The Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (TIGLFF) has been entertaining and empowering audiences since 1990, evolving through the decades to present LGBTQ-focused films in new and exciting ways.
Recent efforts include transitioning to a virtual platform in response to COVID-19 for TIGLFF 2020, allowing the festival to reach more filmgoers than ever before. The venture subsequently allowed organizers to launch their inaugural Transgender Film Festival last November.
The festival showcased the trans experience for audiences across the nation, which has continued to reckon with the effects of systemic racism on minorities. That includes the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ community – those who are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) – voices TIGLFF promised to showcase following the murder of George Floyd. “From its beginning, TIGLFF has been about community,” its Board of Directors and Staff shared last June. “Our programming over the years has striven to present a cinematic picture of our lives, of our longings and of our hopes.
“Now, we must recommit to the parts of our mission that enlighten and empower and be a part of the solution to lift up the LGBTQ Black community,” they continued. “Art … should promote and encourage conversation, illuminate what is right and what is wrong, and spur us forward to a more enlightened view of the world and its inhabitants.”
TIGLFF’s commitment to elevating all LGBTQ voices and the success of its Transgender Film Festival that paved the way for “Queer in Color,” its inaugural BIPOC film festival. It will stream June 18-20, with films available locally, state and nationwide.
“TIGLFF in general is trying to revamp programming to reconnect to the community, as it has evolved since its founding,” Board Member Kayden Rodriguez says. “The way that we want to do that is really to highlight marginalized communities.
“Our programming has always been diverse, but we know that we need to do better,” they continue. “This is owning up to that.”
Highlighting LGBTQ BIPOC voices in June seemed like the perfect fit, Rodriguez adds. The festival will celebrate the annual Pride Month and Juneteenth, which marks the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the U.S. June 19.
“These communities are marginalized within a community that’s already marginalized, the queer community itself,” Rodriguez explains. “We deal with a lot of discrimination and misunderstanding.”
To assemble the inaugural “Queer in Color,” TIGLFF enlisted a screening committee consisting of more than a dozen BIPOC members of the LGBTQ community. They finalized the festival’s five features, which will be presented at no cost. Donations are suggested to keep screenings accessible to audiences.
Each film will launch at noon ET June 18. Viewers will have 48 hours to watch and, once each film begins, 24 hours to finish their screening.
While premiering simultaneously, the recommended viewing order designed by the screening committee can be found below along with information on each film. TIGLFF cautions that “for some individuals, particularly those within the BIPOC LGBTQ+ community, engaging with these films may be emotionally challenging.”
“Unapologetic”
Streaming Nationwide, 86 Mins.
After two police killings, Black millennial organizers challenge a Chicago administration complicit in state violence against its Black residents. Told through the lens of Janaé and Bella, two fierce abolitionist leaders, this is a deep look into the Movement for Black Lives, from the police murder of Rekia Boyd to the election of mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“Gossamer Folds”
Streaming Statewide, 96 Mins.
In 1986, 10-year-old Tate is uprooted and unwillingly moved to the suburbs of Kansas City. As his parent’s marriage unravels, Tate finds solace in the unlikely friendships of his next-door neighbors: a retired college professor and his transgender daughter, Gossamer.
“Mixed [Up]”
Streaming Statewide, 76 Mins.
Part testimonial, part confessional. What are the lines between the facts of who I am and the fiction of what I can become? Mixed [Up] is a reclaimed book of genesis: a manifesto that collides the wildly diverse elements of being queer, mixed and different in a world socialized around the construction of race, gender and orientation.
“My Name is Pauli Murray”
Streaming Statewide, 91 Mins.
A look at the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a nonbinary Black lawyer, activist and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall.
“Summertime”
Streaming in Tampa Bay, 95 Mins.
Over the course of a hot summer day in Los Angeles, the lives of 25 young Angelinos intersect. A skating guitarist, a tagger, two wannabe rappers, an exasperated fast-food worker and a limo driver all weave in and out of each other’s stories. Through poetry they express life, love, heartache, family, home and fear. One just wants to find a place that serves good cheeseburgers.
For more information about this year’s festival, visit TIGLFF.com and QueerInColor.Eventive.org.
