Working with LGBTQ+ activists, poets, dancers, rappers, and in connection with community, queer, Black visual artist Rashaad Newsome’s new immersive work serves as both salve and lifeline to those daring to exist outside the margins. Through personal stories and tributes, odes to ballroom culture, live music, and Afro-futurist AI, Newsome transforms an NYC armory into a performance, art, and resistance sanctuary for the queer community.

Using fractals in nature, which are naturally occurring and cannot be broken down, as a metaphor for the Black queer experience, Newsome — alongside co-director Johnny Symons (Out Run, Frameline40) — traces his own strength and resistance to his upbringing in rural Louisiana, the influence of his recently-passed father, and his ancestors in Ghana.

This screening will be directly followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons, moderated by MoAD’s Cultural Critic-in-Residence, Dr. Artel Great. Then join us at our annual Pride Kickoff Party at Oasis to usher in Pride Weekend in San Francisco, featuring drag performances by Reparations, an all-Black drag group curated by local star Nicki Jizz.

Get tickets here: https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline49/assembly