In most years, it's a challenge for the festival to program trans films for two reasons: there are so few of them, and many of them tend to overly focus on the physical aspects of transition. Not this year! This year's films have trans folks doing more than transitioning: they're traveling the world, following their hearts, fighting for justice, running for office, loving and being loved, fighting fires, and standing up for themselves and one another.

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.

Somewhere in Lower Austria; the school term is drawing to a close and the summer holidays are not far off. Boarding school pupil Paula, seventeen, is secretly in love with her girlfriend Charlotte. But Charlotte’s going out with Michael. Lovelorn, Paula decides to try and take her mind of things by getting involved with schoolmate Tim, whose feelings for her are at least genuine. Paula has no idea how often Charlotte thinks of her. And then there’s Lilli, who is just dying for someone to fancy her and tries to play the wild seductress. Paula must decide if she wants to follow her own feelings or yield to other people’s.