2022 Film & Event Schedule

POOFTA: An offensive term used to vilify gay men. When a harmless encounter leads to a tense confrontation, a trailblazer for the LGBTIAQ+ community tries to intervene. Homophobia, internalized homophobia, anxiety & fear play out in post gay marriage Australia.

Half-Jewish, bisexual Jonah Dorman comes out to his girlfriend, shaking the foundation of their relationship and launching a tragicomic exploration of love and religion in New York City.

A whack, irreverent comedy about a black trans woman who tries to dilate, after four years of not dilating, to hook up IRL with her online boyfriend.

Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter, but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas.

Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism, and put her life in danger.

Listless Milo becomes the surrogate for an older gay man she meets at a bar. As the pregnancy progresses, she must contend with the implications of their evolving relationship.

A fluid examination of physical closeness, which matches itself in repetitions, reflections as well as irregularities.

Damn These Heels is thrilled to welcome special guest, Miss Coco Peru, to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the Festival’s 20th anniversary celebration! With 33 years in the business as a working drag queen, Coco offers an evening of inspired storytelling and song followed by a moderated discussion that includes audience engagement.

Parodying classic Hollywood films about Hollywood, Richard Day’s drag-drama showcase follows three actresses at various places on the Hollywood food chain navigating the minefield of love, aging, and ambition.

Novelist Stéphane Belcourt returns to the city of his youth, where he meets Lucas, the son of his first love. Memories flood in: irrepressible desire, bodies coming together, a passion that must be silenced?

In this hands-on workshop, participants will be guided through the process of making their own video self-portrait.

Join Under the Umbrella Bookstore and Damn These Heels for a Banned Books Reading & Book Swap!

A smart, varied, rare and risky collection of the best queer short films from around the world this year, this program includes Aikane, Greetings From Washington DC, Mama Doesn’t Want to Go to the Beach, Y, Stone, and Apayauq.

A transgender mother resumes her hormone treatment while her daughter begins puberty. Their bodies’ changes make going to the beach a new chore.

A kaleidoscope of music, dance, stories and laughter shared at the first gay and lesbian rights march on Washington.

A wounded island warrior falls into a mysterious underwater world and is rescued by a valiant young man.

A young woman’s discovery that her father was a transgender woman makes her rethink her childhood.

Apayauq Reitan’s journey of gender, mental health, and purpose on her way to become the first out transgender woman to complete the legendary Iditarod sled dog race.

An empty paper depicts a struggle between artistic composition and decomposition a woman reminisces on her tumultuous relationship with a former girlfriend.

Workshop designed to give filmmakers tools to help them write, develop, and produce a project with the final product in mind.

A teenage boy’s unexpected crush turns a camping trip into a weekend of self-discovery in this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy.

A vibrant documentary following local drag in the scene of Utah. Join a group of local SLC queens through their ups and downs, local pressures from a conservative environment, and celebrate the art of drag.

The coexistence of a family of drag queens and a trans woman who travel by motor-home to Murcia to show their support for a child who was assaulted by another minor at the gates of his school.

Five queer past and present BYU students tell of their struggle to live truthfully to themselves and their identities while trying to avoid academic and social backlash from the conservative Mormon University.

In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary KOKOMO CITY, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City.

The hubris of an inept conflict negotiator leads two warring gangs into an 8-way standoff. The consequences are both comical and tragic in this whip-smart short.

Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love, but after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family.

1982, in the heat of a Sicilian summer, two teenage boys, Gianni and Nino, meet and fall in love. The relationship soon becomes a topic of gossip in the small town and while the two dream of living together, their community is determined to stop it.

Evading a mob contract on his life, a straight man winds up hiding out at a gay bathhouse.

A down-on-his-luck movie collector discovers a legendary lost film and must deliver it to the right hands before it is lost forever.

A nervous young gay man has an eye-popping first experience hosting a hookup.

Martina, a young novice, helps priest Francisco with funeral masses but must confront her own fears and past in the LGBTQ+ community after the death of drag queen Aphrodite, leading her to embrace love and authenticity.

As religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ people intensifies in the US and abroad, a team of creatives upends 1700 years of religious iconography by producing photo art depicting Jesus as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past.

Join Damn These Heels and local queer filmmakers, Jack Hessler, Marissa Lila, and Amanda Madden, for a facilitated conversation about the importance of not just telling queer stories but queering the filmmaking process itself.

While uncovering the origins of homophobia of the conservative church, a gay seminary scholar and a straight activist make a shocking discovery: An erroneous translation in the Bible that has been weaponized against the LGBTQIA+ community ever since.

The Sunday Short Film Program includes Insta Gay, Shafted, A Spell For Queer Home, Happy BirthGay

A mom throws her son a grandiose surprise BirthGay party, celebrating a year of his coming out of the closet.

This standard romantic comedy about finding love in an elevator falls apart when the filmmaker is forced to step out of the fantasy and decide whether he believes in the story he’s telling.

Braiding together embodied exploration, spell songs, stories and wisdom from queer and trans folks across the country, the film asks- what does it mean to be at home as a queer person?

A gay millennial reels after breaking-up with a popular influencer.

When basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention in this classic coming-of-age drama set in the digital age.

Women have been shut out of the financial world, making it almost impossible to get their ideas and inventions funded. This film is a compelling and crucial reminder that money is power and women need it to achieve true equality in business.