Week of Oct 20
It's a busy week as AFI Fest takes over LA, bringing a whole crop of new Queer films (and some non-Queer ones too). Don't forget to use code QueerfilmAFI2025 for a discount on your tickets!
Circa festival continues, with two special events about 90s gay performance art from Reza Abdoh and Ron Athey. And don't miss indie queer horror I Am a Ghost from H.P. Mendoza
I Am a Ghost
Oct 23, 7:00 PM & Oct 24, 7:30 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
Writer/Director H.P. Mendoza in person
One part post-modern queer indie horror, one part existential classic, and one part no-budget/high-concept gothic treasure, this haunting tale of a Victorian spirit trapped in a seemingly-endless limbo breathes fresh life into the age-old tradition of ghost stories.
Outfest NEXT Lineup Preview
The full lineup for OutfestNEXT, Nov 6-9, will be announced soon -- but they've let out a brief preview -- including Yen Tan's latest film All That We Love, Bryan Fuller's directorial debut Dust Bunny, a 25th anniversary celebration of The Broken Hearts Club, and more!
AFI Fest
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Oct 22, 8:45 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Writer/director Diego Céspedes in person
As an unknown and deadly disease begins to spread, legend has it that it is transmitted between two men, through a simple glance, when they fall in love. While people are accusing her family, Lidia must find out whether this myth is real or not.
Tickets from American Film Institute
Amoebas
Oct 22, 9:00 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Writer/Director Siyou Tan in person
US Premiere
Sixteen-year-old tomboy Choo Xin Yu seems like a misfit when she joins a highly competitive, elite all-girls school in Singapore. But she quickly befriends three others who share her rebellious nature. While the girls struggle to fit in, they pledge loyalty to each other and vow to start a gang as a form of resistance. When their rebellious acts — recorded by the girls on a camcorder — are discovered by their teacher, their lives are upended. What keeps haunting Choo may be more than just the ghost she suspects is in her room.
Tickets from American Film Institute
Phantoms of July
Oct 24, 8:20 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
US Premiere
Ursula and Neda, an East German waitress with a broken heart and an Iranian YouTuber with a broken arm, both feel trapped and lonely in their precarious lives. One summer evening, Ursula falls for a mysterious musician from the city, while Neda is convinced that she recognized an old friend from Tehran in an equally enigmatic street sweeper. The winding paths of chance draw the two women together on an unexpected ghost hunt in the mountains…
Tickets from American Film Institute
Peter Hujar's Day
Oct 25, 4:30 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
Tickets from American Film Institute
Christy
Oct 25, 7:30 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Christy Martin never imagined life beyond her small-town roots in West Virginia—until she discovered a knack for punching people. Fueled by grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win, she charges into the world of boxing under the guidance of her trainer and manager-turned-husband, Jim. But while Christy flaunts a fiery persona in the ring, her toughest battles unfold outside it—confronting family, identity, and a relationship that just might become life-or-death.
Tickets from American Film Institute
Fucktoys
Oct 25, 9:30 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Writer/Director/Star Annapurna Sriram in person
A bubblegum grindhouse adventure through sunny and romantic Trashtown, USA. In this raucous odyssey, a wanton minx quests hard across a dreamy landscape of smut, filth and psychics, hustling to lift a curse that has been f-cking her sh-t up.
Tickets from American Film Institute
I Was Born This Way
Oct 26, 3:00 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Making his mark first as a gospel singer, Carl Bean got the break of his life when Motown tapped him in 1977 to record the disco song “I Was Born This Way,” which quickly became the first gay anthem at a time when it was uncommon to be out and proud. When the AIDS crisis hit, however, Bean soon found himself drawn to a different calling: compassionate activism. Instead of pursuing the momentum of his promising music career, he founded the Minority AIDS Project and the Unity Fellowship Church — the first LGBTQ+ church for people of color.
Tickets from American Film Institute
The Chronology of Water
Oct 26, 4:45 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Growing up in an environment torn apart by violence and alcohol, a young woman struggles to find her path. She manages to escape her family and enters university, where she finds refuge in literature. Gradually, words offer her an unexpected freedom…
Tickets from American Film Institute
Junkie
Oct 26, 6:10 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Writer/Director William Means and Producer Patty Jenkins in person
Perpetual screwup Stevie is running on empty having just escaped from rehab (again). On a quest to repay her debts and reconcile with her estranged, openly gay son Liam before skipping town for good, Stevie winds up in a slew of high-risk predicaments over the course of a few frenzied days.
Tickets from American Film Institute
A Useful Ghost
Oct 26, 8:30 PM @ TCL Chinese Theaters
Writer/Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke in person
After Nat tragically dies from dust pollution, March is consumed by grief. But his daily life is turned upside down when he discovers his wife’s spirit has been reincarnated in a vacuum cleaner. As absurd as it seems, their bond is rekindled, stronger than ever. But it hardly to everyone’s liking. His family, still haunted by the accidental death of a factory worker, reject this supernatural relationship. To prove their love, Nat offers to clean the factory to prove herself a useful ghost, even if that means doing away with some lost souls…
Tickets from American Film Institute
Circa Queer Histories Festival
Quotations from a Ruined City
Oct 22, 7:00 PM @ Los Angeles LGBT Center
Quotations from a Ruined City is a sort of apocalyptic follies: an evening of song, dance, poetry, nudity and torture set in a world whose center has clearly long ceased to hold. Created and directed by the gifted young theatrical cult artist Reza Abdoh, the work is a kaleidoscopic catalogue of images of decay and destruction that range through the centuries and around the globe.
Torture Trilogy: Reflecting on Two Decades of Infamy with Ron Athey
Oct 24, 8:00 PM @ Los Angeles LGBT Center
Artist Ron Athey in person
In conversation with curator Anuradha Vikram, Athey will present documentation of Four Scenes in a Harsh Life at LATC and other works in the accompanying Torture Trilogy including Deliverance (1994) which was never shown in its entirety in Los Angeles due to censorship.
Outliers and Outlaws
Oct 26, 7:00 PM @ Los Angeles LGBT Center
A story of lesbian world-builders, this film uncovers the fabulous history of a large and vibrant lesbian community in Eugene, Oregon. Women who migrated to this small town in the 1960s-80s candidly share stories about the power of courageous and creative world-building. Intimate portraits–both then and now–model living in hard times with hope, humor, and commitment to social change.
Also This Week
Naked Lunch
Oct 20, 8:00 PM @ Brain Dead Studios
Luca Guadagnino's "Queer" is adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by outlaw beat writer William S Burroughs, as is Naked Lunch, which director David Cronenberg describes as the story of a closeted man trying to cure himself of his homosexuality.
Tickets from Brain Dead Studios
The Haunting
Oct 20, 10:00 PM @ Los Feliz 3
The Haunting was remarkable for 1963 for having a main character who was a lesbian, without being punished for it. The 2018 Netflix miniseries adaptation makes Theo even more explicitly gay (and badass).
Tickets from American Cinematheque
The Craft
Vidiots Halloween Party!
Oct 23, 7:30 PM @ Vidiots Eagle Theater
What is about 1990s horror overflowing with Queer subtext? The vampire movies get all the attention, but don't sleep on the lesbian undertones of the decade's various teen coven stories--none more enjoyable than the classic The Craft.
DECODINGS, A Queer Film Tribute to Carl Bogner
Oct 23, 8:00 PM @ 2220 Arts + Archives
First and foremost, this program is a celebration of queer avant-garde filmmaking and filmmakers, featuring incredible work by Curt McDowell, Barbara Hammer, Michael Wallin, George Kuchar, Su Friedrich, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and even two extremely rare shorts by Gus Van Sant
The Prodigy
Oct 24, 8:00 PM @ Eastwood Performing Arts Center
A desperate sex worker named Adam goes into the desert with a man he doesn’t know is a burgeoning serial killer. Meanwhile, another young hustler, Lucas, desperate for money, starts forming his own relationship with the dangerous man.
Bride of Frankenstein
Oct 25, 11:00 AM @ Academy Museum
A camp sequel to gay director James Whale's monster flick Frankenstein, with one of the most enduring and iconic female monsters ever seen on screen.
Jennifer's Body
Oct 25, 7:30 PM @ Academy Museum
Director Karyn Kusama and star Megan Fox in person
Panned on release, queer film fans have since reclaimed this Diablo Cody-written horror film about a (literally) man-eating undead cheerleader and the... um... complicated relationship she has with her best female friend.
American French Film Festival
The American French Film Festival returns next year. Use promo code CINEMA for 20% off your tickets!
Love Me Tender
Oct 29, 8:50 PM @ DGA Theater
Writer/director Anna Cazenave Cambet in person
At the end of summer, Clémence tells her ex-husband that she’s had relationships with women. Her life is turned upside down when he files to strip her of their son’s custody. Then begins a struggle of several years for Clémence to defend her right to be a mother and a woman – free to make her own choices.
Tickets from The American French Film Festival
FREE: Scrub and Rub
Oct 30, 11:00 AM @ DGA Theater
Exploited, mistreated and scammed by their shady employers, a feisty group of chambermaids at a Lille hotel decide to go on strike. Based on a true story and armed with a terrific cast, the four-part miniseries SCRUB AND RUB deftly blends social realism and comic moments.
Tickets from The American French Film Festival
The Little Sister
Nov 01, 8:05 PM @ DGA Theater
Star Nadia Melliti in person
Queer Palm winner!
Fatima, 17, the youngest of three daughters, treads carefully as she searches for her own path, grappling with emerging desires, her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family. Starting university in Paris, she dates, makes friends, and explores a whole new world, all while confronting a timeless and heartrending dilemma: How can one stay true to oneself when reconciling different parts of one’s identity feels impossible?
Tickets from The American French Film Festival
The Seduction
Nov 02, 8:10 PM @ DGA Theater
Composer Delphine Malaussena in person
To be the hero of your own story, you sometimes have to be the villain in others’. Marquise de Merteuil, betrayed by Valmont, embarks on a daring journey to become Paris’ leading courtesan. Freely adapted from the novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
Tickets from The American French Film Festival
The Stranger
Nov 03, 12:50 PM @ DGA Theater
Out French provocatuer Francois Ozon adapts the classic existentialist novel by Albert Camus.
Tickets from The American French Film Festival
