A Mother Apart

A Mother Apart 💖💔❤️‍🩹💝, dir. Laurie Townshend, 2024, Canada, 89 min.
Thursday, June 26, 2025, 3:30 pm, Roxie Theater
and available in the Digital Screening Room, June 23 to 30, 2025

A Mother Apart

Assembly

Assembly 💖, dir. Rashaad Newsome & Johnny Symons, 2025, USA, 98 min.
Friday, June 27, 2025, 5:45 pm, Herbst Theatre
available in the Digital Screening Room, June 23 to 30, 2025

Assembly

WICKET

WICKET 💖, dir. Lily Plotkin, 2025, USA, 75 min.
Friday, June 27, 2025, 5:45 pm, Roxie Theater
🌐 World premiere

WICKET

A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint

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

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

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
🏆 honorable mention: 2025 Frameline Best First Narrative Feature jury award

Lucky, Apartment (럭키, 아파트)

I’m Your Venus

I’m Your Venus 💖, dir. Kimberly Reed, 2024, USA, 85 min.
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 6:00 pm, Roxie Theater
🏆 winner: 2025 Frameline Best Documentary Feature jury award

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

Baby

Baby 💖, dir. Marcelo Caetano, 2024, Brazil/‌France/‌Netherlands, 106 min., in Portuguese with English subtitles (small portions in English without subtitles)
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 8:30 pm, Vogue Theatre
⚠️ content advisory: themes of assault, R-rated depictions of sex

Baby

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
available in the 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.

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
  
  
• 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;
  (also screened at QWOCFF 2024)
  
  
• 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

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

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

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.