2017 Festival Lineup
Our Calendar is Live!
Get ready for 11 days of the year's best LGBTQ films! Meet flimmakers and other film fans, attend film premieres, and mix and mingle at the 33rd annual festival! From feel-good romances to hard-hitting documentaries, our team is proud to bring you another year of world-class programming.
(please note: ticket sales are controlled by our venues, and are not yet live for most of the program.
we will announce via email as tickets go on sale)
OPENING NIGHT: Signature Move
Thursday, March 30 / 8pm
ICA Boston
Fresh off its World Premiere at South by Southwest Film Festival!
Thirty-something Immigration attorney Zaynab (played with wry humor by out Pakistani, Muslim actor Fawzia Mirza)is balancing her work, love life, and taking care of her conservative TV-obsessed mother. A drunken night with the bold and assertive Alma (the fantastically charismatic Sari Sanchez last seen on the Fox Network’s Empire) leads Zayneb to question just how to come to terms with her mom, her love-life, and her new found obsession with Lucha-style wresting. Jennifer Reeder’s latest film (and her debut feature) is a funny and honest take on the complications of contemporary dating and the joys of wrestling.
Signature Move by Jennifer Reeder (USA, 2017, 79 min.)
Proudly co-presented by the LOCS Collective.
Ticket purchase includes admission to Opening Night after-party at EMPIRE.
CLOSING NIGHT: Center of My World
Saturday, April 8 / 7pm
Museum of Fine Arts
Based off the bestselling coming-of-age novel: After a summer away at camp, Phil returns home to find that his mother and twin sister aren’t speaking to one another. As the school year begins, a new student arrives – the handsome and mysterious Nicholas. However, when first love’s volatility comes to light, Phil realizes he must deal with the problems of his past, in order to deal with the issues of his present.
Center of My World by Jakob Erwa (Germany, 2016, 115min.)
SPOTLIGHT: Free Cece!
Saturday, April 1 / 7pm
Museum of Fine Arts
Join us with Director Jac Gares and activist Cece Macdonald for a special screening of Free Cece, the story of the international campaign to free Cece, a black trans woman who served four years in a men's prison for defending herself from a brutal attack.
Free Cece! by Jac Gares, produced by Laverne Cox (USA, 2016, 100min.)
Proudly co-presented by Black and Pink.
US PREMIERE: Discreet
Friday, March 31 / 7:30pm
Brattle Theater
Join us with Director Travis Mathews for the US Premiere of Discreet.
After years in hiding and struggling to control his demons, an eccentric drifter returns home and discovers that his childhood abuser, the center of his pain, is still alive.
"Mathews has made perhaps the first queer film to directly address the subject of alt-right influence on outsider identity in middle America..." - Variety
Discreet by Travis Mathews (USA, 2017, 80min.)
US PREMIERE: Seventeen
Saturday, April 8 / 8pm
Paramount Center at ARTSEmerson
Boarding school pupil Paula, seventeen, is secretly in love with her girlfriend Charlotte. But Charlotte’s going out with Michael. Lovelorn, Paula decides to try and take her mind of things by getting involved with schoolmate Tim, whose feelings for her are at least genuine. Paula has no idea how often Charlotte thinks of her. And then there’s Lilli, who is just dying for someone to fancy her and tries to play the wild seductress. Paula must decide if she wants to follow her own feelings or yield to other people’s.
Seventeen by Monja Art (Austria, 2017, 105min.)
These and 38 other films and shorts programs will play across our venues. Check out the full lineup, and we'll be sending out series spotlights as the festival approaches.