LONG BEACH — Due to COVID-19, Long Beach’s QFilm Festival will be virtual this year.
LGBTQ film fans can use a streaming device or TV to watch more than 40 feature films, documentaries, and short films that have not been seen in theaters or on major streaming platforms.
This year’s Film Festival runs from September 1o to 13. Tickets go on sale Friday.
All films will be accessible for viewing everyday.
Each film is $10 ; all-access pass is $50.
The QFilm Festival is organized by the Long Beach LGBTQ Center. All proceeds from the event will go to the Center.
Center officials said they made the best of a bad situation.
“We made lemonade out of lemons this year,” Andrew Dorado, interim executive director of The LGBTQ Center Long Beach. “COVID-19 was not going to stop The Center from presenting unique queer stories and storytellers while raising funds to serve the community.”
Outfest, Los Angeles’ largest LGBTQ film festival, also announced earlier this month that it will be virtual with drive-in movies.
“Breaking Fast” follows a West Hollywood Muslim and an All-American guy who find love story during the holy month of Ramadan. Photo: “Breaking Fast.”
Here are some festival highlights.
- “Breaking Fast” follows a West Hollywood Muslim and an All-American guy who find love story during the holy month of Ramadan.
- “Gossamer Folds,” produced by and starring actress Yeardley Smith of “The Simpsons,” explores the friendship between a lonely boy and his adult transgender neighbor, Gossamer.
- “How to Survive a Plague” recounts the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG.
- “Tahara” tells the story of two best girlfriends who find themselves distracted by the teenage complications of lust, social status, and wavering faith.
- “Welcome to Chechnya” shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ dogma raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Director David France also directed the Oscar nominated documentary “How to Survive A Plague.”
- Short films celebrating women, men, and queer and transgender.
- Two new short film categories: Queer activist shorts and Dance like Everyone is Watching, a collection of narrative and documentary shorts celebrating the beauty and many movements of dance.
