“Homegrown Shorts,” total runtime: 108 minutes (streaming: 85 minutes)
Thursday, June 20, 2024, 1:00 PM, Roxie Theatre
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 11:00 AM, Roxie Theatre
available for streaming (6 of 7 shorts)
update: review of OUTCRY added
update 2: review of After All and Saturn Risin9 added
- After All, dir. Amanda Villalpando, 2023 USA, 27 min. π
- The Barman’s Daughter, dir. Shawna Virago, 2023 USA, 4 min. π
- Falling Up, dir. Eric Garcia, 2022 USA, 5 min. π
- Kings, dir. Eric Garcia, 2022 USA, 6 min. π
- Mother, dir. Meg Shutzer & Brandon Yadegari Moreno, 2024 USA, 23 min. π
(also screens in the “Queer Places, Spaces, and Shorts” program)
[not included in the streaming program] - OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage, dir. Clare Major, 2024 USA, 33 min. π
- Saturn Risin9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 10 min. π
After All, dir. Amanda Villalpando, 2023, USA, 27 min. π
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| After All |
My thoughts: Two teenage girlfriends are finding it difficult to navigate a long-distance relationship with one of them at UC Santa Barbara and the other still home in Berkeley. In particular, their phone conversations are irregular, stilted, and superficial. Then the girlfriend in Berkeley discovers a magic photo that transports her to the scene it pictures. The two gain a better understanding of each other’s circumstances. It’s a poignant reminder of the need to open yourself to express your own truth and receive it when others do the same. Highly recommended.
• IMDb [none] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
The Barman’s Daughter, dir. Shawna Virago, 2023 USA, 4 min. π
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| The Barman’s Daughter |
The Barman’s Daughter is an experimental music video, featuring Shawna Virago (pictured, on guitar), Churro Nomi, and Mira. The lyrics talk about “the life of the barman’s daughter” behind a bar on Geary Street. Churro and Mira appear in gender-bending drag (dresses, heels, wigs, and facial hair). It’s pretty good, but not really my musical style. Recommended.
• IMDb [none] [Shawna Virago] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter / Instagram / Facebook: @ShawnaVirago • preview • watch on YouTube •
Falling Up, dir. Eric Garcia, 2022 USA, 5 min. π
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| Falling Up |
Definitely a MUST SEE.
• IMDb [none] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • watch on Vimeo •
Kings, dir. Eric Garcia, 2022 USA, 6 min. π
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| Kings |
Two drag kings meet in a bar and, after a couple of drinks, decide to have a private moment together, to the tune of “Bathroom Quickie” by The Magnetic Fields: “π΅ I want a bathroom quickie • I want you to get me sticky” (The action we see is more highly suggestive dance than anything remotely explicit, though.)
It’s a cute film, well made, short, sweet and to the point. Highly recommended; it should put a smile on almost anyone’s face. Bonus points for the eagle-eyed: Kings has one cast member in common with The Barman’s Daughter; can you spot them? Mira!
• IMDb [none] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram: @DetourProductions.SF • Facebook • preview • other •
“Falling Up” and “Kings” are both segments of the compilation film Up on High, which you can watch on Vimeo. Up on High is a catenation of dance segments of about 5 minutes each; the segments can stand on their own as separate shorts, but also blend together into a decent near-feature-length film.
Mother, dir. Meg Shutzer & Brandon Yadegari Moreno, 2024 USA, 23 min. π
(also screens in the “Queer Places, Spaces, and Shorts” program)
[not included in the streaming program]
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| Mother |
San Francisco used to have quite a few lesbian bars and night clubs, but the Lexington, the last lesbian bar standing, closed about a decade ago. A group of San Franciscans decided it was time to do something about it, so they opened Mother, a “dyke of center, all queers welcome” bar in the Mission District space where Esta Noche used to be, so you should stop by after a screening at the Roxie!
This documentary chronicles the optimism and the drive that led Malia to take on this project shines through, along with the enthusiasm of the staff and the patrons. It’s an uplifting story, beautifully told, definitely a MUST SEE.
• IMDb [Shutzer] [Moreno] • Official website • bar website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • Women Make Movies • coming to Hulu? •
OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage, dir. Clare Major, 2024 USA, 33 min. π
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| OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage |
Artist-activist Whitney Bradshaw has been traveling the United States in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, engaging in a participatory art project to empower women (and other people on the wrong side of the patriarchy) by encouraging them to release their rage, expressing that anger through screaming, feeling the power of finding their voice, finding empathy with the other participants, and then channeling that power into political action to restore the right of every person to control their own body. The women are photographed as they scream, and some of the screams are on camera, but mercifully most of them have the sound attenuated,
OUTCRY is directed by Oakland-based cinematographer Clare Major and produced by Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow, the team behind Holding Moses (Best Documentary Short winner at Frameline46) and Ahead of the Curve (Frameline44). [Regrettably, neither film was available for review here.]
The resulting film is rousing, moving, empowering, and motivating. Definitely highly recommended, but a must-see for women, AFABs, and others with bottled-up rage they yearn to express.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • Center for Independent Documentaries •
Saturn Rising9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 10 min. π
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| Saturn Risin9 |
Frameline program description: Queer performance artist and musician Saturn Risin9 returns home to the Bay Area to share their journey of perseverance centering self discovery, healing and creative expansion poetically told through dance, visual narrative, performance, and documentary.
My thoughts: You can lose yourself in the voiceover or lose yourself in the visuals, or bettter yet let both flow over and through you. Highly recommended.
• IMDb [Ribeaux] [Stillwater] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • YouTube channel •
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