Week of Dec 9
The holidays are in full swing, with Jesus - Der Film at the Academy Museum, the Queer Christmas series kicking off at American Cinematheque, a mystery Queer Christmas movie with programmer Elizabeth Purchell, and Todd Haynes' Christmas classic Carol and Safe in a double feature at the Egyptian.
Jesus - Der Film
Dec 15, 8:00 pm @ Academy Museum
Restoration premiere, director Michael Brynntrup in person
An "cinematic burlesque" retelling of the story of Christ, shot by teams of East and West German underground filmmakers who didn't know what each other were shooting, all coordinated by and starring queer avant-garde filmmaker Michael Brynntrup as Jesus.
Queer Christmas Begins
American Cinematheque's Queer Christmas series kicks off this week with John Waters' Female Trouble, in which Divine plays a sociopathic teen whose crime spree begins when she doesn't get what she wants for Christmas.
Female Trouble
Dec 15, 10:00 pm @ Los Feliz 3
This Week
A 16mm Queer Christmas Mystery Movie
Dec 13, 10:30 pm @ Whammy Analog Media
Film programmer Elizabeth Purchell in person
This holiday season, join queer film historian and programmer Elizabeth Purchell, Hollywood Entertainment, and Whammy! for a screening of a queer Christmas classic so rare that we can’t even tell you its name.
All we’ll say is that it features a memorable performance from one of Andy Warhol’s most luminous trans superstars. Never released on any home video format, we present what is likely the very first Los Angeles screening of this forgotten landmark in over 40 years from a rare original 16mm print.
Tickets from Hollywood Entertainment >
SOLD OUT: Safe/Carol Double Feature
Dec 9, 7:00 pm @ Egyptian Theatre
Director Todd Haynes in person
The LA Film Critic's association celebrates the career of Todd Haynes, with a double feature of two of his great films -- suburban paranoid nightmare Safe and aching lesbian romance Carol -- alongside a Q&A with the director himself.
My Own Private Idaho
Dec 15, 8:00 pm @ Brain Dead Studios
In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
Tickets from Brain Dead Studios >
Emilia Pérez
Dec 9, 7:30 pm @ Aero Theater
Writer/director Jacques Audiard in person
Dec 11, 7:00 pm @ Egyptian Theatre
Writer/director Jacques Audiard in person
Karla Sofía Gascón became the first Trans actor to win a major prize at Cannes, thanks to this extravagant musical about a Mexican drug lord who hires a lawyer to help stage her death and flee the country, in order to transition and live her true life abroad.
Tickets from American Cinematheque >
Sergei Parajanov Retrospective
The Legend of Suram Fortress
Dec 11, 7:00 pm @ Los Feliz 3
Ukrainian Rhapsody
Dec 13, 7:30 pm @ Hammer Museum
The Flower on the Stone
Dec 15, 7:00 pm @ Hammer Museum
Bisexual Soviet film director Sergei Parajanov was jailed for his art, his sexuality, and his support of nationalist movements within the USSR. None of his films are explicitly Queer by modern standards, but they play with gender, kitsch, and folklore in beautiful ways.
Sergei Parajanov Series Info >
The Wild Party
Dec 15, 11:00 am @ Academy Museum
Dorothy Arzner was a successful Hollywood director when there were few women, and even fewer out lesbians, at the top of the profession. This new restoration of the pre-code gem was an early talkie, and the earliest surviving film by Arzner.
SOLD OUT: Querelle
Dec 15, 4:30 pm @ Alamo Drafthouse
The final film made by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this adaptation of the Jean Genet novel follows a sailor on leave in France as he simultaneously tries to cover up his involvement in a murder and embarks on a sexual odyssey of self-discovery.
Tickets from Alamo Drafthouse >
HornyFest at Vidiots
Vidiots heats up this December with the inaugural edition of Hornyfest, a celebration of sex in cinema, including some of the steamiest movies to hit the big screen. Queer picks include the Wachowski sisters' Bound and John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus.
Just Added
NSFW Film Festival : Queer Sex Positive Short Films
Dec 16, 8:00 pm @ AKBAR
NSFW Film Fest is dedicated to screening queer films that would normally be excluded by mainstream outlets because of sexual content. Join Queer Planet for their fifth annual screening of these sexy, daring, and creative short films at AKBAR!
The First Underground Movie Star: Taylor Mead at 100
Dec 18, 7:00 pm @ Philosophical Research Society
Poet, actor, filmmaker and traveler, Taylor Mead was a fixture of postwar America’s art and counterculture scenes, gleefully bridging the Beat movement and New York’s downtown scene. An uninhibited screen comedian and queer icon, Mead’s centennial will be celebrated at PRS.
Born in Flames
Dec 29, 6:00 pm @ Brain Dead Studios
In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.
Tickets from Brain Dead Studios >
In Theaters
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Opens Dec 13)
NEW RESTORATION! Though married to Agnes Varda for most of this life, French New Wave icon Jacques Demy was bisexual and died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. He is best known for his sunny musicals of the 1960s, where his voice shines through with romantic optimism.
Support Queer Film LA
In our first year of operation, Queer Film Los Angeles helped promote over 44 theatrical releases, 499 special events, 171 Q&As and 80 film festival screenings of Queer films and work from Queer filmmakers. Help us continue the momentum into our second year and consider making a tax-deductible donation.