Queer Women of Color Are Front and Center at Outfest Fusion

The workshops, shorts, features and special presentations to see at this year’s QPOC film fest.

Every year, Outfest hosts Fusion, a film festival for and about LGBTQ people of color with screenings, workshops, special presentations, galas and parties. 2017’s line-up is full of incredible programming for queer women, and we’ve got some highlights picked out below.

Workshops

No Money, No Problem: Creating Content on Your Own Terms With Brittani Nichols
Out comic/writer/actor Brittani Nichols (“Words with Girls,” “Suicide Kale”) leads this Thursday evening workshop on how to make your own web series or podcast without a huge budget. 

One-Minute Filmmaking Incubator Lab With Marla Ulloa and Nidhin Patel

Award-winning filmmaker Marla Ulloa (I Know Who I Am, Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage) co-leads this workshop on teaching the basic skills of creating a one-minute cinematic story.

Archive and Thrive: Transferring VHS Tapes to Digital Files With Taylor Morales

The manager of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project will show attendees how to take VHS, Hi8, 8mm and 16mm film and make it digital, as well as how to preserve it forever.
 

Shorts

The LatinX Files: Queer Shorts 

Highlights include Candy Guinea‘s “Que Siga La Cumbia” (“Queer and trans people sanctify public space amidst gentrification”), Florencia Manovil‘s “Encuentro” (“Claudia’s night out with friends is disrupted by an encounter with the captivating Isabel”) and “The Sweetspot” from Kimberly Bautista (“A diverse group of friends approach their 30s and realize that they’re no closer to traditional adulthood than when they were fresh out of high school.”)

still from “Que Siga La Cumbia”

No Place Like Home: Queer Asian Shorts

Don’t miss “The Right Bank” from Yvonne Li (“A Chinese lesbian must come out to her conservative mother in order to save her relationship with her American girlfriend”), Mei Liying‘s “Cocoon” (“An adolescent girl in China discovers her mother’s secret, which disrupts her family life”) and Pallavi Somusetty‘s “Escaping Agra” (“A gender non-conforming student runs away from their traditional Indian parents”).

still from “Cocoon”

 

Black Queer Magic: Shorts from the African Diaspora

Cecilie McNair‘sMukwano” follows Mary, who flees Uganda for Demark “after she and her girlfriend faced horrible terrors” in their home country.

still from “Mukwano”

Fusion Gala Shorts

Several of these specially-chosen shorts are from women directors and/or feature female-focused stories: Leann Bowen‘s “Sidekicks,” Elegance Bratton‘s “Walk for Me,” Cathy Yan‘s “According to My Mother,” April A. Wilson‘s “Care” and Petersen Vargas‘s “Swirl,” a four-minute film about “two girls fall[ing] in and out of love through the course of a day, in reverse.”

still from “Swirl”

TV Shows & Web Series

Netflix’s “One Day at a Time” and Fox’s “Star” will both have special presentations of their LGBTQ-inclusive series that focus on a Cuban-American family and a multi-cultural girl group, respectively. Both screenings will be followed by Q&As with creators, writers and stars, including Isabella Gomez, who plays the teenage lesbian daughter on “One Day at a Time.” 

“One Day at a Time” courtesy Netflix

“Spectrum London”

Out filmmaker Campbell X (“Stud Life”) returns with this series of stories focusing on diverse LGBTQs living and loving in London.

courtesy “Spectrum London”

Films

“Angry Indian Goddesses”

Pan Nalin directs this feature about a group of friends who reunite for a bachelorette party where it’s revealed that one of them is in love with another woman.

still from “Angry Indian Goddesses”

“Apricot Groves”

Writer/director Pouria Heidary Oureh tells the story of Aram, “an Iranian-Armenian trans man living in the U.S. since childhood, [who] returns to Armenia to meet his girlfriend’s conservative family.”

still from “Apricot Groves”

“And Still We Rise”

Activists Nancy Nicol and Richard Lusimbo document the “devastating effects” the Anti-Homosexual Act has had on their Ugandan LGBTQ community.

still from “And Still We Rise”

“Jewel’s Catch One” 

C. Fitz chronicles the extensive career of Jewel Thais-Williams whose Los Angeles nightclub was a staple for LGBTQs and POCs from the 1970s through the early 2000s. An out and proud lesbian activist who wanted to create a space for all people to enjoy themselves, Jewel is a legend that the likes of Madonna, Sharon Stone and Thelma Houston show love for.

still from “Jewel’s Catch One”

“Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America”

Director Tiffany Rhynard follows an undocumented gay man whose parents brought him to America from Mexico when he was a baby. 

still from “Forbidden”

 

Outfest Fusion 2017 runs March 1-7. Get tickets and find out more at Outfest.org.


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