Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival returns on Thursday, September 28th for its second weekend. Among the twenty eight feature films and numerous shorts that will be playing are several international selections and international stories, including:
STUCK IN GREECE: an LGBT Refugee Crisis – While in Athens, Greece in 2016 for a screening of his film DADDY, filmmaker Gerald McCullouch unexpectedly meets a group of LGBT refugees fleeing persecution from their communities, their governments and their own families who now find themselves trapped in Greece. Confounded by their circumstances, he is compelled to document his education of a crisis facing countless members of his community who came to Greece under desperately different circumstances.
OUTRAGEOUS: THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TV – WINNER OF BEST FEATURE FILM AT TORONTO LGBTQ FILM FESTIVAL! Every LGBT milestone happened on Australian TV in the 1970s, years before the rest of the world. And nobody ever saw it, because the nudity, adult stories and queer themes from these TV series could never have been tolerated on commercial TV anywhere outside of Australia. This documentary event, which includes a specially edited episode of Number 96 to highlight several queer stories, will finally set the record straight.
BELONGING: A TRANS IMMIGRANT STORY – Anjali Rimi shares her gender journey as a trans, immigrant woman, and the challenges she faces in leading United State’s first and only Transgender-led South Asian Organization called Parivar (Family). While creating Transgender centering spaces with a focus on Global South Immigrants in San Francisco Bay Area, Anjali’s fight for acceptance and equal opportunity is not confined to the United States. She helped countless trans, hijra and kinnar folks in India during and after the pandemic. (Screens with the short documentary, LOVE, JAMIE)
THE LOST BOYS (Le Paradis) – Joe, 17, is about to be released from a youth detention center. Should the judge approve his liberation, he will be allowed to live on his own. But when a new detainee arrives in his facility, Joe starts to question his desire for freedom.
LEILANI’S FORTUNE – A feature-length documentary on an intimate journey with queer, immigrant Ethiopian-Eritrean artist, Witch Prophet as she navigates newfound momentum and stands true to her voice. After a decade in the industry and on the heels of major critical acclaim and nominations, Witch Prophet is finally getting the validation and support she needs to create the album of her prophecies.
ALIGNED – An intimate exploration of self-discovery, love, desire and pain. Set against a backdrop of beautiful music, dance and photography. Two male dancers with shared cultural heritage, though worlds apart, find a deep unexpected connection. This intimate tale reveals the beauty that lies within us all and the transformative power of self-love.
THE JUDGMENT – An Egyptian gay couple return from the U.S. to Egypt for a family emergency and have to force themselves back into the closet and pretend to be just friends. When they fall prey to witchcraft as punishment for their โhomosexual sins,โ one of them falls into religious terror and exposes his unhealed past.
COMING AROUND – Coming Around follows 28-year-old second-generation Palestinian-Egyptian Brooklynite Eman as she grapples with the decision to come out to her devout mother. Along the way, she decides to marry her male partner to evade silent disapproval. When that fails, she struggles with various ways to be herself AND, somehow, maintain the tight bond she has with her mother and sister.
NELLIE AND NADINE – Sponsored by the LGBTQ+ History & Archives and Straight Knot (French with English Subtitles) On Christmas Eve, 1944, Belgian prisoner and opera singer Nelly Mousset-Vos is scheduled to sing Christmas carols in one of the barracks at the Ravensbrรผck concentration camp. After she meets Nadine Hwang, the pair begin a secret relationship.
BLUE ID – Rรผzgar Erkoรงlar received his first testosterone injection on October 4, 2012, marking an important step in his gender affirmation. He never imagined that traditional Turkey would make him front-page news because he was formerly a well-known actor. The entire process, a path paved with frustration, humiliation, and endless waiting, is captured in home movie-esque observations and self-assured phone videos. An intimate report of a struggle with self-realization and acceptance in a traditional society, under intense media scrutiny.
NARROW PATH TO HAPPINESS – A young gay Romani couple from a remote village in Hungary has a dream so absurd that it seems impossible: making a musical ๏ฌlm based on their lives. Against all odds, they move to Budapest just as the Hungarian government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and hostile towards LGBTQ+ people.
I LOVE YOU MORE – After a year of online pillow-talk, Ben, a shy Kosovar teen, is exhilarated to finally meet his first (but secret) love, Leo. Consumed with passion, Ben carefully weaves the plans and cover-story for his much-desired romantic tryst with Leo who is arriving from Germany in just one month. Everything must be perfect. Great news, Benโs mother surprises him and the family with a life changing opportunity, but he just canโt take it yet. He must meet Leo.
#LOOK AT ME – When teenagers Sean and Ricky are invited to attend church with Seanโs girlfriend, they are treated to an Evangelical rock concert capped by a searing anti-LGBTQ sermon. Sean, a Youtuber, soon gets into trouble for dropping an outrageous video lampooning the megachurchโs pastor. As Sean descends into near madness in prison, his gay twin brother, Ricky, gains prominence as a LGBTQ activist. Both find themselves at the heart of a culture war that spills out from social media into the real world. NOTE: This film is officially banned in Singapore “on the grounds that “it denigrates a religious community and has the potential to cause enmity and social division in Singapore’s multi-racial and multi-cultural society,” according to a joint statement by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY).”
THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL – What do you get when you throw an outrageous Drag Queen, her bestie, a smoking hot gigolo and a porn star in to a blender? The most hilarious, sexiest, Aussie film since โPriscillaโ of course! โThe Winner Takes It Allโ sees drag megastar Maxi Shield embark on a crass crusade of revenge after her best friend finds her super hot, maybe not so straight (ok, heโs super gay), husband cheating on her. What follows can only be described as the most insane, hysterical and unashamedly steamy saga ever set to celluloid!
NORWEGIAN DREAM – Robert travels from Poland to begin work in a salmon processing plant off the Trรธndelag coast in Norway. Isolated and far from home he plans to keep his head down and work hard, seeking financial security for him and his mother. However, his focus shifts when he begins spending time with colleague, and aspiring drag queen, Ivar. Robertโs budding relationship and loyalty to his fellow workers is tested when a strike breaks out and his employer offers him a solution for his financial troubles. Will he choose the security he has sacrificed so much for or a chance at love with Ivar?
Join Cinema Diverse during its second weekend, as it takes a trip around the world of LGBTQ+ film with comedies dramas, documentaries, mysteries and more. And donโt miss any of the shorts or domestic films either.
WHAT: The Sixteenth Edition of Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs, LGBTQ+ Film Festival: Weekend Two
WHEN: September 28-October 1, 2023
WHERE: Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA 92262
TICKETS AND PASSES: CinemaDiverse.org
