The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) returns November 8–19, showcasing brilliant trans and gender non-conforming films. Founded in 1997, SFTFF is the world’s longest-running film festival of its kind, and is celebrated for highlighting innovative, experimental, and outside-the-box films.
SFTFF 2023 will be a hybrid festival, offering in-person programs at the historic Roxie Theater, and online programs accessible through SFTFF’s website. All in-person programs will be ASL-interpreted, and all films in-person and online will be captioned.
SFTFF features five new short film programs, with an impressive range of genres from documentaries and politics to animation, dance, music, romance, and coming-of-age tales. All tickets start at $0+ sliding scale (donations are welcome).
Programs 1–5 will be held at the Roxie Theater November 8–10. These same 5 programs will be offered online, on-demand for free November 11–19.
Artistic Director Shawna Virago says, “There is a troubling increase of personal and legislative attacks happening right now across the country, against trans people, trans communities, and trans as a concept. But despite all this, trans and gender non-conforming communities remain strong and vibrant—and this spirit of resilience is reflected in this year’s film programs.”
Since 1997, SFTFF has been a haven for trans and gender non-conforming filmmakers to assert their artistic brilliance. It has allowed trans communities to safely gather and watch films that challenge transphobic representation and in film. Founded with radical queer values, the annual festival remains intentionally anti-assimilationist and centers works that challenge transphobia, racism, sexism, ableism, anti-migrant hate, and homophobia.
SFTFF’s Managing Director Eric Garcia says, “It has been a rough time for so many communities, so we look forward to gathering safely together in community and sharing our films and stories together.”
In support of community safety, KN95 masks are provided and required. Roxie’s entrance, lobby, bathrooms, and audience seating are wheelchair accessible, and the Roxie has all-gender bathrooms. While SFTFF is not a scent-free event, they encourage in-person audiences to be mindful of perfumes and scented products.
Special Note: Program 5 is for audiences 18+.
SFTFF – 2023 Festival Highlights
Some of the 2023 SFTFF film offerings include:
Do Digital Curanderas Use Eggs in Their Limpias?, directed by Roberto Fatal, centers on a struggling Latinx healer who considers abandoning the physical world for promises of a digital utopia.
Shipping Them, directed by Ryan Rox, is a comedy about a non-binary daydreamer and her fantasies of being the girl next door.
Masisi Wouj (from Haiti), directed by Zé Kielwagen, Marcos Serafim, and Steevens Siméon, is a series of performances by Haitian artist and activist Sanba Yonel, inspired by Vodou and drag. It pays a queer tribute to the gods.
Last Call, directed by Drew de Pinto, is a magical realist 16mm short focusing on the caretakers of three historic queer bars in San Francisco as they close their establishments, temporarily and permanently, amidst the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
Sir Valence Presents: Watching U, directed by Sir Valence, transports you into the hellish Zoomscape of drag dæmon, Sir Valence, and their concussed/concursed post-police brutality exorcism of the masks we wear—selves we sell to surveillance capitalism.
2023 San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF)
November 8–19
Tix: $0+, sliding scale/donation-based
Info/Tix: www.SFTFF.org
Arts & Entertainment
Published on November 2, 2023
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