A new series of LGBTQIA+ films will be released in July, intended to showcase recent work and potentially fill the absence of Outfest. Taking place at various locations in Los Angeles, “Queer Rhapsody” will screen from July 19 to 28 and will screen more than 50 films, including eight feature films.
“We're in a moment where queer identity is being questioned, where marginalized communities don't necessarily have spaces to gather and share art,” said May Hong HaDuong, director of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, who organized the series. . HaDuong says “Queer Rhapsody” was motivated by the need to “create artistic spaces for communal engagement of queer identities under fire.”
Events in the series will take place at five locations: the Hammer Museum in Westwood; Vidiotas in Eagle Rock; the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and Los Feliz 3 in Los Feliz; and the Broad in downtown Los Angeles
The series, with a special emphasis on hybrid works that blur the lines between fiction and documentary, will open with Drew Denny's “Second Nature,” a documentary about evolutionary biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden, narrated by Elliot Page.
Susie Yankou, left, and Kausar Mohammed in the film “Sisters.”
(Jon Corum / Good Pop Movies)
Other feature films will include Fawzia Mirza's “The Queen of My Dreams,” starring Amrit Kaur and Nimra Bucha; “Sisters,” by Susie Yankou, a comedy set in Los Angeles about a chosen family in which the filmmaker stars alongside Kausar Mohammed; and Patiparn Boontarig's Thai romantic drama “Solids by the Seashore.” A prom-themed party at Vidiots will follow Silas Howard's “Darby and the Dead,” a supernatural teen comedy starring Riele Downs and Auli'i Cravalho.
Other documentaries include Julia Fuhr Mann's “Life Is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning,” about gender issues in competitive athletics; “Desire Lines” by Jules Rosskam, an examination of transmasculine identity; and Elizabeth Purchell’s “Ask Any Buddy,” which uses clips from all-male adult films to explore historical representations of desire.
Riele Downs, left, and Auli'i Cravalho in the movie “Darby and the Dead.”
(Marcos Cruz/Disney)
Organizers are specifically referring to “Queer Rhapsody” as a film series and not a film festival, hoping to further foster a spirit of conversation, not competition.
“In most festivals, or in many festivals, you enter that path of qualification for the academy, qualification for various awards, based on status; you have certain designations,” said Martine McDonald, creative director and senior programmer. “And this has more to do with contemporary work that is advancing the lens of queer storytelling and really building community. I think it makes sense for that reason.”
Additionally, organizers say it was intentional to place “Queer Rhapsody” outside of June Pride Month.
“I'm not a fan of heritage months the way many arts organizations are forced to put communities within a month-long period,” HaDuong said. “The intersectionality of the daily life that Angelenos live, I think goes beyond June. It became very clear that it didn't have to be June. And to be honest, people during Pride Month don't necessarily want to be in a theater.”
An image from Julia Fuhr Mann's documentary “Life is not a competition, but I'm winning.”
(UCLA Film and Television Archive)
Along with HaDuong and McDonald, the programming team behind the series also includes Moi Santos, manager of the Sundance Institute's Equity, Impact and Belonging Program; curator Daniel Crooke, senior programmer at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in Canada and former senior programmer at Outfest Los Angeles; and filmmaker Natalie Jasmine Harris, who has a short film in the series.
McDonald was also director of artistic development at Outfest. While “Queer Rhapsody” organizers are careful not to say they are seeking to fill the void left by the collapse of that long-running event, they also acknowledge the void it has left in the local queer arts community.
“I think queer audiences have always been very hungry to tell stories, to see themselves on screen, to participate in spaces, beyond any moment,” HaDuong said. “I would be remiss not to mention that yes, of course there was a recognition of what the community could be losing right now, and [us] stepping in and saying, 'This is really about us coming together and doing this.' “We wanted to center the filmmaking, the spaces, the stories in this moment and do it in a way that we felt was possible with our compact operations to serve the community.”
As to whether the new event will become a recurring annual event on the Los Angeles film calendar, HaDuong demurred, saying, “This is such a unique moment in time that we're primarily focused on making sure we're here to serve the public”. community. So I see it step by step.”
An image from Jules Rosskam's documentary “Desire Lines.”
(UCLA Film and Television Archive)
The group of venues that participated in “Queer Rhapsody” beyond the UCLA Film and Television Archive came together organically, as organizers simply thought of places they would like to go.
“These are places we have attended both as community members and as cultural workers,” McDonald said.
“Los Angeles will always need a place for queer cinema,” HaDuong said. “I thought it would be important to reach out to other places that we've worked with, that we know, and that are committed to this. And to be able to partner with them and say, 'Let's commit to making sure that this summer we have a series that showcases these stories across the city.'”
The “Queer Rhapsody” series comes at a time when the city's queer arts community needs an event to fill the space left by Outfest. But it has organized itself with a new energy of its own, rooted in boundary-breaking curiosity and a sense of exploration, right down to its name.
“Martine and I had a lot of discussions about the title 'Queer Rhapsody,'” HaDuong said. “The word 'queer' is a term that some people don't necessarily respond to as fully embodying every type of identity. But for me, it's a version of the LGBTQIA experience that can sometimes feel edgy. And 'rhapsody' is the moment when the image hits the screen, when you take a deep breath and say: 'What am I going to see?'
“So rhapsody is that energy between the movement of moving images and the movement of the people around you, living and breathing an experience through art. And you can't always quantify what rhapsody is, but if you put them together, it creates a space for some of that joy to come to light.”
