LGBTQ Fall Film Fest!

THE FABULOUS OLD LESBIANS SERIES: Crushing On Hayley Kiyoko

Grindr / INTO Episodes 1 & 2; 2018; USA; 12 min

Meet Belita, Phyllis and Sabel, three kickass smart, funny, political, and proud older lesbians who enjoy speaking their minds about everything! In these two segments of a ten part video series, they are asked to watch and comment on a music video by Hayley Kiyoko, the queer/lesbian international singing sensation that they have never heard of before. They instantly crush on Hayley – and zap the generation gap – having a great time all along the way.

WHALE, HELLO THERE!

Director: Chantel Houston; 2018; USA; 9 min

20’s something Anna and Beca finally meet up IRL (in real life) after meeting on an online dating app and texting nonstop for three weeks. But in this clever rom-com short, things don’t go as either one expected until good old-fashioned nondigital courage saves the day.

BAYARD AND ME

Director: Matt Wolfe; 2017; USA; 16 min

BAYARD AND ME is a powerful film that reveals the intimate love story between famed civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and his beloved life partner Walter Naegle. Rustin was the organizer of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Naegle lovingly shares details about Rustin’s devotion to both the civil rights movement and to their deep love and lifelong partnership. In a time when gay marriage was inconceivable, Rustin, like many gay men of the time, decided to adopt Naegle in order to have legal rights as life partners. It was their only option. BAYARD AND ME offers unique, heartwarming, and compelling insights into Bayard Rustin’s life both as a proud gay man and as an inspiring civil rights leader.

GIRLS WEEKEND

Director: Kyra Sedgwick (Film/TV Actress); 2018; USA; 12 min; Episode 1, New Series

This family dramedy offers a first for television: a middle-aged, queer-identitfied woman in the lead role. Erica returns to her childhood home for a “girls weekend” with her estranged, homophobic sister and people-pleasing mother. When her gun-toting dad lets it slip that her mother’s cancer is back, Erica must decide if she can bear to extend her weekend visit for the long haul.

TELL-BY DATE

Director: Sarah Ball; 2019; USA; 13 min

Ryan’s wife wants to tell their young son that Ryan is transgender before he hears about it on the playground. Ryan agrees but keeps procrastinating because he fears that his son will reject him as his “real” father and as a man. A poignant, funny, and heartfelt story.

THE FABULOUS OLD LESBIANS DECIPHER NEW LESBIAN SLANG

Grindr / INTO; 2018; USA; Episode 3; 4 min

They’re baaaack! Watch out – Belita, Phyllis and Sabel are guessing (wildly) the meaning of current lesbian slang and they don’t hold back. Guess along with them – you may learn something new – in between the laughter.

THE ARCHIVETTES – The Inspirational Story of The Lesbian Herstory Archives

Director: Megan Rossman; 2018; USA; 61 min; “Combating lesbian invisibility is essential”

“Our history was disappearing as quickly as we were making it.” With that realization in 1974, Deborah Edel and Joan Nestle co-founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives, starting with one box of keepsakes in their apartment. Today the Archives houses and protects the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians in their own building in Brooklyn.

For over 40 years, through the major milestones in Lesbian and LGBTQ history, the Archives has literally rescued thousands of artifacts of lesbian history – diaries, buttons, love letters, tapes, posters, photographs – from the trash and long forgotten boxes in attics. Today the co-founders are in their mid-70s, and the group faces a number of challenges: A transfer of leadership. The rise of digital technology. A renewed call to activism in a politically charged moment.

THE ARCHIVETTES tells the moving story of how a group of brave women came together to combat lesbian invisibility and how the young women of today are stepping up to become the Archives’ next generation of caretakers and leaders to ensure that lesbian lives are always remembered and never forgotten.