The Sarasota Film Festival presents a line-up of independent films that feature significant LGBTQ characters or themes. SarasotaOUT.com has teamed up with the Sarasota Film Festival to spotlight these features in the official "Gay Guide to the Sarasota Film Festival." Below, you will find our curated list of films and special events that will appeal to the LGBTQ community.
What to Watch:
Feature Films
Feature Films
Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor
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Dawn returns home to Nova Scotia to mourn the death of her mother and repair the estrangement with her father, John Andrew. An ancient tractor becomes the focus for the mechanically-minded Dawn, but her father’s long-simmering resentments heighten tensions. Watching his daughter work to restore the tractor, he realises that reclaiming this relationship depends on his own coming out: supporting Dawn publicly and fighting malicious small-town transphobia.
April 6th, 7:15 PM Municipal Auditorium |
Firebird
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At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.
April 5th, 7:00 pm Municipal Auditorium April 7th, 11:00 am Municipal Auditorium |
Mixtape trilogy: Stores of the Power of Music
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MIXTAPE TRILOGY explores one of the most intense and unique relationships between people who rarely meet: music artists and their fans. Featuring Indigo Girls, Vijay Iyer, and Talib Kweli. The director unpacks the music and the audience is invited to fall into it. The art of listening unfolds and inspires us to listen to music, and, perhaps, each other, in new ways.
April 8th, 3:00 pm Municipal Auditorium April 9th, 6:30 pm CineBistro Siesta Key |
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics
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A feature-length documentary film-in-progress chronicling the birth and development of LGBTQ comics through the eyes of several of its pioneers. The film was inspired by the Lambda award-winning book of the same name, and dives deeper into the personal stories at the heart of this unique underground artistic scene. Featuring Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), the recently departed Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby, Gay Comix), and others, this film aims to show how DIY queer cartoonists have represented, poked fun at, and celebrated LGBTQ lives and experiences in challenging, humorous, and profound ways.
April 5th, 3:00 pm Municipal Auditorium |
Poppy Field
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Poppy Field follows the struggle of a young Romanian gendarme, Cristi, who tries to find the balance between two apparently opposing parts of his identity: that of a man working in a macho hierarchical environment and that of a closeted gay person who tries to keep his personal life a secret. While his long-distance French boyfriend, Hadi, is visiting him, Cristi is called in for an intervention at a movie theatre, where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has interrupted the screening of a queer film. After one of the protesters threatens to out him, Cristi spirals out of control.
April 5th, 9:15 pm Municipal Auditorium April 7th, 9:15 am Municipal Auditorium |
Loren & Rose
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The appetizer is an introduction, the dessert is a farewell in this story of an indelible bond forged between a promising young filmmaker and an iconic actress.
April 9th, 6:00 pm Municipal Auditorium April 9th, 8:00 pm Municipal Auditorium |
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Following the film...Join us for an in-person Conversation & Q&A With Jacqueline Bisset, Kelly Blatz, & Director Russell Brown To Follow.
In the '70s, Jacqueline Bisset became an international sex icon for swimming underwater in the movie "The Deep" wearing a thin white t-shirt. Not only did she capture the attention of straight men, she also captured another audience, the gays! Rosie O'Donnell stated in her blog that after watching Bisset in the movie she was "positive" she was gay. "Jacqueline Bisset is a total gay icon and has done lots of work in LGBT+ films." - Rodney Piatt, SFF Programmer
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Meet the SFF Programmer:
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情人 QíngrénA 19th century American Railroad Financier and Chinese Emigrant-Worker ensnare one another in a dance of interdependence, love, and guilt. |
MasaruA Major League Baseball player discovers his passion for Japanese traditional dance and is confronted with the choice of embracing his true identity or continuing masking behind the pressures of family, loyalty and honor. |
Hear My VoiceMike’s opera career and love life have stalled. During yet another gay hook-up, he sees the apparition of his grandmother: will she make him change? |
Show PonyKate tries an adult ballet class and becomes infatuated with the teacher, Laura- until she discovers a hidden side to Laura she struggles to accept. |
A Summer PlaceIn a city overtaken by oligarchs and a real estate boom, two women find themselves lost at sea. Each will end up saving the other, in all of life’s most unexpected ways. |
Better DaysFive LGBTIQ+ refugees seeking asylum in Spain look into the lens to share their fears, doubts, and certainties, but they can all now say, “It gets better”. |
What to Watch:
LGBTQ+ Shorts
Where to Go:
The SFF Parties
The SFF Parties
