min. 🙂
• Jamie’s Pond, dir. Reid Sandlund, 2023, USA, 4 min. 👏
• Masisi Wouj, dirs. Zé Kielwagen, Marcos Serafim, & Steevens Siméon, 2021, Haiti, 22 min., in Haitian Creole with English subtitles 👏
• Creating Space, dir. Ariel Robbins, 2023, USA, 2 min. 💖
• The Barman’s Daughter, dir. Shawna Virago, 2023, USA, 4 min. 🙂
• MnM, dir. Twiggy Pucci Garçon, 2023, USA, 15 min. 💖
• Dilating for Maximum Results, dir. Nyala Moon, 2023, USA, 14 min. 💖

🔤 Masisi Wouj is fully subtitled, and Creating Space is open captioned. The other films are all fully closed captioned.

SFTFF 2023 Program 3

Program 3, Thursday, November 9, 2023, 9:00 pm Roxie and streaming online

[This program consists of only two short films, but they’re both excellent. See my reviews of them from Frameline47:]

The Script, dir. Brit Fryer & Noah Schamus, 2023, USA, 15 min. 💖
(screened as part of Frameline’s “Shorts: The Ace of Wands Tarot”)

Belonging: An Indian Trans Immigrant Story, dir. Amir Jaffer, 2023, USA, 40 min. 💖
(screened as part of Frameline’s “Local Legends” program)

The Script

Belonging

SFTFF 2023 Program 2

Program 2, Thursday, November 9, 2023, 7:00 pm Roxie, and streaming online

• Sir Valence Presents: Watching U, dir. Sir Valence, 2023, USA, 6 min. 🙂
• Ordinary, dir. Atlas O. Phoenix, 2022, USA, 12 min. 💖
• Papergirl, dir. Jack Warren, 2023, USA, 5 min. 👎
• A história de Mafalda (The Story of Mafalda), dir. Daniel Herz & Luis Felipe Sá, 2021, Brazil, 6 min., in Portuguese with English subtitles 👎👎
• The Little Piratemaid, dir. Luke Beatrice, 2023, USA, 3 min. 💖
• Not All Boys Look the Same, dir. Felix Conroy, 2023, USA, 5 min. 💖
• Procuro teu auxílio para enterrar un homem (I Seek Your Help to Bury a Man), dir. Anderson Bardot, 2023, Brazil, 20 min., in Portuguese and other languages with English subtitles 🚫
• Shipping Them, dir. Ryan Rox, 2022, USA, 15 min. 💖

SFTFF 2023 Program 1

Program 1, Wednesday, November 8, 2023, 7:00 pm Roxie, and streaming online

[Sorry for getting this out so late in the week, but the good news is that many of the films are available on the filmmakers’ website or social media.]

• Auntie Chris Signs of Rivers, dir. Marrok Sedgwick, 2023, USA, 6 min. 👏
• If I Cannot Feed All the Hungers of the World, Do I Still Hold Value?, dir. Ray Isaak Bleau, 2022, USA, 3 min. 🫤
• City Folx, season 1, ep. 1, “The Ads,” dir. Rae Dawn, 2021, USA, 6 min. 💖
• House of Enigma/迷之住所, dir. Slade Warnken and Ying Dai, 2023, USA, 11 min. 💖
• Prittyboi, dir. Nicolas Collins, 2019, USA, 4 min. 👏
• Gender Euphoria: Trans People in the Bay Area, dir. Alex Sharp & Mia Florendo, 2023, USA, 7 min. 💖
• At Water’s Edge, dir. Sean Dorsey, 2022, USA, 4 min. 👏
• Last Call, dir. Drew de Pinto, 2021, USA, 4 min. 👏
• Chiron, dir. Rachel Rambaldi, 2022, USA, 6 min. 🙂
• Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs in Their Limpias, dir. Roberto Fatal, 2023, USA, 14 min 👏

San Francisco Transgender Film Festival 2023

Well, folks, it’s festival time again, this time the SF Trans Film Festival. Tonight was opening night, with a program of 10 short films that ranged from good to great. Tomorrow will have two programs, 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm at the Roxie, with the final two programs in those time slots on Friday. The whole thing will then be available online for streaming from November 11 to the 19th, a full week plus the weekends on either end. Check it out at SFTFF.org!

My reviews of individual films will follow soon.

Frameline47 cross-reference of films reviewed here

Here is a cross-referenced list of the films I reviewed in Frameline 47. Foreign-language films are listed both by the original title and by the English title. First is an emoji representing my bottom-line appraisal of the film. If a second emoji follows, that indicates that the film was a premiere: 🌐 World premiere, 🌎 North American premiere, 🇺🇸 U.S. premiere, or 🌊 West Coast premiere. Then there is a link to the review, along with an indication of 🔞 films not suitable for younger viewers and/or current or planned distribution channels.

In total, I reviewed 15 feature-length documentaries, 36 feature-length narrative films, 11 short documentaries, and 34 short narrative films, for a total of 96 films.

Le ragazze non piangono (Girls Don’t Cry)

Le ragazze non piangono (Girls Don’t Cry), dir. Andrea Zuliani, 2022, Italy, 105 min., in Italian with English subtitles 😐

Saturday, June 17, 1:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Girls Don’t Cry

Ele is 19, living in southern Italy, still reeling from the loss of her father and determined to fix up the family’s broken-down camper van. Mia buttonholes a friend to help Ele get the camper van working, but then suddenly needs to get home to Romania as quickly as possible, with Ele her only hope. Thus begins a spur-of-the-moment road trip, with plenty of new people and wild adventures along the way, but also plenty of secrets threatening to crash the party. Both young women seem to be incapable or unwilling to put any real thought into the practical realities of a 2,000+ kilometer journey in a gas-guzzling camper van that is well past its prime, to say the very least.

I didn’t find the main characters very relatable, and several bits of the plot felt contrived or heavy handed. It’s not a terrible way to spend a couple of hours, but the best I can give it is “meh.”

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Coming Around

Coming Around, dir. Sandra Itäinen, 2023, USA, 75 min., in English and Arabic with English subtitles, closed captioned [see note] 👏

Thursday, June 22, 1:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Coming Around

“We are here. We are queer. We are Muslim. We are both, relentlessly without contradiction and without apology.” Coming Around follows Eman, an out and proud activist in New York who becomes much more subdued when she goes home to Missouri to visit her traditional Muslim mother. She even starts dating a cisgender man, giving her mother hope that she can get right with God, but will it last? The mother is portrayed in a compassionate and balanced way, devout but not rigid, loving her daughter unconditionally, genuinely and respectfully seeking to understand the issues surrounding her life. It’s a story you haven’t seen before with this level of complexity and nuance. Well worth seeing, highly recommended.

Note regarding subtitles and closed captions: The portions of the dialogue in Arabic, and a few portions of the English dialogue, are subtitled (open captions). There are also English closed captions, but they sometimes conflict. For example, in the Arabic portions, the subtitles give the translation but the closed captions only say “[speaking foreign language],” with the two captions overlapping visually.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Facebook: @ComingAroundFilm •

Venuseffekten (Venus Effect)

Venuseffekten (Venus Effect), dir. Anna Emma Haudal, 2021, Denmark, 105 min., in Danish with English subtitles 👏

Saturday, June 17, 8:00 pm, New Parkway in Oakland + streaming encore

Venuseffekten

Twentysomething Liv (Johanne Milland, pictured right) has grown up on her family’s farm outside Copenhagen. She’s comfortable in her routine, tending her greenhouse. But then Andrea (Josephine Park, left) shows up, frantically trying to get to the city for a bachelorette party (for which she is dressed as a pussy). Liv is immediately drawn to Andrea and finds herself moving ever closer, even as her familiar circumstances shift almost before her eyes: her parents’ marriage is falling apart, as is her own relationship with her boyfriend Sebastian. It’s an engaging story, with Liv’s lesbian awakening only one piece of her coming into fully independent adulthood. Highly recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Amazon link for the Blu-Ray [imported from Denmark] • Apple TV (DK) • Danish Film Institute •

Casa Izabel (House of Izabel)

Casa Izabel (House of Izabel), dir. Gil Baroni, 2022, Brazil, 84 min., in Portuguese with full English subtitles 😐

Monday, June 19, 5:45 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

🌎 North American première

Casa Izabel

First, two bits of useful backstory not in the film itself: One, Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, and two, this fictional story is loosely inspired by the true story of Casa Susanna as depicted in a documentary in this festival.

Casa Izabel is set in 1970, somewhere in the Brazilian countryside. A group of men gather to dress up and take on the personae of glamorous women, with the solemn promise to leave the outside world (and their outside identities) at the door. The founder of the retreat, Izabel, is a semi-invalid, holed up in her quarters watching home movies of previous years’ get-togethers. But some melodrama is afoot, with suspicions rising even faster than the missing persons list. Is there an infiltrator among the guests? What happened to the cook’s (other) son?

There are some fun parts of this movie, but on the whole “pulpy period melodrama” really isn’t my schtick, and I wasn’t terribly impressed by the mystery angle in the story. Still, if you like that kind of thing, you may enjoy Casa Izabel, but I can’t really recommend it for general audiences. I give it a “meh.”

• IMDb page • Official website [http] • trailer •

Out of Uganda

Out of Uganda, dir. Rolando Colla & Josef Burri, 2023, Switzerland, 65 min., in English and in French and German with English subtitles throughout 💖 •

🌎 North American première

Tuesday, June 20, 2:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Out of Uganda

In Uganda, a homophobic press, homophobic religious groups (with active encouragement from U.S. groups), and homophobic politicians have come together to create an LGBTQ+ hellscape of almost unimaginable breadth and depth, advocating and ultimately legislating the death penalty for homosexuality.

It’s not easy to watch a story this gruesome, but it is important that we not turn our backs. Definitely a MUST SEE. Even long after these ghastly laws are repealed, we must bear witness that these human beings faced such inhumane treatment.

• IMDb page [Colla] [Burri] • Official website • trailer •

How to Tell a Secret

How to Tell a Secret, dir. Anna Rodgers & Shaun Dunne, 2022, Ireland, 99 min., fully closed captioned 💖

Sunday, June 18, 1:30 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

How to Tell a Secret

Shaun Dunne wrote and produced a play about his own process of disclosing his HIV+ status. Six years later, he inter­weaves rehearsals for the play with a story­tell­ing work­shop and a public presenta­tion for World AIDS Day, talking about the per­sis­tent stigma in Irish culture and the cor­res­pond­ing per­sis­tence of high rates of HIV trans­mis­sion. It’s a powerful story, and not just because I love an Irish accent. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Jess Plus None

Jess Plus None, dir. Mandy Fabian, 2023, USA, 101 min. 💩

Tuesday, June 20, 3:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Jess Plus None

Jess Plus None is a formulaic and predictable story of a trainwreck of a person with no concept of boundaries attend­ing a wedding at a campground. The title character — I wouldn’t really say “protagonist” — has no discernible redeeming qualities. Throw in a few clichés, umm, I mean other characters, with Jess holding up a metaphorical mirror so they can see that they’re all broken, too, so they can all learn some Valuable Life Lessons, with a little gratuitous, culturally appropriative Native American spirituality thrown in as an afterthought. And with the exception of a precious few moments, it’s not even funny. Truly a movie that should not have been made. NOT recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

20,000 Species of Bees

20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas), dir. Estibalitz Urresola Solaguren, 2023, Spain, 129 min., in Spanish, Basque, and French with full English subtitles 👏

Monday, June 19, 8:15 pm, New Parkway in Oakland 

+ streaming encore (California only)

20,000 Species of Bees

Ane and her three children go on a visit to their bee-keeping relatives in the Basque Country, a region that straddles southwestern France and northern Spain. The youngest child, 8 years old, is having a rough summer, trying to navigate gender identity along with all the other vicissitudes of childhood, including obvious strain in the parents’ relationship. They reject their birth name, Aitor, and the nickname Cocó, finally choosing a new name. Ane and her family try to support them, but are themselves navigating unfamiliar terrain.

It’s a beautiful story, but also relentlessly downbeat. There is a lot of bickering, between mother and father, between mother and grandmother, between mother and aunty, and between mother and child. There isn’t a lot of happiness breaking through, except when the child is with their aunty and the bees. Still, the young protagonist puts in a remarkable performance, and the end result is definitely Highly Recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Casa Susanna

Casa Susanna, dir. Sébastien Lifshitz, 2022, USA/France, 97 min., fully closed captioned 💖

Casa Susanna

During the 1950s, a small group of people created a refuge in a house in the Catskills region of upstate New York, a retreat where people who in their everyday lives presented as men, could dress in women’s clothes and freely express their authentic selves — as transwomen, as cross-dressers, or however they saw themselves.

Through home movies and photos, plus interviews with a couple of participants, Casa Susanna builds a remarkable portrait of a group of people who, in the midst of the Red Scare and the attendant Lavender Scare, nonetheless created a sanctuary for authentic joy, at least for the privileged few who made their way there. It’s an important piece of queer history that was worth documenting. Definitely a MUST SEE.

Casa Susanna was part of the American Experience series on PBS. You can watch the full film at the link below.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • watch on PBS •

Homegrown: The Sun Tarot (shorts program)

“Homegrown: The Sun Tarot” (shorts program)

Friday, June 23, 11:00 am, Castro + streaming encore

Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs in Their Limpias, dir. Roberto Fatal, 2023, USA, 14 min. 👏 • 🌎 North American première

Femme Rage, dir. Sarah Taborga & Aïma Paule, 2023, USA, 3 min., fully open captioned, with Audio Description available 💖

The Girl That Got Away, dir. Lauren Veen & Ephi Stempler, 2023, USA, 14 min. 💖

(in)convenience, dir. Alexandra Greenspan, 2023, USA, 12 min. 👏

Interdimensional Pizza Portal, dir. Aron Kantor, 2023, USA, 5 min. 👍

No More Longing (Chega de saudade), dir. Connor Lee O’Keefe, 2023, USA, 16 min., in English w/ Portuguese subtitles and in Portuguese w/ English subtitles 👏

Sean Dorsey Dance: Dreaming Trans and Queer Futures, dir. Lindsay Gauthier, 2022, USA, 9 min. 💖

Take Me There, dir. Elliot Slade, 2023, USA, 21 min. 💖 • 🌐 World première

Shorts: The World Tarot

“The World Tarot” shorts program

These short films screened before separate feature-length films in the theatrical presentation of the festival, but were collected into this program for the streaming encore

Femme Rage, dir. Sarah Taborga & Aïma Paule, 2023, USA, 3 min. 💖

Fish Boy (魚仔), dir. Christopher Yip (葉穎輝), 2023, Canada, 11 min., in English and Cantonese with English subtitles 👏

I Can See the Sun but I Can’t Feel It Yet, dir. Joseph Wilson, 2023, UK, 18 min. 💖 • 🌎 North American première

Le roi qui contemplait la mer (A King, Gazing at the Sea), dir. Jean-Sébastien Chauvin, 2022, France, 24 min., in Greek, English, and French 😐

Knowing Me, Knowing You, dir. Fernando Andrés, Jacob Roberts, & Tyler Rugh, 2023, USA, 15 min. 👎

Some Day All This Will Be Yours, dir. Cricket Arrison, 2023, USA, 11 min. 💩 • 🌐 World première

Sob influência (Under the Influence), dir. Ricardo Branco, 2022, Portugal, 20 min., in Portuguese with subtitles 💩 • 🌎 North American première

Shorts: The Ace of Wands Tarot

“Shorts: The Ace of Wands Tarot” (shorts program)

Friday, June 16, 1:00 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Big Sur Gay Porn, dir. Ryan A. White, 2023, USA, 12 min. 🙂 • 🌐 World première

Os animais mais fofos e engraçados do mundo (The Cutest and Funniest Animals in the World), dir. Renato Sircilli, 2023, Brazil, 24 min., in Portuguese with subtitles 👎 • 🌎 North American première

Império (Empire), dir. Thais de Almeida Prado, 2023, Brazil, 4 min., no dialogue 👎 • 🌐 World première

How to Carry Water, dir. Sasha Wortzel, 2023, USA, 15 min. 👏

Ob scena (Ob Scene), dir. Paloma Orlandini Castro, 2021, Argentina, 18 min., in Spanish with subtitles 👎 • 🇺🇸 U.S. première

The Script, dir. Brit Fryer & Noah Schaus, 2023, USA, 15 min. 💖

犬漏 (Solid), dir. Hiroki Iwasa, 2021, Japan, 14 min., in Japanese with subtitles 👍 • 🌎 North American première

Y, dir. Matea Kovač, 2023, Croatia, 7 min., in Croatian with subtitles 😐 • 🌎 North American première

Shorts: The Ace of Cups Tarot

“Shorts: The Ace of Cups Tarot” shorts program

Monday, June 19, 11:00 am, Castro + streaming encore

Cousins, dir. Karina Dandashi, 2023, USA, 13 min., in English and Arabic with subtitles, Winner: Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant 👍

MnM, dir. Twiggy Pucci Garçon, 2023, USA, 15 min., 🇺🇸 U.S. première 💖

Ñaños, dir. Emilio Subía, 2022, USA/Ecuador, 15 min., in English and Spanish with subtitles, Winner: Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant 👎

The Roof, dir. Alexander Bocchieri, 2023, USA, 20 min. [not streaming] 🫥

Entre las sombras arden mundos (Worlds Burning Amid the Shadows), dir. Ismael García Ramírez, 2023, Colombia, 19 min., in Spanish with subtitles, 👍 🇺🇸 U.S. première

Hidden Master: the Legacy of George Platt Lynes

Hidden Master: the Legacy of George Platt Lynes, dir. Sam Shahid, 2023, USA, 96 min. 💖

Saturday, June 24, 3:30 pm, Castro + streaming encore

George Platt Lynes

George Platt Lynes was born in 1907. An aspiring writer, he traveled to Paris when he was 18, becoming a close asso­ci­ate of Gertrude Stein, Glenway Wescott, and Monroe Wheeler. He gradually realized that his talents lay more in the area of photography than writing, and he became a fash­ion photographer, also doing quite a few celebrity portraits, but the work that inspired his greatest passion was his male nudes. Of course, in the early to mid 20th century, there was no commercial outlet for male nude photog­ra­phy; indeed, merely possessing male nudes was a dangerous business, and sending them through the U.S. mail could be considered a federal crime.

This documentary dives into the life, career, and legacy of an artist who was almost forgotten by history, exploring the network of gay artists and cultural figures among whom George Platt Lynes was very much in his element. The photographs are stunningly beautiful, and the story behind them is compelling, elevating his memory and his legacy for future generations. Definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer (n/a) •

老ナルキソス (Ro narukisosu • Old Narcissus) 🔞

老ナルキソス (Ro narukisosu • Old Narcissus), dir. 東海林 毅 Tsuyoshi Shōji, 3034, Japan, 110 min., in Japanese with English subtitles 👍

Sunday, June 18, 6:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Old Narcissus

Yamazaki is a septua­ge­nar­ian (which he explains to Leo means he is in his 70s) author of children’s books. He hires Leo, a sex worker, for a little BDSM play. Over the ensuing weeks and months, Yamazaki and Leo become closer as they find commonalities in their lives, even across two generations. In the back­ground is the compli­cated reality of LGBTQ life in Japan, where, for example, hetero­sexual marriage is recog­nized nationally, but same-sex domestic partner­ships are granted by local auth­ori­ties and thus only valid while the couple live in that region. The two go on a road trip, chasing someone from Yamazaki’s past.

This film contains vio­lence and sexual acti­vity, but my main hesi­ta­tion in recom­mend­ing it is that I often felt like I was missing important cultural references. There were also a few points where a plot thread just dropped away without my being able to understand how it was resolved. Interesting and recommended for mature audi­ences.

• IMDb page • Official website [in Japanese] • trailer 🔞 • Twitter: @rounaro_0520 •

Norwegian Dream

Norwegian Dream, dir. Leiv Igor Devold, 2023, Norway/‌Poland/‌Germany, 97 min., in English, Norwegian, and Polish with full closed captions throughout 👍

Sunday, June 18, 4:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore (California only)

Norwegian Dream

Robert (Hubert Milkowski, pictured right) is a Polish immi­grant working in a fish-processing factory in Norway. Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland, left) is the adopted son of the owner of the plant, but wants to take a very different path in life. The two are drawn to one another, but complications arise from both men’s families, plus the fact that the workers are organizing a strike against the factory owner.

I really wanted to love this film, but I kept finding myself drawn out of the story, partly because it is often bleak and gray, like the surrounding landscape, but mostly because I never felt like I was seeing beyond the surface of the characters’ lives. I’ll give it a “recommended” rating, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

Note: the dialogue is in Norwegian and Polish with English subtitles and in English without subtitles, but it is fully closed-captioned in English.

• IMDb page • Official website [in Norwegian] • other official website [en/no] • trailer • Facebook: @NorwegianDream.Film •

Arrête avec tes mensonges (Lie With Me)

Arrête avec tes mensonges (Lie With Me), dir. Olivier Peyon, 2022, France, 98 min., in French with English subtitles (note: several bits in English without subtitles) 💖

Friday, June 16, 6:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore (individual streaming tickets sold out, but the film is available if you have the Streaming Encore Pass — but only within California)

Lie With Me

Stéphane (Guillaume de Tonquédec), an openly queer writer, returns to the small town in south­wes­tern France where he grew up, on the occasion of the bicen­ten­nial cele­bra­tion for the local cognac dis­till­ery. He finds himself face to face with echoes from his past, including his host and tour guide Lucas (Victor Belmondo), who seems quite familiar. We get long flashback sequences of young Stéphane (Jérémy Gillet, pictured left) and his first love, Thomas (Julien de Saint Jean, right, also ap­pearing in Le paradis (The Lost Boys) in this year’s fest­i­val). Over the decades since, the two had fallen out of touch, but had not forgotten one another.

Based on the best-selling novel by Philippe Besson, it’s a poignant story of loss and coming to terms with the past, deftly weaving together the present-day story with the wistful flashbacks. We watch the two boys as their life paths first begin to diverge, feeling the present-day character’s pangs of wondering what really happened and what might have been. It’s beautifully done, definitely a MUST SEE. Canal+ and Ciné+ were involved in production, so there’s a good chance it will come around on some stream or another, and maybe even a limited “art house” theatrical release. (It was released in cinemas in France in February 2023.)

Footnote about the title: the original French title, Arrête avec tes mensonges, literally means “stop with your lies,” so the English translation added a little double-entendre.

• IMDb page • Official website [fr] • trailer •

Egghead & Twinkie

Egghead & Twinkie, dir. Sarah Kambe Holland, 2023, USA, 87 min. 👍

Monday, June 19, 6:00 pm, New Parkway (Oakland) + streaming encore

Egghead & Twinkie

Egghead (Louis Tomeo, pictured left) and Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa, right) have been best friends since Egghead moved in across the street in elementary school. They are now in the summer between high school and college, working a dull summer job. Egghead has been trying to figure out how to ask his best friend out on a date; Twinkie has been trying to figure out her place in the world, an Asian adopted child of conservative white parents who do not react well when she blurts out that she is gay. Meanwhile, Twinkie has been messaging with an Instagram star called BD, who is a DJ in Dallas, a thousand miles from central Florida. BD is deejaying a big 18+ lesbian dance party, so Twinkie decides to go on a road trip. One problem, though: Twinkie doesn’t have a driver’s license, so she prevails upon Egghead to set aside his unrequited love (their first kiss didn’t go well) and drive her to Texas. They have various misadventures along the way, with some interstitial animations to narrate.

It’s a premise that has been the cornerstone of numerous road trip “buddy” movies, but with a lesbian twist and an update for the social media age. Unfortunately, the film lags in several segments, but my biggest complaint is that Twinkie falls most of the time into obnoxious, manipulative behavior, with Egghead her loyal puppy dog, staying with her no matter how much she mistreats him. There’s a little animated counter of the lies she has told him, and that’s only the beginning of the abuse. I found it very difficult to relate to or even sympathize with Twinkie. It’s a promising first feature, enjoyable, but I would have to say good, not great. Recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Facebook/‌Instagram/‌Tiktok/‌YouTube: @EggheadTwinkieFilm • Twitter: @Twinkie_Film •

Ek Jagah Apni (एक जगह अपनी) (‎ایک جگہ اپنی) (A Place of Our Own)

Ek Jagah Apni (एक जगह अपनी) ‏(ایک جگہ اپنی)‏ (A Place of Our Own), dir. Ektara Collective, 2022, India, 88 min., in Hindi with English subtitles 💖

Saturday, June 17, 6:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

A Place of Our Own

Laila and Rashni are two transwomen living in Bhopal, India. After being blamed for an incident where Laila is the victim, their new landlord evicts them, leaving them looking for housing, facing discrimination at almost every turn. There are a few rays of hope in the story, but also plenty of bleak realities, including the lack of recourse when they are treated unfairly. It’s not an easy story to watch, but it is the fiercely authentic story of the lives of some people who are no longer content to eke out an existence on the margins of society. For that reason, I give it a MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Facebook/‌Instagram/‌Vimeo: @EktaraCollective • YouTube: @EktaraCollective4807 •

Before I Change My Mind

Before I Change My Mind, dir. Trevor Anderson, 2022, Canada, 89 min. 💖
Saturday, June 17, 3:30 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Before I Change My Mind

In 1987, Robin (Vaughan Murrae, pictured) has just moved with their single father from Spokane to a small town in Alberta, Canada. On their first day in a new school, they walk into the Sex Education class, with the boys sitting on one side of the gym and the girls on the other side; they walk through and sit exactly on the center line. The other kids aren’t sure what to make of them, but gradually Robin con­nects with a couple of their class­mates, though not always in a healthy way. We follow them and their father as they try to find their niche in a new place.

Before I Change My Mind is remarkable on multiple counts. First of all, filmmaker Trevor Anderson has had several shorts at Frameline (Rock Pockets, Frameline31 “Best Mates”; The Man That Got Away, Frameline37 “Something Real”; Docking, Frameline43 “Animation Shorts”; plus The Little Deputy, 2015, Frameline39, “Fun in Boys Shorts”) — but this is their first feature length film. The shorts were all pretty good, but this feature is excellent, befitting a far more experienced filmmaker. But more than that, Before I Change My Mind is a confident entry in the relatively sparse category of non-binary coming-of-age films. We’ve seen coming-of-age films with main characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and even intersex, but very few non-binary coming-of-age films. I won’t spoil the plot, but I can tell you that we get to the end of the story without knowing for sure whether Robin was assigned male or female at birth, or whether their gender iden­tity leans at all to one polarity or the other. At times, Robin comes across as a gay boy, a straight boy, a straight girl, and even a lesbian.

Like their classmates in the film, I found myself initially trying to figure out how to pigeon­hole them, but I made a con­scious deci­sion to let go of that specu­la­tion and go with the ambi­gu­ity, and I recom­mend that you, the viewer, do the same. After all, the one thing we can say for cer­tain is that Robin is not a pigeon. Again, no spoilers, but there’s a plot twist at the very end that puts the matter in an unex­pec­ted new light.

I definitely put this film into the MUST SEE category, and will be keeping an eye out for future works from this virtuoso filmmaker.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer • Instagram: @Trevor_eh •

The Lovers Tarot (shorts program)

“The Lovers Tarot” (shorts program)

Sunday, June 18, 8:00 pm, New Parkway Theatre (Oakland) + streaming encore

Aikāne, dir. Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, & Daniel Sousa, 2023, USA, 14 min., no dialogue 👍

As You Are, dir. Daisy Friedman, 2023, USA, 15 min., fully open captioned 💖

It’s a Date, dir. Nadia Parfan, 2023, Ukraine/UK, 5 min., no dialogue 👎 • 🇺🇸 U.S. première

L’apprenante (The Learner), dir. Angelique Kalani Axelrode, 2023, USA/France, 7 min., in French with subtitles and in English without 👎 • 🇺🇸 U.S. première

Required Reading, dir. Iniyavan Elumalai, 2023, Netherlands, 15 min., in English, Dutch & Spanish with subtitles throughout 👍

Toe Tag, dir. Jordon Bolden, 2023, USA, 19 min. 💖

Youssou & Malek, dir. Simon Frenay, 2022, France, 22 min., in French with full English subtitles 💖 • 🌎 North American première

Fun in Shorts: The Joker Tarot

“Fun in Shorts: The Joker Tarot” (shorts program)

Sunday, June 18, 11:00 am, Castro + streaming encore

AC Unit, dir. Grace Godvin, 2023, USA, 13 min. 🫤 • 🌐 World premiere

Agents of Change – Project: Polymer, dir. Jett Garrison, 2023, USA, 15 min. 🫤

Cock ’n Bull 3, dir. Nathan Adloff, 2022, USA, 24 min. 👎

Daddy Issues, dir. Matt Campanella & Stephanie Chloé Hepner, 2023, USA, 5 min. 👏

Dilating for Maximum Results, dir. Nyala Moon, 2023, USA, 14 min. 💖

Diomysus, dir. Emily Morus-Jones, 2022, UK, 5 min. 👏

A History of Sitting in Waiting Rooms (or Whatever Longer Title You Prefer), dir. Lorena Russi, 2023, USA, 9 min. 👏

Troy, dir. Mike Donahue, 2022, USA, 16 min. 👏

QWOCMAP and Frameline Streaming

The QWOCMAP Queer Women of Color International Film Festival is streaming online, now through June 30, FREE, available worldwide. There is one feature-length narrative film, Ginger & Honey Milk (虹色の朝が来るまで, Nijiiro no Asa ga Kuru made), directed by Mika Imai, a deaf and non-binary Japanese filmmaker, about a complicated love quadrilateral. (The feature-length documentary Unseen (official website) is unfortu­nate­ly not available via streaming.) The closing program, “Mycelial Care,” is a pair of documentaries about indigenous Americans: Historias de Cultura: Oaxaca en Santa Cruz (Comida), dir. Megan Martinez Goltz, and Powerlands, dir. Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso (official website). In addition, there are three programs of short films, all of which were quite good and some of which were truly excellent.

The Frameline47 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is streaming online, now through July 2, either by a streaming pass or by individual tickets, available on the Frameline website. I have written up the ones I saw in the theater, and will add to the list as I stream more titles.

FL47 Streaming Guide

Frameline47 has wrapped up its theatrical presentation, but we still have a week to stream most of the films. I will be adding reviews of films as I stream them, but to start you off on your streaming adventure, here is a summary of the films I saw in theaters that you can now stream at Frameline.org. The links below take you to my reviews, which contain links to Frameline, the trailer, IMDb, and, where available, the film’s official website.

Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, 2023, USA, 106 min. 💖

Saturday, June 24, 8:15 pm, Castro • not streaming • on HBO June 27

West Coast première

Taylor Mac

Taylor Mac undertook a monumental project, a journey through American popular music from the Revolutionary War to the present. Each decade was given a full hour, with about ten songs woven in with narration, dramatization, and audience participation. Initially staged as a series of four six-hour performances, Taylor Mac decided to stage it (just once!) as a marathon 24-hour production, from noon to noon. Of course, the event was filmed from multiple angles, giving documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet, The Times of Harvey Milk, Howl, and many others) plenty of source material, supplemented with footage of a photo shoot highlighting the amazing costumes (or “wearable sculptures”) from the show. The stage show itself is a tour-de-force, and the backstory only adds to the interest. I don’t know that I could’ve put myself through the full 24-hour performance in one sitting, or even in four chunks, but the essence of the show distilled into a standard feature-length presentation is compelling and involves the viewer, giving you at least a little of the sense that you were there. Definitely a MUST SEE.

Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music premieres June 27 on HBO and will be available on max (f.k.a. HBO/max).

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Our Son

Our Son, dir. Bill Oliver, 2023, USA, 103 min. 💖

Saturday, June 24, 5:45 pm, Castro • not streaming

West Coast première

Our Son

Gabriel (Billy Porter, pictured left) and Nicky (Luke Evans, right) got married and decided to start a family, having a son, Owen, who is now in elementary school. Both parents are devoted to their son, but their devotion to one another is beginning to fray at the edges, to the point that they are getting a divorce.

First of all, to set your expectations, this film is definitely a drama much more than a comedy. We see the pain of the breakup of the relationship through the eyes of both partners, and the effect it is having on their son. Gabriel has been a stay-at-home father, and now has to face the prospect of re-entering the job market with a large gap in his résumé. Nicky has largely focused on work, but isn’t ready to hand over custody of Owen without a fight. Their friends are wary of getting caught in the crossfire, even as they do their best to be supportive.

It’s an absorbing, emotional tale, told with grace and compassion. It’s also an angle on gay relationships that is rising in prominence as more same-sex couples get married and have children — and sometimes get divorced. This real, deeply human drama is well worth your time. Definitely a MUST SEE. Our Son is still early in its run through the festival circuit, having premiered just two weeks ago at Tribeca, but I would be very surprised if it doesn’t wind up streaming somewhere, and quite possibly at least a limited theatrical run. Keep an eye out for it.

• IMDb page • Official website (n/a) • trailer (n/a) •

Perpetrator

Perpetrator, dir. Jennifer Reeder, 2023, USA/‌France, 101 min. 👎

Friday, June 23, 8:00 pm, Roxie • not streaming

Perpetrator

Jonquil, or Jonny as her friends call her, is about to turn 18, but strange things begin happening to her. Her father, addicted to pills and of little use in any respect, sends her off to spend her birthday with a mysterious auntie, played by Alicia Silverstone. In the mean time, girls at Jonny’s school are getting murdered, and the principal holds drills in which he comes screaming into the classroom and sprays fake blood on the kids, apparently to help them avoid being the next victim of the unknown serial killer.

This film has the distinction of being the only one in Frameline47 that I walked out of. It was pretty well done, but I’m really not into splatterfest films, and the underlying plot took too long to establish. If you love lesbian horror films, you might like this one, and should check out the trailer. Otherwise, though, I can’t really recommend it.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Fogo-Fátuo (Will-o’-the-Wisp)

Fogo Fátuo (Will-o’-the-Wisp or Feu Follet), dir. João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022, Portugal/‌France, 67 min., in Portuguese with English subtitles and in English without subtitles 👎

Friday, June 23, 6:00 pm, Roxie • not streaming

Fogo Fátuo

The story begins in the year 2069, as the king lies on his deathbed, remembering incidents from his youth, including the time he abandoned the monarchy to become a fireman. The rest of the film is about as confusing as that summary makes it sound. There are some interesting moments and some well-choreographed dance scenes, but not enough for me to recommend this film.

• IMDb page • Official website (n/a) • trailer 🔞 • this film contains male full frontal nudity

---

screened in the theater with the short film Le roi qui contemplait la mer (A King, Gazing at the Sea), dir. Jean-Sébastien Chauvin, 2022, France, 24 min., in Greek, English, and French 😐 • streaming as part of the “Shorts: The World Tarot” program

Le roi qui
contemplait la mer

Paul (Loic Djani, pictured) is on holiday at the seaside in Greece. He sees a man who becomes his erotic obsession. He watches him from afar, returning the same time the next day to watch him again. He has dinner with a friend and tells him about this man he’s been watching. It really didn’t seem like enough to fill 24 minutes. Not particularly recommended, although you could certainly do worse.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

It’s Only Life After All

It’s Only Life After All (Indigo Girls documentary), dir. Alexandria Bombach, 2023, USA, 118 min. 💖

Friday, June 23, 3:30 pm, Castro • not streaming

Indigo Girls
(photo: Jeremy Cowart)

Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers met in elementary school and began performing together just a few years later, still in high school. They have remained together as artistic partners, though never as romantic partners, for the decades since, drawing a loyal fan base who are drawn to their music but also to their activism. Through extensive and wide-ranging interviews, along with a wealth of home video footage, they discuss their lives and their work, the misogyny and homophobia they faced throughout, and the impact of their work. If you’re already an Indigo Girls fan, you obviously have to see this documentary, but even if you are only passingly familiar with their music, I encourage you to see it and become a fan. MUST SEE.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Chasing Chasing Amy

Chasing Chasing Amy, dir. Sav Rodgers, 2023, USA, 85 min. 👏

Friday, June 23, 1:15 pm, Castro + streaming encore

Joey, Sav, Kevin
(photo: Brad Garrison)

Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob, etc.) also made the film Chasing Amy, in which Ben Affleck pursues Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian comic book artist. The film has always been controversial, primarily because it is a story about a lesbian as told by a straight white cis-male, but in its time it was groundbreaking, and there are to this day many people whose lives were influenced by it, including documentarian Sav Rodgers.

Rodgers got to do extensive interviews with Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, and others, examining both why the film had such an impact on many people and why it remains so controversial. Through the midst of all this, Rodgers gets engaged and also begins transi­tion­ing as a transman. The resulting documen­tary weaves the per­son­al events with the underly­ing focus in a compelling story of a complex interplay of attachment to a film with some problematic aspects to it. It’s thoughtful and thought-provoking. Definitely a must see for fans of Chasing Amy or its stars, and highly recommended for all audiences.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •

Le beau mec

Le beau mec, dir. Wallace Potts, 1979, France, 70 min., in French and English 👎

Thursday, June 22, 10:00 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

Le beau mec (1979)

Le beau mec is a classic of gay porn, telling the story (yes, porn films once upon a time had storylines, not just sex acts) of a young man who makes his way to Paris and then hustles as a way to make rent. Unfortunately, the story isn’t particularly compelling and the sex scenes for the most part aren’t particularly erotic, especially since the main character has what appears to be a prominent herpes sore on his upper lip. It’s interesting from an historical perspective, but otherwise not recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website (n/a) • trailer 🔞 •

---

theater screening preceded by Big Sur Gay Porn, dir. Ryan A. White, 2023, USA, 12 min. 🙂 (in the streaming encore in the “Shorts: The Ace of Wands Tarot” program)

🌐 World première

Big Sur Gay Porn

Filmmaker Tom DeSimone made several gay and straight porn films, including Sur, before transi­tion­ing to more con­ven­tion­al filmmaking. DeSimone was particularly fond of the beach at Big Sur as a location for filming. Documen­tar­ian Ryan A. White shows DeSimone a copy of Sur, a film that had been lost to time but was rediscovered and digitized. DeSimone’s summary: don’t see this film [the original Sur]! Big Sur Gay Porn was mildly interesting, worth seeing for historical perspective.

• IMDb page • Official website (n/a) • trailer •

Playland

Playland, dir. Georden West, 2023, USA, 92 min., in English & German with subtitles, closed captioned 👎

Thursday, June 22, 8:15 pm, Roxie + streaming encore

The Playland Cafe

In Boston from 1937 to 1998, there was a venue called the Playland Cafe, possibly the oldest gay bar in Boston, located in an area known as the Combat Zone, where the “adult” businesses were segregated from polite society. The Playland Cafe, along with many other businesses in the Combat Zone, was demolished in the name of Redevelop­ment. 

This film doesn’t tell the story of the Playland Cafe, opting instead to give dreamlike glimpses of ghosts of its glory days. Unfortunately, owing largely to the overuse of Meaningfully lighting a cigarette, Meaningfully taking a puff of the cigarette, Meaningfully gesturing with the cigarette, Meaningfully staring off into space, and Meaningfully walking in exaggerated poses, the film fails to hold the audience’s interest. It is clear that these gestures are pregnant with Meaning of some sort, but it is is never quite clear what that meaning might be. There are some interesting visuals, including Lady Bunny and Aidan Dick (When Men Were Men, Frameline46), but for anyone other than a student of experimental film, I can’t recommend it.

• IMDb page • Official website • trailer •