DAY THREE
AUGUST 28
6 PROGRAMS
18 SCREENINGS
1:30 PM – 9:30 PM
ANIMATED
PROGRAM ELEVEN
1:45 PM - 2:25 PM
DIRECTED BY
PETER HOPKINS
For those seeking asylum, stepping foot on new soil is the first of many forms of arrival they will negotiate.
RUNTIME: 4 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
KRISSY MAHAN
A working class, gender non-conforming woman in the 1960s leaves a legacy for her butch dyke grand niece.
RUNTIME: 9 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
FRANCESCA BRESCIA
Marine life enthusiast Dovie St. James must come to terms with her sexuality when she is unexpectedly charmed by the new girl in her class.
RUNTIME: 4 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
EE NEWMAN
The Ignorant Cowboy keeps looking to make a connection at work, home alone, and in a crowd.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
LATESHA MERKEL
Embrace is an animated short film about asexuality--an orientation generally defined by a lack of sexual attraction, regardless of gender.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
ART IN MOTION
PROGRAM TWELVE
2:30 PM - 3:20 PM
DIRECTED BY
TRISTAN SCOTT-BEHRENDS
Two magnetic lovers traipse around the city streets in a dreamy romance.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
ANDREA GUAJARDO
The story of lost love is told through a movement that confronts gender-normative dancing, and while providing representation for queer females in dance.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
MARIA JURANIC
Four characters inhabit cycles within cycles of contentment, discontentment, inertia, movement, desire, and betrayal.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
CAMERON KOSTOPOULOS
1993, East Village, New York. When a provocateur drag queen loses her boyfriend to AIDS, she struggles to pay rent and must fight to save her home and legacy.
RUNTIME: 21 MINUTES
SMALL BITES
PROGRAM THIRTEEN
3:30 PM - 4:20 PM
DIRECTED BY
YUELEI SONG
In the stillness of her childhood home, a woman spends her birthday like any other, solitary day - until she becomes lost in a reverie of memories and dreams.
RUNTIME: 7 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
KYMBERLY MCDANIEL
After the filmmaker discusses her research in bioarchaeology with her partner, a conversation emerges about survival and what is left behind after death.
RUNTIME: 7 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
TORI MCJUNKIN
A young lesbian doesn't want to deal with an awkward coming out talk, so she acts increasingly gay in hopes her friends figure it out on their own.
RUNTIME: 8 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
MICHAL JANICKI
A man attempts to contact his brother in space to discover who they both are.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIANE L. WILKINS
TERRY L. GALLOWAY
DIRECTED BY
This short film introduces us to KC, a tomboy with cp, who escaped well meant but oppressive over protectiveness to find fun freedom in their queer identity, until Covid threw them back into isolation.
RUNTIME: 6 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
J. ANDREW
A young woman finally stands up to her gay best friend for the path of destruction he leaves in his wake.
RUNTIME: 9 MINUTES
BRAVE
PROGRAM FOURTEEN
4:30 PM - 5:40 PM
DIRECTED BY
ELLE MOXLEY
Black Beauty is a visual diary that traces Elle’s story in her own words—as she reconnects with loved ones from the past, recalls her experience as a Black trans woman from the Midwest.
RUNTIME: 27 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
DAVID PAVLOSKY
A personal documentary portrait that investigates the roots of homophobia in the American family and its reinforcement via religion and society. When David’s working-class parents decide to celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary without inviting his life partner, this All-American, rural family is dragged into the 21st century.
RUNTIME: 30 MINUTES
MELA FESTIVAL
PROGRAM FIFTEEN
6:00 PM - 7:40 PM
DIRECTED BY
ARUN FULARA
Renuka and Sadiya, two working-class women in love with each other, enjoy their day out celebrating Renuka's birthday. After a fun-filled day, they head home to spend the night together. But unknown to them, Renuka's son, Mangesh, is around.
RUNTIME: 15 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
TATHAGATA GHOSH
Manob is in love with another man. And he has a price to pay for that. Not only is he fighting the society around him, but his own homophobic father, who does not even refrain from physical violence to cure his son from the disease of loving another man.
RUNTIME: 25 MINUTES
DIRECTED BY
SHIVA RAICHANDANI
When a mysterious gate-crasher appears at their wedding, Madhav and Sufi are forced to face past secrets and reflect on what makes a family.
RUNTIME: 27 MINUTES
STATE OF QUEER
CLOSING PROGRAM
7:50 PM - 9:15 PM
DIRECTED BY
MICHEAL RICE
BLACK AS U R is the first step in confronting the African American community about queerphobia, via the seering stories of queer black people. In this incendiary documentary, filmmaker Micheal Rice takes the audience on a journey through the homophobia that characterizes many black spaces, both contemporarily and via an autobiographic look into his own upbringing in the south.
RUNTIME: 86 MINUTES