All films in this program are closed-captioned.

Christopher "Auntie Chris" Smith performs their American Sign Language adaptation of the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes. This silent film focuses on Auntie Chris's artistry with their language, in front of a river with plants in full springtime green. ----- Marrok Sedgwick is a multiply-disabled, hard of hearing, non-speaking queer/trans filmmaker who focuses their work on disability and queer advocacy. They are also a PhD candidate studying how Autistic people with extensive support needs learn at the Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago.

English

Auntie Chris Signs of Rivers

Auntie Chris Smith performs an ASL adaptation of Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."

The fear of never being accepted outside of my own sex appeal has followed me since I was far too young. As a non-binary demisexual person being often mistaken for a gender I am not and hyper-sexuaized for it, that assumption weighs heavier as I age. Because when I start to lose that "privilege," what am I then? <a href="http://www.ribcagestudios.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.ribcagestudios.com</a>

If I cannot Feed all the Hungers of The World, do I still hold Value?

Dysphoria follows as I, a demisexual non-binary femme, find myself in my Prime of external beauty approved by western standards.

City Folx is a comedy web series exploring the theme of Bay Area housing insecurity as experienced by two Drag brothers. "Raq" and "Cin" are opposites who are forced to go to extreme measures to survive in San Francisco's housing market. Dumpster diving, living with techie psychopaths and fighting with their evil landlord Phyllis are par for the course. In episode 1, Raq and Cin write an honest housing ad to attract a depressed roommate who likes spending time alone in their room. City Folx stars two real life drag brothers (Vera Hannush and Bex Salas), who've been honing their skills onstage as members of the Rebel Kings of Oakland. <a href="http://www.cityfolx.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.cityfolx.com</a> ---- Rae Dawn (Director) (They/Them) is a non-binary, queer parent living in San Francisco. Rae lived an early life as a train hopper, at-risk teenager, and musician. Rae is heavily influenced by a NW DIY aesthetic and the NY experimental art/film scene. Past projects include a documentary about Kembra Pfahler, singer of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, and a personal experimental film about the death of a friend during the Riot Grrl era in Portland, OR. In 2021, they began work on City Folx, a queer, Bay Area online comedy project about housing insecurity, starring two local Drag Kings as a means to amplify gender expansive creators and performers.

City Folx Episode 1, The Ads

City Folx is a comedy web series chronicling two under-employed Drag Kings’ struggle to hold onto their Mission area apartment.

Using gender and artistic expression alike, two artists on opposite sides of the world explore what it means to exist as an enigma, something that can never be defined, only expressed. <a href="http://softcagefilms.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">softcagefilms.com</a> ---- Slade Warnken (she/they) - Co-DirectorSlade aka Sw33t is a musician and documentary filmmaker with a focus on how we express identity, desire and transformation through performance. Based in New Orleans, Slade’s true passion is creating spaces that encourage multi disciplinary collaboration and House of Enigma was no different. Her goal was to create a film that brought together queer artists all over the world to try and describe the intangible feeling of finding a home in your body through performance and artistic expression. Ying Dai 代莹 (They/she) - Co-DirectorYing is a Chinese photographer, filmmaker, and a multi-disciplinary scholar. They are currently based in Chicago, IL and Madison, WI. Their work focuses on issues of gender, queerness, immigration, fat liberation, anti-imperialism, and BIPOC resistance and joy. Their creative motivations stem from a deep commitment to their communities and a fierce love for their friends. @yingggdai

House of Enigma

"House of Enigma” is a short film exploring gender on an international scale.

"Prittyboi" is a docu-style music video that follows two lovebirds on a romantic getaway as they traverse the beautiful Bay Area. They go thrift shopping, play fight with ice cream cones and take in the Marin County landscapes. Pandaraps', "Prittyboi" is a romantic hip-hop ballad about coming out as Genderqueer. <a href="https://www.nicolascollinsfilm.com/prittyboi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nicolascollinsfilm.com/prittyboi</a> ------ Nicolas Collins is a Bay Area filmmaker and fine artist. He started his journey in high school making short films and continued into college, California College of the Arts in San Francisco where he received a BFA in Film. Post graduation he continued to direct short films that have played at festivals around San Francisco. He currently works as a professional video editor with credits in feature films, shorts, and ads. Nicolas currently resides in Oakland, California where outside of filmmaking he writes screenplays, paints, travels the coast and attend underground Heavy Metal concerts.

Prittyboi

"Prittyboi" is a docu-style music video that follows two lovebirds on a romantic getaway as they traverse the beautiful Bay Area. They go thrift shopping, play fight with ice cream cones and take in the Marin County landscapes. Pandaraps', "Prittyboi" is a romantic hip-hop ballad about coming out as Genderqueer.

This documentary showcases the importance of gender euphoria, especially at a time when trans people are under attack throughout the country. In this documentary you will get to hear stories from trans people all over the Bay Area. This is a celebration of the joy, diversity, and community that queer and trans people have. <a href="https://freestyleacademy.rocks/~AlexSh/documentary/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://freestyleacademy.rocks/~AlexSh/documentary/</a> ---- Alex Sharp is currently a senior in high school, and goes to school in the Bay Area. His interests are filmmaking, animation, music, and all types of art. He plays cello for the school chamber ensemble and is taking film production classes at a school called Freestyle Academy.

Gender Euphoria: Trans people in the Bay Area

A documentary to showcase the lives of the diverse trans community in the SF Bay Area.

Featuring mesmerizing queer dance in watery coves and ocean edges, AT WATER'S EDGE is a short dance film by Emmy Award-winning transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey. AT WATER'S EDGE juxtaposes trans and queer bodies in motion with water -- mutable, flowing, and ever-transforming. This short is part of a series of dance films created as part of Sean Dorsey Dance's THE LOST ART OF DREAMING project. (Other films in the series include PLACE/PORTAL and SEEK/AFTER.) "Stunning...These films are exquisite, intimate, and radiate with Dorsey’s gesture-rich choreography." (Bay Times) "Gorgeous" (48 Hills) Dorsey has been awarded an Emmy Award ("Sean Dorsey Dance: Dreaming Trans &amp; Queer Futures), five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and is a Doris Duke Artist and a Dance/USA Artist Fellow. Dorsey is widely recognized as the USA's first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer. Dorsey's THE LOST ART OF DREAMING project imagines expansive trans, gender-nonconforming and queer Futures. This series of short films featuring choreography and performance by the groundbreaking all-LGBTQ Sean Dorsey Dance company -- and is an invitation to reclaim, conjure, and manifest joy, pleasure, well-being, freedom, love, connection, and liberation. The series features 6 short films: AT WATER'S EDGE, SEEK/AFTER, PLACE/PORTAL, SPELL/DREAM, UNFOLD/INTO, and SEEK/AFTER. <a href="https://seandorseydance.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://seandorseydance.com/</a> ----- Sean Dorsey&nbsp;is an Emmy award-winning choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and activist. Long recognized as the&nbsp;U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 30 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 35 cities.

AT WATER'S EDGE

Featuring mesmerizing queer dance in watery coves and ocean edges, AT WATER'S EDGE is a short dance film by Emmy Award-winning transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey.

In the throes of early pandemic lockdown, the threat of closure looms large over San Francisco’s historic queer bars. As the caretakers of these spaces look after their deserted venues, phantoms of the past and future begin to bleed into the present. Shot on black and white 16mm film and incorporating digital footage from before the pandemic, Last Call weaves together observational, essayistic, and experimental modes along with archival footage to gesture towards storied legacies of queer resilience. <a href="https://www.drewdepinto.com/lastcall" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.drewdepinto.com/lastcall</a> ----- Drew de Pinto is a director and editor based in Queens. They are a recipient of the 2023 NewFest New Voices Filmmaker Grant, a graduate of the Documentary Film MFA at Stanford, and a member of the Alliance of Documentary Editors. Their work has been recognized by The New Yorker, Film Independent, and the International Documentary Association. As a teenager, Drew was drawn to film as a way to process feelings of gender dysphoria. Their work explores how documentary and experimental modes of filmmaking can build alternative frameworks for gender and other social structures that allow us to imagine better worlds.

Last Call

A magical realist 16mm short focusing on the caretakers of three historic queer bars in San Francisco as they close their establishments, temporarily and permanently, amidst the 2020 COVID lockdown.

A person is called by their connection with the spirits to go to the river in ceremony and in ritual. <a href="http://earthtojordi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">earthtojordi.com</a> ---- Rachel Rambaldi (she/her) is a first-generation Italian writer/director based in Los Angeles. Growing up in Los Angeles and her homeland of Italy allowed her to stay connected to her roots which have significantly impacted her artistry and perspective. Rachel’s short film, Cream or Sugar,(co-written with Sar Artoonian) digs into human identity within colonial structures and premiered at OUTFEST Film Festival 2022. Her storytelling focuses on the human experience through dark comedy and satire. The essential ingredient to Rachel is that her work bares the human spirit. Her background also includes self-expression art facilitation within the autistic, non-verbal community. At the Legacy Center, a non-profit organization that focuses on elevating standards for the neuro-diverse community, she founded and facilitated an art program that functioned from 2017-2020. Working with people who needed access to communication devices to express themselves deepened her listening ability. This opportunity gave her a unique insight into another layer of humanity which ultimately strengthened her collaboration process with actors. Rachel believes life experience makes you a stronger storyteller and has always pushed herself personally and creatively outside her comfort zone to gain new perspectives. From standing on a forty-foot ladder to black-out windows as a G/E Swing to delivering vegan chilly up a snowy, muddy hill as a Production Assistant on an Indie Feature in Wales, England. Rachel was adamant about knowing how every department functions on a film set; she knew this would also be a key to more decisive leadership. While writing and directing her films, she has also produced micro-documentaries and brand films for Samsung, ADL (Anti-Defamation League), and the Gender Cool Project with Chicago-based creative agency Swissa Creative, inc. She’s a self-taught 35mm film photographer with a self-portrait published in F-STOP magazine in 2020. Rachel was the only student in her college class to direct a thesis on 16mm film. Self-starting has been her foundation since the age of twelve when she picked up a camera for the first time. Rachel believes creating opportunities to do what means the most to you is the greatest investment. Her short film HERLY recently premiered at the 2023 CinemaFemme Film Festival in Chicago and won her a mentorship with Stephanie Filo (Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Black Lady Sketch Show)

CHIRON

I run a bath for your health, I fill it with the best herbs that only a hearts wealth can buy my love.

A struggling Latinx healer considers abandoning the physical world for promises of a digital utopia.<a href="http://digitalcuranderasfilm.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">digitalcuranderasfilm.com</a> ----- Roberto Fatal [they/them/ellos] is a Meztize Chicana filmmaker and storyteller. They come from Rarámuri, Tewa Pueblo, Ute, and Spanish ancestry. Their Queer, gender fluid, Mestize/Mixed identity informs the sci-fi, films they make. Their work centers on humans who sit at the intersections of time, space and culture. From this unique vantage point, these characters can bridge divides, see all sides, find new paths forward and recall multiple histories long forgotten. The mixed people of Fatal’s stories can connect us deeply to an undercurrent of humanity that we often overlook in a world that is increasingly divided. Survival, intersectional identity, perseverance, love, empathy, community, connection and creation are at the heart of their characters and films. Fatal is a Sundance Film Institute Native Film Lab Fellow Alum and an Imagine Native Director's Lab feature film fellow alum. Their debut feature script, ELECTRIC HOMIES, was selected by GLAAD x The Black List as one of the best unproduced screenplays of 2022. Their latest short sci-fi drama, Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs In Their Limpias, made it's world premiere at the British Film Institute's Flare festival in 2023.

Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs In Their Limpias?

A struggling Latinx healer considers abandoning the physical world for promises of a digital utopia.

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