Frameline, the arts nonprofit that hosts San Francisco’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, the longest-running and largest LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world, has announced seven new selections for their annual Frameline Voices short distribution program. Frameline Voices is a package of the finest and freshest LGBTQ+ shorts curated from the annual festival and exhibited for a period of twelve months by various platform partners, including Here TV, Alaska Airlines and Frameline’s YouTube channel. The announcement was made today by Frameline’s Executive Director James Woolley, and its Director of Distribution and Educational Programming, Lindsey Hodgson.
Frameline Voices, celebrating its 10th year, is a curated program of short films and episodic content representing experiences unique to LGBTQ+ people and communities. Voices fosters career advancement for queer, trans and gender non-binary creators through the exhibition of their work. Voices also aims to improve and equalize mainstream media representations of LGBTQ+ people through content distribution and career development of LGBTQ+ creators.
“We're delighted to continue to bring the special fun of a Frameline festival to all screens, everywhere through our Frameline Voices program,” says Frameline’s Director of Distribution and Educational Programming, Lindsey Hodgson. “Our new cohort of Voices filmmakers are the fiercest and finest of LGBTQ+ storytellers, bringing us stories with unique points of view and all kinds of hilarity, heart and soul. We can't wait to share them with audiences nation and world wide, and acknowledge the ongoing and generous support of the NEA Grants for the Arts, without whom this program would not be possible.”
Five of the seven films (Flex, Blackness Is Everything, Four Fruitbites, The Rogers, and My Aunties) are available now on Here TV, America’s first and largest LGBTQ+ premium subscription TV and streaming service, and will also be accessible on other platforms in the coming weeks, including on Alaska Airlines flights and on YouTube. Two additional titles, Noor and Layla and Luv U Cuz, will premiere on Here TV and other platform partners in January 2022. My Aunties will also premiere for free on Frameline’s YouTube channel starting the week of November 29th, in celebration of World AIDS Day (December 1st).
Festival submissions for Frameline’s annual film festival, taking place in 2022 between June 16-26, are currently open and more information can be found at https://filmfreeway.com/
The Frameline Voices program is made possible through a generous Media Arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The full list of 2021/22 selections for Frameline Voices are listed in alphabetical order below:
4 FRUIT BITES
Dir. Dave Quantic | 2021 | USA
An introduction to four unique queer, trans, and genderqueer voices as featured in the Fruitbowl Podcast.
BLACKNESS IS EVERYTHING
Dir. Alba Roland Mejia | 2021 | USA
This experimental/performative short film celebrates the diversity of the Black diaspora in the Bay Area.
FLEX
Dir. Matt Porter | 2020 | USA
Charles explores the gray areas of his own sexuality after going through an unexpected breakup. Starring Charles Gould (Bonding), Charles Rogers (Search Party, Men Don’t Whisper), and Brianna Baker (Suicide Kale).
LUV U CUZ
Dir. Eric Pumphrey | 2021 | USA
Set in a not-too-distant future, two cousins bond over the course of a night on the town, until their relationship is tested in more ways than one.
MY AUNTIES
Dir. Richard O'Connor | 2020 | USA
Raised by gay parents in the early 1980s, Stefan Lynch was cared for and loved by a group of adults, largely gay men, who he called his “aunties.” Stefan remembers the succession of AIDS-related illnesses in his family, but even in the face of sickness and loss, his aunties showed him how to survive and care for one another.
NOOR AND LAYLA
Dir. Fawzia Mirza | 2021 | Canada
Noor and Layla are breaking up. Is it the end of the road for these two Muslim women… or is it just the beginning?
THE ROGERS
Dirs. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer | 2020 | USA
An intimate glimpse of the first visible group of transgender men in the Pacific Islands: the Rogers of Samoa. From the loneliness of family rejection and homelessness to the camaraderie of church, cooking, and dance, their stories reveal the challenges and possibilities of life in an island society rooted in culture and tradition.
