Damn These Heels 2022 Film & Event Schedule

IN-PERSON SCREENINGS

Friday, Oct. 14

OPENING NIGHT FILM + OPENING NIGHT PARTY

7PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS

DIRECTED BY: JUAN FELIPE ZULETA RUNTIME: 100 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Peter is a flamboyant, misanthropic dwarf hiding from the world in his shabby New York City apartment. But an unexpected visit from his upbeat—and possibly unhinged— neighbor Winona forces him out of his shell and onto an impromptu road trip. Their destination? What she believes to be the site of an upcoming alien visitation in the wilderness of rural Canada. On their increasingly surreal odyssey, Peter and Winona will encounter bickering lesbian cosplayers, shroom-addled survivalists, and even extraterrestrial highway cops. But the further they go and the more their trauma comes to light, it becomes clear that the only thing more nerve-wracking than being abducted is being alone in the universe.

Saturday, Oct. 15

10AM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

PAT ROCCO DARED

DIRECTED BY: MORRIS CHAPDELAINE & BOB CHRISTIE RUNTIME: 90 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: CANADA RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Canadian filmmakers draw attention to the pioneering work of Pat Rocco, the first filmmaker to ever show gay films to a paying public in the late 1960s. Filmmaker, activist and pure romantic, Rocco was interviewed soon before his death, interspersed with generous clips from his taboo-breaking moviesActivist, artist, filmmaker and entertainer Pat Rocco’s legendary career spanned decades, encompassing nude male erotic films and documentaries that bore witness to crucial moments in queer history, including speeches by Harvey Milk. In this exploration of Rocco’s work and life — which features lovingly restored versions of some of Rocco’s rarest films — filmmaker Charlie David sits down with Rocco for exclusive interviews prior to his death in 2018. Ever the good-natured showman, Rocco’s candid talks reveal the daring personality required to create work that valued, desired, and celebrated queer bodies when popular culture labeled them as shameful — revealing this to be a vital record of an unforgettable trailblazer.

12PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

THE BEACH OF ENCHAQUIRADOS

DIRECTED BY: IVÁN MORA MANZANO RUNTIME: 86 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: ECUADOR RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: SPANISH

In the daytime, Vicky goes fishing out on the sea, in the evening she runs a little bar on the blustery beach of her small village in Ecuador. The silences, emptiness, and meager catches all feed into the sense of unfulfilled longing that pervades her life, but The Beach of Enchaquirados also glows with an irresistible and liberating warmth.

Vicky belongs to the local trans community, one where gender and sexuality are not strictly delineated, and she balances her physically tough work at sea with feminine elegance in her private life. The two worlds may seem diametrically opposed, but filmmaker Iván Mora Manzano captures them both with the same affection—from giggly flirting to candid conversations about an incomplete life, and from the deserted beaches to the lively carnival season.

2PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

BREAKING THE ICE

DIRECTED BY: CLARA STERN RUNTIME: 102 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: AUSTRIA RATING: PG-13 LANGUAGE: GERMAN

Mira lives for the sport of ice hockey and leads her team as captain with a strong dedamn termination. It’s a challenge to reconcile this with her role in the family vineyard: with her mother and her adventurous but increasingly demented grandfather, she runs the farm — with all its responsibilities.

The new player Theresa completely unsettles her with her nonchalance and openness. And when Mira’s missing brother Paul also turns up and all three get lost in late-night Vienna, Mira discovers the freedom it means to break rules, to reinvent herself — and that you can only love if you let go.

4:30PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

BLACK, BOLD & BRILLIANT: QUEERING THE LENS EDITION

Featuring a roundtable discussion with local members of the Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community. Everything Everywhere All At Once, Moonlight, Fire Island, The Watermelon Woman, Rafiki, A Fantastic Woman, Paris Is Burning, Tangerine, and Drunktown’s Finest. What do all of these films represent? They’re fundamental elements in the rise of queer and transgender cinema across the Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color spectrum. What began as primal shouts to define existence have become beloved favorites, box office blockbusters, and critically acclaimed arthouse darlings for people often omitted from the silver screen.

6PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

HYSTERIA

DIRECTED BY: RAJA FEATHER KELLY RUNTIME: 90 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

HYSTERIA or Ugly Part 2 is a performance, film, and installation that continues Raja Feather Kelly’s study of pop culture and its displacement of Queer Black subjectivity.

Picking up where his 2018 performance, UGLY Part 1 or Black Queer Zoo, left off, Kelly situates himself as a glamorous, extraterrestrial entity — both alien to the world and wholly consuming its pop cultural byproducts. HYSTERIA marks the collapse of fiction into fact, tracking the subsequent inner turmoil, confusion, and mania that Kelly sets out to exorcise.

New York Times calls HYSTERIA a “primetime sample of New York Culture” and says that Kelly’s work “has a flirty wink and a queer sensibility that dispenses with spiritual heaviness and treats popular culture as a kind of religion itself. Mr. Kelly’s fusion of dance and theatre shifts seamlessly from the absurd to cheeky to the unexpectedly and piercingly sincere”.

At the DAMN THESE HEELS festival this year, Raja will show Hysteria and a preview of a new work currently commissioned by Salt Lake’s Ririe Woodbury Dance Company. Performances will include a panel discussion with Raja and Q&A.

8PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

FRAMING AGNES

DIRECTED BY: CHASE JOYNT RUNTIME: 75 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Agnes, the pioneering, pseudonymized, transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s, has long stood as a figurehead of trans history.

In this rigorous cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, director Chase Joynt explores where and how her platform has become a pigeonhole. Framing Agnes endeavors to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed — one that has remained too narrow to capture the multiplicity of experiences eclipsed by Agnes’.

Through a collaborative practice of reimagination, an impressive lineup of trans stars take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans healthcare.

Joynt’s signature form-rupturing style radically reenvisions the imposition of the frame on the cultural memory of transness through his brilliantly crafted, communally-driven excavation. This reclamation tears away with remarkable precision the myth of isolation as the mode of existence of transgender history-makers, breathing new life into a lineage of collaborators and conspirators who have been forgotten for far too long.

10PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

PLEASE BABY PLEASE

DIRECTED BY: AMANDA KRAMER RUNTIME: 95 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Suze and Arthur are the ideal Lower East Side bohemian couple. He earns a modest living as a clarinetist, she is a stylish housewife, dutifully doing the washing up. One evening, they witness a murder, committed by a rough gang of greasers in leather jackets, on the sidewalk in front of their house. This introduction to the intimidating Young Gents arouses previously unsuspected emotions and feelings of sexuality in both.

With influences ranging from John Waters to Kenneth Anger, director Amanda Kramer (Ladyworld) brings a bold vision to this almost-musical. Its hypnotic score, impressionistic, neon-lit sets, and carefully choreographed sequences evoke West Side Story. A pastiche of queer sensibilities, Hollywood genres, and feminist theory, Please Baby Please is the sort of rich, cinematic experience that you have to see to fully appreciate.

sunday, Oct. 16

10AM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

WORKSHOP: HONEST REACTIONS TO IMAGINARY SOLUTIONS: ON FILM

DIRECTED BY: RAJA FEATHER KELLY

This workshop teaches the methodology Honest Reactions To Imaginary Situations. It is an approach to creating and performing that above all relies upon; centers and fights for truth. Honest Reactions To Imaginary Situations is a provocative examination of the thrill of creating a performance on Film. This work regards the performer as the creator and the creator as the performer – on and off the stage. Built from his approach to Devised Theatre, Raja Feather Kelly works candidly with repetition and failure as key ingredients toward, reactive, responsive, and unrestricted theatricality. Particularly focusing on the editing process as a way of choreographing.

This workshop offers every practitioner unfiltered insight into Raja’s creative process. This approach is both a compendium for creative work and a field guide. The workshop will have two parts.

Part 1: Improvisation, Movement, and theatre exercises.

Part 2: Translating our work on video via iPhone.

This workshop prides itself on an unabridged offering of understanding, experience, and motivation.

12PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

SHORTS PROGRAM

WE’RE HERE

DIRECTED BY MELAHN ATKINSON

7 MINUTES | 2022 | UNITED STATES

When societal “norms” tell you you’re not enough, when your existence is the resistance, it’s time to band together to “Fuck Shit Up”. “WE’RE HERE and WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!”

EMERALD

DIRECTED BY ALEJANDRO SUÁREZ 15 MINUTES | 2021 | SPAIN

Ezequiel, a young hiker, has been kidnapped. His captor is wearing a pig mask and sleeps in a cabin in the depths of the forest, where he tortures Ezequiel until daylight.

HALF

DIRECTED BY JACOB ROBERTS 11 MINUTES | 2021 | UNITED STATES

Half-Jewish, bisexual Jonah Dorman comes out to his girlfriend, shaking the foundation of their relationship and launching a tragicomic exploration of love and religion in New York City.

LET’S GO TOGETHER

DIRECTED BY KATE DIRIENZI 10 MINUTES | 2022 | UNITED STATES

A socially successful sorority sister “pregames” with her painfully anxious classmate, Sophia. Within the constraints of a heteronormative college environment, they form an unlikely connection.

POOFTA

DIRECTED BY ANDREW BLOGG 20 MINUTES | 2022 | AUSTRALIA

POOFTA: An offensive term used to vilify gay men. When a harmless encounter leads to a tense confrontation, a trailblazer for the LGBTIAQ+ community tries to intervene. Homophobia, internalized homophobia, anxiety & fear play out in post gay marriage Australia.

2PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

SAVING FACE

DIRECTED BY: ALICE WU RUNTIME: 91 MINUTES YEAR: 2004 COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: R LANGUAGE: ENGLISH, MANDARIN

Wil (Michelle Krusiec) is a lesbian, but she not dare tell her widowed mother, Hwei-lan (Joan Chen), or her very traditional grandparents. She’s shocked, however, to find out she’s not the only one in her family with romantic secrets when she learns that her 48-year-old mother is pregnant. Unwilling to reveal who the father is, Hwei-lan is kicked out of her parents’ home and must move in with Wil, which puts a strain on Wil’s budding relationship with openly gay Vivian (Lynn Chen).

4PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

LONG LIVE MY HAPPY HEAD

DIRECTED BY: WILL HEWITT & AUSTEN MCCOWAN RUNTIME: 90 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: UK RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Gordon is a Scottish comic book artist with a big bushy beard, very expressive eyebrows — oh, and an inoperable, incurable brain tumor. By making autobiographical comics about his experience, he is able to communicate his thoughts and reactions to cancer in a medium and a language that is disarming, accessible and inviting.

6PM | REGENT STREET BLACK BOX

WILDHOOD

DIRECTED BY: BRETTEN HANNAM RUNTIME: 108 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: CANADA RATING: PG-13 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH, MICMAC

In a rural east-coast trailer park, Link lives with his toxic father and younger half-brother Travis. When Link discovers his Mi’kmaw mother could still be alive, it lights a flame and they make a run for a better life. On the road they meet Pasmay, a pow wow dancer drawn to Link. As the boys journey across Mi’kma’ki, Link finds community, identity, and love in the land where he belongs.

REGENT STREET BLACK BOX | OCT. 16 AT 6 PM

STREAMING FILMS

Oct 14-23

BOYLESQUE

DIRECTED BY: BOGNA KOWALCYZK RUNTIME: 21 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: POLAND RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: POLISH

Boylesque is a portrait of a young soul hidden in a mature body. Andrzej aka Lulla La Polaca is the oldest Polish drag queen. We meet him when he is preparing his extravagant burial — his ashes are to be buried in an elegant urn in the shape of a stiletto shoe. Although the passing of time makes him nostalgic and miss his dead friend, he does not intend to give up his life show yet. Somewhat forgotten until now, he starts to shine his light on equality parades, private parties and nightclub scenes. Believing that he can still experience romantic love at the end of his life, Andrzej opens himself up to search for someone through a dating site.

MY EMPTINESS AND I

DIRECTED BY: ADRIÁN SILVESTRE RUNTIME: 98 MINUTES YEAR: 2022 COUNTRY: SPAIN RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: SPANISH, FRENCH

After moving from France to Spain, Raphi fantasizes about romances with princes and about starting a traditional family. However, her situation looks nothing like that in reality. She works in a call center in Barcelona, struggles with dates that often turn embarrassing, and is diagnosed by her therapist as having gender dysphoria. We follow this trans woman as she makes her transition during this essential, if confusing, period.

We see her in her everyday life, as she talks candidly with colleagues, queer friends, and the men she meets through apps. Despite all the advice she receives, it turns out that it is mostly time and experience that will help her embrace her place in this world.

NEPTUNE FROST

DIRECTED BY: ANISIA UZEYMAN, AND SAUL WILLIAMS RUNTIME: 109 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: RWANDA RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: SWAHILI, FRENCH, ENGLISH

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region’s natural resources — and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being — past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience — Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.

PARK VIEW

DIRECTED BY: TAB BALLIS RUNTIME: 97 MINUTES YEAR: 2020

COUNTRY: UNITED STATES RATING: NOT RATED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Park View explores a case that has been shrouded in mystery, revealing the life of one woman, and the religious, legal, and media responses to the aftermath of her death. Park View will lead the viewer on a journey of understanding, from a horrific murder in a coastal Southern town, to the validation of our common humanity.

Years of research suggest that the burying of Talana Kreeger’s memory has created a disconnect within the community that continues to be felt. The Park View Project opens a window into the grief and healing of minority cultures that have been typically overlooked or misunderstood by the media, so that the people of Wilmington, NC can tell their own story with authenticity.

TRAVESTI ODYSSEY

DIRECTED BY: NICOLÁS VIDELA RUNTIME: 93 MINUTES YEAR: 2021 COUNTRY: CHILE LANGUAGE: SPANISH

In Oct. 2019, the Chilean government decided to raise the price of transport tickets, sparking days of intense protests. It was during this turbulent period that Cabaret Travesía Travesti was performed for the last time. As well as being entertaining and hilariously funny, this radical show was razor-sharp and extremely political. Scantily clad, wearing sky-high heels and dazzling make-up, Maraca Barata, Anastasia María Benavente, and Amnesia Letal gave short shrift to power structures and a historical legacy that marginalized the trans community, making it a target for often-deadly violence.

As well as being a celebration of the company, Travesti Odyssey by filmmaker Nicolás Videla—who by night is better known by his stage name Amnesia Letal—also examines how it succumbed to personal differences. This vivid, intertwining collage of scenes from performances, interviews, and archive footage paints a vibrant picture of complex, activist characters, one that underscores just how important it is that the trans community stands up to tell its own stories.

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