ABOVE: Photo courtesy Fabulous Arts Foundation.
SARSOTA | The Fabulous Arts Foundation will present the 12th Fabulous Independent Film Festival Sept. 23-Oct. 1, the region’s only film festival organized by and for the LGBTQ community.
FIFF seeks to showcase the best in LGBTQ cinema. FabAF has presented it since 2016, when it acquired the festival as the Harvey Milk Festival.
This year’s films will be in-person and include special outdoor screenings. Festivities begin with OUTspoken II Sept. 23 at 7 p.m., an event celebrating spoken word and featuring an art exhibition.
The gathering will be held at 1421 Boulevard of the Arts and feature Sarasota’s Gabrielle Keusch, South Florida’s Jordan Beutel and St. Petersburg’s ImmaniLove. DJ Daliganja will also feature.
“Their work will be displayed for you to explore their words, while we hold space for folk in a time where connection and community are crucial,” FabAF says. “This will be an experience between the artist and the audience like no other.”
FIFF on The Bay will follow Sept. 30 from 7-11:45 p.m. at College Hall, located at 351 College Dr. Organizers will screen a shorts block and feature film. Read about the selections below.
SHORTS BLOCK:
“Gap Year(s)”
A mini animation about how sometimes things take a very long time, whether that be getting over a breakup, or making art. As time moves on our own feelings shift and we may no longer feel the way we once did.
“We March (Stronger Together)”
A protest song and music video inspired by an act of senseless homophobia and transphobia. Award-winning singer-songwriter and long-term transgender activist, Ryan Cassata leads the ballad with stories of his personal experience in fighting against oppression and violence while growing up trans. LA-based rock band Hello Noon come together with Ryan Cassata for incredible instrumentation including orchestral string arrangements. Over 60 artists and activists joined this collective project to showcase their voices and raise awareness.
“Queer Bodies”
A queer documentary filmmaker explores gender identity and queer bodies through the lives and works of other queer artists.
“Warmth”
This film is about my life since starting testosterone, the joy and comfort I have felt since then. It is made entirely on fabric, which I have sewn into a quilt.
“Don’t Text Your Ex”
Surviving a global pandemic being queer, cute and still in love with your ex.
FEATURE FILM:
“Esther Newton Made me Gay”
A feature documentary about a pathbreaking cultural anthropologist, dog agility enthusiast and iconic butch lesbian. Now entering her seventh decade writing about queer communities, Esther Newton’s life’s work has influenced generations of activists and scholars.
The film explores the life and times of the cultural anthropologist. Throughout her career, Esther was a pioneer—questioning and challenging status quo assumptions on gender, sexuality, and anthropological methods. Her work inspired generations of scholars to pursue research in what would eventually become the field of LGBTQ & Gender Studies.
FIFF returns to Burns Court Cinema Oct. 1, located at 506 Burns Ct. Its special screening series will include a surprise closing night film at 7:30 p.m., preceded by selections from 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Read about the films below.
“Rebel Dykes”
“Rebel Dykes” is a rabble-rousing documentary set in 1980s post-punk London. It arrives in all its ass-kicking, leather-wearing glory. The film follows a tight-knit group of friends who met at Greenham Common peace camp and went on to become artists, performers, musicians and activists in London.
A heady mash-up of animation, archive footage and interviews tells the story of a radical scene: squatters, BDSM nightclubs, anti-Thatcher rallies, protests demanding action around AIDS and the fierce ties of chosen family. This is an extraordinarily privileged glimpse into a bygone world by those who not only lived out their politics with heartfelt conviction but lived to tell the tale.
“Art and Pep”
Art Johnston and Pepe Peña are civil rights leaders whose life and love is a force behind LGBTQ+ equality in the heart of the country. Their iconic gay bar, Sidetrack, has helped fuel movements and create community for decades in Chicago’s queer enclave. But, behind the business and their historic activism exists a love unlike any other. The documentary film ART AND PEP tells the inspiring story of the long struggle for equality and their fight to love freely.
“Death and Bowling”
In a fractured, dream-like world, a transgender actor struggles with what it means to be seen after the beloved captain of his lesbian bowling league dies and a mysterious stranger shows up at the funeral.
X (Will Krisanda) is a white transgender actor who struggles with what it means to be seen, both as a representation of transgender identity on screen, and interpersonally as the beloved outsider to his queer community of amateur-bowling lesbians who meet as The Lavender League. When the captain of the Lavender League, Susan, asks X to speak at her funeral, X finds himself thrown into a time of not only intense grief, but also of desire. At the funeral, an unexpected and handsome stranger arrives. No one recognizes him. This is Alex, Susan’s estranged transgender son.
Alex and X inherit Susan’s hand-drawn map of her desired location for her ashes and lead their community through a hot and slow march across the desert. When the mourning party arrives, they discover that there’s nothing there. On their journey, X and Alex are joined by Arnie (Susan’s widow), who dons her dead lover’s wig, Gio (Arnie’s son and X’s confidante), who is a queer Tamil-Sri Lankan-American butcher, and Joyce (Susan’s best friend), who is a Black body-positive gym dominatrix, to make their way through the fragmented and dream-like fugue state that follows Susan’s death.
“Each full-length film is presented once, preceded by a short film, making each screening unique,” FabAF promises. Tickets and bundles are on sale now.
“We are grateful for our sponsors that have helped to make the 12th Annual Fabulous Independent Film Festival possible,” the organization adds. “We can’t wait to see you there!”
Sarasota’s 12th Fabulous Independent Film Festival runs Sept. 23-Oct. 1. Learn more about each event, purchase tickets and more at FabAF.org.
