Wicked Queer is Boston's LGBTQ+ 
Film Festival

Since coming on board to the film festival in 2011, Shawn has had many roles in the operations of Wicked Queer. They started as a location manager and then served as Operations Manager and Director of Programming before taking their most recent position as Executive Director. They are an experimental handmade filmmaker whose Super 8mm films have shown internationally. Shawn currently lives in Malden, MA, with their three cats and counts among their favorite filmmakers Joe Gage, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, RW Fassbinder, Douglas Sirk, Kenneth Anger, Wong Kar-wai, Jess Franco and Dario Argento. Their favorite LGBTQ+ movie is FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES.

A graduate of Emerson College, Katie is a Boston based filmmaker and founder of Thompson Films. She’s a writer/director whose work has been screened all over the world and has been recipient of awards such as Best Comedic Short at ITVFest, The Oak Foundation Grant, and a finalist for Story Central Labs at Bravo TV. Katie’s early work was selected and screened at the Wicked Queer Film Festival and she loves the chance to be able to do the same thing for another filmmaker. She is also enjoys teaching film and screenwriting at Stonehill College.

Giuseppe Di Caprio has been involved with Wicked Queer Film Festival since 2012. Introduced to Neorealism and Nouvelle Vague by his father, he developed a fascination for Pedro Almodovar in his young years. As a festival programmer, he primarily focuses on international productions to guarantee a rich and diverse film selection. When he's not watching queer movies, he works as a scientist in a research lab. He currently holds the role of Community Outreach Coordinator.

Elliott would be a lifetime film student if he had his way, and has had the pleasure of volunteering with Wicked Queer since 2022, first in the realm of development and now in community outreach. Please drop him a line if you are enthusiastic about partnering with the organization or getting into a heated argument about P.T. Anderson.

Meg joined Wicked queer in 2022. They currently work on the communications team. Unsurprisingly, they are an avid film enjoyer. Some of their favorite filmmakers are, Chole Zhao, Edson Oda, Yorgos Lanthimos, Celine Song, and Kelly Reichardt. When they are not watching film they are making things with their hands using methods like crochet, woodworking, woodcarving, and sewing."

Amaya Coutracos is an artist and writer who grew up in the Norrh Shore and has lived in the Greater Boston Area her whole life. Her involvement in music, poetry and visual arts translates well into film. She has been volunteering at Wicked Queer for a couple years now and is currently helping to program for the festival.

Sheen is a graphic designer from the sunny island of Singapore who currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. They're in charge of programming the 'Queer Asian Stories' shorts program and designs the lovely logos, posters, and program sheets you see at Wicked Queer. They like art, video games, Kamen Rider, K-pop, and would absolutely die for the Bauhaus Movement.

Charles G. Baldwin is the Program Officer for Cultural Equity and Access Initiatives at the Mass Cultural Council. Since 2016 he has led the agency’s Universal Participation (UP) Initiative which provides training and funding for organizations developing accessible policies, programs, and practices. Charles is a founding member of CANE (Cultural Access New England), TAMA (Theater Artists Marketing Alliance), and the Z Collective. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Brickbottom Artist Association and the Wicked Queer Film Festival. Charles is an educator, illustrator, theater designer, and puppeteer.

Diane Griffin has been a part of the Wicked Queer crew since 2015. She’s curated a whole bunch of programs, and has watched a whole bunch of really cool flicks in that capacity. She loves to bring the best of what she’s watched to you.

Festival Programmer Beyza is a big film enthusiast and has been part of the film festival since December 2017. She believes in the power of storytelling for social change. Since joining Wicked Queer, Beyza has been an advocate for bringing diverse stories to the program and giving a platform to marginalized voices. Outside of her time with the festival, Beyza works in the refugee resettlement and immigration advocacy field.

Kem joined the Wicked Queer Team in 2015 helping in all aspects of the festival. The WQ team/family is incredibly invested in diversity and inclusion and Kem is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to help use their own life experience to give perspective, support and growth to share amazing Queer Black and Indigenous stories on-screen and off. Kem graduated with a BA in Media and Professional Communications and is a certified ESL teacher. Kem works as an events planner for multiple catering companies. They also design custom jewelry, digital art and SFX makeup.

Sofia Wickerhauser is a filmmaker/screenwriter, producer and game dev with a passion for Queer cinema, photography, anime and video games. Co-founder of AbrAce (a collective that fights for visibility regarding asexuality), in 2019 she released the short film 'Infinito Enquanto Dure', famous worldwide for being the first fictional film about asexuality. She has been a film festival programmer since 2018, having worked for MixBrasil, Curta Kinoforum, Ramsgate, Norwich and Whistler Film Festival.

After finishing grad school in 2021, Cole joined the Wicked Queer team as the Social Media Coordinator, film screener, and has now taken on programming the experimental and documentary shorts programs. He currently lives in Seattle, WA and works at Northwest Film Forum as their Technical Director (with some Queer programming work on the side) and drinks a lot of coffee. Among his favorite filmmakers are Agnes Varda, Doris Wishman, Guy Maddin, Arthur J. Bressan Jr., and Pedro Almodóvar. His favorite Queer film is Pink Narcissus.

Jeffrey Filiault joined the team in 2021. They studied Writing for Film and TV and photography at Emerson College where they earned a BA. Jeffrey is horny for great storytelling in any discipline at all hours of the day and night. At New England Foundation for the Arts, Jeffrey works as the Communications Manager, connecting artists and presenting organizations to grant and professional development opportunities in the region and beyond.

Craig Gimbrone has enjoyed working with Wicked Queer as an usher and as a member of the film screening board. When he’s not with his husband or friends, he enjoys curling up with a good book, trying new musical instruments, and learning new styles of dance (even if he has two left feet). When asked what his favorite films are, he’d cite The Muppet Movie, Taxi Driver, Weekend, and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.

Paul E. Lamoureux was born and raised in central Massachusetts. He attended College of the Holy Cross (B.A. 1967), Boston College Law School (J.D. 1970) and Harvard University (Ph.D. in 19th Century British Literature 1978). While in graduate school, he taught English courses to undergraduates and submitted film reviews to The Harvard Independent. After finishing school, Paul went to work as a writer for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and eventually served as Senior Editor there for a little under 30 years, retiring in 2011. He has subsequently volunteered as a tutor for new adult citizens of Cambridge who have come from other countries and who need to improve their English abilities in order either to seek good paying jobs or to succeed in university courses. Paul has had, as his life partner for 39 years, David E. Sears who joined Paul in 2022 as a film screener with the Wicked Queer Film Festival. Both Paul and David love to spend their spare time going to the theatre and the movies. They have amassed a home DVD library of 2,000 titles, their favorites being black and white films from the 1930s and French movies of any time period.

A midwestern transplant to Boston in 1981, I was able to see some emerging gay movies being programmed at the Nickelodeon theater near Boston University. Luckily I was able to attend the first Boston Gay + Lesbian Film Festival and have enjoyed it every year since. Seeing LGBTQ+ people on the big screen was very validating for me. Working with WQ by helping pre-screen film submissions is a privilege which has allowed me to help in a small way to keep LGBTQ+ people more visible to each other and the world.

Dutch is an event producer/designer with a background in video editing and documentary production. A life-long film enthusiast with a soft-spot for the freaks, they’re always excited to help push new, weird, and queer art into the spotlight. They received their BA in Critical Humor Studies from Hampshire College & their favorite rejection letter from the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.

James A. Nadeau is the CEO for the Queer Film Institute, the producer of WIcked Queer. He has been involved with the LGBTQ+ film industry since 1999, overseeing what was then known as the Boston Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival (now WQ) from 2000 to 2004 and then becoming executive director of the festival in 2009. He stepped down in 2018 as Shawn Cotter became head of the festival. He is a lecturer of film in the Literature Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an adjunct professor of film at Lesley College of Art and Design. His short films have screened internationally and now spends his free time posting pictures of his cat on Instagram.