Only in LA
Screenings & Events
Festivals, Special Guests, Retrospectives and more "one night only" queer cinema screenings.
Farewell My Concubine
Academy Museum
This Chinese 1992 Palm D'Or winner (the Queer Palm didn't exist until 2010) was banned in its home country shortly after release, in part for the film's unrequited gay love story. Stars out bi Cantopop star Leslie Cheung, who also starred in Wong Kar Wei's Happy Together.
Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled “Farewell My Concubine” that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Douzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo’s explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.
Neptune Frost
Academy Museum
This science fiction fantasia follows the romance between a miner and an intersex runaway at a hacker's commune, in a future world brutally exploited for precious metals. Filmed by a cast and crew of Burundi refugees, it was a nominee for the Queer Palm in 2021.
In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region’s natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.
Parting Glances
Hammer Museum
Double feature with Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
The only feature film completed by director Bill Sherwood before his death at age 37, Parting Glances featured the screen debut of Steve Buscemi as the main character's bitter ex, who he cares for as he is sick with AIDS.
Michael and Robert, two gay men living in Brooklyn, spend their last day together before Robert leaves for Africa on work assignment. Michael still has feelings for his friend Nick, who has AIDS.
Cabaret
We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thing
Hammer Museum
Bob Fosse's film adaptation of the Broadway show, which went on to win 8 Academy Awards, comes to the Vista's festival of Technicolor prints. Showtunes, Liza Minelli, the rise of the Nazis, and forward (for 70's Hollywood) depiction of bisexuality make Cabaret a classic.
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.
Dzi Croquettes
We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thing
Hammer Museum
A Brazilian theatre group that through talent, irony and humour confronted the Brazilian violent dictatorship in the 1970s revolutionising the gay movement worldwide and changing theatre and dance language to an entire generation.
Rope
on Nitrate
Academy Museum
Is this the original "be gay do crimes" movie? Though heavily censored, this one-take Hitchcock thriller (from out screenwriter Arthur Laurents) is based off the real-life Leopold and Loeb case, where two gay students killed a boy just to see if they could get away with it.
Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.
In the Best Interests of the Children
with Lesbian Custody
Legacy Project Screening Series
Hammer Museum
Filmmakers Frances Reid and S. Topiary Landberg.
Gay mothers argue for the right to custody of their children.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
Hammer Museum
30th anniversary screening!
Touching and poignant, the acclaimed coming-of-age comedy The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In Love tells the story of two teenagers whose unexpected friendship grows into the joyful wildness of first love. Randy (Laurel Holloman), a rebellious working class tomboy, meets the beautiful, popular, well-to-do Evie (Nicole Ari Parker) when she brings her Range Rover into the repair shop where Randy works after school. Immediately intrigued by each other, the two girls start a romance that delights and disrupts their lives, causing Evie to lose her friends, Randy to lie to her parents, and sending the two of them on the run. Sensitive and romantic, funny and sincere, this daring film was hailed as a crossover success upon its release and is now celebrated as an iconic part of the 1990s queer cinema canon. Beloved by audiences, it was often referred to, with relief, as one of the few lesbian movies with a “happy ending where no one dies.” World Premiere of the Newly Remastered HD Film, with Preservation Funding Provided by the Sundance Institute and Strand Releasing. A Strand Releasing release.
Theatrical runs
Now In Theaters
Prefer your movies with popcorn and trailers? Here some the queer films at LA cinemas right now...
Born for You
Alba has Down’s Syndrome and was left in the hospital when she was born. Thirty families rejected her before the court decided to entrust her to Luca: a Catholic — and gay — single man.
Young Hearts
Fourteen-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets his new neighbour of the same age, Alexander, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.
A Nice Indian Boy
When Naveen brings his fiancé Jay home to meet his traditional Indian family, they must contend with accepting his white-orphan-artist boyfriend and helping them plan the Indian wedding of their dreams.
The Wedding Banquet
Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and running out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela in exchange for her partner Lee’s expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.
