Head to New York City For a Queer Cinema Journey
NewFest, New York’s leading LGBTQ+ film and media organization and host to one of the most internationally respected LGBTQ+ film festivals, presents the theme and full line-up for the sixth edition of their annual retrospective screening series, Queering the Canon: We’re Out Here.
Queer cinema is a place. And that’s because queer folks are everywhere: from small towns to the ‘burbs to vast rural areas. Discover connection and identity in this collection of retrospective films that celebrate LGBTQ+ existence, resilience, and perseverance across the map – no matter the setting’s size and population. Full of romance, friendship, and close-knit communities, “Queering the Canon: We’re Out Here” shares small-town stories that span the globe—from the American West, Midwest, and South to Sweden, Mexico, and Guinea.
“This year’s triumphant theme, ‘We’re Out Here,’ spotlights an expanse of cinematic odes to queer folks who discover identity and find community within small towns, suburbs, and rural areas across the U.S. and around the globe,” said Nick McCarthy, NewFest Director of Programming. “We look forward to hosting iconic filmmakers and special guests to reflect upon our decades-spanning stories and engage in conversation with our loyal intergenerational audiences. They are the cornerstone of the magical energy we all experience at Queering the Canon screenings and Q&As every year!”
EDITOR’S PICKS—From the West to the South to Sweden, to all over. Travel with these classic LGBTQ films.
DESERT HEARTS (1985) Dir. Donna Deitch. With Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers. In person on Thursday, March 26, 7:30pm, followed by Q&A with director Donna Deitch.
2K Restoration. Donna Deitch’s classic of lesbian cinema is one of the greatest love stories of all time. The year is 1959, and Professor Vivian Bell has arrived in Reno, Nevada, for a divorce. There she meets Cay Rivers, a backwards-driving, jean-short-wearing sculptor/casino employee who is brazenly herself. These two opposing forces circle around each other, falling in lust and love, as Cay dares Vivian to take a risk for something more.
Celebrating four decades since its theatrical release in 1986, join us in revisiting a film that was ahead of its time and beyond time. From an overwhelming kiss in the rain to one of the best sex scenes ever put on film, DESERT HEARTS redefined what queer women could expect from our movies. The romance crackles with possibility, but its love story goes beyond this central pair — it’s also about the bonds of friendship, the challenge of family, and the importance of embracing the entirety of oneself.
SHOW ME LOVE (1998). Dir. Lukas Moodysson. With Alexandra Dahlström, Rebecka Liljeberg, Erica Carlson, Mathias Rust, Stefan Hörberg, Josefine Nyberg. In person on Saturday, March 28, 7:00pm and streaming virtually nationwide March 26 – 30.
2K Restoration. Set in the small Swedish town of Åmål, this cherished coming‑of‑age film follows Agnes, a creative and lonely teenager who has long been secretly in love with Elin, the cute, rebellious sister of the school’s most popular girl. As the only visibly queer student, Agnes endures bothersome bullying but finds refuge in poetry and the moody alternative music she treasures. Around her, classmates try to play in a world shaped by contemporary pop culture and the teen‑idol wave of the late ’90s (including Robyn, an iconic pride of Sweden). When Agnes and Elin’s paths—and angsty vibes—finally intersect, Agnes’s long‑held crush proves a challenge to the town’s conservative notions, revealing a tenderly defiant story of budding desire, courage, and self‑acceptance.
SOUTHERN COMFORT (2001). Dir. Kate Davis. In person on Sunday, March 29, 5:00pm, followed by Q&A with director Kate Davis, and streaming virtually nationwide March 26 – 30.
25th Anniversary screening. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, this vibrant vérité documentary traces the final year of Robert Eads’s life, a transgender man and community leader living in rural Georgia. SOUTHERN COMFORT moves with quiet intimacy and wit, following Eads as he opens his world with disarming honesty — his romantic partnership with Lola, his loving yet complicated bond with his son, and the chosen family that surrounds him across the rural South. As Eads candidly confronts being denied lifesaving treatment by a failing healthcare system, the film transforms that injustice into a profoundly human portrait. Through these compelling conversations, director Kate Davis captures a community navigating love, caretaking, and identity in a region that often refuses to see them. Eads’ appearance at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, an important gathering for trans people founded in 1991, becomes both elegy and testament, a reminder of the resilience and interconnectedness that sustain trans lives throughout America.
THE PLACE WITHOUT LIMITS (1978). Dir. Arturo Ripstein. With Roberto Cobo Calambres, Ana Martin, Gonzalo Vega, Lucha Villa, Fernando Soler, Julián Pastor, Blanca Torres, Carmen Salinas, Hortensia Santoveña y Emma Roldán. In person on Monday, March 30, 7:00 pm, followed by Q&A with Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer (film critic, editor, and film programmer, Le Cinema Club and Screen Slate) and streaming virtually nationwide March 26 – 30.
Adapted from José Donoso’s iconic novel, THE PLACE WITHOUT LIMITS centers its story on Manuela and her daughter who run a fading brothel in the remote setting of El Olivo, Mexico. As the tumbleweed town withers, an unwelcome visitor—once treated as family by the town’s mayor—returns and stirs long‑buried tensions that threaten its fragile peace. Manuela, rejected and mislabeled by those around her, navigates a world ruled by machismo and prejudice. Her resilience and luminous spirit make her the emotional core of a community pushed to the brink. Selected by Mexico as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards, Arturo Riptein’s THE PLACE WITHOUT LIMITS is a gripping portrait of dignity and survival in a place determined to extinguish it.
GREETINGS FROM OUT HERE (1993). Dir. Ellen Spiro. Exclusively streaming virtually nationwide March 26 – 30.
Accompanied by her dog Sam and a video camera, filmmaker Ellen Spiro traveled from Virginia to Texas and back, exploring the openly gay culture in the Deep South. Highlighted by spontaneous encounters with local eccentrics and mechanics (her van breaks down frequently), GREETINGS FROM OUT HERE provides detailed portraits of small town queer Southerners—from Rita, a retired military officer turned drag queen in New Orleans to Iris, a Black lesbian living in a bus in the Ozarks. Filmed on location at the Texas Gay Rodeo, Mardi Gras, Gay Pride in Atlanta, Dollywood, Miss Miller’s Eternal Love and Care Pet Cemetery and the Short Mountain Radical Faerie sanctuary, Spiro’s footage captures the richness, vitality and courage of “out” gay Southern life in the early 1990s.
Tickets on newfest.org. For more information, to purchase tickets/passes, or to become a member, go to newfest.org or bam.org.
