Week of Sep 2
This week brings 24 Queer screenings to Greater LA, filling the weekend after Labor Day with one Queer film festival, seven short programs, a world premiere, a Teddy winner, an Oscar winner, and more! The run down of all the Queer goodness:
QFilms Long Beach
QFilms Long Beach kicks off their 31st year with a rare event held in the cinema room on the Queen Mary, for an opening night presentation of Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken. The festival then fills the weekend at the Art Theater in Downtown Long Beach.
There's short film programs for all tastes, most with filmmakers in attendance. Southern California gets our first chance to see Belgian festival darling Young Hearts. An Unexpected Community makes its world premiere on Sunday. Comedy hits Queen of My Dreams and Extremely Unique Dynamic will have filmmakers in person. Plus: receptions, parties, socials, and of course more Queer films!
Full schedule at QFilms Long Beach >
Almodóvar Retrospective
There are few filmmakers today who can match the prolific (and out) filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, whose melodramatic plots, colorful production design, attention to the lives of women and gay men, and elaborately self-referential filmography have made him one of few directors worthy of his own adjective, Almodovarean.
Brain Dead Studios presents a complete retrospective of the master's work, from his days as an underground 16mm filmmaker in post-Franco Madrid to international acclaim. All of Almodóvar's films demonstrate a Queer sensibility; Law of Desire (1987), All About My Mother (1999), Bad Education (2004) and Pain and Glory all center Queer stories or characters.
The series kicks off this week with Pepi, Luci and Bom (1980), What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984), Matador (1986) and Law of Desire.
Full schedule from Brain Dead Studios >
Also This Week
All Shall Be Well
Sep 7, 7:00 pm @ Starlight Whittier Village Cinemas
Hong Kong On Screen Film Festival
Hong Kong On Screen Film Festival presents 2024 Narrative Teddy award winner All Shall Be Well, a story about a lesbian widow navigating friendship, family, and inheritance without the legal protections of marriage, after her longtime partner unexpectedly dies.
Tickets from Hong Kong On Screen Film Festival >
James Baldwin at the Movies
I Heard it Through the Grapevine
Sep 6, 7:30 pm @ Academy Museum
Looking for Langston
Sep 7, 2:00 pm @ Academy Museum
The Academy Museum's five-part series and Queer Black icon, author and intellectual James Baldwin kicks off with Baldwin doc I Heard It Through The Grapevine and Isaac Julien's monumental experimental narrative Looking for Langston. Series continues through next week with I Am Not Your Negro, If Beale Street Could Talk, and James Baldwin Abroad: Three Short Documentaries.
Full schedule from Academy Museum >
Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon
Sep 6, 7:00 pm @ Heavy Manners Library
A documentary double feature featuring Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, with reenactments of passages from the controversial collection of tawdry gossip about the golden age of Hollywood. And stick around for a making-of doc on the not queer, but incredible Do the Right Thing.
Tickets from Heavy Manners Library >
Mysterious Skin
Sep 6, 7:30 pm @ Brain Dead Studios
A gay teenage hustler and another teen obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Tickets from Brain Dead Studios >
Brokeback Mountain
Sep 6, 7:00 pm @ Eagle Theater
Landmark Hollywood gay movie and 2005 Oscar smash Brokeback Mountain won Oscars for Screenplay, Directing, and Score--in addition to its nominations for Best Picture, Cinematography, and stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Michelle Williams.
Mark Your Calendars
Undertow (Contracorriente)
Oct 10, 7:00 pm @ Eagle Theater
Queer Film LA Meet-up at 6pm in Vidiots Lobby
Writer/director Javier Fuentes-León in person
We're thrilled to announce that our next Queer Film LA meet-up will be at this special screening of Undertow!
This romantic, soulful ghost story set in a Peruvian seaside village won the Sundance Audience Award in 2010 before a wildly successful festival run. Director Javier Fuentes-León joins in person for a special 15th anniversary screening in honor of National Coming Out Day.