Captured through a filmmaker’s video calls with
Palestinian photojournalist
Farma Hassona
MATINEE!
JANUARY 31, 2026
DOORS 12:30PM
$20
(INCLUDES FOOD + REFRESHMENTS)
NOTAFLOF
99 6TH STREET, SANTA ROSA
Season Subscriptions On Sale Now!
Added due to popular demand, the Met-premiere production of Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay arrives in cinemas, recorded live earlier this season. The exhilarating operatic adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel follows two Jewish cousins who create a comic-book superhero, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the dynamic new production by Tony Award–winning director Bartlett Sher.
Running Time 187 min
Genre Opera
Starring
Lauren Snouffer
Sun-Ly Pierce
Miles Mykkanen
Andrzej Filończyk
Edward Nelson
Directed by
Mason Bates
Conducted by
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities.
In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQia+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
60% of the banned books have LGBTQI themes.
Q&A to follow with director Kim Snyder!
A Powerful Documentary About American Book Bans and the Heroes Who Battle Them.The Hollywood Reporter |
Sonoma Valley Pride Hosts A Screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sebastiani Theatre for 50th Anniversary
Sponsored by Wake UP Sonoma, Matthew Long Design and Out In The Vineyards
Sonoma Valley Pride is inviting the community to celebrate a cult classic in true over-the-top style! On Saturday, November 8, the historic Sebastiani Theatre will host a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary. Doors open at 7:00 PM, with a costume contest kicking off at 7:30 PM, where prizes will be awarded to the best dressed of the night. The movie screening will start at 8:00 PM.
The night promises outrageous fun and plenty of audience participation. Guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite characters from the beloved midnight movie.
“This event is more than just a movie screening—it’s a celebration of queer joy, camp, and community,” said Matthew Long of Sonoma Valley Pride. “We’re thrilled to bring Rocky Horror to the Sebastiani Theatre which first showed the film 35 years ago., We can’t think of a better way to mark its 50th anniversary than by doing the ‘Time Warp’ together in Sonoma Valley.”
Proceeds from the evening will benefit Sonoma Valley Pride and its mission to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community through inclusive programming, visibility, and local partnerships.
OUTwatch and Rialto Cinemas present
Fairyland
Starting Oct. 10
Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol
Multiple showings a day
Following the sudden and tragic death of her mother, young Alysia is uprooted by her father Steve in hopes of restarting his life. They move to 1970s San Francisco where Steve develops his poetic and personal writing and begins to openly date men. Steve’s bohemian lifestyle clashes with the expectations of parenthood from both the outside world and Alysia herself, who occasionally wishes for less of the independence her father gives her. As Alysia grows into a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, their bonds and duty to each other are tested in painful and sudden ways. Based on Alysia Abott’s 2013 memoir /fairyland chronicles a father-daughter relationship as San Francisco evolves from Bohemian decadence to the AIDS crisis.
OUTwatch and Rialto Cinemas present
Plainclothes
Oct. 3
Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol
Multiple showings a day
A promising undercover officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies orders when he falls in love with a target.
Plainclothes is brimming with an atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety. As Lucas, a young police officer contending with a secret attraction to men, Tom Blyth palpably embodies this tension in a breakout performance. Straining to fill a prescribed role in the implicitly straight culture of the police force, he carries the crushing weight of both the consequences of his increasingly fraught undercover work as well as the threat of exposure of his exhilarating, clandestine encounters with Andre.
Winner of the US Dramatic Special Jury Award – Sundance Film Festival
On paper, at least, we would always prefer gay actors playing gay roles for several reasons, but there are wonderful exceptions, such as Irish Paul Mescal and British Josh O’Connor in The History of Sound. O’Connor’s breakthrough role was playing a closeted gay farmer in God’s Own Country, whilst Mescal made us all fall in love when playing gay in All of Us Strangers. The two have shown such a sensitivity that they can inhabit queer roles without the merest hint of stereotyping. When the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival recently, it received rave reviews, although Mescal was annoyed by some (lazy) critics who insisted on comparing it to another queer period piece, Brokeback Mountain.
The History of Sound is adapted from a short story of the same name by Ben Shattuck and directed by the South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus (who won The Queer Palm at Cannes for ‘Beauty‘), and the film promises to tell a sweeping American story of love, loss, and folk music set in the early 20th century. It the tale of Lionel (Mescal), a gifted young music student at the prestigious Boston Conservatory in 1917, who has a chance encounter with David (O’Connor) at the bar one night. After bonding over their shared love of folk tunes, the pair wind up in bed together, striking up a connection that will shape the rest of their lives.
Some time later, Lionel gets an invite from David to join him on an impromptu journey across rural New England where they’ll record and preserve the traditional music of Americana, and spend each night in a tent, side-by-side—fleeting glimpses over a world all their own……hence the comparison to Brokeback!
Hermanus , who is fast becoming one of Queerguru’s favorite directors (we LOVED Moffie) explained his take in the film.“The History Of Sound is not simply the story of queer lives hidden due to a time of denial, of shame and secrecy,” the filmmaker shares. “It is the story of a man’s life, expressed through the power of sound—as memory, as emotion… As family. Made with a deep affection for cinema that does not shout or scream its intention, our film invites you to enjoy song and spirit, to celebrate life in all its wonder—its losses, its grief, its remembrance, and most of all, its undeniable and indelible mark—love.”
For tickets: https://rialtocinemas.com/coming-soon/the-history-of-sound-seb/
This hilarious foul-mouthed lesbian road trip movie co-stars Oscar winning actors Olympia Dukakis (Stella) and Brenda Fricker (Dotty). Stella and Dotty are a lesbian couple in their seventies from Maine. First, Stella has to break Dotty out of a nursing home that Dotty’s granddaughter had moved Dotty unwillingly into. Then they embark on a Thelma and Louise-style road trip to Nova Scotia to get married. Along the way they pick up Prentice, a hitchhiker traveling home to Nova Scotia to visit his dying mother, and the three bond as they travel together.
Get Tickets Here: https://app.formovietickets.com/title
When The Rocky Horror Picture Show first opened in London in 1973, no one involved could have ever imagined the long-lasting impact and legacy that the subversive rock musical would have on the queer and underground film communities.
As the movie adaptation turns 50 this year, the original cast, creatives, and other pop culture figures — including creator Richard O’Brien, stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Patricia Quinn, and modern-day icons like Trixie Mattel — reminisce about bringing the strange journey of Brad, Janet, and Dr. Frank-N-Furter to life… not to mention examining the ways in which it has shaped not only their own personal journeys, but culture at large.
Directed by Linus O’Brien (son of the show’s creator), Strange Journey is a love letter to a project that for decades has provided a safe space for outcasts, and has kept audiences around the world doing the time warp again and again and again.
If you’re considering attending Frameline for the first time, don’t sweat it — we’ve all been there! Thanks to social media, getting peaks into film festivals like Sundance and Cannes has become more commonplace. Still, from the other side of a phone screen, a film festival can seem like all red carpets, standing ovations, and industry insider events.
While the festival circuit can be crucial to the lifespan of a film, these multi-day movie marathons are also a chance for anyone to be among the first to see the year’s best movies — ones that could go on to become serious awards contenders, pop culture talking points, or the genesis for viral TikTok trends. Best of all, you’ll get to be in the room with many of the filmmakers behind the festival’s lineup.
Cher (Alicia Silverstone) tries to be a virgin who can drive in “Clueless.”
As an 11-day film festival, Frameline49 is serving up nearly 150 films from 40 countries. While there’s no possible way to see every Festival film in person, you can make a successful game plan in advance.
Not sure what to choose? All of our film pages stay up to date with expected guests from the film teams, so, when in doubt, pick a screening that features a one-of-a-kind post-screening Q&A session.
The term “At Rush” may sound like film festival jargon, but it’s not all that different from flying standby. When a screening is “sold out,” at-rush tickets can be purchased by folks who join the Rush Line. If ticket holders don’t show up 15 minutes before the screening’s start time, the onsite Box Office will sell empty seats on a first-come, first-served basis to the Rush Line. So, if something you really want to see is already marked as “At Rush,” don’t despair. We always try to get the rush line in — and Festival staff, who are fighting the good fight for you, usually succeed!
Helpful Hint: If standing in the Rush Line doesn’t appeal, keep your eyes peeled for our daily ticket drops! At noon on every day of the Festival, we’ll release tickets for in-demand, “At Rush” screenings.
Although it can feel a bit intimidating to ask a question during a post-screening Q&A, we encourage you to try it out! The best tip we can give? Make sure you have a question. While a little praise is nice, we want to keep the focus on the film team and move the conversation along, so we ask that you reserve personal anecdotes and commentary for post-film discussions in the lobby. If you do have something you want to share with the attending guests, look for them outside the theater after the Q&A and tell them how much you enjoyed their work!
Laura Harring and Naomi Watts in “Mulholland Drive” — a movie that might scare first-time festival-goers (complimentary).
Film festivals can offer a deeper range of titles and content than your average multiplex, providing a platform for films that live outside the margins or ones that come from parts of the world that aren’t represented at your typical multi-screen theater. At Frameline, we love to showcase the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum through a wide array of forms, from big-name crowd pleasers and biographical documentaries to DIY indies and international gems… and don’t forget about our diverse collections of short films!
If you want to ease into the Frameline49 program, we have some great films for Festival virgins! For those looking for a feel-good experience that’ll inspire both laughter and tears, the Irish dramedy Four Mothershas been winning over festival audiences across the globe. Our opening night film Jimpa will also bring the funny with the sentimental — not to mention the star power of Oscar winner Olivia Colman! Both films will delight audiences young and old.
A still from teen comedy “She’s the He” — one of Frameline49’s films.
But if you’d prefer to skip the tears and keep the laughs, fans of teen comedies like Bottoms, Clueless, and She’s the Man shouldn’t miss the hilarious hijinks of She’s the He, a clever spin on gender-swap farces from a decidedly trans/queer perspective. Or gather your best girlfriends up for a funny, messy weekend getaway in Lakeview. And you really can’t go wrong with our ever-popular annual program of funny queer short films, Fun in Shorts.
For nonfiction lovers, we suggest catching Sally, an enlightening portrait of lesbian trailblazer Sally Ride, who was the first American woman to fly in space. And filled with interviews of stars like Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, and Trixie Mattel, Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror will delight both die-hard fans and curious newbies who have yet to learn the “Time Warp.”
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