Sunday, June 15, 2025

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, dir. Melba Martinez, 2024, USA, 5 min., in English, Spanish, and Spanglish with full English and Spanish subtitles 👏
⚠️ content advisory: grief

A lightskin Chicana woman wearing a grey sweater sits in a chair while her wife places a photo on an ofrenda; photo cropped from center
Mi Ofrenda
(photo cropped from center)

QWOCFF blurb: A Chicana mother comes to terms with the death of her beloved father.

It was a little disjointed, but heartfelt and expressive. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • Instagram: @FrutaMala


The Boy Who Cheated Death, dir. Pipou Phuong Nguyen, 2025, France, 5 min., no dialogue

On a flat iceberg against blue ocean, a white artic fox circles its sleeping baby with its tail.
The Boy who
Cheated Death

QWOCFF blurb: A young boy and his mother transform into different creatures to hide from Death.

The Boy Who Cheated Death is a beautiful animated allegory about … something. I didn’t really follow the story, but the pictures were pretty. Recommended. 🙂

• IMDb (director) • trailer • official website • Instagram: @pipou.png


Trance, dir. Bahr Tama, 2025, USA, 6 min., no dialogue 🫤

Fuel, a genderless person with glasses and long brown hair, lays on top of a TV.
Trance

QWOCFF blurb: An Iraqi person records things to send to their father in the afterlife.

I really didn’t feel I had sufficient context for the images, so I didn’t track what I was seeing. Meh.

• IMDb • trailer • official website


Eternal, dir. Lusi Wang & Lazuli Trujano, 2025, USA, 6 min. 👏
⚠️ content advisory: death, grief

Two gender-expansive people sit on an orange fabric with pinecones seperating them. They sit cross legged and gaze at one another.
Eternal

QWOCFF blurb: Two queer and trans soulmates explore love, intimacy, and belonging within their nonromantic connection.

Eternal is a bit unpolished in its execution, but expresses a strong connection to being fully seen. Highly recommended.

• IMDb (Lusi Wang [placeholder]) • trailer • official website •


GHOST TOWN, dir. Sophia Leál, 2025, USA, 5 min. 🫤
⚠️ content advisory: death, grief, displacement

With a sewing needle in their lap, a Chicane spirit sits in a chair and wears a white quilt draped over their figure.
GHOST TOWN

QWOCFF blurb: After the death of her aunt, a Native Mexican person explores grief and quilt-making as resistance.

It didn’t speak to me. There are some beautiful images, but nothing that grabbed me. Meh.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • Sophia Leal


I’m Dead, Right? dir. J. Mehr Kaur, 2024, USA, 15 min. 💖
⚠️ content advisory: grief, homophobia

An older South Asian woman sits on a couch and looks upwards.
I’m Dead, Right?

filmmaker’s description: Desperate to sell her childhood home, Nikita, a queer South Asian woman, discovers what is making the house unsellable - the ghost of her recently deceased religious mother, who will do whatever it takes to get into Heaven.

I’m Dead, Right? takes the time to explore the conflict between mother and daughter without rushing to a simplistic resolution. Great writing, acting, and directing: must see.

IMDb • trailer • official website • Instagram: @ImDeadRightFilm


Sister Salad Days, dir. Adesola Thomas, 2023, USA, 18 min. 💖
⚠️ content advisory: grief

Two young Black women sit outdoors
Sister Salad Days

filmmaker’s description: When a double dutcher's religious father forces her to get married, she enlists her friends and fiancé to stop the wedding and free her deceased older sister whose soul is trapped on their father's land.

The father, Winston, is insistent on his authority in the house, unable or unwilling to acknowledge other points of view or his own shortcomings. The main character, Deborah, is heading into an unwanted arranged marriage with someone from the church, but older sister Esther’s spirit is still hanging around, waiting for Deborah to “vanish” her (using some form of magical gift that Winston tries to deny and suppress). Something will have to give.

It’s a well crafted story, well acted, beautifully filmed. Definitely a must see.

IMDb • trailer • official website • Instagram: @Sister.Salad.Days


FORever feroshUS, dir. Naya Ryan Rashad, 2024, USA, 13 min. 💖
⚠️ content advisory: grief, emotional pain

A dark-skinned Black man with glitter across his face in a yellow garment stares enigmatically forward.
FORever feroshUS

filmmaker’s description: As he reconciles with his murder, Shae, a man murdered in a homophobic attack, awakens in a mysterious room where the entirety of his life is projected across a series of screens. As he journeys through these memories, he must reach the final screen to uncover the truth about his death. But to get there, he must first make peace with the life he's lived. This film is an homage to O'Shae Sibley.

On July 29, 2023, O’Shae Sibley and some friends were dancing to some Beyoncé music outside a gas station in Brooklyn. Some random people were somehow offended by that and demanded that the voguing stop, leading to a violent confrontation that ended with O’Shae stabbed through the heart; he died from his wounds not long after.

In FORever feroshUS, O’Shae wakes up in what he figures out must be the afterlife, dressed fabulously and sparkling with glitter from head to toe. He is surrounded by tv screens showing pivotal moments from his life: his first crush, his first time seeing a male dancer and having the courage to approach the teacher, and so on. He revisits some of the scenes until he is ready (or is allowed) to cross through the barrier to whatever is beyond.

It’s beautiful, powerful, emotive, and celebrates the life lost rather than focusing on the circumstances of the death. Definitely a must see.

IMDb • trailer • official website • Wikipedia article about O’Shae Sibleyforever ferocious, Beyonce


Don’t Cry for Me, All You Drag Queens, dir. Kristal Sotomayor, 2023, USA, 9 min. 💖

An African American drag queen poses with a large white flower and dark black hair in an updo.
Don’t Cry for Me,
All You Drag Queens

filmmaker’s description: Don't Cry For Me, All You Drag Queens pays homage to the legendary Mother Cavallucci by weaving together the present and past to provide a striking portrait of belonging and memory. Poetically merging archival photographs and present day footage from a community drag show in New Hope, Pennsylvania, the film sparks conversation about the modern day issues Mother Cavallucci revolutionized.

Going back to the 1950s, when it was illegal for a man to appear in public (including on stage) in full drag, the town of New Hope, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware River about an hour north of Philadelphia, has been a bubble of acceptance and welcoming. The figure of Mama Cavallucci loomed large for decades, and she was honored years after her passing for her enduring legacy. It’s an important bit of history and local color. Must see.

IMDb • trailer • official website


To Build a Monument, dir. Laissa Alexis, 2024, USA, 11 min. 👏
⚠️ content advisory: grief, death

A long-haired Black man with locks and a purple shirt looks to his left.
To Build a Monument

QWOCFF blurb: Three queer Black people prepare for their own ancestorhood.

If you are tired, keep going.
If you are scared, keep going.
If you want to taste freedom, keep going.
— Harriet Tubman

Sakia Gunn was a 15-year-old lesbian who was murdered in a hate crime in Newark, New Jersey, in 2003. The city rose up, honoring her memory, with a street now named for her. Several people from Newark speak about Sakia and her legacy, about what they hope their own legacies will be, and what monuments we should build. The narrative meandered a bit, though. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • trailer • official website • Wikipedia article about Sakia Gunn

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