Memory-ish: An Oral History of QueerFest(2025)

The Times of Harvey Milk(en)

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

Crying of Angels(sk)

Crying of Angels is the first documentary film about the gay community in the history of Slovak cinema. The collage of stories from the lives of the protagonists does not attempt to objectively portray this minority in post-communist society, but is an author's testimony about the existence of a people in conflict with social norms and with themselves.

One Wedding and a Revolution(en)

This short film reveals the inspiration, motivation and political challenges at San Francisco City Hall during the frantic days leading up to the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage.

Family Album(es)

Through archive footage and images as well as interviews, the movie paints the portrait of a legendary trans womens' rights activist in Argentina. Like a family album to flip through, the narrative charts the ties solidarity and mutual aid create between people of the LGBTQI+ community and the long road to make the personal political, during the brutal 1980s in latin America.

Your Call Is Important To Us(fr)

The only thing colder than a Canadian winter is Canadian bureaucracy (probably). Based on five real life stories, Romy Boutin St-Pierre and Joe Nadeau pay homage to the nation-wide stress headache of phone calls with the government in this surprising short.

My Name Is Violeta(es)

Violeta leads a normal life in a well-off family, with loving parents, surrounded by everything the heart of an eleven-year-old girl might wish for. But she hasn’t always been the pretty girl she is today; she was born a boy. At age 6, she baffled her parents (the famous adult movie stars Nacho Vidal and Franceska Jaimes) when she told them she wanted to be called and dress as a girl. After the initial shock, they decided to give her all their support on the long and tough road that will lead to her becoming a woman someday. Violeta faces many challenges, medical (such as deciding whether or not to take hormone-blockers to stop the development of masculine features as soon as puberty kicks in) and legal (obtaining an ID card with her new name and gender). Later, she may consider getting a sex reassignment procedure, or the possibility of becoming a mother through adoption.

SHRED(en)

A group of queer Latinx skaters struggle with crippling mental health and societal expectations in Southern California. In their local skate community, they find cathartic release, chosen family and mastery of empowerment.

Lesbiennes, quelle histoire ?(fr)

From her personal experience, Marie Labory sets out on the trail of the lesbians who lived in Europe in the twentieth century. One hundred years of fighting for freedom, told through archives and testimonies.

Drag Queens em Cena: A Expressão de Almas Artísticas(pt)

Siamo qui(it)

Activists of the LGBTQ+ association Rain Arcigay Caserta come back living in a property given to them in concession, confiscated from the Camorra in Castel Volturno. The goal is to reconnect with the local inhabitants and propose a new idea of ​​sharing and regenerating the park.

Letter Beyond the Walls(pt)

Letter Beyond the Walls reconstructs the trajectory of HIV and AIDS with a focus on Brazil, through interviews with doctors, activists, patients and other actors, in addition to extensive archival material. From the initial panic to awareness campaigns, passing through the stigma imposed on people living with HIV, the documentary shows how society faced this epidemic in its deadliest phase over more than two decades. With this historical approach as its base, the film looks at the way HIV is viewed in today's society, revealing a picture of persistent misinformation and prejudice, which especially affects Brazil’s most historically vulnerable populations.

Chimera(es)

A non-binary folk watches the handover of the first non-binary ID in the history of Chile. As they try to do the paperwork, they will face the bureaucracy of the legal proceeding.

Sanctuary(en)

Throughout the 1960's, gay bars served as havens for a marginalized queer community across the country. Frequent police raids and laws dictating women to wear three pieces of 'gender appropriate clothing' resulted in countless cases of police harassment, assault, and brutality. Sanctuary follows Meg and Abigail as they navigate their interaction and coping process after one such raid.

A Tight, Warm Hug(en)

Lucy Rose, a transgender woman, shares her journey of self-love and empowerment since starting hormone replacement therapy three years ago. The film is part animation, part documentary and part VHS archive footage.

Political Bodies(pt)

At a time when the far right is ascending to power around the world, the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections saw a surprising and unprecedented record of LGBT candidates. This film follows four young queer politicians during their electoral campaigns and reveals their struggle to affirm their rights to exist and be heard.

È pericoloso esporsi(it)

During the women's demonstration on March 8, 1972, Mariasilvia SPOLATO was there with a placard: Liberazione omosessuale. A month later, Simone de Beauvoir came to Rome to give an interview, and this placard illustrated her article. Mariasilvia could no longer teach, ended up homeless and spent her life on the trains.

Beyond the Straight and Narrow(en)

How did the rise of LGBTQ visibility, political progress, and digital technologies in the 2000s come together to offer the abundance of complex queer and transgender representations we see today? Media scholar Katherine Sender shows how LGBTQ visibility and political progress have combined with new digital media technologies and television platforms to produce an increasingly complex range of queer and transgender representations.

AYOR(nl)

In 1970, during the annual Dutch national commemoration of those fallen in World War II, two men try to make a statement against gay discrimination. In the moments before and after the incident, their doubt, fear and firm belief becomes clear.

Serving in Secret: Love, Country, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell(en)

Tracing the U.S. military's long history of discrimination against the gay community and one couple's personal journey for acceptance.

Stolen House(es)

"Stolen House" is a documentary short film that follows the migration story of Mark, a Russian photographer, and Katya, a Ukrainian artist, to Argentina. Through narrations, staged scenes, and archival material, fragments of their lives, feelings, and motivations are explored.