Wicked Queer 36

Olivia, an undocumented Filipino transwoman, works as a caregiver to Olga, an elderly Russian woman, in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When Olivia runs out of options to attain legal status in the US, she becomes romantically involved with Alex, Olga's adult grandson, in the pursuit of a marriage-based green card.

Ten months into a ‘cancer’ diagnosis, talented dance student Katie (Kacey Rohl) is informed that her grant is in jeopardy. She needs to fake her medical records but that kind of fraud doesn’t come cheap. Her loving girlfriend Jennifer (Amber Anderson) offers money, thinking it’s for an experimental treatment, but instead Katie turns to her father, Doug (Martin Donovan). He doesn’t believe her, hinting at a troubled history and past trauma, and when he challenges his daughter publicly, she becomes increasingly desperate. Directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas | 2019 | 96 min | Canada | English

Katsuragi had a successful job when he falls from grace, and tries to commit suicide in drunken despair. A mysterious man, Yoden, suddenly appears and saves him. However, this is only the beginning of a terrible imprisonment and training...

It's not often that queer Asian stories get brought to the forefront, let alone to the big screen. But last year, in a historic moment for Asia, Taiwan made headlines by legalizing same-sex marriage, setting the stage for the furtherment of LGBTQ+ rights across the continent. This 2-part LGBTQ+ Asian shorts program is an ode to queer Asian love--from India to Taiwan and more, we bring you tales of passion, loss, fear and hope, keeping the spotlight shining bright on queer Asian stories.

This year's up-and-coming program is guaranteed to make you excited about where queer filmmaking is going. Watch as young queer filmmakers touch upon living with AIDS in today's world, see how Melbourne's first gay liberation movement inspired the youth, get a fresh take on what it means to seek comfort from an ex, or what it is like to want to be part of a drag family. This is only the beginning for these young and talented filmmakers, and for many, the first step to a long, fruitful, and most importantly, queer career. This is your chance to be among the first to support them!

The Queer Muslim Shorts Program is returning for the second year in a row, and it's more diverse than ever with films from six different countries! This year's program brings you stories about breaking barriers, seeking family acceptance, beautiful friendships, and unexpected connections! Are you ready for the flood of emotions?

In July, the dry wind and low humidity dry the skin of a small city residents. Sandro divides his days between the city club, work, soccer with friends and city parties. He has a relationship with Ricardo, his co-worker. But his routine begins to change with the arrival of Maicon, a boy who pikes up his interest and of which everyone knows very little.

NOBODY focuses on the rather older generation facing the identity crisis. It is about the teenage girl Zhen-zhen who meets a weird old butch out of accident. They gradually befriend each other, but then rumors begin to fly between them. However, their "abnormal" relationship turns out to be the most authentic thing in this hypocritical world.

A dejected bartender and an aging drag queen try to survive the eccentric and hostile nightlife of a corrupt city as a masked maniac slaughters young gay men and drains them of blood.

Two hour-long shorts explore two communities of lesbians in the 1980s, supporting each other against the tides of the conservative "Moral Majority"

Featuring international films by a selection of new talents, this year's lineup includes lyrical works from Spain and Canada, a surreal French comedy, and a bittersweet family story from Israel.

The first of two trans-themed shorts programs in this year’s fest begins with a mermaid and ends with a unicorn. It dances in many places, and tells many stories. Come along on this journey to many lands and spaces, many views and faces, of trans experience.

I loved each of these diverse stories, alla connected by a common thread of lyricism and saudade. You'll see a young man finding strength in a lost connection, two lovers parting, a long kept secret unveiled, and much more.

Ramin has landed in the Mexican port city of Veracruz, lost on his way to Europe after fleeing persecution in Iran. With a boyfriend back home, Ramin is desperate to return to Tehran, but with little money finds himself stuck in the transitory city. In between learning Spanish and working menial jobs, he meets the enigmatic Guillermo, whose scarred body and tales of gang life belie the growing closeness between the two men.

Long before LOVE, SIMON and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME became common fare at the multiplex, the only places gay men could see their lives and lusts depicted on screen was at their local “all-male” adult cinema. From coming out stories to romances, from bizarro horror to camp comedies, the hundreds of films churned out by the gay adult film industry throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s were a driving force behind the growth of gay culture and constitute a largely forgotten cinematic document. A video companion to the Artforum “Best of 2018” Instagram feed of the same name, ASK ANY BUDDY compiles fragments from over 125 movies to create a kaleidoscopic snapshot of the era. With rare footage shot at dozens of real, legendary, and long since demolished queer cruising spots and social spaces, ASK ANY BUDDY is a funny, sexy portrait of urban gay life in the years following the Stonewall Riots—or at least how it looked in the movies.

Love, break-ups, hook-ups, Fundamentalist Christians, and surprisingly no cats, round out this year's women's shorts program.

Senior Moments is a unique look at the stories that celebrate the 'golden years' of the LGBTQ community. Every grey hair is earned with pride!

Transgender high school athletes from across the country compete at the top of their fields, while also challenging the boundaries and perceptions of fairness and discrimination.

Dreaming of states of being where we can dream, love, and exist on our own terms.

Who hasn't forgotten someone's name after a long night, or had a supernaturel power take over them, or wanted to cure their gay dog of their homosexuality, or just run for president. Hopefully this and much more will make you laugh in our comedy program.

Queerness on television has moved from subtext,in series such as Xena: Warrior Princess,to all-out multi season relationships between women, as seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost Girl, and Carmilla. But things still aren’t perfect. In 2016, a record number of queer women died on fictional shows, which broke the hearts of queer fans and launched a successful fight for better,more diverse LGTBQ2S+ representation. Stars such as Ilene Chaiken, Stephanie Beatriz, Lucy Lawless and Angelica Ross join with the voices of numerous kickass fangirls in this fast-paced history of queer women’s representation of contemporary television. Queering the Script not only charts the evolution of queerness, but also demonstrates the extraordinary impact of activism on its many diverse fans,ensuring that they see themselves accurately portrayed onscreen.

Aliya has just won the lottery: the Green Card lottery that will enable her to emigrate to the United States. In this wonderfully observed slice-of-life portrait of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, Aliya navigates keeping her aging mother company, an affair with a taken woman, her sister’s unhappiness in a strict Muslim marriage, and the futility of living in a place with little opportunity to build the life you desire — all while trying to find a way to tell them she’s leaving it behind.

Larger-than-life actress, cabaret performer, activist, and proud sex professional since the age of eleven, Luana Muniz - arguably one of Brazil’s most recognizable transgender personalities, shapes a new reality for a new generation of transgender sex workers in her hostel by providing a safe working environment in the dangerous neighborhood of Lapa in Rio de Janeiro. Queen of Lapa explores the day-to-day lives, quests for love, housemate rivalries in a turbulent political climate under matriarch Muniz’s watchful and guiding eye.

In the 1980s, an Army wife-turned-glamorous party girl named Tish ruled New York City’s downtown nightlife, often out on the scene with the likes of Michael Musto. Just a few years later, after more than a decade as a woman, Tish transitioned back to being Brian. Now, in his sixties, Brian reflects on the unique and fascinating turns his life has taken as he’s learned how to feel comfortable in his own skin.

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan. From shiny pride parades to playfully perverse underground parties, Queer Japan pictures people living brazenly unconventional lives in the sunlight, the shadows, and everywhere in between. Dazzling, iconoclastic drag queen Vivienne Sato peels back the layers of language and identity. Maverick manga artist Gengoroh Tagame tours the world with his unapologetically erotic gay comics. Councilwoman Aya Kamikawa recounts her rocky path to becoming the first transgender elected official in Japan. At legendary kink-positive hentai party Department H, non-binary performance artist Saeborg uses rubber to create a second skin. Culled from 100+ interviews conducted over 3 years, Queer Japan features dozens of individuals sharing their experiences in their own words.

After 15 years together, Yoav, a successful architect, has everything he’s ever wanted and he and his younger lover Dan, a lawyer who idolizes him, seem to have a charmed relationship. Their sex life is still off the charts, their emotional bond is strong and they enjoy an intimate circle of friends. When Yoav’s best friend Alma, an esteemed artist who’s like a mother and sister to him, announces she’s pregnant, it ignites Dan’s desire to become a father himself. But Dan’s parental urges have the opposite effect on Yoav who is haunted by long buried demons, leading him to self-destructive behavior that threatens to destroy his life with Dan, unravel his friendship with Alma, and cost him everything. Yuval Hadadi has written and directed a searing, insightful drama that offers a telling portrait of the emotional darkness lurking beneath the deceptively placid surface. Desc. courtesy of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Mo, a practicing Muslim living in West Hollywood, is learning to navigate life post heartbreak. Enter Kal, an All-American guy who surprises Mo by offering to break fast with him during the holy month of Ramadan. As they learn more about each other, they fall in love over what they have in common and what they don't.

Back by popular demand. Get The Fuck Out shorts: a potpourri of mystery, sexiness, breakfast food, song, a little slap and tickle, and perhaps a dance number or two. Please don't bring your mom unless she's cool.

Missed connections and true connections through walls and wires, and how do we connect. This group of gents are just trying to make connections. Content Warning: Addiction, Recovery and Extreme Sexuality.

Long unavailable in the U.S., director Toshio Matsumoto’s shattering, kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s: a headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance art and black mascara. No less than Stanley Kubrick cited the film as a direct influence on his own dystopian classic A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. An unknown club dancer at the time, transgender actor Peter (from Kurosawa’s RAN) gives an astonishing Edie Sedgwick/Warhol superstar-like performance as hot young thing Eddie, hostess at Bar Genet — where she’s ignited a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) for the attentions of club owner Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya, from SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO). One of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, Matsumoto bends and distorts time here like Resnais in LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, freely mixing documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within- a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts, and even on-screen cartoon balloons, into a dizzying whirl of image + sound. Featuring breathtaking black-and- white cinematography by Tatsuo Suzuki that rivals the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, FUNERAL PARADE offers a frank, openly erotic and unapologetic portrait of an underground community of drag queens. Whether laughing with drunken businessmen, eating ice cream with her girlfriends, or fighting in the streets with a local girl gang, Peter’s ravishing Eddie is something to behold. “She has bad manners, all she knows is coquetry,” complains her rival Leda – but in fact, Eddie’s bad manners are simply being too gorgeous for this world. Her stunning presence, in bell- bottom pants, black leather jacket and Brian Jones hair-do, is a direct threat to the social order, both in the Bar Genet and in the streets of Tokyo. A key work of the Japanese New Wave and of queer cinema, FUNERAL PARADE is being beautifully restored in 4k from the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements for re-release in 2017.

The second of two trans-themed shorts programs goes deep into specific aspects of the trans experience, from unresolved issues of childhood pain and broken friendship, to an exploration of the beauty standard from the point of view of a transgender surgeon, to a gorgeous and ecstatic vision of Ballroom as it exists in French Guyana.

A mixture of Documentary and narrative shorts that highlight the stories of our community.

It's not often that queer Asian stories get brought to the forefront, let alone to the big screen. But last year, in a historic moment for Asia, Taiwan made headlines by legalizing same-sex marriage, setting the stage for the furtherment of LGBTQ+ rights across the continent. This 2-part LGBTQ+ Asian shorts program is an ode to queer Asian love--from India to Taiwan and more, we bring you tales of passion, loss, fear and hope, keeping the spotlight shining bright on queer Asian stories.

"A Love Note to Black People; Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter.‚" - Alicia Garza As a QPOC living in Boston, I have a message for my fierce, valiant, black and brown warriors out there on the front lines right now. In those moments when you have become so undoubtedly and existentially exhausted (as we all are), remember this: utilize the strength in our allies, as we have never seen such a profound volume of support for any of our plights. Myself? I will channel my rage and sadness into the opportunity to show this program. I will utilize Wicked Queer 2020, xerb.tv and the support of my team so we can rejoice and recharge. We will give black filmmakers and actors the platform they need, so they can tell OUR stories to a world that is finally ready to listen to us.

Writer, Visual Artist and pioneer of the Queer movement in Latin America, Pedro Lemebel shook up conservative Chilean society during Pinochet's dictatorship in the 1980s. Body, blood and fire were protagonists in his work that he attempted to perpetuate in the last eight years of his life in a film he was never able to see finished. In an intimate and poetic journey through his risky performances dealing with homosexuality and human rights, "Lemebel" portrays a culmination of yearning immortality.

"Following a bust-up with her girlfriend, Emilia returns from the city to her mother's village, somewhere in Patagonia. Her mother isn't overjoyed about Emilia's return, as this disrupts her peaceful existence. Emilia tries to decide how she wants to carry on with her life, but is confronted with people and feelings from her past. Bored and frustrated, or just looking for intimacy, she seduces a number of men, including her childhood sweetheart, but also falls in love with a girl at the school where she teaches gym – an obsession that distracts her from her broken heart and musings about the future." - Courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)

Two women who have shared a lifetime together are faced with the disease of one of them. The sick woman decides not to follow any treatment and they both move to a small house in the forest until the day death comes to their lives.

The story of two secretly homosexual married men in their twilight years. One day Pak, 70, a taxi driver who refuses to retire, meets Hoi, 65, a retired single father, in a park.

PIER KIDS: THE LIFE follows the director over the course of three years as he films three gay and transgender youth of color who have become, like the director once was, homeless on the same street the Gay Rights Movement began so long ago.