Pride Film Festival Screens Worldwide Trans Cinema Dec. 10-11

Pride Films and Plays today announced the first in a series of quarterly film festivals that will screen LGBTQ+ features and shorts from filmmakers all over the world. Each quarter's festival will highlight different members of the LGBTQ+ community. The first quarterly festival will be held over three days in The Broadway, Pride Arts Center, Tuesday, December 10 and Wednesday, December 11, 2019. The theme of this first quarterly festival is "New Trans Cinema." It will open with a panel discussion by Chicago filmmakers Rey Tang, Connor O'Keefe and Adam Birch on Monday, December 9 to be held at Human Citizen Workplace, 4101 N. Broadway; and continue on Tuesday, December 10 with a screening of two features: TRANSFINITE, an American sci-fi omnibus feature film composed of seven standalone magical realistic short stories; and FIREFLIES, the story of a female-identifying cis male and his Lesbian sister in a remote village in northeast India. The concluding program on Wednesday will be screenings of six shorts, including films from the US, France, Ecuador, and Greece. Talkbacks will be held each night following the film screenings.

Nicholas Swatz is the Festival curator. Swatz says, " My goal within the film industry is to create and protect spaces for marginalized communities to tell their stories. It is not enough to just make these films, however, if they don't go anywhere and aren't seen by anyone. In the Pride Films & Plays Quarterly Film Festival, as we highlight different members of the LGBTQ+ community, we will celebrate diversity in front of and behind the camera."