Dictionary.com has released its “biggest ever update”, revising definitions and adding 650 new words relating to race, mental health, climate and the LGBT+ community.
The dictionary has revised the definitions of many LGBT+ words to put “people first”, including replacing the word “homosexual” with the words “gay, gay man, or gay woman”.
The site explained: “For example, we now define gayness as ‘gay or lesbian sexual orientation or behavior’ compared to the outmoded gloss of ‘homosexuality’. These changes alone affect over 50 entries.
“The previously used terms, homosexual and homosexuality, originated as clinical language, and dictionaries have historically perceived such language as scientific and unbiased.
“But homosexual and homosexuality are now associated with pathology, mental illness, and criminality, and so imply that being gay – a normal way of being – is sick, diseased, or wrong.”
The online dictionary has also given Pride – with a capital P – its own entry “to better document the specific, widespread use of the term”.
Dictionary.com added that the revisions will “help eliminate heterosexual bias in language, they also help better convey the diversity and richness of… human sexual experience and identity”.
Other new LGBT+ entries on Dictionary.com include the words “ace, ambisextrous, asexual, biromantic, deadname, gender-inclusive, gender diversity, and trans+”.
Another major update to the dictionary was the capitalisation of the word Black when used in reference to people.
“Capitalising Black confers the due dignity to the shared identity, culture, and history of Black people,” the site said.
“Dictionaries are not merely a linguistic exercise or academic enterprise.
“What are the effects of Black, referring to human beings, being grouped together with black, which can mean, among other things, ‘wicked’?
“The effects are social. They are psychological. They are personal. How words are entered into the dictionary – especially words concerning our personal identities – have real effects on real people in the real world.”
Dictionary.com added: “Change is constant, a principle that’s true in language as in life.
“No matter what is happening in the world, we’re committed to documenting and describing – and helping you stay informed on and, yes, sometimes entertained by – the English language as it evolves.”
In the midst of a worsening pandemic and with record numbers of Americans unemployed, the president and his administration have focused their attention on something else entirely — giving federally funded shelters a license to discriminate against transgender people.
Under the Obama administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) implemented and strengthened a policy known as the Equal Access Rule to guarantee that HUD-funded shelters are open to all Americans, specifically putting protections in place to ensure trans individuals can seek accommodations that correspond to their gender identity.
Now, at a time when access to safe housing is absolutely vital, HUD is advancing a rule change that would enshrine anti-trans discrimination in federal regulations. This senseless policy needlessly puts lives at risk, and it’s critical that the American people speak out about why this rule change is dangerous and contrary to our values.
On July 24, HUD published its proposed rule change and initiated a public comment period that will run through Sept. 22. In an announcement made on July 1, HUD claims, “the proposed rule modifications also better accommodate religious beliefs of shelter providers.” HUD cites no evidence that the existing rule is placing an undue burden on faith-based shelter providers. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 2017, HUD was unable to locate any requests for waivers or accommodations or complaints made while the Obama-era Equal Access Rule protections were in place.
HUD has indicated that it will not recognize the recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County which affirmed that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects the LGBTQ community from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and is pressing forward with this discriminatory rule.
HUD has also perpetuated the dangerous myth that protecting transgender people’s access to accommodations that reflect their gender identity puts others at risk without citing a shred of evidence. In the text of the proposed rule itself, HUD admits that it is not aware of any data suggesting that transgender individuals pose an inherent risk to biological women. Nondiscrimination protections have been in place for years in more than 20 states and 300 localities with no increase in public safety issues.
These are simply bad faith arguments by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, someone who has openly denigrated transgender women as “big, hairy men” in front of his own agency staff. The rule is more of the same, allowing shelter staff to judge the physical characteristics of those seeking services to decide who is sufficiently male or sufficiently female. His long history of vitriol toward the LGBTQ community and determination to press forward with this deeply anti-trans policy is a total departure from the mission of HUD, “to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.”
The right to safe housing should never be obstructed by the political or social beliefs of others. But even worse, this anti-transgender proposal directly targets a group that has historically and disproportionately suffered from the hardships of homelessness. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, nearly one-third of transgender people experience homelessness at some point in their lives and 70 percent reported mistreatment in shelter due to their gender identity.
Removing these protections puts individuals living in states without protections at risk of being left on the streets. The consequences are often dire when a transgender individual is turned away from an emergency shelter.
While I have introduced legislation in the House to block this rule, the most immediate step we can all take is to speak out against this dangerous and discriminatory policy. It is critical that the public submit comments — which you can do here — urging the Trump-Pence White House and HUD to abandon this reckless proposed regulation.
In August, I led 144 of my colleagues in the House and Senate in a public comment letter to Secretary Carson demanding that this rule be rescinded.
We need to fight this policy like trans lives depend on it — because they do.
Jennifer Wexton is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Virginia’s 10th District. Follow her on Twitter: @RepWexton.
Texas assistant attorney general Nick Moutos has lost his job after he was criticised for past tweets in which he called trans people an “abomination” and promoted the QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories.
Moutos is a lawyer and, until this week, was an assistant attorney general in Texas’ criminal prosecutions division.
On Thursday (September 3) Media Matters produced a report detailing Moutos’s racist, transphobic, homophobic, misogynistic and Islamophobic tweets, as well as his support of the controversial conspiracy theories. Every tweet included in the report was published by Mouto in 2020.
QAnon followers, among many outlandish claims, believe that Satan-worshipping paedophile rings involving high-ranking officials are working to take down president Donald Trump. Those who believe the conspiracy theory have been accused of inciting violence, and it was labelled a potential domestic terror threat by the FBI last year.
Pizzagate is another right-wing violence-linked conspiracy theory which preceded QAnon, and its supporters believe that Democrats have been trafficking children through a pizza restaurant in Washington, DC.
In July this year, Twitter announced that it would be cracking down on QAnon content on the platform.
Moutos responded to the announcement: “Q must be getting close to outing you as a pedophile or child trafficker or perhaps involved with Pizzagate?”
He has repeatedly used his Twitter account to refer to women, including house representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, as “Whore of Babylon”. When tweeting at both women, he used the hashtag “no warning shots” and suggested he was “armed and ready”.
Moutos is viciously Islamophobic, comparing Muslims to Nazis, and has also said that Omar is an “incestuous jihadi terrorist” who belongs in Guantanamo Bay.
He has described Islam as a “virus” that “seeks only to steel, kill, and destroy”, and claimed that the UK is “overrun with Muslims”.
The lawyer believes that the US is in the middle of a second civil war, and threatened Barrack Obama on Twitter: “I pray to meet you on the Civil War 2 battlefield.”
Moutos has also posted multiple anti-LGBT+ tweets, including ones calling trans people “abhorrent” and “an abomination” who “have a mental disorder”, and saying that supporting queer rights is “normalising perversion”.
Texas assistant attorney general Nick Moutos lost his job following the backlash against his comments.
Initially, when contacted about Nick Moutos and his comments on Twitter, a spokesperson for Texas’ office of the attorney general told Media Matters: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
“We’re looking into the matter and will address it as appropriate.”
But now, according to the Houston Chronicle, a spokesperson for the office said he no longer works there, without specifying why.
Moutos, however, wrote on Twitter: “Speaking out against the China Virus Plandemic [sic] & Democrats using it to steal Election 2020 makes people angry.
“Stories slamming me and others… were enough to cost me my job.”
On Friday (September 4), addressing the backlash against his anti-LGBT+ comments Moutos wrote on Twitter: “How is it ‘bigoted’ to say that LGBTQ is an abomination?”
Prejudice and discrimination against transgender people is common in Haiti, but at least one organization is providing a haven where they can feel welcome.
The Kay Trans Haiti center in the capital, Port-au-Prince, provides lodging and care for up to 10 transgender people. Funded by a Spanish health care company and the United Nations Development Program, Kay Trans Haiti is open to transgender people who have been victims of verbal or physical abuse. It provides services including a psychologist free of charge, and allows residents to stay for up to a year.
Once people graduate from the center, the program pays their rent for up to a year, after which they must become self-sufficient.
Kervens Mesidor sits on the floor of his bedroom eating a serving of rice and beans at the Kay Trans Haiti center, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020.Dieu Nalio Chery / AP file
Residents say the neighborhood surrounding the center has gradually become more accepting of them, creating a safe island in a city where they can often feel vulnerable and subject to abuse at any moment.
Haiti’s LGBTQ community continues to experience social stigma. Thousands of people in July marched against gay and transgender rights in a rally organized by some churches demanding that President Jovenel Moise rescind a decree that rewrites the 185-year-old penal code recognizing same-sex unions and tacitly allowing homosexuality.
In 2016, an LGBTQ cultural festival in Port-au-Prince was canceled after organizers received threats and a local official, calling it a violation of moral values, sought to ban it.
Laurent Voltus, a resident at the Kay Trans Haiti center, exhales cigarette smoke while dancing with friends at a club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2020.Dieu Nalio Chery / AP file
In 2017, Haiti’s Senate passed two bills targeting LGBTQ Haitians. One would formalize a ban on same-sex marriage, and prohibit public demonstrations in favor of LGBTQ rights.
Residents of the Kay Trans center can bring their partners there, go out to clubs, and shop without fear of mistreatment from neighborhood shopkeepers, who have become increasing friendly and welcoming.
One of the residents, Semi Kaefra Alisha Fermond, 24, said she had a traumatic childhood because neighbors didn’t want her to play with their children.
“I am proud of myself now because I can wear women’s clothes and go everywhere,’’ she said. “At my mother’s home I can’t be like that.”
LGBTQI History: A Sonoma County Timeline 1947-2000.Wednesdays 1:30-3pm. Online via Zoom. Next Wednesday, 9/9 we will be talking about 1960s Counterculture: CloudFarm and other Lesbian/Gay efforts at “getting back to the land.” Please contact me to enroll in this FREE class and receive a Zoom invite: cdungan@santarosa.edu
Drag queens don their colorful wigs, elaborate makeup and knee-high stiletto boots, but instead of stepping on a stage, they’re putting on a face covering, grabbing a takeout bag and bringing their musical numbers to fans’ doorsteps in San Francisco.
The Oasis nightclub is turning the boring dinner blues into “Meals on Heels,” dispatching drag queens like Amoura Teese and Kochina Rude to bring food, cocktails and socially distant lip-synching performances to people during the coronavirus pandemic.
On a recent evening, Rude delivered dinner to Kelsie Costa and her family in the city’s Marina District and then lip-synched the drag show classic “Finally” by CeCe Peniston.
“There’s not a lot to do these days with shelter in place and COVID and all that,” Costa said. “So gotta spice it up somehow. It’s really fun.”
Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger said it’s a way to reconnect with their fans and bring a little joy to those who haven’t had much to smile about recently.
“You have the choice: You can either give up, go home and call it a night, or you can put some duct tape on, find a song you don’t know that well and go out there and sell the number,” Drollinger said. “That’s how I’ve been looking at this whole thing, is we’ve got to sell the number. The show must go on.”
With the club’s shows on hiatus because of the pandemic, it also gives drag performers a chance to make some much-needed money and keep up with their passion.Subscribe to The Morning Email.Wake up to the day’s most important news.
“Drag is such a beating heart of the city,” Rude said. “So it’s not only good for us, but it’s good for the people around us in our community. I’m inspired by it, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
There has been a huge spike in homophobic and racist abuse in football over the last year, according to new figures figures released Thursday (September 3).
Kick It Out, an organisation that monitors discrimination in football, found that there was a significant rise in discriminatory abuse at both football matches and in discussions about football online.
There was a 42 per cent increase in reports of discrimination in professional football, up from 313 last year to 446 in the 2019/20 football season.
Alarmingly, there were 117 reports of discrimination based on sexual orientation, almost double the 60 incidents recorded last year (up 95 per cent).
There was also a 53 per cent increase in racist discrimination in football – 282, up from 184 last year.
At a grassroots level, Kick It Out recorded 94 reports of discrimination in the 2019/2020 football season, down from 113 last year. However, the organisation noted that this was likely due to widespread cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The advocacy group said that, when compared with the equivalent period of last season, there was actually an 11 per cent increase in discriminatory incidents at a grassroots level.
Kick It Out also released the results of a YouGov poll which surveyed 1,000 football fans about discrimination in the sport.
Some 39 per cent of those surveyed said they had heard or witnessed an act of discrimination in the last year, while 14 per cent said they had witnessed an incident in the last week.
Between January and December 2019, 30 per cent witnessed racist comments or chants at a football match, while a whopping 71 per cent said they had seen racist abuse directed at a footballer on social media.
A further 51 per cent of those surveyed had seen racism directed at a fan of an opposing team on social media.
Meanwhile, 32 per cent of fans surveyed said they had witnessed homophobic abuse at a football match, while 41 per cent had seen homophobia aimed at a footballer on social media.
Kick It Out will play its part with campaigning, education and talent programmes that diversify the face of football. But this is everyone’s responsibility.
Worryingly, 22 per cent of respondents said they would be unlikely to report a discriminatory incident at a football match.
Half of those surveyed said they would be unlikely to report racist or homophobic abuse aimed at footballers, coaches or match officials at a football game.
Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick It Out, said “hate and division” pose a “pernicious threat” to society.
“Our reports indicate a steep rise in discrimination reports over the last two years,” he said, noting that their figures are in line with increases in hate crime reports.
“We know that reports to Kick It Out are just the tip of the iceberg. We only report what is reported to us. There is no single view across the whole of football.
“We need to aggregate the data across Kick it Out, clubs, law enforcement, governing bodies and others so that we have the complete picture to give us a greater chance of finding better solutions together.”
He also urged social media companies to be “part of the solution” and join in the fight to tackle online hate speech.
“Kick It Out will play its part with campaigning, education and talent programmes that diversify the face of football. But this is everyone’s responsibility.
“We all need to do more. We all need to take a stand,” Bhandari added.
A man who showed up to an LGBT+ bar with a rifle intent on shooting the patrons inside will serve less than four years in prison, but was not convicted of a hate crime.
Freddie Lee Doyle, 32, previously pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, and has been held without bail for about 14 months.
According to Metro Weekly, Doyle drove to Rehab Bar & Grill in St Louis, Missouri on June 27, 2019, equipped with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, bipod, scope, tactical light, four full rifle magazines and about 160 rifle rounds.
When he arrived in his car, he approached a man who was leaving another LGBT+ venue. Doyle asked him to get into the vehicle, before grabbing a rifle and aiming it at him.
When the man fled, Doyle got out of the car and chased him, aiming the rifle at Rehab patrons and screaming obscenities and homophobic slurs. He then started a verbal countdown before firing the gun into the air.
Assistant US attorney Janea Lamar said police rushed to the scene after hearing the gunshot, but Doyle hid his gun and told them the shooter had run down an alley, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Police discovered the rifle a short time later and arrested Doyle. When the victims of the attempted shooting came to identify him, he began yelling homophobic slurs again.
In charging documents, FBI special agent Jennifer Drews wrote that Doyle said if he’d had more time, he would “have killed those faggots”.
Stephen Williams, defending, said that he had been under the influence of methamphetamine and had struggled with depression, anxiety and ADHD.
Chief judge Rodney Sippel, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, sentenced Doyle 46 months in prison, less than four years.
Shockingly, the motive for Doyle’s crime was not discussed in court and was reported by the media as “unclear”, however prosecutors agreed to not charge him with a hate crime in exchange for his previous guilty plea.
Assistant attorney General Eric Dreiband, of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, said in a statement after the sentencing: “All people in this nation have the right to enjoy themselves at a bar and grill without fearing that they will be threatened, shot, and seriously injured or killed by bigoted criminals.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate this kind of hateful violence.
“The Civil Rights Division strives to protect all Americans from acts of aggression and violence based on their race, colour or sexual orientation.”
Frameline announced the full program for Frameline44—the world’s largest virtual LGBTQ+ film festival—taking place Thursday, September 17 through Sunday, September 27, 2020. This 11-day virtual event will feature 10 world premieres, four international premieres, three North American premieres, and one US premiere, including new narrative features, documentaries, episodics, and shorts programs. In addition, ticket holders will have access to special live and pre-recorded intros, Q&As, and other unique programming, including Frameline’s first-ever virtual gala and live auction (Saturday, September 26), to evoke the live festival experience that has made Frameline the global leader in LGBTQ+ cinema for the past 44 years. Tickets ($8–$12 per screening) and passes (starting at $250) are available now online at frameline.org. This year’s all-virtual platform is open to ticket holders anywhere throughout California. To ensure maximum flexibility, ticket holders will be able to tune in live to each screening or stream nearly every film at any time during the 11-day festival.
Frameline44 will bring film lovers and LGBTQ+ communities from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond together online to discover the latest in queer cinema. Representing 23 countries—from Argentina, France, and Côte d’Ivoire to Nigeria, Taiwan, and New Zealand— this year’s slate of films will touch on
themes ranging from the activist roots of pre-Stonewall LGBTQ rights pioneers to Black Lives Matter; and stories ranging from teenage awakenings to queer love in old age. Highlights include the world premiere Drive-In Centerpiece, D’Arcy Drollinger’s Shit & Champagne, featuring the who’s who of drag, including the one-and-only Alaska Thunderfuck; the world premiere of HBO Max’s Equal: Episodes 2 & 3, directed (respectively) by Kimberly Reed and Stephen Kijak and featuring Samira Wiley, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Alexandra Grey; the world premiere Frameline44 Centerpiece, Lauren Fash’s Through the Glass Darkly,featuring Robyn Lively and Shanola Hampton; films that touch on the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, including the Toronto International Film Festival favorite and Frameline44 Centerpiece, Ali LeRoi’s The Obituary of Tunde Johnson; Elegance Bratton’s timely documentary, Pier Kids, that highlights queer and trans homeless youth on the West Village’s piers; and Ashley O’Shay’s inspiring documentary, Unapologetic, highlighting Black feminist voices who stand up to police violence and usher in change; the Tribeca Film Festival multi-award winner, Cowboys, featuring Steve Zahn, Jillian
Bell, and Ann Dowd; and Laurie Lynd’s Killing Patient Zero, the groundbreaking exposé of how a Canadian flight attendant became vilified as the “man who brought AIDS to North America,” and San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts’ complex role in that story.
“Frameline remains the largest virtual LGBTQ+ film festival in the world,” said James Woolley, Frameline Executive Director. “As trailblazers in the industry for over four decades, Frameline continues raising the bar through virtual and interactive programming ensuring important LGBTQ+ stories are being told to a wider audience. Building on the success of our virtual Pride Showcase in June, we have assembled a lineup of films that promise to engage, inspire, and entertain film lovers across California.”
“Although we are not able to gather in person, the need to be inspired, and to share one another’s stories
of LGBTQ+ lives around the globe, is even more palpable,” adds
. “Representing 23 countries from around the world, this year’s lineup touches
on a variety of themes, including the urgency of Black Lives Matter, all with one goal in mind—to
celebrate the power of queer storytelling. This will be my last festival with Frameline. Thanks for a
charming past 3 years and all my very best for another 44 years of showcasing the best LGBTQ+ cinema.”
Exhibition & Programming
CENTERPIECE
* * * Links for film stills and press kits can be found HERE * * *
Paul Struthers, Frameline Director of
SHIT & CHAMPAGNE dir. D’Arcy Drollinger | USA | World Premiere San Francisco’s own drag queen extraordinaire D’Arcy Drollinger swaps the stage for the screen in their first feature film, a wacky send-up of 70s sexploitation flicks with a supporting cast of all-star drag talent. Drollinger stars as the infamous Champagne, an intrepid stripper who finds herself embroiled in a wild plot involving booty bumps, an evil retail chain store, murder, and wigs galore. Shit & Champagne will be screened exclusively at the West Wind Solano Drive-In in Concord, CA.
ALICE JÚNIOR dir. Gil Baroni |Brazil | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles In this fizzy, warm-hearted coming-of-age tale from Brazil, trans teen Internet sensation Alice must trade in her enviable beachside lifestyle in Recife for a traditional Catholic high school when her family relocates to a conservative rural town. Finding herself a victim of misgendering and bullying by her classmates, Alice uses her confidence and sass to find a new circle of supportive friends as she desperately pines for her first real kiss.
THE OBITUARY OF TUNDE JOHNSON dir. Ali LeRoi | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Gay Black teenager Tunde Johnson (13 Reasons Why’s Steven Silver, in a mesmerizing performance) keeps waking up on the last day of his life to once more relive his death at the hands of killer cops. Timely and urgent, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson updates the Groundhog Day structure with a riveting tale at the intersection of anti-Black police violence and the resurgence of homophobia in the Trump era.
THROUGH THE GLASS DARKLY dir. Lauren Fash | USA | World Premiere Since the sudden disappearance of her daughter a year ago, Charlie (Robyn Lively of both Teen Witch and Twin Peaks fame) has never stopped searching the sleepy Georgia hamlet where she lives with her partner. When the granddaughter of the town’s matriarch vanishes, Charlie sets out to find answers. As she digs into the community’s dark past, Charlie must come face to face with her own destructive secrets in this tense psychological thriller.
US FEATURE
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER dir. Amy Glazer | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Starring Erin Daniels of The L Word and adapted from Patricia Cotter’s play, The Surrogate, Beautiful Dreamer is a charming, light-hearted dramedy about family, friendship, and love within a tight-knit group of fortysomethings, shot in and around the Bay Area. Over the course of several months, these friends try to juggle planning a wedding, having a baby through a surrogate, and finishing a novel while relying on each other for much-needed support.
CICADA dirs. Matthew Fifer & Kieran Mulcare | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere After a torrent of hollow and unsatisfying hookups, charming New Yorker Ben (writer-director Matthew Fifer) forms an unexpectedly meaningful bond with silky-voiced Sam during the muggy cicada summer of 2013. As the two men grow closer and more vulnerable, at a time when disturbing details from the trial of coach Jerry Sandusky permeate the airwaves, past traumas are revealed and confronted in this personal and affecting debut feature.
COWBOYS dir. Anna Kerrigan | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Troy (a dynamite Steve Zahn, who won the Best Actor prize at Tribeca) escapes to the Canadian border on horseback with his golden-haired, 11-year-old son Joe. How did these “cowboys” wind up here? Unfolding clue by clue through flashbacks, this moving, suspenseful feature from writer-director Anna Kerrigan skillfully tells the story of a contemporary family struggling with how best to raise a transgender child. Jillian Bell, Ann Dowd, and remarkable trans newcomer Sasha Knight also star.
GOSSAMER FOLDS dir. Lisa Donato | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Featuring an excellent ensemble cast of familiar faces and original songs from Sarah McLachlan, the directorial debut of Lisa Donato (co-screenwriter of festival fave Signature Move, Frameline41) is a heartfelt tale of big dreams and unlikely friendships, set in Missouri circa 1986. Newly relocated to the suburbs, 9-year-old Tate sparks a strong bond with two of his neighbors—a Black transwoman and her retired English professor father—as he tries to adjust to his new surroundings and his parents’ crumbling marriage.
MINYAN dir. Eric Steel | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere David is a 17-year-old yeshiva student living with his Russian Jewish immigrant family in 1980s Brooklyn. Stifled by the constraints of his conservative community, David begins seeking solace in an East Village gay bar, leading not only to a sexual awakening but a spiritual one as well, in this tender and evocative portrait of self-discovery.
SHIVA BABY dir. Emma Seligman | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Played by breakout newcomer Rachel Sennott (Tahara, Frameline44 Pride Showcase), Danielle is a sexually-liberated, bisexual post-grad trying to find her footing in life…one paying sugar daddy at a time. When she reluctantly finds herself at a shiva with her parents and her overachieving ex-girlfriend, Danielle gets caught in a series of hilariously awkward encounters that’s made exponentially worse with the arrival of her current, paying beau.
WORLD CINEMA
COCOON (KOKON) dir. Leonie Krippendorff | Germany | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In German with English subtitles The summer of 2018 is the hottest ever recorded in Berlin. For 14-year-old Nora, it’s also the summer she discovers her sexuality. With an absentee mother who drinks too much and an older sister more interested in boys than hanging around with her kid sister, Nora is left to her caterpillar collection and her burgeoning feelings for a fellow classmate, Romy, in this bittersweet and accomplished coming-of-age story.
DRY WIND (VENTO SECO) dir. Daniel Nolasco | Brazil | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles Set in a neon fantasia of erotic exploration, Dry Wind follows the yearnings (both kinky and tender) of Sandro, a shy, hunky bear who spices up his mundane life working in a factory in dusty central Brazil with vivid sexual encounters, both real and imagined. Sandro’s giddy array of fetishes and fantasies, and even the prospect of love, come dazzlingly to life in this visually arresting film, one of the hot queer tickets at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
ELLIE & ABBIE (& ELLIE’S DEAD AUNT) dir. Monica Zanetti | Australia | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Experiencing her first real crush, high schooler Ellie calls upon the universe to help guide her through it. Enter Tara, Ellie’s dead aunt, who reappears only to her to help her navigate the awkward travails of coming out and falling in love. Monica Zanetti’s delightful romantic comedy is a hilarious and sincere exploration of first love and the family legacies that live inside of us throughout generations.
FORGOTTEN ROADS (LA NAVE DEL OLVIDO) dir. Nicol Ruiz Benavides | Chile | World Premiere In Spanish with English subtitles After her husband’s death, repressed widow Claudina meets the independent and married Elsa, and this new friendship quickly develops into a full-fledged romance. In the gossipy Chilean town of Lautaro, however, the women’s relationship doesn’t stay secret for long, and Claudina must choose between her old life and the open road ahead in this delicate coming-of-(older)-age film that’s brimming with sweetness and vitality.
THE GODDESS OF FORTUNE (LA DEA FORTUNA) dir. Ferzan Ozpetek | Italy | West Coast Premiere In Italian with English subtitles Just as their 15-year relationship appears to have hit a lull, gay partners Arturo and Alessandro find their lives thrown for a loop when their friend (and Alessandro’s ex-girlfriend) asks them to look after her two adolescent children. A trio of Italy’s brightest stars lead a stellar cast in the latest film from Turkish-Italian auteur Ferzan Ozpetek (Facing Windows; Steam: The Turkish Bath, Frameline22)—a warm, engaging tale about the true meaning of “chosen family,” which juggles interpersonal drama with a healthy dose of humor and heart.
MONSOON dir. Hong Khaou | UK | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In English and Vietnamese with English subtitles For the first time since his family fled during the Vietnam-American War, Kit (Crazy Rich Asians heartthrob Henry Golding) returns to his native Saigon to scatter his parents’ ashes. Ashe navigates this unfamiliar new land, Kit reconnects with estranged family members and strikes up a budding romance with a handsome ex-pat (World on Fire’s Parker Sawyers), embarking on a personal journey to understand his true roots in the long-awaited sophomore feature from Hong Khaou (Lilting, Frameline38).
NO HARD FEELINGS (FUTUR DREI) dir. Faraz Shariat | Germany | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In German, Persian, and Arabic with English subtitles A young German-Iranian raver forms an inseparable bond with two Iranian immigrant siblings over the course of a summer, as threat of deportation looms and a secret romance becomes too explosive to contain, in this year’s winner of the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Filmmaker Faraz Shariat’s exuberant, heartfelt, and slyly funny autobiographical debut shines an empathetic and hopeful light on a generation of displaced youth finding their place in the world
RIALTO dir. Peter Mackie Burns | Ireland, UK | West Coast Premiere After an unexpected encounter in a public bathroom, Colm—a working-class Dublin family man struggling in midlife, played powerfully by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Avengers: Endgame)—becomes enamored with the charismatic, much younger gay-for-pay Jay (Dunkirk’s Tom Glynn-Carney). As Colm’s personal troubles mount and his interest in Jay grows more complicated, Rialto becomes a deeply affecting portrait of a crisis of masculinity.
RŪRANGI dir. Max Currie | New Zealand | International Premiere In English and Māori with English subtitles Trans activist Caz has a lot of explaining to do when he returns home to rural New Zealand after being away for 10 years. Reconnecting with his estranged father, confused ex-boyfriend, and hurt best friend— on top of an environmental crisis that’s threatening the farming community—Caz may have bitten off more than he can chew. The filmmaking team’s #byusandaboutusmission of genuine trans representation is unmistakable, making Rūrangi an authentic celebration not to be missed!
TWO OF US (DEUX) dir. Filippo Meneghetti | France, Luxembourg, Belgium | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In French with English subtitles The closet has dire consequences in this heart-wrenching tale of Mado and Nina, two older lesbians who haven’t disclosed their relationship to the kids yet. When an unexpected crisis puts Mado’s children in charge of their mother, Nina finds herself shunted aside, and her attempts to rescue her relationship with
Mado turn increasingly desperate. German screen icon Barbara Sukowa stars in this sizzling feature debut from director Filippo Meneghetti.
DOCUMENTARY
AHEAD OF THE CURVE dir. Jen Rainin | USA From its start in 1990, Curve Magazine was a visionary and unapologetic celebration of lesbian life from cover to cover. When faced with the magazine’s possible end in 2018, director Jen Rainin and Curve founder Franco Stevens explore questions of lesbian visibility and legacy through interviews with contemporary LGBTQ+ tastemakers, “celesbians” (including Jewelle Gomez, Kate Kendall, and Lea Delaria) and rich archival footage of the formation of a lesbian cultural institution.
CURED dirs. Patrick Sammon & Bennett Singer | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere For most of the 20th century, being homosexual in America meant you could be clinically diagnosed as mentally ill and subject to drastic medical interventions posing as “cures.” This riveting documentary reveals the inspiring efforts of a courageous band of gay and lesbian activists in the 1960s-70s, who challenged the American psychiatric establishment to remove the stigma of mental illness from the medical books, and by extension, to free LGBTQ+ people everywhere.
KEYBOARD FANTASTIES: THE BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND STORY dir. Posy Dixon | UK | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In 1986 in a rural town in Ontario, Glenn Copeland recorded a new sound that paired folk-electronic music with his classically trained voice. He sold two dozen cassette tapes of Keyboard Fantasies, and that was that. Except that it wasn’t. Three decades later, a rare-record collector in Japan discovered the album and sets into motion Glenn’s resurgence into the music scene through intergenerational collaboration and sold-out live performances around the world.
KILLING PATIENT ZERO dir. Laurie Lynd | Canada | West Coast Premiere This groundbreaking documentary about a public health panic offers a dual portrait of Gaëtan Dugas, the Canadian flight attendant villainized as “The Monster Who Brought AIDS to North America,” and San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts, who mythologized Dugas as “Patient Zero” in And the Band Played On. Superb as both original queer history and a corrective to long-held public perceptions, the film shines an empathetic light on a generation traumatized by a virus and by society’s blame—uncannily appropriate for our time.
PIER KIDS dir. Elegance Bratton | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Former “pier kid” Elegance Bratton creates a raw, kaleidoscopic portrait of the queer and trans homeless youth who have carved out space for themselves on the West Village’s piers. This vérité style documentary lets its subjects tell their own stories of struggle and survival, revealing a “world within a world” impossible to ignore.
TRANSHOOD dir. Sharon Liese | USA | West Coast Premiere What was it like being a trans youth between 2015-2019 in the age of Snapchat, bathroom bills, the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the Trump presidency, and the years following the “Transgender Tipping Point?” This feature documentary follows four youths—Avery, Leena, Phoenix, and Jay—as they navigate not only childhood and teenagehood but also change what it means to grow up transgender in this US.
UNAPOLOGETIC dir. Ashley O’Shay | USA | West Coast Premiere Seen through the eyes of two Black, queer women organizers—aspiring social worker Janaé and West Side artist and “rap-tivist” Bella—Unapologetic is a film about “Black girl magic,” offering a lyrical and urgent portrait of the Black Lives Matter movement in Chicago. Produced by Frameline favorite Yvonne Welbon, Ashley O’Shay’s inspirational documentary points its camera at the Black feminist voices standing up to police violence and ushering a progressive change in political leadership in their city and state.
SPOTLIGHT ON TAIWAN
Spotlight on Taiwan is supported by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (R.O.C.) and Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles
TAIWAN EQUALS LOVE dir. Sophia Yen | Taiwan | World Premiere In Mandarin with English subtitles Just as the LGBTQ+ community in the US was celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage, the struggle for the same rights was unfolding across the globe in Taiwan. Director Sophia Yen combines the political with the personal as she documents the clash between marriage equality activists and their opponents through a deeply affecting portrait of three couples.
THE TEACHER (WO DE LING HUN SHI AI ZUO DE) dir. Ming Lang Chen | Taiwan In Mandarin with English subtitles This fresh romantic drama takes us boldly into the streets and bedrooms of today’s Taipei. Kevin is a 26- year-old high school civics teacher, comfortably out as a gay man, attending rallies for same-sex marriage and romantically involved with an older married man. But when he dares to bring up gay rights in his classroom, he finds he is putting both his job and relationship in jeopardy.
EPISODIC
EQUAL: EPISODES 2 & 3 — Frameline is proud to partner with HBO Max to present a sneak preview of Equal, a documentary series on the pioneers of LGBTQ+ rights who helped change the course of American history through their activism. Join us for two of the series’ episodes, each followed by a discussion. EQUAL is executive produced and led by Scout Productions’ Emmy Award-winning team David Collins, Academy Award® winner Michael Williams (The Fog of War) and Rob Eric (Queer Eye) and Joel Chiodi along with Emmy nominated Berlanti Productions’ Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon, Arrow, Riverdale, The Flash) and Sarah Schechter (Supergirl, Riverdale), Emmy and Golden Globe® winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory, The Normal Heart, The Boys in the Band) and Emmy nominee Todd Spiewak (Special, Young Sheldon, A Kid Like Jake) from That’s Wonderful Productions, Jon Jashni (Lost in Space)
from Raintree Ventures, and Mike Darnell and Brooke Karzen, Warner Horizon Unscripted Television.
• EQUAL: EPISODE 2 dir. Kimberly Reed | USA | World Premiere The 1966 riot at San Francisco’s Compton’s Cafeteria by a community of trans women, drag queens, and other gender-nonconforming folk frames the incredible stories of three trans people from the across the ages: Christine Jorgensen (Jamie Clayton), Lucy Hicks Anderson (Alexandra Grey), and Jack Starr (Theo Germaine).
• EQUAL: EPISODE 3 dir. Stephen Kijak | USA | World Premiere The intersection of Civil Rights & Gay Rights—struggles on a national, local, and personal level— we meet three very different activists: Lorraine Hansberry (Samira Wiley), Bayard Rustin (Keiynan Lonsdale), and José Sarria (Jai Rodriguez) and learn about the largest gay rights demonstration in history (and no, it’s not Stonewall…).
CHOSEN FAM: SEASON 1 dirs. Natalie Tsui & Lindsay Sunanda | USA | World Premiere Within the (very) underground Bay Area music scene, QTPOC indie band Chosen Fam is struggling make a name for themselves. When the band lands a gig opening for their heroes, singer-songwriter-bassist Cody, guitarist Maddox, drummer Dani, and band manager Evie start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, all while juggling romantic up-and-downs and an escalating rivalry with another queer group. This hilarious, charming, and quirky episodic will have you immediately hooked!
SHORTS
ANIMATION SHORTS — This year’s animation package features the best from around the world, including films which premiered at the Tribeca, Berlinale, and Locarno Film Festivals. We will take you through a young loner’s melodic and mystical urban journey, intimate and cross-generational conversations of vulnerability and shame, stories of legendary transgender spirits imbued in healing stones, buoyant scenes of voguing, and memorable live concert moments.
KAPAEMAHU dirs. Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson | USA In Hawaiian with English subtitles Legend tells us that long ago four spirits came to Hawaii and healed the people. Now all that remains are the stones, and the spirits if we remember them. From the makers of Leitis in Waiting (Frameline42) and Kumu Hina (Frameline38).
HOUSE OF [AS] dir. Leah Shore | USA | West Coast Premiere An homage to BALL/Vogue made for Adult Swim.
GENIUS LOCI dir. Adrien Mérigeau | France In French with English subtitles There is chaos everywhere: in her head and outside, in the big city. Things are taking on a life of their own. Young Reine is on the search, but she does not know what she is looking for. In delicate drawings and fluid animations, we see the world through her eyes and her perception becomes tangible.
THE SHAWL dir. Sara Kiener | USA An animated short film starring real-life lovers Shane O’Neill and Dusty Lynn Childers, who recount how their long-distance romance blossomed with the help of Stevie Nicks’ lip-synch videos.
CWCH DEILEN dir. Efa Blosse-Mason | UK | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Welsh with English subtitles Learning to love someone can be scary, but it can also lead to the most marvelous adventure. With a striking illustrative style, writer-director Efa Blosse-Mason tells the story of Heledd and Celyn who navigate the undiscovered and murky waters of entering a new relationship.
PURPLEBOY dir. Alexandre Siqueira | Portugal, France, Belgium Oscar is a child who sprouts in his parents’ garden. Nobody knows his biological sex but he claims the masculine gender. One day Oscar lives an extraordinary but painful adventure in an authoritarian and oppressive world. Will he manage to have the identity recognition he desires so much?
UMBILICAL dir. Danski Tang | USA, China In Mandarin with English subtitles An animated documentary exploring how a mother’s abusive relationship shaped the director’s own experiences in boarding school.
I BLEED (SANGRO) dirs. Tiago Minamisawa, Bruno H. Castro & Guto BR| Brazil | West Coast Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles Inspired by a true story, I Bleed—winner of the Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short at the Chicago International Film Festival—is the intimate confession of a person living with HIV. Whirlwind of emotions. The first sensations. An animation film which tries to demystify issues that, to this day, persist in society’s imagination about the virus.
FLESH (CARNE) dir. Camila Kater | Brazil | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done. Through intimate and personal stories, five women share their experiences in relation to the body, from childhood to old age.BI CANDY — Everyone’s favorite bisexual shorts program has returned! Follow these daring non- monosexuals as they look for love in the most unlikely times and places— from funerals to musicals to state-mandated lockdowns. These shorts are a celebration of how bisexual attraction, distraction, and shenanigans can defy all odds. Curated by Allegra and April Hirschman.
BING! BANG! BI! dir. Jessica Huras | Canada | World Premiere Bing! Bang! Bi! is a comedy about a struggling actor who takes a stance on her bisexuality at an inopportune moment.
SO LONG, PARIS! dir. Charles Dudoignon-Valade | France | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In French with English subtitles A bittersweet comedy about a fanciful and rebellious pre-teen who ends up accepting her parents’ divorce after an unexpected encounter with her dad’s male lover. Co-starring Arthur Igual (4 Days in France, Frameline42).
A SINGLE EVENING dir. Ashlei Hardenburg-Cartagena | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere A Single Evening is a queer musical short film about dating and loneliness. Minnie, an annoyed and single bisexual woman, navigates her way through yet another lonely night while personified dating apps serenade her with songs about her inability to find love.
TENDER dir. Felicia Pride |USA After an unexpected one night stand, two women at very different stages of their lives, share an even more intimate morning after.
HEY STRANGER dir. Andrew Fuchs | USA |West Coast Premiere Grace is a “normal” woman, or at least that’s what her partner Jack would like her to be. After he confides his fear that she might be attracted to women, Grace is unable to reassure him because,
frankly, she doesn’t know. A rendezvous with a beautiful stranger shows Grace that a part of
herself she’s long kept hidden might not be as scary as it seemed.
SWIPE UP, VIVIAN! dir. Hannah Welever | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In this inventive sci-fi romcom, two agoraphobic women find love via a virtual dating app.
THE MISTRESS (LA AMANTE) dir. Pati Cruz | Puerto Rico | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Spanish with English subtitles During her husband’s funeral, Maritere receives an unexpected visit from Angela, whose presence re-awakens feelings from the past.ENBY LOVE: NON-BINARY SHORTS — Welcome the genderqueers, genderfluids, and the in-betweens to Frameline’s first non-binary shorts program! Featuring claymation, an office lottery pool gone wrong, a trans-national fencing team, an androgynous queer utopia, an impromptu lesson in gender neutral pronouns at the gynecologist, a trans/NB backpacking trip, and growing mermaid scales, these films are a reminder that we all define our non-binary genders—and therefore our lives—for ourselves.
EYES dir. Lily Ash Sakula | UK | North American Premiere This mix-media animation about moving though the world when your gender doesn’t conform to the binary explores the tension between being looked at and being seen, through a day in the life of Jig. A collaboration with the young people of Project Indigo, a queer youth group based in Hackney.
2 DOLLARS dir. Robin Cloud | USA | West Coast Premiere
PARRY RIPOSTE dir. Goldie Micomonaco | Canada | World Premiere
COUSIN JOHN – THE ARRIVAL dir. Tom C J Brown | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere
THESE THEMS: EPISODE 1 dir. Jett Garrison | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere
VENTURE OUT dirs. Jamie DiNicola, Palmer Morse, & Matt Mikkelsen | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Venture Out is a story of overcoming odds, the power of resilience, and ultimately, the ever- lasting effects of LGBTQ+ community building. In sharing Perry Cohen’s story, we get a glimpse into the healing qualities of nature and life-saving community bonds that are being forged as a result of Cohen’s work with The Venture Out Project, a nonprofit that brings LGBTQ+ people together outdoors on wilderness trips.
Syd is a Black, queer, masculine of center artist working a soul sucking office job to pay the bills.
Syd’s coworkers are ignorant, their boss is a performative #bosslady feminist, and they just got
slammed with more work and no raise. So when a lottery loving coworker convinces them to
enter yet another office pool, Syd cashes in on leaving the office life a little too soon.
The trans-national fencing team arrives to practice to find their studio destroyed. They must fix
the studio, go to competition, and process their trauma—all while trying to make space for
themselves in the sport of fencing.
While Cousin John is away in the City, the residents of The Carrington House Hotel in upstate New
York yearn for his return in this film posing as a music video.
In Episode 1 of These Thems, a queer comedy series that dives head first into the NYC
lesbian/GNC scene, an impromptu lesson in gender neutral pronouns comes about during a trip
to the gynecologist.
• MY BROTHER IS A MERMAID dir. Alfie Dale | UK | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere My Brother Is a Mermaid is a social realist fairytale about a trans-feminine teenager, as seen through the eyes of their 7-year-old brother. Set in a desolate and prejudiced coastal town, the film examines how a child’s unconditional love can be a powerful and disruptive force for good.
ENCOUNTERS: INTERNATIONAL SHORT DRAMAS — An encounter can be sexy, heartbreaking or dangerous, anywhere in the world. These compelling international dramas showcase the best in global LGBTQ+ storytelling. Whether a fight on a Parisian rooftop or a pointed Moscow farewell; through the experiences of a trans kid in Argentina, a baby dyke in Denmark, or a gay Afghan asylum seeker…these touching films will expand your world.
TRIBUNAL dir. Mason Fleming | Australia | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In English and Persian with English subtitles A gay Afghan asylum seeker facing a hostile tribunal finds that his fate is in the hands of his interpreter, in this darkly comic drama inspired by actual Australian court proceedings.
BABYDYKE (BABYLEBBE) dir. Tone Ottilie | Denmark | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Danish with English subtitles When teenager Frede begs her older sister to let her come along to a queer club, she has a clear agenda: she wants to impress the girl she’s crushing on. Being labeled by the older girls as “babydyke” isn’t going to help, in what will be a pivotal night of growing up.
SOUP (СУП) dir. Inga Sukhorukova | Russia | North American Premiere In Russian with English subtitles Sometimes a bowl of soup is more than a bowl of soup. Special Jury Mention at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
THE EDGE (4 FROMAGES) dir. David Chausse | France | International Premiere In French with English subtitles A pizza delivery snafu throws together two incompatible people trapped on a Paris rooftop.
ENCOUNTER (ENCUENTRO) dir. Ivan Löwenberg | Mexico | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Spanish with English subtitles Arcelia and Lulu have been together for 40 years. Across town, teenager Julian is beginning to explore his identity. Their lives are about to intersect.
THE NAME OF THE SON (EL NOMBRE DEL HIJO) dir. Martina Matzkin | Argentina In Spanish with English subtitles A trans son and his father’s search for connection. Winner of both the Crystal Bear and Special Prize for Best Short Film from the Generation Kplus International Jury at this year’s Berlinale.HOMEGROWN — The Bay Area is known for many things, not the least of which being a proud and vibrant filmmaking community. These queer homegrown shorts touch on every area of Bay Area life, including coming of age in a gentrifying Oakland, caring for partners in their final moments, and creating safe spaces for all. This mix of fiction and doc films highlights the best in the Bay today.
• WHEN I WRITE IT dirs. Nico Opper & Shannon St. Aubin | USA | West Coast Premiere Two Oakland teens explore what it means to be young, Black, and committed to making art in their rapidly changing city.
THAT WAS RAY dirs. Jordan Gorman, Brenten Brandenburg & Kaustubh Singh | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere That Was Ray chronicles the life of Reverend Raymond “Ray” Broshears, who was at the forefront of the San Francisco gay rights movement in the late 1960s-to-mid-70s. While he preached peace and acceptance, he also founded a militant group The Lavender Panthers, which curbed hate crimes with the threat of violence.
CARVING SPACE dir. Annie Dean-Ganek | USA Unity Skateboarding, founded in 2016 by Jeffrey Cheung and his partner Gabriel Ramirez in Oakland, seeks to create a safe space and visibility for queer skateboarders within the hetero- masculine mainstream skateboarding culture. Carving Space follows Unity and affiliated queer skate activists—including 2019 US Olympic Skateboarding team member, Leo Baker—as they provide spaces and voices to the often-overlooked queer community.
AYE, BOY dir. My-Hanh Lac | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In this coming-of-age story inspired by true events, Mads, an exuberant tomboy in the 1990s, struggles to balance relationships with friends, family, and her own sexuality.
ELEVEN WEEKS dir. Anna Kuperberg | USA | World Premiere Carla Jean Johnson accepts her fast and aggressive cancer diagnosis with clarity and grace while photographer Anna Kuperberg, her long-time wife, documents their final days and weeks together. With mesmerizing footage and intimate recordings of the couple’s final conversations, Eleven Weeks is a story more about love than death.
I’LL CRY TOMORROW dir. Brett Thomas | USA | North American Premiere Pieced together through self-shot found footage (which the director found under his bed), I’ll Cry Tomorrow is a personal poem about being 21 in San Francisco in 1986 during the AIDS pandemic.REALNESS & REVELATIONS — Queer and trans people of color take center stage! Meet some of the LGBTQ+ community in Ivory Coast. In Puerto Rico, two women rekindle an historic romance. In the US, two Asian American women share awkward high school stories, and a young man heads to a mysterious boat party. In Canada, two siblings embark on an adventure. And in India, a trans woman wishes to become a star.
BUCK dirs. Elegance Bratton & Jovan James | USA | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Caught in the midst of a depressive fugue Lynn turns to debauchery to ease his troubled soul only to discover that happiness is a complicated goal. Co-directed by Elegance Bratton (Pier Kids, Frameline44; Walk for Me, Frameline41). Recipient of a Frameline Completion Fund.
FLOOD dir. Joseph Amenta | Canada | International Premiere A queer teenage boy takes his younger sister on an adventure wearing face paint and glitter on her tenth birthday. These colorful bandits move through their environments experiencing small joys while turning a blind eye to reality. It isn’t until their celebration is interrupted that the cost of their freedom is exposed.
DARLING dir. Saim Sadiq | Pakistan, USA In Urdu with English subtitles As a new show is introduced at an erotic dance theatre in Lahore, a sacrificial goat goes missing, a dreamy trans girl desperately tries to become a star and a naive young boy falls in love. Winner of
the Horizons Award at last year’s Venice Film Festival and a Special Jury Award at the SXSW Film
Festival.
THE ALTERNATIVE dir. Adesua Okosun | Nigeria, Côte d’lvoire | International Premiere The story follows three people of the LGBTQ+ community, a queer female, a transgender male and a transgender female, living in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Each character takes us on a journey into their world, and shows us how Ivory Coast is trying to change the narrative of the LGBTQ+ community, changing the narrative about West Africa and continuously educating its people about the community within Africa.
THE MISTRESS (LA AMANTE) dir. Pati Cruz | Puerto Rico | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Spanish with English subtitles During her husband’s funeral, Maritere receives an unexpected visit from Angela, whose presence re-awakens feelings from the past.
WERE YOU GAY IN HIGH SCHOOL? dir. Niki Ang | USA Two queer women recall their awkward, closeted high school days of kissing boys and straight-girl crushes. Recipient of a Frameline Completion Fund.UP CLOSE & PERSONAL — Queer communities and collectives are at the forefront of Frameline44’s program of exquisite documentary shorts from across the globe. Here, you’ll find this year’s Teddy Award winner, trans Indigenous musicians, art therapy, animated body positivity, found footage tributes to a generation lost to AIDS, scenic lesbian road trips, and a pink haunted house collide.
PLAYBACK (PLAYBACK. ENSAYO DE UNA DESPEDIDA) dir. Agustina Comedi | Argentina | US Premiere In Spanish with English subtitles Argentina in the late 1980s: Catholic, conservative, and shaped by a military dictatorship. “La Delpi,” the sole survivor of a group of transgender women and drag queens, talks about how their shows in basement theatres galvanized the community and helped them in their struggle against AIDS and police violence. How they healed their wounds with lipstick, playback performances, and improvised stage outfits. And how they invented happy endings for those who were to die. A farewell letter compiled from VHS memories. Winner of the Teddy Award at this year’s Berlinale.
JESSE JAMS dir. Trevor Anderson | Canada | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere A young Indigenous trans musician and his rock band bring mumble punk to the Interstellar Rodeo. A rock ‘n’ roll survival story of a different stripe from director Trevor Anderson (Docking, Frameline43; The Little Deputy, Frameline39)
SYLVIE dir. Clem Hue | France | West Coast Premiere In French and Spanish with English subtitles In the suburbs of Toulouse, a group of queers and migrants are squatting in a mysterious pink house. They find traces of the previous occupants and try to live with the memory of a crime in this haunting and poignant film.
FLESH (CARNE) dir. Camila Kater | Brazil | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done. Through intimate and personal stories, five women share their experiences in relation to the body, from childhood to old age.
INFERNO dir. Andrew R. Blackman | New Zealand | San Francisco Bay Area Premiere Featuring breathtaking set pieces, this immersive documentary portrait delves into the fantastical world of artist Gui Taccetti, whose deeply personal work channels the anxiety of growing up gay in staunchly Catholic Brazil.
BREAKWATER (QUEBRAMAR) dir. Cris Lyra | Brazil | West Coast Premiere In Portuguese with English subtitles With touches of Barbara Hammer, the collectively-made Breakwater follows a group of friends from São Paulo as they go on a road trip to a remote beach. While they wait for the New Year’s Eve, they build a safe and pleasant environment through music and friendship.Frameline44 Festival Sponsors Frameline44 is made possible with generous support from returning Premier Partners GILEAD SCIENCES, INC., BANK OF AMERICA, SHOWTIME®, MONIKER, ALASKA AIRLINES, and HILTON SAN FRANCISCO UNION SQUARE. Additional funding is provided by WELLS FARGO FOUNDATION, AT&T, WARNERMEDIA, BANK OF THE WEST, ARNOLD & PORTER, BLOOMBERG PHILANTHROPIES, and SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY.###Frameline’s mission is to change the world through the power of queer cinema. As a media arts nonprofit, Frameline’s integrated programs connect filmmakers and audiences in San Francisco and around the globe. Frameline provides critical funding for emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers, reaches hundreds of thousands with a collection of over 250 films distributed worldwide, inspires thousands of students in schools across the nation with free films and curricula through Youth in Motion, and creates an international stage for the world’s best LGBTQ+ film through the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and additional year-round screenings and cinematic events. For more information on Frameline, visit www.frameline.org.
Richard Grenell, the gay Republican who thinks Donald Trump is America’s “most pro-gay president”, has joined an anti-LGBT+ group that defended US ban on gay sex.
Grenell, who served previously as Trump’s interim director of national intelligence, has joined the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) as a special advisor for national security and foreign policy.
Described as “one of the main US religious-right legal powerhouses” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLJ is a religious conservative legal organisation founded in 1990 by televangelist Pat Robertson, with a long history of fighting against LGBT+ rights and equality, and of spreading harmful homophobic and transphobic rhetoric.
Despite this, Grenell insists that the ACLJ “isn’t anti-gay” and that those who think so are “intolerant”.
The ACLJ helped draft the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law which explicitly defined marriage as the “legal union of one man and one woman” but was later struck down by the US Supreme Court.
In 2003, it filed amicus briefs defending US sodomy laws in the Lawrence v Texas Supreme Court case.
In its brief, organisation argued there is “an extensively documented health risk of same-sex sodomy” and said that a ban on gay sex “permissibly furthers public morality”. Ultimately it was unsuccessful, as the court ruled prohibiting private same-sex activity between consenting adults was unconstitutional.
The legal organisation is now led by father-son team Jay Sekulow and Jordan Sekulow, and under their leadership the ACLJ has doggedly worked through their offices in Zimbabwe and Kenya to make sure that “perversions” such as being gay are criminalised in African countries, according to Political Research Associates.
Richard Grenell nicknamed “Gaslight Grenell” by Human Rights Campaign.
On August 20, Richard Grenell starred in a video released by the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest group of LGBT+ conservatives in the US, which claimed that Donald Trump was the “most pro-gay president in American history”.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has nicknamed the the former-Trump official “Gaslight Grenell” over the “absurd” claim and his latest actions.
HRC president Alphonso David said in a statement: “‘Gaslight Grenell’ strikes again.
“From ridiculously and errantly calling Trump the ‘most pro-gay president in history’ to now joining the anti-LGBTQ American Center for Law and Justice, it’s clear ‘Gaslight Grenell’ has absolutely no backbone and no regard for the rights of LGBTQ people.”
Alphonso added: “‘Gaslight Grenell’ has no basis in reality to claim himself a ‘spokesperson’ for any segment of our community.
“Voters will not be fooled by his role as a Trump messenger. ‘Gaslight Grenell’, like Trump, is divorced from reality. It’s no wonder they seem to get along so well.”
