“Queer Black Joy Like Fire” (shorts program)
Queer Women of Color Film Festival opening night
Friday, June 12, 2026, 7:00 PM, Presidio Theater, 99 Moraga Ave. (in Presidio National Park)
Note: not to be confused with the Presidio Theater on Chestnut St.
Online encore: Friday, September 11, 2026 through Monday, September 21, 2026
⚠️ (see individual film listings below)
- 🤩 Hannah Mayree: Songs of Reclamation, dir. Ebony Marie Bailey, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
- 🤩 Damn Y’all Fine, dir. Kalima Young & Ti Malik Coleman, 2025, USA, 42 min., in English with open captions
- 🙂 Budget Paradise, dir. LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, 2024, USA, 14 min., in English with open captions
- 🙂 Rainbow Girls, dir. Nana Duffuor, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
🤩 Hannah Mayree: Songs of Reclamation,
dir. Ebony Marie Bailey, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
⚠️ anti-black racism, archival images of white performers in blackface
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| Hannah Mayree: Songs of Reclamation |
QWOCMAP blurb: In Songs of Reclamation, a musician and community organizer reclaims the banjo’s Black roots, literally, by building banjos from scratch out of earth materials, continuing a land-based practice of their diasporic ancestors.
My take: Hannah Mayree is bringing the banjo back to its historical roots, before white people in blackface tainted its reputation. Rather than using a mass-produced banjo, she harvests the gourd, shapes the wood for the neck, and places the goatskin over the face. The only part left for her to become a true luthier (maker of stringed instruments) is the strings themselves, and she’s workin’ on it. It’s a celebration of culture and history and music and a connection to community. Definitely a must see.
• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @EbonyMarieB @Hannah_Mayree • Facebook • preview • watch on YouTube •
emoji Damn Y’all Fine,
dir. Kalima Young & Ti Malik Coleman, 2025, USA, 42 min., in English with open captions
⚠️ emotional distress, body dysphoria, personal safety concerns, transphobia
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| Damn Y’all Fine |
QWOCMAP blurb: Damn Y’all Fine follows Baltimore’s Black queer artists and activists as they style identity on their own terms, how the city shapes the way they express gender, sexuality, and self.
“Brooklyn and Oakland is cute, but y’all ain’t got no crab cakes.”
[t-shirt design, tongue in cheek:] Baltimore vs. Y’all Whores
My take: Damn Y’all Fine is a joyous celebration of queerness, queer fashion, Blackness, and Baltimore.
• IMDb: Young ◦ Coleman • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @Damn.Yall.Fine • Facebook • preview • other •
🙂 Budget Paradise,
dir. LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, 2024, USA, 14 min., in English with open captions
⚠️ Gentrification
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| Budget Paradise |
QWOCMAP blurb: Filmed and set in Oakland, Budget Paradise follows Chester, a Black, nonbinary painter searching for space and permission to exist in their own hometown.
My take: Budget Paradise screened in the “Homegrown Shorts” program at Frameline 49 (2025). I was underwhelmed. As I put it last year, “We follow Chester around for various (mis)adventures, often ending up with running away from a bill they can’t pay. Unfortunately, the episodes didn’t really cohere into a story. Meh.”
Seeing it in the theater with an audience was a very different experience, though. The crowd loved it, and I found it was better the second time through. I still feel pain for Chester, who it seems burned some bridges for very little in return. Still, from the crowd reaction, I have to say at least recommended.
• IMDb • Official website • Frameline program notes (2025) • Filmmaker • Instagram • Facebook • preview • watch on vimeo •
🙂 Rainbow Girls,
dir. Nana Duffuor, 2025, USA, 16 min., in English with open captions
⚠️ gentrification, displacement, drug use, swearing
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| Rainbow Girls |
QWOCMAP blurb: In Rainbow Girls, a group of friends stage a heist targeting San Francisco’s most exclusive luxury brands as the tech boom gentrifies their city.
My take: Rainbow Girls also screened in the “Homegrown Shorts” program at Frameline 49 last year. Unfortunately, I was also underwhelmed by this one. As I said then, “Based in part on real events in San Francisco. A group of trans* people of color decide to make their money through organized shoplifting. One of the group says, “It’s not stealing, it’s shoplifting — not the same thing.” Except it is the same thing. In particular, I didn’t track the switch of the one character who initially resisted the idea, into becoming something of a ringleader. Meh.”
Again, seeing it in the theater with an audience was a completely different experience, with the crowd cheering on the protagonists and enthusiastically applauding at the end, so maybe my suburban white boy upbringing got in the way. In any case, you should probably ignore my opinion, because the crowd clearly highly recommended Rainbow Girls, and I’d guess that many of them would rate it a must see.
• IMDb • Official website • Frameline program notes • Filmmaker • Instagram: @RainbowGirlsFilm • Facebook • preview • watch on YouTube •
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