A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint 💖, dir. Oriel Pe’er, 2025, USA, 86 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2026, 8:30 pm, Herbst Theatre
🌐 World premiere
 |
|
Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint |
Thursday, June 26, 2025
A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking 👏, dir. Petersen Vargas, 2024,
Philippines/Singapore/Italy, 103 min., in Tagalog with English subtitles
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 8:30 pm, Roxie Theater
available in the Digital Screening Room, June 23 to 30, 2025
⚠️ content advisory: graphic drug misuse, disturbing themes
 |
| Some Nights I Feel Like Walking |
It’s Dorothy!
It’s Dorothy! 💖, dir. Jeffrey McHale, 2025, USA, 100 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater
 |
| It’s Dorothy! |
Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau 💖, documentary, dir. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, 2024, USA,
94 min., in English and French
Thursday, June 26, 1:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
 |
|
Jean Cocteau © Boris Lipnitzki |
Lucky, Apartment (럭키, 아파트)
Lucky, Apartment (럭키, 아파트) (also known as Leogki, apateu) 👏,
dir. Kangyu Garam (강유가람), 2024, South Korea, 96 min., in Korean with subtitles
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 1:00 pm, Roxie Theater
🇺🇸 U.S. premiere
⚠️ content advisory: homophobic language
 |
| Lucky, Apartment (럭키, 아파트) |
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Diciannove
Diciannove 😐, dir. Giovanni Tortorici, 2024, Italy/UK, 108 min., in Italian with English subtitles, some parts in English without subtitles
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 7:45 pm, Roxie Theater
⚠️ content advisory: flashing lights, drug/alcohol abuse, talk of self-harm
 |
| Diciannove |
Drive Back Home
Drive Back Home 💖, dir. Michael Clowater, 2024, Canada, 100 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 5:30 pm, Herbst Theatre
⚠️ content advisory: homophobic violence
 |
| Drive Back Home |
#300Letters (#300cartas)
#300Letters (#300cartas) 💖, dir. Lucas Santa Ana, 2025,
Argentina/UK/Germany, 91 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 8:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
⚠️ content advisory: simulated sexual activity
 |
| #300Letters (#300cartas) |
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Coming Attractions: An Orgy of Gay Erotic Movie Trailers
Coming Attractions: An Orgy of Gay Erotic Movie Trailers 🥱,
dir. Elizabeth Purchell, 2025, USA, 76 min.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 10:00 pm, Roxie Theater
🌐 World premiere
(preceded by the short 🙂 GANGBANG; see below)
🔞⚠️ content advisory: the main feature contains abundant explicit sex
 |
|
Coming Attractions: An Orgy of Gay Erotic Movie Trailers |
Perro Perro
Perro Perro 💖 dir. Marco Berger, 2025, Argentina,
101 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 5:45 pm, Vogue Theatre
🌐 World premiere
 |
| Perro perro |
Monday, June 23, 2025
Sandbag Dam
Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip) 👏,
dir. Čejen Černić Čanak, 2025, Croatia/Lithuania/Slovenia,
88 min., in Croatian with subtitles
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 3:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
⚠️ content advisory: homophobic language
 |
| Sandbag Dam (Zečji nasip) |
Skinny Love (Einskonar ást)
Skinny Love (Einskonar ást) 👏, dir. Sigurður Anton, 2024, Iceland, 92 min., in Icelandic with English subtitles, but large portions in English without subtitles
Monday, June 23, 2025, 6:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
also available in the Digital Screening Room, June 23 to 30, 2025
 |
| Skinny Love |
A Night Like This
A Night Like This 👏 (also known as On a Winter Night),
dir. Liam Calvert, 2025, UK, 97 min.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 8:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
⚠️ content advisory: discussions and depictions of self-harm, homophobic language
 |
| A Night Like This |
In the Best Interests of the Children
In the Best Interests of the Children 💖,
dir. Frances Reid, Elizabeth Stevens, & Cathy Zheutlin, 1977, USA, 53 min. (newly restored)
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 4:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
(screens with Lesbian Custody in the in-person screening only)
also available in the Digital Screening Room
 |
| In the Best Interests of the Children |
Lesbian Custody
Lesbian Custody 💖, dir. Samuael Topiary & Molly Skonieczny, 2025, USA, 18 min.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 4:00 pm Vogue Theatre
(screens in person before 💖 In the Best Interests of the Children)
also part of “Queer Quartet Streaming Shorts” in the Digital Screening Room
 |
| Lesbian Custody |
Sunday, June 22, 2025
I’m Your Venus
I’m Your Venus 💖,
dir. Kimberly Reed, 2024, USA, 85 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater
 |
|
I’m Your Venus Venus Xtravaganza’s two families meet |
To Live, to Die, to Live Again (Vivre, mourir, renaître)
To Live, to Die, to Live Again (Vivre, mourir, renaître) 💖,
dir. Gaël Morel, 2024, France, 104 min., in French with subtitles
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 3:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
 |
|
To Live, to Die, to Live Again (Vivre, mourir, renaître) photo ©2024 ARPSelection |
We are Faheem and Karun
We are Faheem and Karun,
💖 dir. Onir, written by Fawzia Mirza & Onir, 2024, India, 75 min.,
in Kashmiri, Hindi, Urdu, English, and Malayalam, with full open captions for the hearing impaired
Wednesday, June 25, 2025, 6:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
🌎 North American premiere
 |
| We are Faheem and Karun |
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Thesis on a Domestication (Tesis sobre una domesticación)
Thesis on a Domestication (Tesis sobre una domesticación)
💩🙄🥱👎,
dir. Javier van de Couter, 2024, Argentina/Mexico, 113 min.,
in Spanish with English subtitles
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 8:30 pm, Roxie Theater
⚠️ content advisory: transphobia, explicit sex
 |
|
Thesis on a Domestication (Tesis sobre una domesticación) |
Outerlands
Outerlands 👏, dir. Elena Oxman, 2025, USA, 100 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, New Parkway, Oakland
Friday, June 27, 2025, 12:45 pm, Vogue Theatre
 |
| Outerlands |
Friday, June 20, 2025
Silent Sparks (愛作歹)
Silent Sparks (愛作歹) 👍, dir. Ping Chu, 2024, Taiwan, 79 min., in Mandarin and Min Nan with English subtitles
Friday, June 20, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater
Digital Screening Room, June 23 – June 30, 2025
 |
| Silent Sparks (愛作歹) |
Note: the short film Like What Would Sorrow Look (愁何狀) precedes the in-person screening, but is not available in the Digital Screening Room and was not available for advance review.
The Nature of Invisible Things (A natureza das coisas invisíveis)
The Nature of Invisible Things (A natureza das coisas invisíveis) 💖, dir. Rafeala Camelo, 2025, Brazil/Chile, 90 min., in Portuguese with subtitles
Friday, June 20, 2025, 3:30 pm, Roxie Theater
🏳️🌈 Queer premiere
 |
|
The Nature of Invisible Things (A natureza das coisas invisíveis) |
Queer Quartet (streaming shorts)
“Queer Quartet” (streaming-only shorts program)
available in the Digital Streaming Room, June 23 to June 30, 2025
(each short also screens in person in the festival, but not together as a group)
Another compilation program of shorts for streaming only:
-
Unholy 🙂, dir. Daisy Friedman, 2025, USA, 13 min., theater screening in the “Outside
Voices: New Leaders in Queer Cinema Supported by Colin Higgins Foundation” shorts program,
Film Queen Review
-
Lesbian Custody 💖, dir. Samuael Topiary & Molly Skonieczny, 2025, USA, 18 min.,
theater screening with
In the Best Interests of the Children [not reviewed]
-
You Don’t Have to Like Me 💖, dir. Safiyah Chiniere, 2023, USA, 10 min., theater screening in the “It’s
a Family Affair” shorts program,
Film Queen Review
- Māhū: A Trans-Pacific Love Letter 💖, dir. Lisette Marie Flanary, 2025, USA, 30 min., screened separately with a live performance, Film Queen Review
Mahu: A Trans-Pacific Love Letter
Thursday, June 19, 2025
The Meatrack (1970)
The Meatrack 🫤, dir. Mike Thomas, 1970, USA, 65 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 3:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
🌐 World premiere of the 4K restoration
⚠️ content advisory: homophobia, frontal nudity, graphic sex scenes 🔞
 |
| The Meatrack (1970) |
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Between Goodbyes
Between Goodbyes 💖, dir. Jota Mun, 2024, USA/South Korea, 96 min.,
in English, and in Korean and Dutch with English subtitles
Thursday, June 19, 2025, 3:30 pm, Roxie Theater
 |
| Between Goodbyes |
Carpobrotus
Carpobrotus 👏, dir. Simon Frenay, 2024, France, 22 min., in French with English subtitles
screens before Queerpanorama, Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, Vogue
part of the “Wild Combination” shorts program in the Digital Screening Room
 |
| Carpobrotus |
Four Mothers
Four Mothers 💖, dir. Darren Thornton, 2024, Ireland/UK, 89 min.
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 6:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
 |
| Four Mothers |
Queerpanorama
Queerpanorama (眾生相) 👏, dir. Jun Li, 2025, Hong Kong/USA/China, 87 min., in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Persian/Farsi, and Thai, with subtitles only for the Mandarin dialogue
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
(preceded by the short film Carpobrotus; see separate review)
⚠️ content advisory: sexually explicit content 🔞
 |
| Queerpanorama |
Really Happy Someday
Really Happy Someday 💖, dir. J. Stevens, 2024, Canada, 90 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 1:00 pm, Vogue Theatre, 🇺🇸 US Premiere
(screens with the short Tessitura, reviewed separately)
 |
| Really Happy Someday |
River of Grass
River of Grass 💖, dir. Sasha Wortzel, 2025, USA, 83 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 3:30 pm, New Parkway, Oakland
 |
| River of Grass |
Room Temperature
Room Temperature 💩🙄🥱😑, dir. Dennis Cooper & Zac Farley, 2025, USA/France, 92 min.
Friday, June 20, 2025, 8:30 pm, Roxie Theater
⚠️ content advisory: disturbing themes
 |
| Room Temperature |
Tessitura
Tessitura 👏, dir. Lydia Cornett & Brit Fryer, 2025, USA, 18 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 1:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
(screens before the feature film Really Happy Someday)
 |
| Tessitura |
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Wild Combination Streaming Shorts
“Wild Combination” (shorts program)
available in the Digital Screening Room only
(each short screens in person, but not together as a group)
For each film, the first link is to the Frameline page for that specific short. The second link is to the Film Queen Review entry containing my full review.
- A Bird Hit My Window and Now I’m a Lesbian 👏 (from “Outside Voices”), dir. AJ Dubler & Carmela Murphy, 2024, USA, 8 min.
- Carpobrotus 👏 (reviewed separately, paired with Queerpanorama, FQR entry), dir. Simon Frenay, 2024, France, 22 min.
- Baba, I’m Fine 💖 (from “Outside Voices”), dir. Karina Dandashi, 2025, USA, 13 min.
- Who Raised You? 👍 (from “It’s a Family Affair”), dir. Dani Guzman, 2025, USA, 10 min.
- Orgy Every Other Day 👍 (from “Queer Quickies”), dir. Samuel Döring, 2024, Germany/USA, 13 min.
Sunday, June 15, 2025
QWOCFF 2025 wrap-up and streaming encore
Three days, 49 films (five shorts programs and two feature-length documentaries), glow-in-the-dark bowling (sorry I had to skip out on that part!) and a reception for the 25th anniversary of QWOCMAP (the organization). That’s a wrap on the 21st annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival.
QWOCFF delivered again with consistently high-quality films on a range of topics. I can’t say that I loved every film, but even the few I didn’t much care for were okay, and there were 17 shorts plus both features that I rated as “must see,” and only 7 shorts I rated anything less than “highly recommended.”
If you see something in the program that you really want to see, don’t despair just yet: there will be a streaming encore in mid-September, so get on the QWOCMAP mailing list to get all the details.
QWOCFF 2025 Closing Night: We’re Here, We’re Queer
“We’re Here, We’re Queer” (shorts program)
Closing Night Screening
Sunday, June 15, 2025, 7:00 pm, Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
⚠️ content advisories: (see individual listings below)
(This program is a mix of short documentaries, narrative shorts, and other works.)
- I AM GLITCHING 👏, narrative, dir. Salma Parra, 2024, Germany, 7 min., no dialogue
- The Talk 👏, documentary, dir. Ella Saini, 2022, Canada, 4 min.
- Why I Give Up Perfectionism 👏, dir. Mecedes Lindsay, 2025, USA, 2 min.
- ⚠️ OMANG 💖, documentary, dir. Durvie Morake, 2023, Botswana, 30 min.
- ⚠️ HAIR: Empowering Expression 👏, documentary, dir. Bianca Langlois & Zaniyyah Johnson, 2025, USA, 6 min.
- Mother of the Closet 💖, narrative, dir. Chidera Orazulike & Yliana Roland, 2024, USA, 11 min.
- To Speedy with Love 👏, dir. Kenny Cuello, 2025, USA, 5 min.
- My Favorite Plankton 🙂, dir. Jasmine Liang, 2025, USA, 4 min.
- ⚠️ Bathroom Attendant 👏, narrative, dir. Gabriella Mykal, 2024, USA, 5 min.
- LOLO 💖, narrative, dir. Ana Gabriela Gutiérrez Salgado, 2024, Mexico, 15 min., in Spanish with English subtitles
QWOCFF 2025 Centerpiece: Unapologetic Legacies
“Unapologetic Legacies” (shorts program)
Centerpiece Screening
Sunday, June 15, 2025, 12:00 noon, Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
⚠️ content advisories: (see individual listings below)
- ⚠️ Mi Ofrenda 👏, narrative, dir. Melba Martinez, 2024, USA, 5 min., in English, Spanish, and Spanglish with full English and Spanish subtitles
- The Boy Who Cheated Death 🙂, narrative, dir. Pipou Phuong Nguyen, 2025, France, 5 min., no dialogue
- Trance 🫤, dir. Bahr Tama, 2025, USA, 6 min., no dialogue
- ⚠️ Eternal 👏, narrative, dir. Lusi Wang & Lazuli Trujano, 2025, USA, 6 min.
- ⚠️ GHOST TOWN 🫤, dir. Sophia Leál, 2025, USA, 5 min.
- ⚠️ I’m Dead, Right? 💖, narrative, dir. J. Mehr Kaur, 2024, USA, 15 min.
- ⚠️ Sister Salad Days 💖, narrative, dir. Adesola Thomas, 2023, USA, 18 min.
- ⚠️ FORever feroshUS 💖, narrative, dir. Naya Ryan Rashad, 2024, USA, 13 min.
- Don’t Cry for Me, All You Drag Queens 💖, documentary, dir. Kristal Sotomayor, 2023, USA, 9 min.
- ⚠️ To Build a Monument 👏, documentary, dir. Laissa Alexis, 2024, USA, 11 min.
Saturday, June 14, 2025
QWOCFF 2025 Centerpiece: Queer Mischief
“Queer Mischief” (shorts program)
Saturday Centerpiece Screening
Saturday, June 14, 2025, 7:00 pm Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
⚠️ content advisories: (see individual listings below)
- ⚠️ Play it Like it’s ’54 👏, dir. Nova Duarte Martinez, 2024, USA, 12 min., in English and Yue Chinese (Cantonese) with full English subtitles
- ⚠️ In This Moment 🙄, dir. Chicahua Zipactonal Martínez & Neka Cecilia Knowles, 2024, USA, 38 min.
- ⚠️ Your Next Door Neighbours 🙂, dir. Ana Jimenez, 2023, Canada, 8 min., in Spanish with full English subtitles
- Dirty Dance Heartbreak 👏, dir. Ginger Yifan Chen, 2025, USA, 4 min.
- ⚠️ Troubled Connexxxions 👏, dir. E’Niyah Wilson, 2025, USA, 6 min.
- ⚠️ Cape Town Royalty Programme 💖, dir. Max Fouchee, 2023, South Africa, 7 min.
- ⚠️ Swallow It 💖, dir. Eden Savage, 2024, USA, 10 min.
- ⚠️ Me Porto Bonita 🫤, dir. Cecilia Romo, 19 min., in English and Spanish with full English subtitles
QWOCFF 2025 Featured Screening: Standing Above the Clouds
Standing Above the Clouds 💖, dir. Jalena Keane-Lee, 2024, USA, 82 min.
Saturday, June 14, 2025, 5:00 pm Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
 |
| Standing Above the Clouds |
QWOCFF blurb: Through the stories of Indigenous mothers and daughters who have sustained the largest political movement in modern Hawaiian history, this film explores intergenerational healing and the social and emotional labor of retaining ancient ceremonies in a rapidly modernizing world.
“Best social impact documentary” at hotdocs 2024; “Best made-in-Hawai‘i feature documentary” at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival 2024, “People’s choice” at the Māoriland Film Festival 2025.
Despite the presence of 13 telescopes atop Mauna Kea, each project promising to be the last one, each promising to be environmentally responsible and then releasing toxic chemicals into the soil, scientists wanted to build a massive new telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), with a mirror 100 feet in diameter, housed in a building 18 stories tall. Some of the local native Hawai‘ians decided they had had enough, and began protests that successfully stalled the project until finally, just a few days ago, the National Science Foundation dropped funding for the TMT, putting the plans in indefinite suspension.
I will admit to a certain degree of split loyalties. Building a 30-meter telescope would truly advance science tremendously, increasing our understanding of the entire universe, and Mauna Kea is uniquely well suited as a location for that telescope. But at the same time, the disregard for the indigenous population over many decades, even by their own state government, is shameful. If a way can be found to move forward on the Thirty Meter Telescope, it will have to be arm in arm with the native Hawai‘ians, not over their entrenched objections.
Standing Above the Clouds is a powerful documentary about the ability of people to organize for a cause they hold dear, a cause with resonances not only throughout Hawai‘i and the Pacific islands, but for indigenous communities worldwide. It’s a must see.
• IMDb • trailer • watch the 2019 documentary short • official website •
QWOCFF 2025 Centerpiece: Think Global, Act Local
“Think Global, Act Local” (shorts program)
Saturday, June 14, 2025, 12:00 noon, Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
⚠️ content advisories: (see individual listings below)
- ⚠️ WIPEOUTS 💖, documentary, dir. Nesrine Majzoub, 2024, USA, 14 min.
- ⚠️ What Would You Tell Your Past Self? 👏, dir. Nyah Renee Edington, 2025, USA, 9 min.
- ⚠️ (Invisible) Ultra Violet 👏, narrative, dir. Beli Sullivan, 2024, USA, 5 min.
- ⚠️ Ardent Dissonance Harmonic Discord (Super Emotional) 👏, dir. Emily Park, 2025, USA, 4 min.
- Memories on Rewind 👏, narrative, dir. Lynette Esparza, 2025, USA, 3 min.
- ⚠️ Where do we go? 👏, dir. Shabnam Singla, 2025, USA, 5 min.
- Miss you 👏, dir. Yen-Vy Ngo, 2023, USA, 6 min.
- ⚠️ silence as resistance 👏, dir. Xahej Bajipura, 2025, USA, 8 min., in English and Hindi with full English subtitles
- ⚠️ Land’s End/토지의 끝 👏, dir. haejin bang, 2025, USA, 8 min., in Korean and English with full English subtitles
- ⚠️ Self Portrait 👏, dir. Sage Tran, 2024, USA, 7 min.
- ⚠️ and the wind answered 💖, dir. Peace Waters, 2025, USA, 7 min.
- PARAMITA 💖, dir. Kirthi Nath, 2023, USA, 24 min.
Friday, June 13, 2025
QWOCFF 2025 Opening Night: Liberatory Black Futures
“Liberatory Black Futures” (shorts program)
Friday, June 13, 2025, 7:00 pm Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
⚠️ content advisories: (see individual listings below)
- The Aunties 💖, documentary, dir. Charlyn Griffith-Oro & Jeannine Kayembe-Oro, 2023, USA, 6 min.
- ⚠️ Absolve at the Water 👏, experimental documentary, dir. Maia Helvy, 2023, USA, 2 min.
- RENEGADES: Celestine Tate Harrington: Building a Legacy 💖, documentary, dir. Cashmere Jasmine, 2024, USA, 13 min.
- ⚠️ Ready for War 👏, experimental dance, dir. Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene, 2025, USA, 8 min.
- Come Dance with Me 💖, experimental dance, dir. nwaọ, 2024, USA, 8 min.
- ⚠️ KULTUR 💖, experimental narrative, dir. Asari Aibangbee, 2023, USA, 20 min.
- ⚠️ Chestbound 💖, narrative, dir. Janine Anne Uyanga, 2024, USA, 18 min.
QWOCFF 2025 Featured Screening: Can’t Stop Change
💖
Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines
(No se para el cambio: Historias climáticas queer desde la primera línea de Florida),
dir. Vanessa Raditz, Natalia Villarán-Quiñones, and Yarrow Koning, 2024 USA,
in English and Spanish with open captions in both languages throughout, 97 min.
Sunday, June 15, 2025, 3:00 pm, Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave., SF
(This film screened in Frameline48. Here is my review from that screening.)
 |
|
Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories |
Florida is at the epicenter of the right-wing project to reshape America. Florida and Wisconsin are the testbeds for legislation put forward by ALEC, and in his laughable pursuit of the Presidential nomination, Governor Ron DeSantis went after LGBTQ+ (especially trans people and anyone standing in the way of Development, specifically including drill, baby, drill. In the face of that onslaught, some activists are holding their ground and trying to raise awareness and hopefully at some point turn the tide. Filmmakers Vanessa Raditz, Natalia Villarán-Quiñones, and Yarrow Koning interviewed activists in North Florida, Central Florida, and South Florida, plus some who felt they had to leave Florida for their own safety. They talked particularly about the intersection of climate change activism with communities marginalized by the white heteropatriarchy.
The result is a call to action and a beacon of hope, and draws clear connections between issues we often think of separately. For example, climate change has brought devastation to many parts of Florida in the form of stronger hurricanes, but the burden of that devastation has fallen disproportionately on Black and brown people, poor people, immigrants, and other people just trying to hang on. Climate is a “threat multiplier,” magnifying existing injustices. It’s a necessary film, and one that everyone should watch, definitely a MUST SEE, but unfortunately, the people who most need to see it will tune out pretty early on when they hear the radicals talk. They’re not exactly fiddling while Rome burns, but they’re playing 🙈🙉🙊 even as experts predict that as much as 60% of the land area of the city of Miami could be underwater by 2060.
• IMDb • trailer • Official website • Instagram: @Queers4ClimateJustice • Facebook: @QueerEcoProject • other • Historias climaticas queer desde la primera linea de Florida Natalian Villaran-Quinones
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Queer Women of Color
The Queer Women of Color Film Festival (QWOCFF, or QWOCMAP after the organization that puts it on) is celebrating 25 years!
The festival is three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 13 to 15, 2025, at the theater in the Presidio National Park, not to be confused with the Presidio Movie Theater, a commercial venue on Chestnut & Divisadero. The address for your GPS or rideshare is 99 Moraga Avenue.
Tickets are free (but please give what you can) at QWOCFF.org.
The programs are:
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
One Week to Frameline!
One week from tonight, the Frameline49 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival will be underway! I reviewed all ten shorts programs (except for a handful of shorts that were not available for advance review), and a bunch of feature-length films, both documentary and narrative. I will be adding to those reviews for the rest of June, as I see advance screeners, theater screenings in Frameline, and streaming through the Digital Screening Room.
I also posted information about the Digital Screening Room, which will be available June 23 to June 30, 2025.
See the posts below for all the details.
Frameline49 Streaming Details
A limited selection of films from Frameline49 are available to stream online, June 23 to June 30, 2025. Most of the films can be streamed anywhere in the United States, but check the Frameline page for each title to be sure, before buying a streaming ticket. Also, note that the shorts programs shown here may not include all of the shorts; again, see the Frameline page for details.
Note that Frameline has added two streaming-only compilation shorts programs, “Wild Combination” and ”Queer Quartet,” with shorts from various in-person programs.
Shorts programs: (links to Film Queen Review write-ups)
- “Alien Extravaganza”
- “First Impressions, Lasting Connections: Date Night Shorts”
- “Fun in Shorts” (7 out of 8 shorts)
- “Homegrown”
- “Saturday Morning Cartoons” 🔞 (6 out of 9 shorts)
- “Scared Shortless”
- “Truth Be Told: Documentary Shorts”
- not “It’s a Family Affair” (1 of 5 included in “Queer Quartet”)
- not “Outside Voices: Leaders in Queer Cinema Supported by Colin Higgins Foundation” (2 of 4 included in “Wild Combination”, 1 in “Queer Quartet”)
- not “Queer Quickies” (1 of 8 included in “Wild Combination”)
- streaming only: “Wild Combination” and “Queer Quartet” (selected shorts from various shorts programs and shorts that were paired with a feature)
Feature-length documentaries: (links to Frameline page or Film Queen Review)
- GEN_
- Heightened Scrutiny (within California only)
- In the Best Interests of the Children (preceded by Lesbian Custody) (for some reason, the Frameline guide lists this as a narrative feature, but it is a documentary)
- A Mother Apart
- Niñxs
- Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency
- Trans Memoria
Narrative features: (links to Frameline page or Film Queen Review)
- If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart Into Your Mouth and Smile (Wenn du Angst hast nimmst du dein Herz in den Mund und lächelst)
- Lakeview
- Silent Sparks (愛作歹) (with Like What Would Sorrow Look (愁何狀))
- Skinny Love (Einskonar ást)
- ⚠️Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
As of this writing, I’ve only reviewed the shorts programs plus one documentary and one narrative feature. Those titles are links to my blog entry; other titles are links to the Frameline program page. I will update them if and when I review the films.
Ninxs, Wenn du Angst hast nimmst du dein Herz in den Mund und lachelst, laechelst, Einskonar ast
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (Lijepa večer, lijep dan)
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (Lijepa večer, lijep dan) 👏,
dir. Ivona Juka, 2024 Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Canada/Cyprus/Poland, 137 min.,
in Croatian with English subtitles
⚠️ content advisory: graphic homophobic violence, sexual violence
Lijepa vecer, lijep dan
Friday, June 27, 2025, 8:30 pm, Herbst Theatre
🇺🇳 International premiere
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Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day |
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day starts in Nazi-occupied Croatia in 1941, showing some of the students who went on to join the partisans, a highly effective resistance movement. One of the leaders of that movement was Tito, who eventually became the totalitarian dictator of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia. Most of the story takes place in 1957, when Tito was both President and Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. In Tito’s Yugoslavia, you were free to do and say whatever the government wanted you to do and say. Anyone in your life, your co-worker, your neighbor, even your flatmate, could be an informant for the UDBA (secret police). Any slight deviation from official dogma could result in interrogation or worse.
Lovro and Nenad were partisans who became lovers and then partners in film-making, but their talents were assigned to AGITPROP, the department for Agitation and Propaganda. They were joined by a couple of their gay friends from the partisan days of World War II. Within their small circle of family and friends, they are safe and could live and speak freely, but government censors grow increasingly intrusive, and finally UDBA tasks Emir, a party loyalist, with sabotaging the group. Ultimately, the filmmakers are resisting the full weight of the authoritarian state, fighting for the freedom to be, to speak, and to love as they pleased.
It’s a bleak story, with a palpable sense of the oppression they were living under, with all its ubiquitous tentacles in every facet of life. The moments when the men find an opportunity for a sexual connection are manic, making rabbits look calm and sedate by comparison. The walls inexorably close in on them until it all comes to a head. All but the last three minutes or so of the film is in black and white, echoing the colorlessness of life in Tito’s Yugoslavia.
It’s exquisitely well done, but not by any means a light, upbeat film. The protagonists are resisting the relentless and all-encompassing state, with little hope of escape. Highly recommended.
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day was selected as Croatia’s entry for Best International Feature in the 2025 Academy Awards.
• IMDb • trailer • official website •
Come See Me in the Good Light
Come See Me in the Good Light ❓, dir. Ryan White, 2025, USA, 104 min.
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 6:00 pm, New Parkway, Oakland
Friday, June 27, 2025, 3:00 pm, Vogue Theatre
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| Come See Me in the Good Light |
After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, Gibson and their partner, fellow poet Megan Falley, unearth a profound sense of resilience in small, everyday joys. Life’s moments can be both tough and tender, holding grief and humor, and ache and elation, in equal measure. Backed by Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach and executive produced by Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile, this Sundance Festival Favorite Award-winning meditation on mortality illuminates, with exquisite tenderness, what it means to really live.
• IMDb • interview with the director and producer Tig Notaro • official website • coming to AppleTV+ fall 2025 •
Dreams in Nightmares
Dreams in Nightmares 💖,
dir. Shatara Michelle Ford, 2024, USA/Taiwan/UK, 128 min.
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 8:30 pm, New Parkway (Oakland)
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| Dreams in Nightmares |
Dreams in Nightmares is a road trip movie, but not in the sense of a buddy comedy; this is definitely a drama. A group of college friends have settled, two in Brooklyn, one in Los Angeles, and the fourth … who knows where? When the other 3 realize they haven’t heard from Kel in months, they set off on a spontaneous road trip to find them. The trip takes them much farther than they expected, both in literal miles driven and in exploring their connections to themselves and to each other.
Z (Denée Benton, pictured center) has been having dream visions of her ancestors trying to give her some sort of message, but can’t quite get to the part of the dream when the message is actually delivered. The other two struggle to balance artistic expression with paying the bills. The beginning of the film felt a little slow at first, but the pace sustains through the film, and turns out to be just the right speed for the characters to slowly open up. The director and the cast are majority queer and trans Black actors, and that bond to the material really comes through.
Dreams in Nightmares is at its core a character study, with four complicated, deep characters confronting the ways their life choices increase (or sacrifice) their Black, queer, artistic joy (to borrow a phrase from the Frameline program, but I couldn’t have said it better). Definitely a must see.
Drone
Drone 💖, dir. Simon Bouisson, 2024, France, 110 min., in French with English subtitles
⚠️ content advisory: Sexual violence
Saturday, June 21, 2025, 8:30 pm Vogue Theatre
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| Drone outside Émilie‘s window, altered to show detail |
Émilie is studying architecture, but to pay the bills she is also a camgirl. One night, she notices a drone hovering outside her apartment window (photo enhanced to show detail), but it gradually becomes more invasive and more ominous, especially because it is not at all clear who is controlling it. It’s not a commercially available off-the-shelf model, but apparently a much more sophisticated custom unit. Her stalker remains stubbornly hidden, despite sending her money on her phone, but also becomes more persistent and more sinister. The tension builds to a crescendo, but you’ll have to see it to find out the ending.
The drone clearly is a stand-in for “the male gaze” in its ickiest form, intruding into every aspect of Émilie’s life. Drone is a taut thriller, too, besides a pointed social commentary. Definitely a must see, especially if you like thrillers.
Drone is not included in this year’s Digital Screening Room, but the credits include “avec la participation de Disney+” so you just might get to see it screening some day soon.
• IMDb • trailer • official website [fr] • Emilie
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