Immerse Yourself In LGBTQ+, BIPOC Talent At New Jersey’s Queer Film Fest

The Queer Film Festival is back in Newark this week, and it’s jam-packed with emerging talent. Facilitated by the Newark LGBTQ Center, the Queer Film Festival is the oldest event of its kind in Newark, spotlighting queer and trans BIPOC stories and filmmakers, with a special focus on local artists. This year, the lineup includes 20 films from a diverse array of New Jerseyan talent. From headliners like Ponyboi—which stars writer River Gallo alongside Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, and Murray Bartlett—to short films from emerging directors, like Natalie Jasmine Harris’s Grace, the Newark LGBTQ Film Festival places queer voices on center stage. 

Check out the lineup below for a preview of what to expect each night, and learn more about the festival (and each film) here.

Thursday, May 1

After an opening reception at 6 pm, night one of the festival kicks off with a screening of the short film And Then There Was Her, written and directed by Alexander King and Nyala Moon, which tells the story of two women from different worlds who find connection over Friendsgiving Dinner. 

Thursday’s featured screening is Ponyboi, a thriller directed by Esteban Arango. Set over 24 hours, Ponyboi follows a young intersex sex worker (River Gallo) who is working at a laundromat with his best friend (Victoria Pedretti) and their abusive pimp (Dylan O’Brien) when a drug deal gone wrong sends him on the run from the mob, aided by a mysterious cowboy (Murray Bartlett). Gallo also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from their 2019 short film of the same name. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

Related: The New York Lineup for All Things Go is Here, and It’s Just As Gay

Friday, May 2

Friday’s featured screening is The Ball, a documentary about underground ballroom culture in 1970s New York City directed by Malgorzata Saniewska. 

Afterwards, the Date Night Shorts program features a lineup of five new short films: Eating Papaw on the Seashore (directed by Rae Wiltshire and Nickose Layne), Me Porto Bonita (directed by Cecilia Romo), Calamity Jane (directed by Robin Cloud), The Rectangle Love Triangle (directed by Mina Asfour), and The Knowing (directed by Jonathan Rowan). 

Saturday, May 3

Saturday’s lineup opens with another short, You Don’t Have to Like Me (directed by Safiyah Chiniere Smith), before the featured screening, A Mother Apart. Directed by Laurie Townshend, A Mother Apart follows her journey of self-discovery as she navigates her mother’s historical journey from Jamaica to Brooklyn. This screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

Sunday, May 4

To close out the week, the Newark LGBTQ Film Festival is celebrating young queer filmmakers with “To Be Young, Gifted, and Queer,” a collection of five short films from emerging directors, free for high school and college students. The lineup opens with Caribbean Queen (directed by Sekiya Dorsett), about a young Caribbean boy who dreams of becoming Queen of the West Indian Carnival Day Parade, followed by Blue Boy (directed by Nik Dodani), about a 12-year-old boy who believes he’s the reincarnation of the Hindu god Krishna. Next up is Squeegee Boys (directed by Chung-Wei Huang), about a transgender Asian American teen boy who searches for belonging among a group of squeegee boys in Baltimore. Squeegee Boys is followed by City of Dreamz (directed by Imani Celeste), in which four Black art students discuss the moments of divine intervention that brought them together, followed by Grace (directed by Natalie Jasmine Harris), about a 16-year-old girl preparing for her baptism in the rural South of the 1950s while contemplating her feelings of same-sex attraction. Finally, Elijah (directed by Razid Season) follows a Bengali Muslim taxi driver who is faced with an ultimatum when his only child comes out as transgender.

Related: Video Of The Day: Britt Lower In A Sapphic Short Film Where Art, Obsession, And Pony Play Collide

After “To Be Young, Gifted, and Queer,” the festival closes with “Identities in Motion,” a collection of five shorts that explore themes of identity through a queer lens. First up is I Know Him So Well (directed by Chance Calloway), a fantastical four-minute musical short about queer teenage love, followed by Miss Honey: The Castuit (directed by Brandon R. Nicholas), a documentary about the creation of ’90s drag legend Moi Renee’s iconic cut-out cat suit—as seen during the televised performance of the song “Miss Honey”—by ballroom fashion designer Douglas Says. 

Next, Hag (directed by Jay Najeeah) follows Reesa Crawford, a queer Black woman in South Carolina who becomes haunted by the urban legend of the boo hag while expecting her first child. In What’s Left Fades Away (directed by Julia Cohen Ribeiro and Sofia Lanaro), an Afro-Latina woman finds that embracing her identity strains her relationship with her white girlfriend. Finally, closing the festival is In This Moment (directed by Neka Cecilia Knowles and Chucahua Zipactonal Martínez), which follows a trans woman navigating polyamory and self-discovery. 

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The festivities begin this Thursday at 6 pm. Tickets range from around $10 for admission to the short film programs to $300 for a Benefactor Pass, which gets you and a second attendee into any screening throughout the four-day event. Select events, like the “To Be Young, Gifted, and Queer” showcase, are free to students. For out-of-town attendees, the Newark LGBTQ Center has secured special rates at the Robert Treat Hotel, so book now!