Official Selections: 1st-7th LA Queer Film Festival
Congratulations to our accepted filmmakers!
Films are listed in alphabetical order, index to the left.
Scroll Down to learn more about each film.
2 Black Boys
A poem, A dance and A song.
2 Black Boys muses on growing older, race, gender and queer identity.
Directed by Rachel Myers, the short film based on the poetry of actor, writer Giovanni Adams, is an exploration of childhood, identity and love. The poetic narrative in the film is based on Adams’ experience as a black, queer, Christian man crossing lines of identity, affinity and ideology. Myers also produced the film.
Directed by Rachel Myers
Produced by Rachel Myers and 3 Penny Design
Original Poetry by Giovanni Adams
Adapted for Screen by Rachel Myers
Original music by RC Williams, JoVia Armstrong and Vincent Olivieri.
Cinematography by David Tayar
Edited by Baltazar Pena Rios
Designs by:
Lauren Cucarola (Costumes)
Amanda Knehans (Production Design)
Adriana Alvarez (Sound Foley)
John Clifton (Color correction)
Cast:
Giovanni Adams, Ritza Bloom, Brett Hurley Lord, Jamel Rodriguez, Joshua Abston, Valorie Phillips
The Film Premiered at OUTFEST. Other festivals include CANNES AVIFF, SEATTLE BLACK FILM FESTIVAL, Rome Prisma Awards, San Francisco Black Film Festival, New Filmmakers NY, Varese International Film, Artango International Queer Festival, Bendigo Queer FIlm Festival , Toronto Lift Off Film, LGBT Los Angeles Film, The Lift Off Sessions).
*Winner Wild Card Award, Northwest Film Forum Cadence Festival
*Winner Best Cinematography LA LGBTQ Film
*Finalist Indie Short Fest
Instagram: @2blackboysfilm, @racheldirects
ADMIT ONE
Los Angeles Premiere
Short
Piper, a romantic caught falling for the girl behind the popcorn counter, searches (and tries out) movie cliches for the right way to ask out her crush!
Director: Emma Aikman
Producer: Ashley Beuhler
Writer: Emma Aikman
Cast: Keiva Bradley, Caroline Gillespie
Cinematographer (if applicable): Max Gleiser
Editor: Gianna Gencarella
This is our 8th festival selection/screening! ADMIT ONE has screened in Oakland, Boston, Durham, Indianapolis, Austin, Birmingham, and Honolulu!
Instagram: @admitonemovie/
Facebook: fb.com/ADMITONEMOVIE2022
A Future Perfect
USA Premiere
Narrative Short
Fenix, a burnt out online psychic, comes to terms with the demise of a long distance situationship, ultimately finding meaning in their work healing others in a virtual utopia.
Director: Blioux
Producer: Love Soulèy
Writer: Blioux
Cast: Kwé Neshai, Somah Toya Haaland, Jill Blutt
Cinematographer: Blioux
Editor: Blioux
A Future Perfect features an all Nonbinary cast. All characters use they/them pronouns.
This is short film is part of an ongoing series and eventual feature length film.
Website: .a-future-perfect.video
Aquamarine
Aquamarine is a music video for the band Hand Habits. In a single unbroken take, songwriter Meg Duffy performs a frenetic dive into memory and identity spirals.
Director: V Haddad
Producer: Slopehouse Productions and Cousins
Writer: V Haddad
Cast: Meg Duffy
Cinematographer: Adam Gundersheimer
Editor: V Haddad and Adam Gundersheimer
Website: Www.slope.house
Instagram: @slopehouse @haddad_v @Adam Gundersheimer
Sound Design: KT Pipal
Title Design: Mike Renaud
Binary
Short
Hollis Stooly, a recent college graduate, attempts to navigate their transition into adulthood in a surrealist sci-fi world in which school and work have been relegated to sterile virtual spaces. With a cloud of anxiety and uncertainty hanging over their head, Hollis retreats inward and chooses to explore their gender identity at the expense of their career.
Director: Riley Thomas Stewart
Producer: Jacy Sagun
Writer: Riley Thomas Stewart, Caden McQueen
Cast: Brandon Halvorsen, Chuck Redman, Ian Shuelke
Cinematographer: Sydney Kaplan
Production Designer: Gwendolyn Allison
Editor: Eve Gershon
Sound Designer: Jake Needham
- Student Academy Awards Semi-Finalist
Instagram: @Binary_short_film
Boy Boy Montréal
Through the confessions of six professional pornstars, take an insider’s look into Montreal’s gay porn industry, a major hub on the international scene. Meet the actors, cult filmmakers, specialists in sex health, and model’s entourage revealing all the secrets about the pornstar life.
Director: Raphaël Massicotte, Isabelle Hamon
Producer: Martin Henri
Cast: Trent King, Skyy Knox, Guillaume Patenaude, Edward Terrant, Teddy Torres, River Wilson
Cinematographer: Raphaël Massicotte, Isabelle Hamon
Editor: Raphaël Massicotte, Isabelle Hamon
62-84, I Didn’t Copy That, HQ
Los Angeles Premiere
Lives that getting united and getting threatened in a night...a woman who is running away because she was subjected to domestic violence by her husband, a trans woman trying to hold on to life by cooking and an illegal immigrant who is at the edge of suicide.
The Istanbul Convention and the Law No. 6284, when fully implemented in my country, have the potential to prevent women and hate murders. However, the law was not fully understood and implemented by neither official institutions nor the victims. The title of the movie refers to this situation.
Director: Timucin Ipekusta
Producer: Timucin Ipekusta, Nurdan Ipekusta
Writer: Timucin Ipekusta
Cast: Seyhan Arman, Goksu Girisken, Tajsher Yakub
Cinematographer: Ferit Cetinkaya
Editor: Burhan Yilmaz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/6284themovie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/6284themovie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/6284themovie/
Adam
Los Angeles Premiere
Inspired by the life of Adam Kashmiry, Adam tells the remarkable story of a young trans man and his struggle across genders and borders to be himself. Originally a multi-award-winning stage play, Adam has been reinvented as a compelling, theatrical on-screen drama.
Born in Egypt, Adam was assigned female at birth but always knew he was a boy. Trapped in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he knew that he had to escape. With a borrowed laptop he typed in a question: ‘Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?’ What followed was a catalyst to begin the epic journey for the right to change his body. To the boy he knew himself to be.
Written by playwright and dramaturg Frances Poet, and reworked for the screen, this hour-long drama focuses on Adam’s isolating experiences in a Glasgow flat while awaiting a decision on his asylum claim. Trapped in a Catch-22 where he cannot prove his need for asylum as a trans man until he transitions but is unable to start transitioning until he is granted asylum, Adam is left alone to wrestle with his conflicting thoughts and feelings as every waking moment sees him haunted by figures from both his past and his present.
Director: Cora Bisset and Louise Lockwood
Producer: Carolynne Sinclair Kidd
Writer: Frances Poet
Cast: Adam Kashmiry, Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Rehanna Macdonald, Stephen Mccole, Neshla Caplan, Myriam Acharki, Hamish Wyllie, Haqi Ali
Cinematographer: Carlo D'Alessandro
Editor: Berny McGurk
Website: nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/adam
Instagram: @ntsonline
Twitter: @ntsonline
Facebook: fb.com/NationalTheatreScotland
American Parent
West Coast Premiere
Feature Fiction
The everyday chaos of raising a
toddler is intensified for a queer couple, as they maneuver through the
pandemic, gender roles, and professional uncertainty.
Director: Emily Railsback
Producer: Caro Posse
Writer: Emily Railsback and Doreen Bartoni
Cast: Kristen Bush; Rebecca Ridenour; Peggy Roeder
Cinematographer: Michal NJ Wright
Editor: Jing Wang
- World Premiere at 37th BFI Flare in London; Finalist
- Best Feature 26th Fire Film Festival in Barcelona
Website: www.wbphotoplay.com
Instagram: @possecaro; @americanparent_thefilm; @emilyjrailsback
Twitter:@posse_caro
Beyond Masks (Além das Máscaras)
Animated Short
While playing the rivals Harlequin and Pierrot in a play, the enamored actors Tetra and Lester live a secret love offstage. Tetra takes his role harshly, maintaining his character at all times and hiding his relationship with Lester. Afraid of rejection, Tetra starts to lose his own personality and puts his relationship with Lester at risk, having no choice but to show who he really is
Directors: Letícia Rangueri, Lucas Flores, Carolina Bonformagio
Producer: Carolina Bonformagio
Writer: Letícia Rangueri, Lucas Flores, Carolina Bonformagio
Cast (Voices) - Rodrigo Andreatto, Igor Blundi, Maria Júlia Valentini, Lucca Ferreira Vendramel, Letícia Delboux
Editor: Letícia Rangueri, Vivian V. Marostica
Instagram: @beyondmasks.short
Blurred Lines
Blurred Lines is a short form pilot from Rachel Brunner and Mechi Lakatos. It follows the lives of three 20-somethings as they maneuver love and friendship and the fine line between.
Director: Lucy Sandler
Producer: Alex Dolce
Writer: Mechi Parada Lakatos, Rachel Brunner
Cast: Mechi Parada Lakatos, Rachel Brunner, Megan Gage
Cinematographer: Sarah Takizawa-MacLean
Editor: Mechi Parada Lakatos, Lucy Sandler
A Blerd Story
A gay black nerd uses Star Trek to cope with life.
Director: Matt Jennings
Producer: Matt Jennings
Writer: Matt Jennings
Cast: Matt Jennings, Emerson Gregori, Theodore Coonradt
Cinematographer: Franck Gombert
Awards: Best LGBTQ Short (IFS/LA Film Festival)
Instagram: @mljenn
A Cohabitation
West Coast Premiere
In 2013 Taipei, a gay, interracial couple who just moved in together are forced to separate because one of them who is a Malaysian has HIV and is forced to be deported.
Director: Tung Wei Ye
Producer: Van Hsieh
Writer: Anthony Koh
Cast: Benjamin Tsang, Hugo Chen
Cinematographer: Stanley Xu
Editor: Tung Wei Ye
Festival Selections:
21st Yellowstone International Film Festival, India
2021 8th Queer Screen's Mardi Gras Film Festival, Australia
2021 MOSTRA LA PLOMA LGTB film fest Valencia, Spain
202036th Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival, Slovenia
2020 34th Out on Film Atlanta's LGBTQ Film Festival, USA
2020 31st Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, USA
2020 31st Hong Kong Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
2020 11th KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival - Student Shorts Competition,
2020 Minikino Film Week 6 - Rainbow Section, Indonesia, 2020
A Feast That Never Comes
Four characters inhabit cycles within cycles of contentment, discontentment, inertia, movement, desire, and betrayal. A story emerges—told through the marriage of music (Ex-Fiancée) and dance (ChrisMastersDance)—functioning as a seven-layer dip, inviting you to dive as deeply as you wish.
Director: Maria Juranic
Producers: Rachel Morgan, Maria Juranic, Sven Britt
Writer: Ex-Fiancée
Cast: John Raffles Durbin, Kayla Farrish, Nico Li, Paul Vickers
Cinematographer: Lara Aqel
Editors: Lauren Josephine, Maria Juranic, Sven Britt
Website: exfiancee.com
Instagram: @exfianceemusic
Twitter: @exfianceemusic
Facebook: fb.com/exfiancee
Angelo
West Coast Premiere
Short
Set in Bolivia, Angelo is about a shoeshine boy who uses the power of his imagination to escape the harsh reality of life on the street.
Director & Producer: Andrea Bonadona
Writer: Alex Plumb
Cast: Paolo Vargas
Official selection New Orleans Film festival 2022
Official selection Aesthetica Film Festival 2022
Official selection Shorts Mexico 2022
Beyond Norms: Exploring Identity - Masc vs. Masc
West Coast Premiere
Short Documentary
"Beyond Norms: Exploring Identity" is a captivating mini-documentary series that delves deep into the multifaceted relationships within the LGBTQIA+ community. As societal perceptions of love and attraction continue to evolve, the LGBTQIA+ community is leading the discoveries of such diversity. Yet, amidst this progress, a paradox unfolds—the queer community has created its own stereotypical constructs, especially prevalent in the realms of dating and hookup culture. "Beyond Norms'' aims to shine a spotlight on this phenomenon by exploring the unique, and sometimes "not normal" dynamics within different subcultures, including the lesbian community, queer deaf community, gay community, trans and non-binary community, drag community, and asexual community. Beyond Norms challenges the participants to embrace their vulnerabilities and delve into unconventional aspects of their identities when connecting with the other participants.
Executive Producers: Kelly Balch, Kimmie Kim p.g.a.
Director: Kelly Balch
Producer: Kimmie Kim p.g.a.
Cast: Alyssa Anthony, Jerome Beck, Grey Centauro, Dani Dellarco, Maze Felix, Juliet Meth, Madison Paige, Wes Spaulding
Cinematographer: Hunter Hartz
Editor: Kelly Balch A.C.E., Anthony Phillips
Audio Mixer: John Frost
Music Clearance Supervisor: Amy Goodfriend
Associate Producer: Jaclyn Austin