CELTS (KELTI)
direction/ Milica Tomović
screenplay/Tanja Sljivar + Milica Tomović
production/ Milica Tomović + Jelena Radenkovic + Vladimir Vasiljevic
THE HILL WHERE THE LIONESSES ROAR
direction/ Luána Bajrami
dir. cinematography/ Hugo Peterell
WET SAND
performance/ Bebe Sesitashvili
WILDHOOD
performance/ Phillip Lewitski
Thi Be Nguyen is a Canadian philanthropist, and social entrepreneur. She occupies the position of Manager to the Office of the President at National Bank of Canada. Thi Be is passionate about social impact projects. She founded UniAction, a non profit organisation from which emerged the Social Impact Film and Art Festival (SIFA Festival) a cultural event that raises awareness on social issues around the world.
Jim Farmer has been festival director of Out On Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival since 2008, helping spearhead its growth, including becoming an Oscar® qualifying festival in 2020. Farmer has sat on numerous juries including Atlanta Film Festival, OUTshine and ImageOut. He has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s 500 Most Powerful City Leaders list in both 2020 and 21. An arts reporter/critic for two decades, he’s written for publications across the U.S. and this year won The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Excellence in Theatre Coverage Award. Jim lives in Atlanta with his husband Craig and dog Douglas.
GITTA GSELL | SWITZERLAND | 2021
Based on a novel by Yusuf Yesilöz, Beyto spans continents and cultures, as “clever boy” Beyto juggles his responsibilities and swimming abilities to try and make his conservative Turkish parents proud, while falling for his swimming coach – and equally hunky lover – Mike.
MILICA TOMOVIĆ | SERBIA | 2021
A lovingly loose-lipped community acts out geopolitical strife and stumbles toward coping over the course of an eight-year-old girl’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed birthday party in the Belgrade suburb of Borča. The sprawling guest list is a melange of social classes and temperaments. Each looking for “some excitement.” Each desperate to be seen.
LUÀNA BAJRAMI | KOSOVO & FRANCE & USA | 2021
This beguiling, tactile film is the directorial debut of now 20-year-old actress Luàna Bajrami (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), who briefly plays a French visitor to a Kosovar village tucked in foggy, green hills. There, the three female protagonists lounge in the suspended animation of their coterie, until thievery unleashes their inner roar.
HEIDI EWING | MEXICO & USA | 2020
The instant chemistry in an underground gay bar between Iván Garcia and Gerardo Zabaleta (embodied by the real-life men in the present and actors Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez in flashbacks) turns into a harrowing tale of complicated timing and seizing opportunity, which eventually ‘crosses over’ from Puebla, Mexico to New York City.
MARION HILL | USA | 2021
Is Bertie more whole when she shares her heart solely with her gorgeous husband (Lucien Guignard) in their country house in the south of France? Or is their relationship improved with their former ex, Lane, in the picture? The answers continually surprise in this sun-soaked film tackling the layered realities of attraction, connection, and polyamory.
WES HURLEY | USA | 2020
In one of its infinitely clever cinematic tricks, this semi-autobiographical tour de force transforms suffering into the grinning melodrama of old American movies. Film-obsessed Potato and his depressed but self-possessed mother tangle with communism, exoticism, and sexuality on the way to their Hollywood ending.
MARLEY MORRISON | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021
A dysfunctional family descends upon Freshwater Beach Holiday Park where snarky, 17-year-old AJ learns that her lifeguard crush, Isla, isn’t the fembot she deems her to be. And that attraction – like a neon Flamingo sign in the night – has a way of seeping in.
BRETTEN HANNAM | CANADA | 2010
A fiery getaway from an abusive home sends a Two-Spirit Mi’kmaw teen and his younger half-brother onto the open road and into the Eastern Canadian woods with the help of the charismatic Pasmay, a generous and resourceful companion. Nature as their bedroom. One another as burgeoning chosen family.
ANGELO MADSEN MINAX | USA | 2021
North by Current is a visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains. After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, preparing to make a film about a broken criminal justice system.
VIVIAN KLEIMAN | USA | 2021
Comics legends Alison Bechdel, Rupert Kinnard, Jennifer Camper, Mary Wings, and “the godfather of queer comics” Howard Cruse (who died in 2019) are joined by the slew of queer Next Gen Comics they inspired, in order to colour in the history of diverse thinking that flouted the often “bland vision” of mainstream production.
HARRI SHANAHAN & SIÂN A. WILLIAMS | UNITED KINGDOM | 2021
“We weren’t lesbians, we were dykes.” This defiant statement represents just one of a whole myriad of empowering sneers as we’re dropped into the epicenter of the struggles, misunderstandings, and dialogues between punk and mainstream modes of feminism and queer identity during London’s conservative Thatcher 80s. That, and a whole lot of guitar and good times.
ADRIÀN SILVESTRE | SPAIN | 2021
Six very different trans women arrive in Magdalena Brasas’ childhood hometown in the Province of León, in northern Spain, and laugh and argue their way towards mutual understanding. Finding Leon to be an incredibly welcoming place full of natural and cultural wonders, they heal and look to the future.
GABRIELLA ROMANO & FABRIZIO LAURENTI | ITALY | 2020
This patchwork portrait of Fascist Italy conveys “the spirit of the times” through (in)famous literary passages, impassioned letters often written in code, and archival footage of glistening bodies: sailors, soldiers, bathers, lovers. A film celebrating the efforts of reading between the lines.
THIRZA CUTHAND | CANADA | 2021
En route vers chez sa copine, une lesbienne crie est agressée par un chauffeur de taxi. Malgré la détresse qui l’assaille, elle découvre qu’elle possède un pouvoir surnaturel qui pourrait lui permettre d’élucider le mystère de la disparition de sa mère.
KATERINE MARTINEAU | CANADA | 2020
Après une soirée de fin d’année au secondaire, Chantal et Delphine rentrent seules chez elles dans le noir. Perdues dans la forêt, leur longue marche nocturne est ponctuée de moments d’insouciance et d’une irrépressible envie d’exister.
DEONDRAY & QUINCY LENEAR GOSSFIELD | USA | 2020
Alex, a young Harlem Renaissance artist and writer, plays around at love and life until he meets Beauty, appropriately named, who makes no bones about his same-sex desires. Troubled and confused, Alex wavers on the brink of passion until a challenge posed by his girlfriend forces his hand.
THANASIS TSIMPINIS | GREECE | 2020
A few hours before the world ends, two men have an unexpected encounter, while a strange pink fog is spreading throughout the city. Their romantic affair will only last for a day. But in a broken world filled with fear, sharing a few intimate moments seems to be enough for them to feel safe, against the upcoming end.
ARUN FULARA | INDIA | 2021
Renuka and Sadiya, two working-class women in love with each other, enjoy their day out celebrating Renuka's birthday. After a fun-filled day, they head home to spend the night together. But unknown to them, Renuka's son, Mangesh, is around. A story of what happens when two relationships collide.
MICHAEL SØNDERGAARD | DENMARK | 2021
The closeted small-town delinquent Mathias is shaken by the arrival of a charismatic Swedish ornithologist who is passing through to study the local birdlife. When Mathias’ friends catch the two young men in an intimate moment, it leads to a violent confrontation.