Picks and highlights from SF Queer Film Fest

August 17, 2023 Kevin M. Thomas 4 min read

The third annual SF Queer Film Fest comes to San Francisco Aug. 25-27, 2023 and it definitely has a lot of great content crammed into the weekend.

In being very transparent, I know the quality of the content as I am one of the people who helps pick the movies and segments that are screening.

This year the festival has moved from the Delancey Street Screening Room to the Opera Plaza Cinema, utilizing two screens. The diverse content is a great blend of features, shorts, web series, documentaries and narrative features. Here’s some highlights.

Opening Night, August 25, 6:30pm

Filthy Gorgeous: The Trannyshack Story will be screened in honor of drag legend Heklina who died earlier this year and was the founder of the famed club night called Trannyshack and renamed Mother. Director Sean Mullens, who is scheduled to attend with producer Deena Davenport, has actually added some never-before-seen footage.

Saturday, August 26

Box of Chocolates shorts program: While there are many wonderful shorts segments, this one has a special place in my heart as it includes shorts from the likes of legendary LGBTQ+ filmmaker Billy Clift who brings his tender Lena’s Dance starring Dee Wallace as well as web series pro Tyler Martin who has a few surprises in his Candice short. San Kite’s Remember It’s Christmas has something for us bears while Worst Date, Best Date seems like a straight comedy — but wait for the surprise — and We All Die Alone brings gayness to gangs squaring off. We also revisit Coffee House Chronicles in which there’s always something going on over a cup of java.

Baby Steps is a sequel of sorts to Stewart Wade’s Say Yes. The story continues with a bisexual man who after grieving the loss of his wife in the first film, is now in a committed relationship with her brother and they are taking steps to become parents.

Divas in Dollmation is the only place where “Cher,” “Madonna” and “Marilyn Monroe” will ever share the stage. Warren Wright who was a big hit last year with his Barbie re-creations during our WebOUT program that he has his own segment of all Barbie shorts featuring our gay icons.

Surviving Voices, co-presented with the National AIDS Memorial, offers an update on the impact of the AIDS epidemic and how the AIDS quilt has continued to bond people together after all of the years. There will also be a panel discussion following the screening.

Healed is a nail-bitter when pop icon Jazz Powers goes on a couples retreat with her wife only to have them both discover there’s more going on than healing. Writer/star Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera hopes to be in attendance.

Sunday, August 27

The date starts off with two tough choices to pick between. #LookAtMe from Singapore has two brothers — one gay — that try to find success as a social media influencer but ends up getting fame by his deviance against the church that bashes homosexuality. It goes from lighthearted to tense drama in a split second.

Shadows in Mind is another nail bitter in which a crisis center is trying to sort out how to help a suicidal caller, all the while we are getting flashbacks to how the caller got to this stage of his life. Director Mark Schwab will be present as there’s likely going to be a lot of questions about plot twists and cinematic surprises.

WebOUT features six web series that you may not have found on your own – but we’ve got you covered. Topics range from life in Silver Lake to straights taking on a gay roommate to relationships between older/younger man and running into your ex in public.HereTV has a great program, after having won Best Documentary last year. This year includes a featurette Jacked about a young man who is thrown out of his home after he comes out. This is well-paired with a two-part segment of their web series Now What?! w