SHORTS: THE QUEER REBELLION

NewFest is committed to making its programming more accessible to our community. ASL interpreters will be present for the Intro and Q+A portion of this program.

From ACT UP’s historic protests to today’s Black trans leadership, these shorts spotlight queer defiance across decades and identities. Whether through street activism, Black trans euphoria, or experimental visions of liberation, THE QUEER REBELLION celebrates community power, radical imagination, and the refusal to be erased.

Silence = Death
Dir. Trace Pope, 16 min, USA
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.

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.

American Problems, Trans Solutions
Dir. Naz Habtezghi, 25 min, USA
Award-winning journalist Imara Jones as she travels across the country to tell the stories of three Black trans leaders who are on the frontlines of change: housing advocate Kayla Gore; Breonna McCree, a champion for economic empowerment; and Oluchi Omeoga who’s fighting for the rights of migrants.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A