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Black Queer History Spotlight: Shorts

February 22, 2024. Our Black Queer History Spotlight with The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center and Cinemama continues on at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland for a shorts program full of phenomenal films from our past Festivals. This screening is FREE.

There will be a panel discussion moderated by filmmaker Debra Wilson… plus, a post-event mixer nearby for all of us to chat about the movies and make new friends!

Short films showing in this program:

Anthem

9 mins

Marlon Riggs’ experimental music video politicizes the homoeroticism of African American men. With images — sensual, sexual, and defiant — and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the “self-evident right” to life and liberty in an era of pervasive anti-gay, anti-Black backlash and hysterical cultural repression.

Baby

8 mins

Set to a dreamy song and shot with fresh vérité vision, Baby follows a young man through the Bronx on a Saturday and quietly builds into a beautiful ode to first love.

The Beauty President

10 mins

“If a bad actor can be president, why not a good drag queen?” In 1992, Joan Jett Blakk made a historic bid for the White House as one of the first openly queer write-in candidates. Today, Terence Smith, the man behind the persona, reflects back on his place in gay rights history at the height of the AIDS crisis.

Blackness Is Everything

5 mins

This experimental/performative short film celebrates the diversity of the Black diaspora in the Bay Area.

Code Switch

5 mins

Code Switch follows a Black trans person as they navigate the barbershop, illuminating the complexity and dynamism of gender expression.

A Different Direction

22 mins

A Black gay man struggling to navigate life challenges in dating and career, while leaning on the help of his best friend to make a big decision to severe ties with a toxic parent.

Femme Rage

3 mins

Femme Rage is a rally cry to all QTBIPOC Femmes, across the gender spectrum, to unleash their rage about living, surviving, and thriving within a cishetero-capitalist-white supremacist-patriarchy.

How Not to Date While Trans

12 mins

How Not to Date While Trans is a break-the-fourth-wall, dark comedy that follows the dating life of a black trans woman and the problematic men she meets along the way. Andie searches for romance and self-love but ends with heartbreak.

Expected Guests

Debra Wilson
Director
Joan Jett Blakk
Participant (The Beauty President)
Aïma Paule
Director (Femme Rage)
Vivian Kleiman
Panelist

This screening is FREE. Admittance is on a first come basis.

Quick links
Running Time
72 mins
Section
Off Season Screenings, Free, Shorts Programs
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