Co-presented by the Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Center
Followed by a conversation with director Noah Schamus.
A four-part omnibus
A Multitude Films Production
Executive Produced by J Wortham
From directors Sasha Wortzel, Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and Lindsey Dryden
The QUEER FUTURES collection centers joy and connection to radically imagine future visions of queer life. Four short films explore fat beauty and liberation, gender affirming healthcare, nonbinary ballroom culture, and the anonymous connections of a decades-old LGBTQ hotline.
Transcending the rigidity and oppressions of the current moment, these films build speculative worlds that offer new ways of being – in the present and the future. Just as queer lives subvert normative expectations of behavior, identity, and expression, these directors expand the boundaries of nonfiction forms to present new ways of seeing the queer experience lived out loud.
“If Queer Futures sets the precedent for this kind of newly imagined queer documentary practice … aimed at centering joy and liberation instead of trauma … then the future is bright.”
“All of these films speak to the need to build liberation into the present… into creating sites of connection, of embodiment, of deeper and stronger self-expression.”
“Inventive and playful, serious and heartbreaking”
HOW TO CARRY WATER
ABOUT THE FILM: This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel — a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s vast network of freshwater springs, the state’s source of precious drinking water. For over a decade, Shoog’s photographs have transformed the way fat people view themselves and how a fat phobic society views fat bodies. Bringing Shoog’s photography to life, the film immerses audiences in a world of fat beauty and liberation, one in which marginalized bodies — including bodies of water — are sacred.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: SASHA WORTZEL (director, she/they) uses video, sculpture, installation, and sound to explore how this country’s past and present are inextricably linked through resonant spaces and their hauntings. Raised in South Florida and based in NYC, Wortzel specifically attends to sites and stories systematically erased or ignored from these regions’ histories. Wortzel’s films have screened at the MOMA DocFortnight, True/False, BAMcinemaFest, Wexner Center for the Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Berlinale, among others. Solo exhibitions include Dreams of Unknown Islands at Cooley Memorial Art Gallery with Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR (2022) and Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, FL (2021). Their work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at the New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and The Kitchen, New York; and SALTS, Birsfelden. Wortzel has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, and Doc Society. Wortzel’s film THIS IS AN ADDRESS (2020) is distributed by Field of Vision. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARSHA! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) won special mention at Outfest and is distributed by Frameline. Wortzel’s work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum of Harlem, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and Miami Dade County Art in Public Places.
THE SCRIPT
ABOUT THE FILM: Blending personal interviews with dramatized genre recreations, THE SCRIPT explores the complicated relationship between trans and nonbinary communities and medical providers regarding gender affirming care. With a playful approach toward experimentation, the film invites its participants and its audience to examine the limits of language and the nature of performance in building safe and affirming futures.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS: BRIT FRYER (director, he/him) is an award-winning queer and trans filmmaker based in Brooklyn. His film, CARO COMES OUT, premiered on HBOMax after winning the 2021 Knight Made in MIA Award at the Miami International Film Festival. His other films include ACROSS, BEYOND, AND OVER, I-57, and TRANS·IENCE. He also works as a producer, most recently of Lydia Cornett’s BUG FARM and Crystal Kayiza’s REST STOP, which was an official selection of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. He is grateful to have shown at Indie Grits, NewFest, Outfest, Inside Out, MIX NYC, Blackstar Film Festival, and more. Brit and his work have been supported by the Sundance Ignite Fellowship, Creative Culture, Chicken and Egg, GLAAD's Equity in Media and Entertainment Initiative, and HBO / Gotham's Documentary Development Initiative.
NOAH SCHAMUS (director, they/them) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker of documentary and narrative films. Their short films have been presented at film festivals including BFI Flare, Outfest, Inside Out, NewFest, Indie Memphis, Maryland Film Festival, Provincetown Film Festival, and New Orleans Film Festival (where their short film, “Chemistry of Mood” garnered an Honorable Mention for Best Performance by Naian Gonzalez Norvind). “Across, Beyond, and Over,” co-directed with Brit Fryer, was featured on NoBudge and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. They are currently in post-production on their first narrative feature film, “Summer Solstice” which was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker Program grant, was included in the 2021 Outfest Screenwriting Lab as a Notable Writer, and was selected to take part in Us in Progress at the American Film Festival in November 2022. They hold an MFA from Columbia University in Screenwriting and Directing.
MnM
ABOUT THE FILM: MnM is an exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging runway divas in the drag ballroom community. Celebrating their joy, siblinghood, and unapologetic personas, the film explores the power and beauty of being nonbinary in a community that prizes gender ‘realness.’
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: TWIGGY PUCCI GARÇON (director, she/they) is an activist, creative director, event producer, culture curator, performance artist, and runway trainer. They have collaborated with Gucci, Coach, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, GLAAD, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Reebok, and more. Twiggy has worked at True Colors United for nearly a decade, protecting rights for young people experiencing homelessness. They are the Overall Overseer for the Legendary International House of Comme des Garçon, the Chief Ambassador for the Center for Black Equity, and Co-Founder of All Tea, No Shade Productions alongside New York Times Bestselling author George M. Johnson. Twiggy was a featured subject in HBO’s THE OUT LIST (2013), was the co-writer and subject of Sara Jordenö’s award-winning documentary KIKI (Sundance 2016), and served as consultant and runway choreographer on Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-nominated FX series, POSE.
THE CALLERS
ABOUT THE FILM: THE CALLERS combines anonymous documentary testimony with imagined creative scenes to tell the story of those who have called the oldest queer support line in the UK, seeking guidance on everything from where to find the nearest leather club to how to come out, start a family or mend a broken heart. The film is a love letter to queer memory and possibility, LGBTQ+ community and care, and the power of collective imagination to create the lives we dream of.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: LINDSEY DRYDEN (director, she/her) is an Emmy-winning film producer, director and writer with bases in Austin, TX and the UK. She is a co-founder of FWD-Doc: Filmmakers with Disabilities, a proud member of QueerDoc, a 2022 Sundance Institute Documentary Producers Lab Fellow, a BFI Vision Awardee 2020, and a full-voting member of BAFTA. Lindsey produced Sundance Special Jury Award-winning UNREST, produced Emmy-winning TRANS IN AMERICA and executive produced AHEAD OF THE CURVE. She has written and directed LOST AND SOUND (SXSW), JACKIE KAY: ONE PERSON (Tate), TWO NAMES, and CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT ME (True/False).