Official Selections: 8th 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.
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Short
World Premiere
A woman with memory loss attends her 10 year high school reunion to see if it sparks her memory. She begins having flashbacks but can't tell if it's a memory she wants to remember.
Director: Alexandra Swarens
Producer: Alexandra Swarens
Writer: Alexandra Swarens
Cast: May Daniels, Alexandra Swarens
Cinematographer: Allen Chen
Editor: Alexandra Swarens
Making Up
Short
Making Up is set in the late 1980s, framed within the gritty drag scene of London's East End. The short film stars BIFA award-winning Dave Johns, Jessica Ellerby and Carey Thring and follows Ted who is diagnosed with a hereditary illness. Ted must therefore reconcile with estranged daughter, Cassandra. However, being a celebrated drag queen, paired with the bitter feelings Cassandra harbours over their past, presents a larger obstacle for Ted to overcome. Making Up explores how much, and how little, has changed in terms of attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ community since that era, and the resulting friction that impacts those of that community.
Director: Ryan Paige
Producer: Daniel Pemberton, Ryan Paige, Amy Ajeto, Poppy O'Hagan
Writer: Ryan Paige
Cast: Dave Johns, Jessica Ellerby, Carey Thring, Evie Millward, Luke Lonergan-Smith
Cinematographer: Edmund Curtis
Editor: Ryan Paige
Awards & accolades: Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ Film Festival, USA - Honourable Mention: Dave Johns - AARP Silver Image Award - Sept 2023 / Overcome Film Festival, USA - Winner: Dave Johns - Best Actor in a Short Film - Sept 2023 / Tees Valley International Film Festival, UK - Winner: Best LGBTQ+ Film - Oct 2023 / East London LGBTQ+ Film Festival, UK - Nov 2023 - Winner: Best Short Film & Winner: Best Performance - Jessica Ellerby / Novella Film Festival, UK - Winner: LGBTQIA+ Narrative - Dec 2023 / One Fluid Night, UK - Winner: Best Fluid Story & Winner: Best Cinematography - Dec 2023 / Soho London Independent Film Festival, UK - Winner: Best Drama - Jan 2024 / Fishnets & Film, USA - Winner: Best Director & Winner: Best Performance - Jessica Ellerby & Winner: Best Screenplay - Jan 2024 / London Director Awards, UK - Winner: Best Director LGBTQ - Feb 2024 / Berlin Short Film Festival, Germany - Winner: Best Narrative Short - Feb 2024 / Liverpool Indie Awards, UK - Winner: BEST LGBTQ Film - March 2024 / City of Angels Women’s Film Festival, USA – Winner: Best LGBTQ Themed Film – Oct 2024
Website: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27385350/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/making_up_short_film
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makingupshortfilm
Moonbeaming
Short
After the death of his fiancée, a man attempts to navigate his grief. His would-be brother-in-law struggles to connect with him.
Director: Charlie & Tavish Gudgeon
Producer: Luke VandenBerg, Stephanie Joan
Writer: Charlie & Tavish Gudgeon
Cast: Ryan Pugsley, Jonathan Neil Alexander, Alix Lane, Brittania McCauley
Cinematographer: J. Connor Bjornson
Editor: Gabriel Najera Gonzalez
Moonbeaming Festival Selections and Nominations:
Seattle Queer Film Festival - Seattle, USA
Silicon Beach Film Festival - Los Angeles, USA
One Fluid Night (OFN) Film Festival - London, England. Moonbeaming was nominated for both Best Director and Best Lead Performance at this year's OFN festival.
Indie Film Fest - Los Angeles, USA. Moonbeaming was awarded best LGBTQ2+ Short film.
Loud Love
Documentary
Following a seven-year long surrogacy process, gay deaf couple Alan and Brian finally brought their hearing twin babies home from India to New York. However, their journey through fatherhood meets new challenges when the increasingly rambunctious kids start screaming "you don't understand me" at them. "LOUD Love" is their story, a documentary about parenting, growth and its occasional hurdles.
SYNOPSIS
“Loud Love” is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-abilities, multi-ethnic story, navigated by a gay deaf couple living in New York City. Having faced prejudice and discrimination through their childhoods and formative years, the couple decides to confront life’s challenges head on by having their own CODAs (children of deaf adults) through international surrogacy.
Born in the late 1960s, Alan and Brian, while both gay and deaf, had vastly different upbringings. Alan, the former “bad boy” from a typical Long Island Jewish household, received rigorous speech therapy and became “oral” under the supervision of his parents. On the other hand, Brian grew up on a small farm near Vancouver, Canada, where he was encouraged to fully embrace his deaf identity by his hearing family. The two fell in love in an elevator, had a classic Fire Island white wedding, and founded the most successful American Sign Language school in New York City. Their relationship also led Alan to pursue and achieve sobriety. Everything went smoothly until they decided to have children: after trying and failing for seven years in the U.S., they looked overseas and finally brought home a pair of hearing twins from India—Seth and Sela—through surrogacy in 2011 (unfortunately, the Indian government banned international surrogacy shortly after their highly-profiled case). Now the kids, rambunctious and loud, start hurling “you don’t understand me” at their deaf fathers.
Are Alan and Brian capable of pushing back against their parents’ doubts and worries by “setting a good example” for their children? Will they pass down the precious but rapidly diminishing deaf cultural heritage to their hearing children? How do their fatherly responsibilities affect the relationship between the bossy and sensitive Alan and the gentle yet resilient Brian? “LOUD Love” tenderly explores the growth of Seth and Sela as hearing CODAs and presents a unique yet relatable tale of fatherhood.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
On May 2, 2015, I started following deaf gay couple Alan and Brian after learning ASL for only a few months (at Sign Language Center - a local school they owned and ran). The first personal event I filmed was their hearing twin children Seth and Sela’s 4th birthday party. It was hectic, loud, very very loud, and full of love. I was inspired - “This is the story I want to tell - two struggling dads try to have it all but something is always out of control.”
Over the next three years of production, I followed their business and social life as a fly on the wall. I witnessed the growth of the kids as they adapted to the unique life experience of being hearing CODAs and also watched Alan and Brian blossom as parents. I echoed their joys and frustrations, their love and its hurdles. The next six years was grueling. Rounds and rounds of editing, fundraising and networking; career and life milestones; births and deaths. At times I wondered if I would ever release the film. Upon becoming a father of two kids myself, Alan and Brian’s seemingly unusual family tale turned immensely relatable. It’s not just their language I understand; it’s the fatherhood.
I hope my film “Loud Love” can demystify how deaf people live their lives. The popular metaphor of using “silence” to describe the deaf only has explanatory power for the hearing. Their lives are far from silent but very loudly click, buzz, pop and roar, and the fundamental basis of communication is not sound, but connection. I also wish to challenge the very limiting norms of parenting—how other parents of different races, sexualities or cultural backgrounds, or with disabilities, SHOULD teach, discipline and love their children. It’s the myth of the “normal family,” so linear and absolute, that should be questioned and re-invented so that the society as a whole can recognize many types of personhood and parenthood. As a first-generation-immigrant gay dad of two young toddlers, I feel more and more drawn to this project, as I want to know: how does a child facing the burdens and shame imposed by societal norms, embrace a culture that is too often presented as “inferior”? And, from the viewpoint of the parent, pained by guilt and often inflexible unforgiving mainstream standards, how do you persistently love? I think we all share that, in one way or another.
P.S. Alan passed away suddenly in 2023. I wish he could watch the completed film at one of the screenings with his family he loved so dearly - wearing a shiny outfit and criticizing every on-camera “performance.” He would laugh and cry, so heartfelt, so lively, with his loud family, his devoted friends, and the Deaf community he and Brian helped build and foster.
Director: Bing Wang
Producer: Bing Wang & Delbert Whetter
Cinematographer: Bing Wang
Editor: Bing Wang
Love Wins International Film Festival • Hauppauge, NY • May 4, 2024 • [Jury Award]
Cinema Diverse: Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival • Palm Springs, CA • Sep 28, 2024 • [Festival Favorite] & [Director’s Choice]
Website: www.loudlovedoc.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/loudlovedoc
Facebook: www.facebook.com/loudlovedoc
man enough
Short Film
Los Angeles Premiere
In the midst of a familial conflict sparked by transphobia, Caleb navigates the complexities of social prejudices, acceptance and unconditional love.
Director: Beru Tessema
Producer: Pamela Jikiemi
Writer: Beru Tessema, Alfie Jallow
Cast: Alfie Jallow, Bella Aubin, Jack Ambrose, Joanie Diamond, Shakeel Haakim, Charles Entsie
Cinematographer: Damian Paul Daniel
Editor: Craig Coole
Awards
The Black Panther International Short Film Festival - Finalist: Best LGBTQ Short 2025
Internacional Queer Film Festival Playa del Carmen - Official Selection 2024
San Francisco Transgender Film Festival - Official Selection 2024
My Name is Jonas
Short
Los Angeles Premiere
On his first day in rehab, a young gay songwriter struggling with meth addiction reveals a shocking truth: he's a prophet destined to save New York City from Judgment Day.
Director: Cory David Bortnicker
Producer: Cory David Bortnicker, Melanie Speck
Writer: Cory David Bortnicker
Cast: Cory David Bortnicker, Eduardo Andujar, Dwayne Banks, Khalif Cotton, Stephanie Guyton, Laurel Kornfeld, William Mayer, Brenda Michelle Rios
Cinematographer: Emily Marquet
Editor: Ben McGinely
Awards: Best Performance, Global Drama Project Short Film Festival, NYC 2024
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mynameisjonasfilm
My Only Dream Is To Be Loved - Chrissy Chlapecka
Music Video
World Premiere festival
A waitress stuck singing at the bar before her shift dreams of being a full-blown pop star, then actualizes that dream. Carried by a powerhouse track by Artist, Chrissy Chlapecka and regular collaborators (Diamond Certified) Songwriters and Producers, Alexandra Veltri and Dallas Caton—"My Only Dream Is To Be Loved" is an homage to classic pop video archetypes complete with hard hitting choreography wrapped in a lesbian biker love story.
Directed and Produced by Mikey Harmon
Cinematographer Zach Fritz
Choreographed by Alec Cohen
Edited by Macy Atkinson
Gaffer Jeff Caroli
Cast: Chrissy Chlapecka, Rocky, Ally Waller, Aimee Smyke, Jomo Lee, Jeffery Koch, Christopher Aguirre, Lyle Oberman
Instagram: @chrissychlapecka