Utah Film Center set to open 22nd Utah Queer Film Festival, with six feature-length documentaries, international slate of 40 short films

EDITOR’S NOTE: For a detailed rundown of the 2025 slate for the Utah Queer Film Festival, see this link.

At a hostile, polarizing time like now, many people understandably demur from being unapologetic about expressing their authentic selves. And, with that in mind, the 22nd edition of the Utah Film Center’s Utah Queer Film Festival (UQFF) is built on the theme of fearless queerness, both a reminder of resilience and affirmation that no one should ever feel the need to constrain their capacity to tell stories which inspire, instruct and inform about their existence and experiences. “We chose ‘Fearless Queerness’ because it speaks to the courage it takes to live your truth and the power of seeing that truth reflected on screen,” Cat Palmer, programming director said. “Right now, more than ever, we need spaces where queerness isn’t just accepted—its celebrated. That’s what this festival is all about.”

For the longest running queer film festival in the Intermountain West, which runs Oct. 24-26, this year’s international slate is unique in its composition. There are just six feature-length films, all documentaries, while there are 40 short films collected in five program tracks. The emphasis on short films is strategically wise, as it opens up the spectrum of storytelling with a comprehensive sampling of the contemporary queer community. As a result, the programming committee has curated selections for tracks that highlight avant-garde cinematic treatments, intimate, inspiring and spooky stories and works by Utah filmmakers. All screenings will be held in the Jeanné Wagner Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts. (A detailed rundown of the slate is available at this link at The Utah Review, which had the opportunity to screen a good number of films in advance.)

The documentaries include excellent films that anchor the history of queer experience with meticulous mining of archival materials. Among them is  Join the Club, directed by Kip Andersen and Chris O’Connell, which documents the legacy of Dennis Peron, a gay Vietnam War veteran who established the Cannabis Buyers’ Club in San Francisco during the 1970s.  SALLY!, directed by Deborah Craig, Ondine Rarey and Jörg Fockele, is a lively entertaining portrait of Sally Gearhart,  pioneering activist in both feminism and the queer movement. She died in 2021 at the age of 90. One of the film’s most important objectives is to ensure Gearhart’s legacy, which is not as widely known, is not erased from history. Jeffrey McHale’s It’s Dorothy explores the evolution of how generations of performers have portrayed the fictional character of Dorothy Gale, even since she was introduced 125 years ago in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Directed by multimedia artist Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons, Assembly is a well-crafted documentary of the artist’s most ambitious installation and performance exhibition in New York’s historic Park Avenue Armory. Accompanying the ample clips highlighting the 2022 exhibition, which was staged in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall that encompasses 55,000 square feet, the documentary brings the audiences into Newsome’s creative process, from its earliest seeds to its full realization and to its postscript. ArtForum’s Daniel Culpan aptly called Newsome’s exhibition as a 21st century “reboot of Paris Is Burning.” 

The documentary Just Kids, directed by Gianna Toboni, follows three teens in states that restrict gender-affirming care. The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye noted, “Just Kids falls in the category of recent docs like Preconceived and Zurawski v Texas, which premiered at Telluride, that survey how the right has effectively mobilized to dismantle the civil rights progress of the last 50 years. Like these other films, Toboni’s feature takes a straightforward approach to uncovering details that will be illuminating for many viewers. One only hopes that it gets in front of the audiences who need to hear its message the most.”

Soraya Simi’s Row of Life chronicles the 2020 attempt of Angela Madsen, who, at the age of 60, to become the first paraplegic and oldest woman to row the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii. However, a year after being lost at sea, Madsen’s boat was discovered on Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the same spot where parts of Amelia Earhart’s plane had been found. 

Palmer explained that this sextet of feature-length documentaries encapsulate the festival theme, especially including Just Kids and Assembly. “Just Kids is urgent and raw, spotlighting trans teens in states like ours [Utah] where their care is under attack,” Palmer said. “And Assembly is this bold, radical celebration of Black queer imagination — it’s art, it’s protest, it’s power. They both make you feel something deep and necessary.”

There are plenty of cinematic gems among the 40 short films. Palmer, an artist and photographer, is justifiably proud of the collection of avant-garde shorts. Solid in its nuanced sensitivities and gentle humor, Sally Tran’s Clementine is about a late-blooming trans woman grappling with a life-altering dilemma, and with the help of her best friends, processes the complexities of defining her womanhood on her own terms. Adrià Guxens’ Kokuhaku, is a miniature masterpiece. The short focuses on Tadashi, a young Spanish-Japanese actor who performs in the Onagata tradition, which refers to male actors who play female roles in Japanese Kabuki theater.

Each short collection has outstanding entries. The Mascot by Delaney Plant stands out as an outstanding documentary short, made by the locally-based Leicester Productions. Charlie Bird dazzled crowds and fans across the country as Brigham Young University’s cougar mascot, becoming a celebrity of sorts. When he came out as gay, and even after he was married, he has managed to show that it is possible to remain as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, as a role model, Bird also has been criticized for not using his visibility as extensively as possible, for other Mormons with queer identity and who want to still be connected to their faith. 

An impressive screenplay and excellent acting round out the exceptional short film Home by Donja R. Love. T is a homeless queer teen in New York City who just misses curfew at a shelter and as the evening progresses, he becomes more desperate about finding a warm place for the night. The joyful sense of camaraderie really comes through We’ll Go Down in History by Cameron Richards, Charlie Tidmas, from the U.K. It is a documentary chronicle of TRUK United, a grassroots, proudly trans football club. A documentary short from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Handwoven, by Dasha Levin, Mason Cazalet, Matthew Wisdom and Mihika Das, is a substantial portrait for nine minutes. The subject is Nikyle Begay, a Diné non-binary shepherd and weaver; who is committed to preserving their way of life through the traditional art of weaving. Poreless by Harris Doran is destined to be a big audience pleaser at UQFF this year. Notably, Doran was among the producers of Kokomo City (2023, D. Smith), which premiered at Sundance and screened again in 2023 at the Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels festival. That 73-minute documentary galloped at a scintillating pace, weaving in the stories of four Black transgender sex workers, without moralizing judgment, sociopolitical commentary from experts, or cutaways to explain terms or for others to anchor the context of their unashamedly candid stories. 

Bergamot by Hsu Chien is a dynamite entry for this collection. The 2023 short, from Brazil, has garnered 98 awards and has screened at more than 130 film festivals. It is a classic slasher film, with its narrative reflecting actual events in the Rio de Janeiro gay community. A distinctly contemporary science fiction short, Evaders by Hudson Shelton is bound to send some chills. Prom Party Massacre by Jordan Gustafson is a hoot and a holler, a hybrid slasher-musical with a gay high school student who throws a prom party in the hopes of wooing the closeted football captain. 

As Russell Roots, Utah Film Center’s director of film exhibition, noted, this year’s festival comes amidst an uneasy time. “Your existence is power, your love is resistance and your unity is hope. Only together, we can transform fear into action, and isolation into belonging.” In addition to onsite security and bag checks to ensure attendees feel safe and have peace of mind, festival organizers also are offering a “pay what you can” ticketing model, allowing attendees to choose their price point. Roots added that interested parties should feel free to use and share the complimentary ticket code. Also, after the festival, there will be a smaller slate available for streaming, to accommodate those who prefer to watch films in their homes. For more information, please visit the UQFF website.

There also will be two workshops: Queering the Filmmaking Process: An Intersectional Perspective (led by Marissa Lila and Roni Jo Draper) and Acting 101: Back to Kindergarten Recess (led by Laura Chapman). For more information, see here.

Various performers, who were coordinated by Andrea Hardeman, will also be performing at the start of screenings throughout the festival. They include Steven Salabsky, dancer, Oct. 24, 1 p.m., Utah Filmmaker shorts collection; Artikulate, poetry, Oct. 24, 4 p.m., Row of Life; Azul Bolivar, musician, Oct. 25, 9:30 a.m., Just Kids; Andrea G. Hardeman, poetry, Oct. 25, 12:30 p.m., Intimate Short Stories collection; Moon Ray, musician, Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m.; Join The Club; Afia Chin, poetry, Oct. 26 12:30 p.m., Sally! andCydney Cardonna, poetry, Oct. 26, 9:30 a.m., Inspiring Short Stories.

The Oct. 24 schedule will close with an opening night community kiki partner event party at 9:30 pm at Spritz!. The festival will close Oct. 26 with its inaugural award ceremony, including honors for audience favorites and best of fest juried awards, followed by  closing night party.