Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 pm, Roxie
and streaming online November 18 – 24
- Transiversary, dir. Kamia Gutierrez, 2024 USA, 8 minutes 💖
- Fool’s Gold, dir. Che Ortiga, 2023 USA, 4½ minutes 👏
- En Memoria, dir. Roberto Fatal, 2024 USA, 11 minutes 👏
- Navel Gazer, dir. Shirin Mori, 2024 USA, 18 minutes 👏
- Toward, dir. Sean Dorsey, 2022 USA, 2½ minutes 😀
- No More Longing, dir. Connor Lee O’Keefe, 2022 USA, 16 minutes 👏
- Ghosts Cross State Lines, dir. Shawna Virago, 2024 USA, 4 minutes 😀
- Saturn Risin9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 11 minutes 👏
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| Transiversary |
Transiverary, dir. Kamia Gutierrez, 2024 USA, 8 minutes • 🌐 world premiere 💖
A suicide hotline operator is forced to work through the night. This film was actually a bit uncomfortable to watch — but in a good way. The actor (sorry, didn’t catch their name in the credits) does such a good job of putting you into Hawken’s situation that you cringe at the horribly insensitive boss. Must see.
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| Fool’s Gold |
Music video with the Turnback Boyz, with Che Ortiga as “trans-vaquero” Oliver Gold. It’s cute and well done, and it’s wonderful to see country music pushing the boundaries. Plus the horse is nice. Highly recommended.
This film also appears in Program #3 “Music and Animation.”
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| En Memoria |
In a dystopian future, a mother is struggling to finish her daughter’s quinceañera dress, when a visitor comes to conduct some rather unpleasant business. What will happen to the mother and daughter, and almost as importantly, to the dress? Although there is sci-fi underpinning the plot, the story is ultimately character-driven. Highly recommended.
Director Roberto Fatal also made Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs in their Limpias? (Frameline 47 👏), and noted that they hope to expand this story to a feature film, so keep your eyes out for that.
• IMDb (director) • Instagram: @Roberto_Fatal •
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| Navel Gazer |
A woman wants to have a baby, but her eggs are poor quality, so she goes to breathwork class and the fertility clinic, bringing her nonbinary roommate along for support, but the clinic only sees the roommate for their healthy female body. Well done, highly recommended.
This short also hopes to someday grow up to be a feature film.
• no IMDb • preview (vimeo) •
Toward, dir. Sean Dorsey, 2022 USA, 2½ minutes 😀
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| Toward |
Toward is part of Sean Dorsey’s The Lost Art of Dreaming series, which has had pieces in SFTFF 2023 and Frameline 47. That blunted the freshness a bit, but even a “so-so” Sean Dorsey film is worth seeing, so still highly recommended.
No More Longing (Chega de saudade), dir. Connor Lee O’Keefe, 2022 USA, 16 minutes, in English and Portuguese, with English subtitles through most of it, and with Portuguese subtitles in large parts. Also appeared in Frameline 47, but the English subtitles have been augmented since then. 👏
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| No More Longing |
Jaime Jobim, a transmasculine bossa nova musician, moved from Brazil to California seven years ago to pursue his love of music. Four years ago, he began his transition. Now he searches for his new (metaphorical) voice, as his (literal) voice has changed in the interim. No More Longing is a nice window into the life of an interesting artist following his dream. Highly recommended.
This film also appears in Program #3, “Music and Animation,” and appeared in Frameline 47’s “Homegrown: The Sun Tarot.”
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| Ghosts Cross State Lines |
Shawna Virago is back with a video for her new song, “Ghosts Cross State Lines,” which she describes as a surrealist mystery film. A trans woman is trying to outrun dangerous forces from her past. The question is: will she make it? Stay tuned. It’s well done, with some interesting visual effects from filming through some sort of patterned lace. Worth seeing, especially if hard rock is your schtick.
• IMDb (Shawna Virago) • Filmmaker • Instagram: @ShawnaVirago • the song (audio) on Boomplay Spotify •
Saturn Risin9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 10 minutes 👏
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| Saturn Risin9 |
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.”
In a poetic mix of dance, visual narrative, and documentary, Saturn Risin9 follows queer performance artist Saturn on their return home to the Bay Area. We follow their journey of perseverance centering self discovery, affirmation, healing and creative expansion poetically told through fantastical imagery. Using diary style interviews and talk-alongs intercut with high fantasy staged performance, the film portrays Saturn’s creative transformation through their dreams, trials, career and progression.
The film begins and ends adjacent to one of the most toxic Superfund Sites in the city, Hunter’s Point Shipyard. The nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean after WWII which sickened populations there, were linked to the ships that came back to Hunter’s Point with radioactive debris - the toxic radiation washed into the water and soil. Saturn's journey through this space extends to their own personal struggles, paralleled with environmental and water issues that continue to this day.
Saturn speaks to their own journey of transformation, healing with community, and finding space to thrive at the edges. This film highlights Saturn both as a storyteller in many different forms (word, dance, music) and as a protagonist through a character driven story of perseverance. Saturn Risin9 as a film exists as a byproduct of love, trust, and the determination to realize dreams, intended to be a never-ending well of visual and lyrical affirmations.
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.
This film also appears in Program #5, “Mélange of Shorts,” and appeared in Frameline 48’s “Across Time & Space: Black Queer Stories” shorts program.
• IMDb [Ribeaux] [Stillwater] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview (vimeo) • YouTube channel • Saturn Rising
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