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.

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.

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

If you missed QWOCFF…

The 20th anniversary Queer Women of Color Film Festival wrapped up Sunday evening. If you missed the in-person screenings, there are two ways you can get a second chance.

Update: The Online Encore Screening has been announced, September 11 through 17, 2024. Check the QWOCMAP or QWOCFF website for the latest. As always, QWOCFF screenings are free (donations appreciated), and all films are fully open captioned with audio description available.

You can also get your commemorative t-shirt for the 20th annual QWOCFF.

Second, several of the short films are available online for free, and the full concert performance featured in Finding Her Beat is available on Vimeo On Demand for $14.99.

Shared Navigation (QWOCFF Closing Night)

“Shared Navigation” shorts program, QWOCFF 2024 Closing Night Screening

Sunday, June 16, 2024, 5:00 PM, Presidio of San Francisco; total runtime: 96 minutes

all QWOCFF films are fully open-captioned with audio description available

⚠️Content Warning: several of the films have content warnings; see below

• Expanding Sanctuary by Kristal Sotomayor, 2023 USA, 20 min. 💖
• Mi Abuelita, La Campeona by Isa Moreno, 2023 USA, in Spanish, 3 min. 👏
• Prism: A Nonbinary Documentary by Ginger Chen, 2024 USA, 5 min. 💖
  World Premiere
• Quears by Shabnam Singla, 2023 Austria, 24 min. 🫤
• Where Do We Go by Jade Blackthorne, 2024 USA, 4 min. 👏
• Adulthood? by Mehak Chahal, 2024 USA, 2 min. 🙂
• Exhale by Sara Lopez Martinez, 2024 USA, 4 min. 😑
• Clocky by Alicia Power Rangel, 2024 USA, 6 min. 👍
  World Premiere
• Rhombus by Noel King, 2022 USA, no dialogue, 4 min. 💖🤟
• To Glow at H.U.M. University by Naya Ryan, 2024 USA, 5 min. 👍
• Courtside Bouquet: The Legacy of Leigha Rose by Jasmine LeBlanc, 2024 USA, 8 min. 💖
  World Premiere
• SK8RGRLS by Jean Zamora & Florence Middleton, 2023 USA, 9 min. 💖🛼
  World Premiere

Finding Her Beat (QWOCFF Featured Screening)

Finding Her Beat by Dawn Mikkelson & Keri Pickett, 2022 USA, 89 min. 💖

Sunday, June 16, 2024, 1:00 PM, Presidio Theatre

all QWOCFF films are fully open captioned with audio description available

Finding Her Beat

A Japanese drum master and Korean adoptee from Minnesota assemble the world’s best women Taiko drummers, to claim a cultural spotlight that has historically been off-limits to women for centuries. As the troupe prepares for a historic performance in snowy St. Paul, they navi‌gate differences in culture, age, language, and performing styles in a voyage of music, cultural expression, and sisterhood.

I had never heard of Taiko, a traditional Japanese style of drumming, although I’ve probably seen examples of it without knowing the proper name. Its roots go back centuries, but until the mid-20th century, it was male-dominated, if not exclusively male. However, a small number of women have made names for themselves doing Taiko drumming in the 21st century. One of them decided to put on a performance with as many women and non-binary Taiko drummers as she could find, in Minneapolis, on Leap Day, February 29, 2020. It looked very much like Covid might drive a wrecking ball through the plans, and indeed it was the second-to-last event at the Ordway Center before lockdown. They pressed on, enduring a two-week residency constructing and rehearsing the lineup, and put on a great show.

The event was organized by Megan Chao Smith (pictured above). Performers included Tiffany Tamaribuchi (who gave a live performance at the QWOCFF reception), Chieko Kojima, Kaoly Asano, and others from across the United States, Canada, and Japan. Most of them have Japanese ancestry, but a few do not, and simply found themselves drawn to the art form.

It’s an engaging ride, allowing us to watch the process of creation as well as some of the final result. Even if you know nothing about drumming, it’s a MUST SEE.

• IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker [Pickett] • Instagram • Facebook • preview • HERbeat Artist Reel on YouTube • full concert performance on Vimeo on Demand [$14.99] •

Queer Black Currents (QWOCFF Centerpiece)

“Queer Black Currents” shorts program, QWOCFF 2024 Saturday Centerpiece

Saturday, June 15, 2024, 1:00 PM, Presidio, total run time 92 minutes

all films are fully open captioned in English with audio description available

⚠️Content Warning: several films have content warnings; see below

• Emergency Contact by Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene, 2024 USA, 10 min., in Ijaw, Urhobo, Nigerian Pidgin English, English, and French 💖
• Line of Reverence by Ashante J. Ford, 2024 USA, 5 min. 🫤
• Omwan’ekhui: Person of Dark Skin by Asari Aibangbee, 2022 USA, 13 min. 👏
• You Don’t Have to Like Me by Safiyah Chiniere, 2023 USA, 10 min., in English and Jamaican 💖
• Heavy is the Head by Juniper Johnson, 2023 USA, 6 min. 💖
• A Poem Called Love Jones by Linda Denson & Diana Khong, 2023 USA, 6 min. 💖
• Black Rainbow Love by Angela Harvey, 2022 USA, 42 min. 💖

Charting Home (QWOCFF Opening Night)

“Charting Home” shorts program (QWOCFF 2024), total running time: 90 minutes

Opening Night Screening

Friday, June 14, 2024, 7:00 PM, Presidio Theater

all films open captioned in English, with audio description available

⚠️Content Advisory: some of the films have content advisories, noted in the full description.

“From reviving traditions to revisiting memories, these films soar alongside ancestral legacies and diaspora to honor the resilience and power of past generations through the persistence, perseverance, and revitalization of Indigenous cultures around the world.”

• Painted Ones by Julia Husain Nacario, 2024 USA, in English and Bisaya, 5 min. 👍
• Drumbeat of Our Hearts by Cynthia Gutierrez, 2024 USA, 4 min. 👏
• A Place to Call Home: An Inside Look at La Peña’s Rotating Mural Program by Clara Pérez Medina, 2023 USA, 10 min. 👏
• The Making of Hana Makgeolli by Esther Chan, 2023 USA, 9 min. 👍
• علاش ماديريش بروشينغ؟ (My Hair is the View) (literally Why Don’t You Brush It?) by Sanae Lahgazi-Alaou & Safae Lahgazi-Alaou, 2023 Morocco, in Arabic, French, and English, 7 min. 👏
• grandmother’s eyes by Victoria 程, 2024 USA, in Mandarin Chinese and English, 4 min. 🙂
• Hoa by Trâm Anh Nguyễn, 2022 Vietnam, in Vietnamese, 14 min. 👏
• Snack by Lauren To’omalatai, 2023 USA, in English and Sāmoan, 8 min. 👏
• E Le Malemo Se I’a (A Fish Does Not Drown): Pasifika Communities During Prop 8 by Sauliloa Niumeitolu, 2023 USA, in English and various Pasifika languages, 20 min. 👏
• Ka’ā’ume’ume: Navigating Home by M. Kaleipumehana Cabral, 2023 USA, in Hawai’ian and English, 8 min. 👏