“Desire & Defiance” (shorts program) 🔞
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 7:00 PM, Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave. in the Presidio
Online encore Friday, September 11, 2026 through Monday, September 21, 2026
⚠️ (see individual film listings below)
- 😁 Black Tea, dir. Be Steadwell, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
- 😁 Letters to Nowhere, dir. Noor Irshad, 2026, USA, 4 min., in English with open captions
- 😀 2 of Hearts, dir. Ana Squilanti, 2025, Brazil, 15 min., in Portuguese with English subtitles
- 🙂 Edges of the Earth, dir. Day Park, 2026, USA, 6 min., in English with open captions
- 😵💫 Waste Time: A Complicated Love Story, dir. LIVt, 2025, USA, 8 min., in English with open captions
- 🤣 Cockroach,, dir. Liliana Padilla & Justice Maya Singleton, 2025, USA, 22 min., in English with open captions
- 😁 Pink Oz’s, dir. Tierra “TT” Frost, 2025, USA, 9 min., in English with open captions
😁 Black Tea, dir. Be Steadwell, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
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| Black Tea |
QWOCMAP blurb: An artist and a collector argue over an antique teacup. They make their cases over a cup of tea and a crush develops.
My take: The teacup has vastly different meanings to the two protagonists, arising from divergent childhood experiences and associations with the ritual of afternoon tea, one harkening back to fond memories of her grandmother, the other looking at symbols of colonialism and oppression. Many layers of symbolism, and an unexpected personal connection between them. Highly recommended.
• IMDb: director • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @BeSteadwell • Facebook • preview • other •
😁 Letters to Nowhere, dir. Noor Irshad, 2026, USA, 4 min.,
in English with open captions
⚠️ Emotional distress, grief
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| Letters to Nowhere |
QWOCMAP blurb: In Letters to Nowhere, we see that sometimes, friendship breakups happen in the middle of the work week. Crashout status: imminent.
My take: The main character works through her distress by making a series of waffles. (Added caution: may cause dessert cravings.) The film is more about giving you a feeling for the situation than telling a narrative story, but it works. Highly recommended.
• IMDb: no listing found • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
😀 2 of Hearts (2 de copas), dir. Ana Squilanti, 2025, Brazil, 15 min.,
in Portuguese with English subtitles
⚠️ Alcohol use
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| 2 of Hearts |
QWOCMAP blurb: In 2 of Hearts, Alzira, a retired seamstress, starts having intense, passionate dreams when her gambling partner stops showing up to their games.
My take: Alzira and a group of older ladies gather to play Canasta, with some spicy conversation over the card table, at times sounding more like horny teenagers than demure grannies. There seemed to be much more symbolism at play than I was able to grasp; in particular, I don’t play Canasta, and I am not familiar with the Latin card suits (cups, swords, coins, and clubs), but the original title 2 of Cups does not appear to be a reference to the Cups suit in Tarot. Recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @AnaSquilanti • Facebook • preview • other •
• Note: Ana Squilanti’s production company, Pitanga Produtora, has an excellent short documentary, Communion (Comunhão), in Frameline’s “Doc Shorts” program, playing Friday, June 19, 2026, at the Roxie Theater. Check it out! •
🙂 Edges of the Earth, dir. Day Park, 2026, USA, 6 min.,
in English with open captions
⚠️🔞 Partial nudity, candle wax play, BDSM
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| Edges of the Earth |
QWOCMAP blurb: Edges of the Earth shows us a place where TCM and BDSM collide.
My take: Neither the voiceover narration nor the visuals made much sense to me, although I was quite tired at the time. If you’re strictly “vanilla,” this one won’t appeal to you; otherwise, I’ll say recommended.
• IMDb: no listing found • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • other •
😵💫 Waste Time: A Complicated Love Story, dir. LIVt, 2025, USA, 8 min.,
in English with open captions
⚠️ flashing images, emotional distress in a relationship
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| Waste Time |
QWOCMAP blurb: Waste Time follows a queer couple, a Black woman and an Indian woman, through the fragments: first date, first kiss, first fight. When one woman looks back on what they had, the film shifts into a music-driven sequence asking whether love is worth coming back to.
My take: The fragments of memories are interesting, but the camera jumps back and forth frenetically, splicing a few seconds of one memory in the middle of another, literally about a hundred times in the course of an 8-minute film. That’s just too much visual caffeine for me. I also found the girlfriend exceedingly hard to take, very high-strung and tenacious to a fault, definitely not someone I would want to spend much time with. In their argument, the two characters are talking over one another as much as talking to each other. Meh.
• IMDb: no listing found • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @LIVt_Musiq • Facebook • preview • watch on YouTube •
🤣 Cockroach, dir. Liliana Padilla & Justice Maya Singleton,
2025, USA, 22 min., in English with open captions
⚠️🔞 Nudity, swearing, insects, sexual content
 |
| Cockroach |
QWOCMAP blurb: In Cockroach, a Black transgender man plans to exchange sex for top surgery money with an older gay man, until the night takes a turn involving an actual cockroach, an unexpected conversation, and a reckoning with what he’s afraid of.
My take: First off, yes, that’s John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) as the “older gay man.”
Cockroach is laugh-out-loud funny, repeatedly, while also having some real emotional depth as Seven (the trans man, filmmaker Justice Singleton) and James (the john, John Cameron Mitchell) examine how their lives led them to this moment, the compromises they have made along the way, and their view of the path forward. Definitely a must see.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @CockroachCinema @DaRealPoeticJustice • Facebook • preview • other •
😁 Pink Oz’s, dir. Tierra “TT” Frost, 2025, USA, 9 min.,
in English with open captions
⚠️ flashing images
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| Pink Oz’s |
QWOCMAP blurb: In Pink Oz’s, Khris, a shy lesbian working at an art gallery, is desperate to get closer to a co-worker. One problem: every time she almost gets the kiss, a Greek chorus of judgmental church ladies in her head erupts to mock and shame her. When the gallery’s featured artist starts pursuing the same woman, Khris has to fight on two fronts, the rival in the room and the voices that won’t let her want what she wants.
My take: Pink Oz’s is a surreal look inside one woman’s conflicted thoughts and feelings, as a surreal set of events unfurls in the surreal setting of a gallery preparing for a show. Did I mention that it’s surreal? Highly recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @Pink.OzsFilm • Facebook • preview • other •
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