Back for its 30th iteration, the Long Beach QFilm Festival is setting the stage to tell original stories from the LGBTQ community through both local and global films from all around the world.
On Sept. 16 and 17, residents, filmmakers and actors will flock to the Art Theatre of Long Beach to view over 50 documentaries, short films and narrative features as well as social events and Q&As.
“Our stories are being told by us, by our community, so it’s very important that we continue to celebrate ourselves and tell our stories, our struggles, wins, losses and liberties,” said Robert Cano, the Signal Hill resident who founded the festival 30 years ago.
Over 25,000 people have attended the festival over the years to enjoy films from Long Beach, Los Angeles and foreign films from over 70 countries.
The films this year and every year cover a wide range of experiences and history such as Black and Indigenous feminist women who fought for marriage equality in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the lesbians of First Fridays in the ‘80s, folk-rock band the Indigo Girls and queer nightlife in West Hollywood at the iconic Studio One.
The festival has only grown over the years, Cano said, bringing more diverse voices and opportunities for people to tell their own stories. QFilms allows community submissions to shape the programming each year, rather than dictate the kinds of stories they want to tell.
This year, programs include sections for trans shorts, Latinx queer shorts and for submissions local to Long Beach and Los Angeles.
“The trans community is now being able to tell their stories as opposed to the past, their stories were being told [by others],” Cano said. “So it’s refreshing to see trans stories being told by trans filmmakers, trans people behind the camera and trans actors in front of the camera.”
Residents will be treated to “a blast to the past” with a screening of the first-ever award-winning short film screened at the 1993 QFilm Festival. The film is titled “Twenty Two” and will be screened in the final category of the festival.
“Our stories are being told by us, by our community, so it’s very important that we continue to celebrate ourselves and tell our stories, our struggles, wins, losses and liberties.”
Robert Cano, founder of the QFilm Festival
Over the years, Cano and the screening committee have begun receiving more films from their global audience. He said the pandemic contributed to this growth since they pivoted to an online festival and actually saw an increase in engagement following those years.
Many films are plucked from festivals around the world and have already received numerous awards. A jury and audiences will be able to vote on several awards that will be given out at the closing of the festival.
The festival also provides a place to remind the queer community of its roots and the struggles past generations have overcome to gain rights, access and representation. Kicking off the festival is a documentary about the AIDS Project of Los Angeles (APLA) titled “Commitment to Life.”
The documentary takes viewers back to the yearslong confusing, painful and scary times dealing with the AIDS crisis, and covers the organizations that stepped up to help. From 1981 to 1996, no type of cure, vaccine or medication existed for people with AIDS, and for many years the government refused to acknowledge the disease.
“Commitment to Life” tells the story of how APLA began out of a closet in the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center with a telephone service to answer questions from people scared and looking for answers.
“The more we got into it, the more we realized we had a much bigger story to tell,” said Ron Sylvester, former QFilm Festival board member, APLA board member and producer of the documentary.
The film explores what it was like to be queer in Los Angeles during the AIDS crisis, the “everyday heroes” who stepped up to start organizations to help and how Hollywood actors brought attention to the crisis during a time when people tried to ignore it. Ultimately, these small groups changed the course of the AIDS epidemic.
“Younger LGBTQ audiences need to understand what happened in their community, where the roots of their community are seeded,” Sylvester said. “A lot of gay men now that are sexually active take a pill everyday called PreP to prevent HIV … and they have absolutely no idea how devastating the history of this disease was.”
Sylvester said young audiences who watch the film often tell him that they were completely unaware of the struggles their community went through during the ‘80s and ‘90s. He said the film was not easy to produce, and recognized his director Jeffrey Schwarz for being able to capture the many stories that went into the history.
The film “relives a difficult time in people’s lives,” Sylvester said, adding that some people they filmed for the documentary were unable to speak about it altogether.
“Commitment to Life” premiered in January and has been shown at multiple film festivals, but Sylvester said he’s “honored” to return to his old festival and open it with a film on local history.
Tickets for the QFilm Festival can be purchased for a single program such as trans short, men in briefs, women in shorts, for specific film screenings, or for the entire weekend with a VIP pass on the festival’s website.
The festival will take place at the Long Beach Art Theatre at 2025 E Fourth St. on Sept. 16 and 17 beginning at 11 a.m. each day.
Related Posts:
