AWARD SHORTS ENCORE: REBELLION, REVELATION, AND RAPTURE

Streaming 12/1 -12/14

A fearless selection of short films that move from acts of rebellion to rousing moments of rapture. This powderkeg program ignites the screen with stories of queer defiance, collective revelation, and radical joy. Spanning past and present – from early ACT UP to contemporary shoplifters – and showcasing emerging filmmakers from coast to coast, these visionary works honor how our communities come together to resist, reclaim power, and imagine a world on our own terms.

Featuring NewFest37 award-winning and festival favorite shorts from THE QUEER REBELLION and HERE COME THE DOLLS programs, AWARD SHORTS: REBELLION, REVELATION, AND RAPTURE is a cinematic uprising, a celebration of courage, and a reminder that revolution is both personal and collaborative.

Silence = Death
Dir. Trace Pope, 16 min, Canada
On May 21, 1990, during one of ACT UP’s heated demonstrations at the NIH campus, a young gay filmmaker fights to deliver a message to the protest’s target: Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Rainbow Girls
Dir. Nana Duffuor, 16 min, USA
As San Francisco’s tech boom gentrifies their city, three black trans youth decide to take matters into their own hands, staging an audacious heist targeting the city’s most exclusive luxury brands.

Echoes: The B Side
Dir. Mars Storm Rucker, 18 min, USA
This film is dissecting the different perspectives of how the unconscious mind finds healing through nostalgia and connection to the inner child. The inspiration of this stemmed from the medicalization of gender dysphoria by the ADA. This bred me to interact with the question of the intimate why’s behind this incongruence between sex and gender, whether gender dysphoria was inherent to transness, and analyze history and how America medicalizes trans people and specifically Black people. I wondered about our Black indigenous understandings of gender pre colonization and western ideals. This experimental documentary-film ultimately examines the technology of Black liberation and healing of trauma through vintage fashion, vintage aesthetics, and the romanization of nostalgia to create afro-futuristic utopias.

Hustleween
Dir. Samara Pérez Santiago, 20 min, Puerto Rico
A vibrant exploration of community and Black Trans euphoria, Hustleween chronicles an annual celebration created by EspicyNipples that transforms memory into queer resistance and joy.

Seek No Favor
Dirs. E Elle Clay & Leilah Weinraub, 12 min, USA
Low-key, anxiety-managing millennial Monroe Malone is trying to outrun last year’s job loss when she collides with a weave-snatching cartel led by Big Baby. After overhearing his plan to kidnap hair tech genius Camille J. Walker and steal her Infinite Track invention, Monroe jumps into action. The encounter is bound to leave him not untouched by blood.