Expired June 1, 2021 3:59 AM
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Performance is an important part of creating and sustaining LGBTQ+ communities. Baltimore is Burning is a series of three short films from local filmmakers about local LGBTQ+ performers. These documentaries explore the lives of hip hop artists who are queer, ballroom dancers and unconventional drag performers, and what their art means to them and those around them. They capture a time before the COVID-19 pandemic when we could experience powerful, transgressive, joyful, and empowering moments together, and the films highlight the resiliency of the Baltimore LGBTQ+ community.


Total Run Time: 87 minutes


This program will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.


Programmed by Festival Programming Associate, Garrett Stralnic.


Content Considerations: Strong language, implied sexual situations, depictions of sexual situations, self-harm, implied sexual violence, harassment, implied violence.

Sextia N'Eight is an alternative drag performer and artist in Baltimore. N'Eight's drag includes sticking syringes through her cheeks, stapling herself until she bleeds, and eating dead rats. Outside of drag, she works as a mortician and taxidermist. Her drag incorporates and confronts much of the death she sees in her line of work, and evokes many difficult experiences she had growing up in Baltimore. Two years ago, N'Eight’s mother died of cancer, and she is forced to face the reality that despite her celebration of filth, death, and rot, she is not immune to life and death's inevitable sufferings.

  • Year
    2020
  • Runtime
    28 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Thomas Hedges
  • Cast
    Sextia N'Eight
  • Music
    Jaden Padilla & Thomas Hedges