PrideArts Announces Festival Of Three Queer Documentary Features

PrideArts today announced a festival of documentary films concerning facets of queer life in America that have been largely unexplored in mass media. The festival of films that will stream over 11 days will include the documentary feature DYKES, CAMERA, ACTION! - a history of Lesbian cinema from the women who made it happen, PS. BURN THIS LETTER, PLEASE - a profile of drag queens from the 1950s, when public cross dressing was illegal; and PROPER PRONOUNS - a look at some of the transgender Americans serving as ordained Church ministers. The former two will be available for viewing online for 11 days, from September 19 to 29. PROPER PRONOUNS will stream for eight days, from September 20 to 27. The admission price for each film is $12.00 per film. The films can be purchased and viewed at https://www.goelevent.com/pridearts/e/Search

DYKES, CAMERA, ACTION! details the origins and history of Lesbian-themed filmmaking, noting that Lesbians didn't always get to see themselves on screen. But between Stonewall, the feminist movement, and the experimental cinema of the 1970s, they built visibility and transformed the social imagination about queerness. Filmmakers Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Rose Troche, Cheryl Dunye, Yoruba Richen, Desiree Akhavan, Vicky Du, film critic B. Ruby Rich, Jenni Olson, and others share moving and often hilarious stories from their lives and discuss how they've expressed queer identity through film.

This feature-length documentary covers the history of queer cinema from the early days as a marginalized sub-culture to the 1990s, which saw the rise of New Queer Cinema, up to the present. The film examines the ways that women directors have contributed to this genre and emphasizes the role that the media plays in representation of sexuality and gender, underscoring the power that film has to shape our perceptions of one another. Visually, this documentary comes to life on screen through compelling and intimate original interviews intercut with emotionally charged archival footage, photographs, ephemera, inspired music, and film clips.

PS BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE is a story of a group of drag queens from New York City in the 1950's, a time before Stonewall when cross-dressing in public was illegal. 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. Using original interviews, never-before-seen archival footage and photographs and stylized recreations, P.S. BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE reconstructs this pre-Stonewall era as Lennie, Robbie, George, Michael, Jim, Henry, Claude, Tish and Terry-former drag queens now in their 80s and 90s-reveal how they survived and somehow flourished at a time when drag queens were both revered and reviled, even within the gay community. The government sought to destroy them, then history tried to erase them, now they get to tell their story for the first time.

The 2020 documentary PROPER PRONOUNS observes the lives of six North Carolinians who are among the 30 transgender ordained ministers in the United States. Filmmakers Meg Daniels and Manie Robinson shot the film over a two-year period, capturing in detail the journey of Dawn Flynn, who was identified at birth as male and lived as Duane Flynn. Duane was living a double life and practicing ministry when he was outed by a hairdresser. It cost him his pastoral license, his ministry, threatened his marriage to Pam, and made him wonder if life was still worth living. After therapy and deep self-reflection, Duane fought back, transitioned to Dawn and started her journey to reclaim her life. She finally found the courage to embrace her truth. And she found the calling to help others embrace theirs.

Access to each of the documentaries will be $12.00, which will grant viewing of both purchased for a full week - allowing audiences greater flexibility in viewing the films at their leisure. Tickets and more information are available shortly at www.pridearts.org.

PrideArts will also host a festival of short films from November 8 through December 5. The company is accepting submissions through September 8 and will announce selections shortly thereafter.

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