THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED THE 2021 DAMN THESE HEELS FESTIVAL! SEE YOU IN 2022!
Ahead of the Curve is the story of one of the most influential women in lesbian history you’ve never heard of and the impact her work continues to have today. Growing up, Franco Stevens never saw any representation of queer women—she didn’t even know it was possible for a woman to be gay. When she realized she was a lesbian, it changed the course of her life.
After a spate of failed heterosexual endeavors, Ben, a bisexual man turns back towards the gay community. As Ben emerges from the closet, a relationship between him and Sam, two young men living in New York City, energetically blossoms.
Cured tells the story of the activists who brought about a pivotal but little-known victory in the movement for LGBTQ equality: the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses.
Escondido, California, 1994. It’s the end of summer and Gene is preparing for his high school drama friends’ final murder mystery slumber party. The theatrical hostess, Rose, will fly off to start college the next morning, followed by earnest Claire,
Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
This screening is presented free thanks to the support of the Sundance Institute.
Twenty years after the documentary Gendernauts, director Monika Treut tracks down the original subjects to reexamine their lives in new light. When the Gendernauts were first interviewed in San Fransisco in the 90s, it was a place on the forefront of queer expression, and revisiting the city now gives a grimmer picture of livability, what with big tech looming over every change.
Fifteen young dancers of different origins and horizons are on tour with ‘Crowd’, Gisèle Vienne’s epic dance piece exploring the 90’s rave scene. From theatre to theatre, the work mutates into strange, intimate relationships. Is the stage contaminating real life – or the opposite? A disturbing journey exploring our nights, our parties, our loves.
Alexandre is a transgender person who has lived with his girlfriend Marie for more than seven years. Because of the mark “female” in his passport and his trans identity, Alexandre cannot find a job and has to lead a secret life. The violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity bring the couple to the decision to leave their homeland. To afford this exodus, Marie signs a contract to be a surrogate mother.
A surprise reunion in southern France reignites passions and jealousies between two women who were formerly polyamorous lovers.
When the body of a murdered trans woman is discovered in a soy field in Brazil, the death of the titular Madalena has ripple effects that lap at the people and even the natural landscape of her town. This film shows the serious counterparts that the culture of the exploitation of soy and other grains has on Brazilian society, especially on the LGBTQI+ community.
A look at the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a non-binary black lawyer, activist, and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall. Told largely in Pauli’s own words, My Name is Pauli Murray is a candid recounting of his unique and extraordinary journey.
Opening Night film presented at the drive-in at Fairpark Fairgrounds. This screening will be preceded by a drag show.
No Ordinary Man is an in-depth look at the life of musician and trans culture icon Billy Tipton. Complicated, beautiful and historically unrivaled, this groundbreaking film shows what is possible when a community collaborates to honor the legacy of an unlikely hero.
Five scrappy queer comic book artists journey from DIY work and isolation to the cover of Time Magazine and the international stage, offering a fascinating window into everything from the AIDS crisis and workplace discrimination to the search for love and a good haircut. Their work and personal stories are sure to make you laugh, but also make you think about the challenges and triumphs encountered and overcome along the way.
North By Current is a visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains. After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, preparing to make a film about a broken criminal justice system. Instead, he pivots to excavate the depths of generational addiction, Christian fervor, and trans embodiment. Lyrically assembled images, decades of home movies, and ethereal narration form an idiosyncratic and poetic undertow that guides a viewer through lifetimes and relationships.
A box of letters, held in secret for nearly 60 years, ignites a 5-year exploration into a part of LGBT history that has never been told. The letters, written in the 1950s by a group of New York City drag queens, open a window into a forgotten world where being yourself meant breaking the law and where the penalties for “masquerading” as a woman were swift and severe.
This is a very different kind of immigration story: Lena and her 9-year-old son, affectionately called Potato, use American films to escape the harsh reality of their native Vladivostok after the fall of the Soviet Union. Swept up by the fantasy of a better life, Lena decides to become a mail-order bride so she and Potato can go to the US. When they arrive in Seattle circa-1990 to live with Lena’s new husband, Potato and Lena both realize some things in America are even more different than they first appeared.
A love story about fetish porn, Raw! Uncut! Video! chronicles the rise and fall of homegrown gay porn studio Palm Drive Video and explores how a devoted couple helped battle a devastating health crisis by promoting kinky sex.
Rebel Dykes is a rabble-rousing documentary set in 1980s post-punk London. The unheard story of a community of dykes who met doing art, music, politics, and sex, and how they went on to change their world.
Set in 1972 Canada, Saint-Narcisse follows Dominic, a handsome narcissistic young man who discovers the existence of his twin brother, living in a remote monastery led by a depraved priest. Dominic sets out to save him and reunite once and for all. The two beautiful, identical brothers are soon embroiled in a strange web of sex, revenge, and redemption.
Six trans women travel to a small town in León where they will explore unusual landscapes, as well as the ins and outs of their own personalities. Looking for answers about what connects them as a group, they will learn to deal with their differences.
Sneak Preview Screening
A decade after abruptly breaking up with Naomi, Kris invites her to dinner to catch up on their complicated lives, relationships, and Kris’ transition. Over the course of a one-night encounter, they engage in a series of increasingly intimate and vulnerable conversations, before a shocking revelation is unveiled. See You Then focuses on the universal truth that no matter how much you change, a part of you will always stay the same.
After her fiancé, Rod, and her adopted half-step-sister, Brandy (the world renowned calf model) are both brutally murdered, Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White (a divorcée and exotic dancer from the wrong side of the tracks) uses “all the right moves” to single-handedly take on the largest sex, drug and back-to-school clothing ring in the country, Mall-Wart.
The short films in Through The Cracks are waiting for you somewhere in between. In vibrant, distinct shades of grey, these stories exist in liminal space, where queerness feels most ripe and most right. Stories of those people, places, and experiences that are by definition undefinable constitute this program, defying categorization and proving the true value and energy in bursting out of binaries.
Missed Connections makes a home for stories about rupture, failure, longing, and accident. Heartbreak, as well as hope, permeates these short films that each exist in the space between people, space that is sometimes bridged and sometimes not, but always present. While the relationships in these stories perhaps miss the mark, triumph finds its way into the program through self-discovery, independence, boldness, empathy, music, and kindness.
Queer family, chosen and otherwise, constitute the connection between the films that fall in the Apples & Trees program. Parents and their children navigate the complexities of coming out, staying out, and living out in this collection of shorts desiccated to the space between generations.
A New York Times travel writer comes to Tel Aviv after suffering a tragedy. The energy of the city and his relationship with a younger man brings him back to life.
Born in New York, Marin Alsop first saw the legendary Leonard Bernstein when she was nine years old. At that moment, she knew what she wanted to be in life: a conductor. Told that girls can’t do that, Marin struggled against enormous prejudices and institutional obstacles for decades to become one of the world’s most renowned classical music conductors.
Celebrate Utah stories and home-grown filmmakers in this local short film program. Each short film will include a video introduction from the filmmaker. Films in the program include: Church and the Fourth Estate by Brian Knappenberger When a reporter uncovers a file that reveals a shocking series of child-abuse allegations in Idaho’s Boy Scouts, the investigation rattles a tight-knit community …
Alone in her attic bedroom, teenager Casey becomes immersed in an online role-playing horror game, wherein she begins to document the changes that may or may not be happening to her.
Damn These Heels is a program of the nonprofit:
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50 W Broadway #1125
Salt Lake City, Utah
Free screening of Flee at Liberty Park, SLC at 8 pm on July 17.
Get notified when tickets are released for the screening.
