2019 Film Festival Schedule
Gay Chorus Deep South – {Closing Night}
October 12, 2019 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus set out to bring their message of hope and resiliency in response to the 2016 presidential election by spending a week touring throughout the deep south.
The Chorus, joined by The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, brought a message of music, love, and acceptance to communities and individuals confronting intolerance.
Tickle In Your Shorts
October 12, 2019 @ 5:45 pm
Lighten your mood with this quirky collection of eleven short films.
And Then We Danced
October 12, 2019 @ 3:30 pm
Merab has been dancing since he was ten. He aspires to make the National Ballet and he feels confident, until Irakli shows up. Irakli is strong, handsome, and confident in the way someone can be when they have always been better than everyone else.
A Dog Barking At The Moon
October 12, 2019 @ 1:30 pm
Xiaoyu returns to China with her American husband in tow to visit her parents, whose relationship is as dysfunctional as ever. Her father's homosexuality set off a domestic earthquake many years ago, with aftershocks extending to the present as the family still struggles to maintain their integrity.
TIGLFF: Next Scene – FREE!
October 12, 2019 @ 11:00 am - 1:30 pm
A new initiative to offer viewing and filmmaking experiences to our younger audience members who live their lives online and stream On Demand. We are offering opportunities for these young filmmakers, activists, and audience members.
End of the Century (Fin de siglo)
October 11, 2019 @ 10:00 pm
Time bends in this sexy film about the chance meetings of two scruffy, handsome men. Ocho meets Javi while vacationing in Barcelona. The electricity between them is immediate.
Suzanne Westenhoefer in Tampa
October 11, 2019 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Suzanne never does the same show twice. She can’t. She doesn’t write anything down. She charges boldly onto the stage and what happens is always a mystery and a delight. So if you have seen her before, never fear, she has new and fun stories and observations every day! Be prepared for 90 minutes of laughter and fun!
You Don’t Nomi
October 11, 2019 @ 5:30 pm
When does a critically “bad” film become a cult film? Is “camp” manufactured or does it just happen? Jeffrey McHale’s documentary asks these questions, but in the subtlest of ways. McHale digs deep in his detailed exploration of the nuances and the blatant exploitation of Showgirls, the 1995 worst everything in cinema.
Knives and Skin
October 10, 2019 @ 9:15 pm
Carolyn, Joanna, Laurel, and Charlotte are your average teenage girls in rural Ohio: they front afro punk bands, make out with fellow cheerleaders in the woods, and deal with unstable parents. But when Carolyn disappears one night, the town must come together to investigate this unimaginable trauma.
Song Lang
October 10, 2019 @ 8:30 pm
When a hunky, brooding, and hardened debt collector and martial arts practitioner Dung “Thunderbolt” threatens to set fire to a pile of traditional opera costumes for an upcoming performance, one of the actors, Linh Phung, steps in to argue for more time. This non-traditional meeting instead ignites a slow burn between the two men.
An Almost Ordinary Summer (Croce e delizia)
October 10, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
When two grandfathers from different backgrounds fall in love, telling their families is the last hurdle before their wedding. What better way to get it over with than to bring them all, unsuspecting, to neighboring beach houses, drop the bomb and watch the fireworks begin?
History Lessons (Shorts)
October 10, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
Join us for a collection of six short films that celebrate the history of queer people from long before Stonewall to the present day.
Changing The Game
October 10, 2019 @ 5:15 pm
For young transgender athletes, the sport they love often turns into a minefield of controversy. Decried as cheaters if they excel or barred from competing among the gender they identify with; positive outcomes are rare. But when a sport is a lifeline, what is fair?
Benjamin
October 9, 2019 @ 9:15 pm
In this charming romance, Benjamin is a young filmmaker in London, boyishly handsome, awkwardly brilliant, full of self-doubt. He must navigate the pretentious local arts scene to build his career, and his love life sucks. He bogs himself and others down in obscure philosophical banter.
Clementine
October 9, 2019 @ 8:30 pm
Heartbroken Karen becomes unwittingly entangled with the younger Lana after breaking into her ex's lake house on a bender of passion and without much forethought. She comes to find that Lana is a loose cannon, and with a little weed and nothing better to do, the women grow a friendship that might be another bad idea.
Circus of Books
October 9, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
Karen and Barry Mason were just looking for a way to support their young family when they became distributors for Hustler Magazine. When they took over the renowned LA sex toy and video store Circus of Books, they became fully immersed in the gay community and became a safe place for queer people.
Kattumaram
October 9, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
Anandhi understands loss. Her parents and relatives perished into the waves of a Tsunami off the coast of India. Her Uncle Singaram feels the loss even deeper, as he is the only one left to look after Anandhi, with all the tenderness and the hand wringing of an anxious father.
Seahorse
October 9, 2019 @ 5:00 pm
This thoughtful documentary about a transgender man named Freddy who undertakes to start a family by becoming pregnant. Though Freddy yearns to raise his own child, pregnancy challenges his understanding of masculinity, gender, and parenthood more than he could have ever imagined.
The Ground Beneath my Feet (Der Boden unter den Füßen)
October 8, 2019 @ 9:00 pm
Lola is a jet-setting overachiever in a cutthroat corporate environment. She keeps both her relationship with her boss, Elise, and the existence of an older sister, Conny, a secret. But when she receives the news that Conny has attempted suicide, Lola's secrets threaten to explode into the open.
Universal Drama (Shorts)
October 8, 2019 @ 8:30 pm
Join us for a collection of six short films that celebrate queer people around the world.
Straight Up
October 8, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
A highly entertaining romantic comedy with a twist: a love story without the thrill of copulation. Hyper-articulate, obsessive compulsive gay twenty-something Todd (Sweeney) wants to try being straight. Not because he thinks being gay is bad. He just thinks he is bad at being gay.
Being Impossible (Yo impossible)
October 8, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
After attempting her first sexual experience with her boyfriend, Ariel discovers that she is different. Her gynecologist reveals that her sex life may be complicated by "corrective" surgery and a strictly gendered upbringing by her family and religious societal norms of Venezuela. Now, as she discovers her body for the first time, Ariel must decide who she wants to be.
Vision Portraits
October 8, 2019 @ 5:15 pm
Queer filmmaker Rodney Evans becomes the almost unwilling subject of his own film, as he chronicles his loss of vision. Evans talks with fellow artists - a photographer, a dancer, and a writer - who have gone through similar experiences and who have thrived despite their visual impairments.
Paradise Hills
October 7, 2019 @ 9:15 pm
In this futuristic fairy tale, Uma (Emma Roberts) wakes up in a rose- and tulle-filled boarding school for wayward young women, whose families pay big bucks for their daughters to emerge perfect. With the love and support of the women in this beautiful prison, she must find a way to escape, or risk being erased.
José
October 7, 2019 @ 8:45 pm
José fills his free moments playing with his phone and having random sex with other men, arranged on street corners and dating apps. When he meets attractive and gentle Luís, a migrant from the rural Caribbean coast, they pursue an unexpected relationship with more emotion than José has ever felt.
For They Know Not What They Do
October 7, 2019 @ 6:45 pm
From The Director of "For The Bible Tells Me So" This new documentary takes us on a journey of understanding and sheds light on religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation in America. At the core of the story are four families whose faith is their source of strength and, sometimes, a source of pain.
More Beautiful For Having Been Broken
October 7, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
Devoted FBI Agent McKenzie “Max” De Ridder has recently lost her mother. In the wake of grief, she forms a bond with a young boy with special needs and an unexpected - and at first tense, then loving - relationship with his mother.
Tongues Untied
October 7, 2019 @ 5:00 pm
Thirty years ago, filmmaker Marlon Riggs detailed his own experiences as a gay man coming to terms with his sexual identity, the death of many of his friends to AIDS, and the particular stigma that Black gay men faced. Both deeply personal and a brilliant experimental critique of the politics of racism, homophobia, and exclusion of the time.
Good Kisser
October 6, 2019 @ 8:00 pm
Jenna agrees to a sexy weekend fling with girlfriend Kate (Rachel Paulson) and the worldly Mia. As the night unfolds, Jenna realizes she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Jenna is unsure of herself, and the entire situation for that matter, while Kate is more than ready to get to the main event.
Adam
October 6, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
In the summer of 2006, Adam escapes another boring family vacation to stay with his cool older sister Casey in NYC. Adam's horizons rapidly expand as he follows Casey to lesbian bars and gay marriage rallies, but it isn't until he is mistaken for a trans guy that he really gets a crash course in LGBT vocabulary.
Six Characters in Search of a Play – w/ Del Shores
October 6, 2019 @ 3:45 pm
Del Shores is a consummate storyteller. In this cinematic version of his staged performance, Del opens the secret vault of his memory and shares six characters whom we have not met, but whom those of us from the south certainly know.
Billie and Emma
October 6, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
Billie and Emma are sent to a Catholic high school for very different reasons. Set in the Philippines of the mid-1990’s, Billie is banished by her city parents to get her away from her girlfriend. Emma is brilliant, overachieving, popular, and on course for a bright future.
A Bigger Splash
October 6, 2019 @ 11:45 am
David Hockney, still fruitful at 81, is a great American artist. He also is gay. His paintings of nude men and sun-kissed landscapes, in southern California and elsewhere, are instantly recognizable as uniquely his own. In 1973, filmmaker Jack Hazan documented Hockney’s evolving relationship with a young man who was once his lover and remained his muse.
Last Ferry
October 5, 2019 @ 10:00 pm
A young lawyer is looking for love on Fire Island. As he explores what little there is to do during the “off-season,” he is drugged, mugged, and witnesses a murder. When a handsome stranger comes to his aid, Joseph believes his luck is changing.
The Shiny Shrimps (Les Crevettes pailletées)
October 5, 2019 @ 8:00 pm
Not since Priscilla, Queen of the Desert have queer men had so much fun on a bus. And that’s just part of this hilarious film about a flamboyant amateur water polo team on its way to the Gay Games. Add in a straight Olympic swimmer ordered to coach them as penance for a televised homophobic remark.
Same But Different: A True New Zealand Love Story
October 5, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
Single mom Rachel is fresh, funny and ready to “get back out there” after several years of chaste devotion to her job and her family. She gets the surprise of her life when she attends a Māori film festival and lays eyes on filmmaker Nikki Si’ulepa.
Something to Cry About: Drama In Your Shorts
October 5, 2019 @ 4:00 pm
Join us for a collection of eight dramatic short films that celebrate queer people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
This is Not Berlin (Esto no es Berlín)
October 5, 2019 @ 3:00 pm
In high school Carlos is an outsider who likes unpopular music and building robotic sculptures. But one night when he gains entrance to the unique El Azteca nightclub in Mexico City, he suddenly finds himself to be at home among a crowd of outsiders.
Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America
October 5, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
In this powerful documentary, renowned filmmaker, Tom Shepherd follows the intense struggles of four LGBT+ refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Cheyenne and Mari (Angolan), Subhi (Syrian), and Junior (Congolese) have fled homophobic violence and are starting over in San Francisco.
Zen In The Ice Rift (Zen sul ghiaccio sottile)
October 5, 2019 @ 1:00 pm
Maia (who prefers to go by Zen) is a walking cube of ice, freezing out the world. Zen plays hockey on the high school boys’ team to hone the skills needed to land a place on the national women’s team. She is constantly bullied by her teammates.
Trick
October 5, 2019 @ 11:30 am
Let’s revisit aspiring Broadway songwriter Gabriel and hot go-go dancer Mark on their quest through the streets of New York, looking for places to seal the deal. Trick made Miss Coco Peru a household name with her infamous bathroom warning… “It burns!”
Queering The Script
October 5, 2019 @ 11:00 am
Queer nerd alert! This fascinating documentary is a fun and informative look at the subculture of queer fandom. Hear from fans at conventions like ClexaCon, as well as Pose actress Angelica Ross, The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken, and Xena: Warrior Princess herself, Lucy Lawless.
BIT
October 4, 2019 @ 10:00 pm
BIT is the lesbian vampire film everyone has been waiting for – campy, fresh, aggressive, provocative and sexy. On her first night in LA, Laurel, a transgender teenage girl on vacation falls in with four queer feminist vampires.
Sell By – {Opening Night}
October 4, 2019 @ 7:30 pm
A charming ensemble comedy with a great cast and lots of fun! Adam and his insta-gay boyfriend Marklin have been together for five years. They love each other, but … their relationship is so bored and aimless, they consider marriage just because “it’s time.” The women in their lives are their best friends. They are caring and devoted and have their own love issues.