Rise Up: Doc Shorts (2024)

“Rise Up: Doc Shorts” 2024 shorts program
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 3:30 PM, Roxie plus streaming
⚠️ content advisory: The Device contains a brief scene of erotic nudity
➳ Two of these shorts, Alok and There Are Things to Do, will also screen as a duo, “Alok & There Are Things to Do,” at a special showing on Friday, June 28, 2024, at 2:00 PM at The Strand at the American Conservatory Theater, 1127 Market St, (@ 7th St.), 3-minute walk from Civic Center BART/Muni
Alok, dir. Alex Hedison, 2024 USA, 19 min. 👏
(➳ also screening in “Alok & There Are Things to Do”)
Alok Vaid-Menon (right) talks with another activist
Alok [cropped middle]

“I’m doing this very dangerous work in an escalating climate of people who want me to die. I’m trying to look in their face and say, ‘I want you to live.’” — Alok Vaid-Menon

Alok, whose aunt was Urvashi Vaid, is an activist for radical inclu­sive­ness, for coming out as an act of love, and for freedom for all. It’s a powerful vision, still diffi­cult for most people to wrap their minds around, but pushing towards a better world for everyone. Highly recommended

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram / Facebook: @AlokVMenon • preview • NYTimes profile (2021) • YouTube channel •

note: there is also a Brazilian DJ who goes by Alok, with many YouTube videos, etc.; no relation
a rotary telephone bathed in light
The Callers
The Callers, dir. Lindsey Dryden, 2024 UK/USA, 20 min. 👏

Switchboard, the London LGBT help line, started in 1974, and went 24h in 1975. The calls they have received could be anything from “What’s a good bar for me to go to this weekend?” to “Is it safe to swallow cum?” to “I just found out I have HIV/AIDS” to “I just need some­one to talk to who won’t judge me.” It has been, and still is, a vital resource, someone to call who will at the very least turn an empa­thetic ear. Highly recommended.

Note: The Callers is part of the Queer Futures series, which includes last year’s 👏How to Carry Water, 💖The Script, and 💖MnM [also screened in SFTFF 2023], and hopefully more to come!

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • Criterion Channel •
The Device that Turned Me into a Cyborg was Born the Same Year I was, dir. Chella Man, 2023 USA, 3 min., in 🤟American Sign Language with English subtitles 💖
person falling in a tank of water
The Device that Turned Me
into a Cyborg was
Born the Same Year I was
⚠️ content advisory: contains a scene of erotic nudity

Filmmaker Chella Man was born deaf, raised in a hearing family, with limited contact with the deaf commu­ni­ty. At some point, he got a coch­lear implant, allowing him partial hearing, but he dis­covers that it’s a mixed blessing, and it intro­duces the risk of displac­ing or dam­ag­ing the device, not to mention that he becomes, in some sense, a cyborg merely by having the implant. It’s a deeply personal explo­ra­tion of the process, from the per­spec­tive of a deaf person who is also queer. It’s short and to the point, definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • watch the full film • “behind the scenes” •
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr, dir. Kimberly Reed, 2024 USA, 14 min. 💖
🏆 Frameline48 Jury Award: Outstanding Documentary Short

banner over a highway overpass: “Trans people will live forever”
Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
Frameline description: “When Zooey Zephyr was expelled from the Montana House of Representatives for speaking on a bill banning transgender medical care, she made a nearby bench her “office.” Director Kimberly Reed’s (Prodigal Sons, Frameline33) cameras land next to Zooey, capturing shocking, funny, and joyous events.”

My thoughts: An excellent portrait of a stalward defender of those whom the majority try to silence, to sideline, and to oppress. Zooey Zephyr is a force to be reckoned with, and this film is a MUST SEE for everyone, but especially for anyone interested in U.S. politics or trans rights.

• IMDb [director] • Official website [Zooey Zephyr] • Filmmaker • Twitter / Instagram: @ZoAndBehold • Facebook: @ZooeyZephyr4MT • preview • Wikipedia • interview in the Montana Free Press • article in The Nation •
activist Urvashi Vaid at a protest march
There Are Things To Do
(Urvashi Vaid)
There Are Things to Do, dir. Mike Syers, 2023 USA, 18 min. 👏
(➳ also screening in “Alok & There Are Things to Do”)

Urvashi Vaid (“ER-vuh-shee VAD” [rhymes with “Rad”]) was a force to be reckoned with, a tireless advocate for equality, justice, and inclusion, who, as a resident of Provincetown, also loved a good tea dance. Urvashi’s impact would be difficult to overstate: she laid the groundwork for much of the progress the LGBTQ+ community has made in the last 30+ years. We lost Urvashi to metastatic breast cancer in 2022, but as long as we continue the work, her legacy will live on. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview [vimeo] • other • Urvashi Vaid was also featured in A SIMPLE MATTER OF JUSTICE: The 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation (dir. Joan E. Biren, 1993 USA, 56 min.) •
Volver, dir. Borja Larrondo (Álvarez) & Diego Sánchez, 2023 Spain, 17 min., in Spanish & English, US premiere 👍

drag queen performing on a stage
Volver
A drag queen returns to the small town she grew up in (Guadassuar, in the Valencia region, a town of less than 6,000) with some friends from other small towns, to hold Guadassuar’s first ever Pride celebration. It’s an act of reclaiming the space they were pushed out of by bullies, but also an act of empowering others to be themselves in a small town as well as in a big city. It was pretty good, but jumped around a bit. Recommended.

• IMDb • Official website [es/en] • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview • a project of The Kids Are Right® collective • Borja Larrondo Alvarez & Diego Sanchez
Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way, dir. Hao Zhou, 2024 USA, 20 min. 👍
🏆 Frameline48 Jury Award: honorable mention, Outstanding Documentary Short

one person walks across a nearly empty parking lot with palm trees and the coast of Guam in the background
Wouldn’t Have Made
It Any Other Way
Hao Zhou is a gay man from Guam who now lives in Iowa, doing piecework sewing for a living, but also designing costumes for a kids’ play back in Guam, their first time back in 7 years. We see snippets of Hao’s life in both places, including family, friends, and of course the play (including the evolution of Hao’s costume designs to an impressive conclusion). It’s an interesting peek into the life of someone who clearly has a compelling story, but I felt at times like I had only a few pieces of a larger puzzle. Recommended. 

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram: @_HaoZhou_ [note the underscores] • Facebook • preview • other •









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