"The conversation surrounding sex work affects all human beings, even if we aren't sex workers ourselves or hire sex workers. This issue is, at its core, about our bodies and the agency we should have over them and our actions. [...] We also need to be aligning these conversations alongside the other larger, cultural conversations that are currently taking place; about policing, incarceration, the murders of trans women of color and other vulnerable members of our society ‚ and basic human rights that everyone should be concerned with. [...] Events like the Rentboy raid don't just affect sex workers; they impact all people affected by policing, incarceration, surveillance and institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and transphobia." By James Michael Nichols - The Huffington Post

Prepare to be dazzled! "Thirsty" is the compelling story of Scott Townsend a.k.a., Thirsty Burlington, who caught the filmmaker's eye during Thirsty's striking performance as Cher. The film lays bare Scott's life growing up as a girl-boy in Cambridge public housing and eventually becoming a revered drag queen delighting club-goers with her spot on impersonation of Cher. Using an array of storytelling techniques within a non-linear structure, the film moves through dramatic, fantasy and musical sequences, capturing both the harsh realities of living a life with a slippery gender and the sparkle that Thirsty exudes. Townsend embodies this natural phenomenon of a gender that roams between male and female. "A bouquet from a single stem," as Thirsty sings. "Thirsty" asks that we let everyone be beautiful and create the world they want. For Townsend that means, "To be safe and comfortable in all his skins, and loved for all that he is." Desc. courtesy of the Woodstock International Film Festival.

A great un-shaming is uniting and healing Inuit and LGBTQ communities in the eastern Arctic. The territory of Nunavut was built upon decades of relocation, re-education, and Christianization of nomadic Inuit people. Colonization and shame have shadowed the community, hitting LGBTQ people especially hard, as the systematic destruction of native culture has driven the Inuit’s original complex, inclusive sense of sexual orientation and family structure underground. Directors Woods and Yerxa methodically trace colonization from the 1950s, through the gradual thaw leading to LGBTQ protections in the Nunavut human rights act in 2003, up to the current state of affairs. The moving story comes alive through the voices of returning LGBTQ Inuit adults and the new generation of youth; tribal elders reviving ancient inclusiveness; white LGBTQ activists and scholars; and an Inuit filmmaker and LGBTQ ally who’s making it all visible. As indigenous values and contemporary mores come together, the way opens up for Inuit people to lead this continuing and exciting journey. Desc. courtesy of Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival.