LGBTQ film festivals are always something to celebrate, but especially when women-directed films feature prominently in the program, as both groups are underrepresented on the film festival circuit and Hollywood at large. Happily there are plenty of films by and about LGBTQ persons, including women, at Frameline40: the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival — nearly half of the overall features lineup, in fact. 50 percent of the doc program and 42 percent of the narrative program are helmed by women.
You can expect highlights such as “Ovarian Psycos,” Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumball-LaValle’s portrait of a feminist bike crew from the Eastside of LA, “The Intervention,” actress Clea DuVall’s directorial debut centered on a toxic marriage, and “Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four,” Deborah Esquenazi’s true crime doc about four Latina lesbian women wrongfully accused and convicted of murder.
The fest’s Opening Night Film is Sara Jordenö’s “Kiki,” a coming-of-age doc that follows LGBTQ youth of color involved in the ballroom scene, a famous subculture. When we asked what drew her to the project, Jordenö said, “The beautiful and essential fact is that I was invited to make a project with this community by one of its leaders, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, the co-writer of the film. I very quickly realized that this was a documentary feature film and that it was a big, important film. And during the four years we worked on the film, the political landscape around these youth has changed, resulting in increased visibility for people of trans experience and the emergence of movements such as Black and Trans Lives Matter, which both concern this group.”
Frameline40: the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival runs from June 16–26.
Check out the women-helmed features below. Plot summaries courtesy of press materials.
Narrative Features
“Akron” / DIRS Sasha King & Brian O’Donnell / 2015 / USA / 88 min
A spark of attraction, a budding romance, a dark family secret: tender first love between a pair of college freshmen is put to the test when a tragic connection from far in their past is unexpectedly revealed.
“AWOL ”/ DIR Deb Shoval / 2016 / USA / 85 min / Centerpiece U.S. Feature
Tomboy Joey and married mom Rayna fall for each other in this story of star-crossed love set in working-class rural Pennsylvania. The pair can’t quit each other, but they struggle to imagine a life together as Joey’s deployment for Afghanistan approaches.
“Bruising for Besos” / DIR Adelina Anthony / 2016 / USA / 88 min
Yoli, a queer xicana artist finds great passion and love with Daña. But their growing intimacy stirs up their own troubled histories. Can Yoli break the cycle, face the past, and create something new for herself?
“Girl Gets Girl” / DIR Sonia Sebastián / 2014 / Spain / 88 min
Sexy Inés escapes home to her chosen family in Spain after she’s caught cheating on her girlfriend. Full of surprises, colorful characters, and stolen kisses, this nonstop romp has the dyke drama of The L Word and the campy vibrancy of an Almodóvar film.
“Girls Lost” / DIR Alexandra-Therese Keining / 2016 / Sweden / 105 min / Showcase Film.In this delectably twisted fairytale of gender fluidity, three outcast girls’ dreams of boyhood become reality, sending them down a shadowy path of self-discovery.
“Heartland”/ DIR Maura Anderson / 2016 / USA / 100 min
An Oklahoma artist reeling from her girlfriend’s death forms an unexpected bond with her brother’s polished business and life partner, who’s visiting from California. But when their friendship sparks a reckless romance, their worlds are turned upside-down.
“Her Story: Season One” / DIR Sydney Freeland / 2015 / USA / 55 min
The much anticipated sexy new-media series grapples forthrightly with the frictions and fissures of desire between trans and queer women, as they navigate sometimes paradoxical identities in Los Angeles.
“A Holy Mess”/ DIR Helena Bergström / 2015 / Sweden / 108 min
Simon and Oscar will soon be parents, courtesy of their best friend and surrogate Cissi. When they invite their (slightly homophobic) parents over for Christmas to share the good news, all holiday hell breaks loose, with results that are both hilarious and heartfelt.
“The Intervention” / DIR Clea DuVall / 2016 / USA / 88 min / Showcase Film
Friends and family stage a marriage intervention for a toxic couple, only to have to confront their own issues in writer-director-star Clea DuVall’s sharp, funny, and honest portrayal of the complexities of modern adult relationships.
“Me, Myself, and Her” / DIR Maria Sole Tognazzi / 2015 / Italy / 86 min
Polar opposites in personality but perfectly aligned in love, Marina and Federica have built their five-year relationship on trust, respect, and chemistry. But will temptation from the past stir up old doubts?
“RARA”/ DIR Pepa San Martín / 2016 / Chile, Argentina / 88 min / Showcase Film. With her first feature, writer-director Pepa San Martín constructs a brilliantly subtle family drama that is both a poignant coming-of-age tale and a based-on-a-true-story account of a lesbian marriage threatened by social forces, told chiefly from almost-13-year-old daughter Sarah’s perspective.
“Suicide Kale” / DIR Carly Usdin / 2015 / USA / 78 min
In this mostly improvised dark comedy, Jordan and Billie, a married couple of five years, seem to be living the lesbian dream — complete with an enviably beautiful home and a co-parented pit bull pup. But when their pals stop by for beers and grilled veggie skewers, they discover what appears to be an anonymous suicide note.
“Summertime” / DIR Catherine Corsini / 2015 / France / 105 min / Showcase Film. Oh, those heady days of the 1970s, when passion and politics intertwined. In this smart, sexy movie, French farm girl Delphine finds love with Parisian feminist Carole, but family keeps pulling her back into the closet.
“Take Me For a Ride” / DIR Micaela Rueda / 2016 / Ecuador, México, Colombia / 70 min. Sara’s contented senior year solitude is upended by the arrival of the enchanting Andrea, igniting a repressed passion in both of them that challenges the conservative views of their parents and culture.
“Women Who Kill” / DIR Ingrid Jungermann / 2016 / USA / 93 min
Exes Morgan and Jean are “Women Who Kill,” co-hosts of a podcast about female murderers. But what if Morgan’s mysterious new girlfriend might actually be a killer herself?
Documentary Features
“Check It” / DIRS Dana Flor & Toby Oppenheimer / 2016 / USA / 90 min
Desperate to survive state and police violence, a group of black gay and trans teens form a gang to protect one another. In a country where blackness is criminal, forming a gang is a radical act of resistance.
“Femme Brutal”/ DIRS Liesa Kovacs & Nick Prokesch / 2015 / Austria / 70 min. When all the world’s a stage, crafting identity and desire is a performance that develops with and without an audience. In this Austrian documentary, the seven queer- and lesbian-identified performers of Club Burlesque Brutal discuss their experiences with identity and power.
“Inside the Chinese Closet”/ DIR Sophia Luvarà / 2015 / Netherlands / 72 min. Caught between a new gay consciousness in China and deeply rooted family pressures, Andy and Cherry attempt to maintain the illusion of heterosexual family life. Their efforts to resolve this conflict have a quiet but unshakable integrity.
“Irrawaddy Mon Amour” / DIRS Nicola Grignani, Valeria Testagrossa, & Andrea Zambelli / 2015 / Italy / 58 min. In this colorfully immersive documentary, trans activist and shaman Myo Nyunt dares to organize a marriage ceremony in a unique gay-friendly village in the heart of Myanmar/Burma, where the brutal military junta severely penalizes same-sex relationships.
“Kiki”/ DIR Sara Jordenö / 2016 / USA, Sweden / 94 min / Opening Night Film. More than two decades after Paris Is Burning, filmmakers Sara Jordenö and Twiggy Pucci Garçon’s vibrant documentary fast-forwards to the ballroom scene of today: an unapologetically flamboyant and political subculture centered on LGBTQ youth of color, for whom dance is far more than performance.
“Last Men Standing”/ DIRS Erin Brethauer & Timothy Hussin / 2016 / USA / 65 min. The emotional history of San Francisco’s gay community unfolds in the lives of long-term survivors who have found their own profoundly personal ways to celebrate, heal, love, and thrive in the aftermath of the devastation of the early AIDS crisis.
“Living with Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100” / DIR Yvonne Welbon / 1999 / USA / 60 min / Retrospective Film. Filmmaker Yvonne Welbon’s breakthrough documentary provides exceptional insight into the life and times of activist and centenarian Ruth C. Ellis, who shows us — with undeniable charm, humor, and joy for life — that a life lived with pride is a life well lived.
“Ovarian Psycos” / DIRS Joanna Sokolowski & Kate Trumbull-LaValle / 2016 / USA / 72 min. In the midst of persistent sexism and violence against women of color, East LA’s Ovarian Psycos Bicycle Brigade builds on the legacy of the Chicanx civil rights movement through support, sisterhood, and having big-ass, kick-ass ovaries.
“The Pearl” / DIRS Jessica Dimmock & Christopher LaMarca / 2016 / USA / 95 min. Four transwomen navigate the second half of life in this vérité-style documentary, which illuminates their individual triumphs and analogous struggles against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest.
“Political Animals”/ DIRS Tracy Wares & Jonah Markowitz / 2015 / USA / 90 min. This is the eye-opening story of four out lesbian politicians — Sheila Kuehl, Carole Migden, Jackie Goldberg, and Christine Kehoe — who took the LGBT civil rights struggle from the streets to California’s state capitol.
“Real Boy”/ DIR Shaleece Haas / 2016 / USA / 72 min
Bennett Wallace is 19, a musician, and in recovery. On a journey to find his own way as a trans man, Bennett bonds with his friend and mentor, musician Joe Stevens of Coyote Grace, while navigating the difficult terrain of his familial relationships.
“The Revival: Women and the Word”/ DIR Sekiya Dorsett / 2016 / USA / 82 min. In a congregation of black, queer women artists, the Holy Trinity of “the poet, the people, and the poem” is the heart of a tour centering on the power, inspiration, and real-talk of five poets. This project will leave you saying “amen.”
“Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four” / DIR Deborah Esquenazi / 2016 / USA / 89 min / Centerpiece Documentary. At the tail end of the “Satanic ritual abuse panic” of the 1990s, four Latina lesbian women were accused and wrongfully convicted of a heinous sexual assault. After serving over a decade in prison, the women won’t stop fighting to prove their innocence, in this heart-wrenching examination of the criminal justice system.
“Strike a Pose” / DIRS Ester Gould & Reijer Zwaan / 2016 / Netherlands, Belgium / 83 min / Showcase Film. In 1990, seven male dancers joined Madonna on her taboo-busting Blond Ambition tour — which blew the roof off of global pop culture, raised AIDS awareness, and turned the dancers into sudden celebrities. This empathetic yet probing portrait revisits that era and traces the dancers’ paths from youthful exuberance to complicated adulthood.
“Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice, Mapping a Detroit Story” / DIR dream hampton / 2015 / USA / 63 min. An African American transwoman is murdered after police expose her as an informant. This documentary examines why her murder was not only a hate crime but also the consequence of systemic oppression and the continued criminalization of black bodies.
“Women He’s Undressed” / DIR Gillian Armstrong / 2015 / Australia / 95 min. This glitzy, dishy documentary traces the rise and fall and rise again of one of the most prolific costume designers of Hollywood’s golden age (and an early boyfriend of Cary Grant): three-time Academy Award winner Orry-Kelly. It’s a must-see for classic-film buffs.
