Wicked Queer:Docs returns to the Brattle Theatre Nov 14-17, 2025
The Queer Film Institute is please to announce the upcoming program for the 4th edition of the popular WQ:Docs Film Festival.
WE ARE ALL SEEDS OF CHANGE.
Celebrating the progression and evergreen resilience of the Queer community and culture, WQ:Docs presents 7 programs documenting the cultural movements that have shaped global culture and highlighting the changemakers that have pushed the needle forward.
Feature Films
A DEEPER LOVE: THE STORY OF MISS PEPPERMINT
directed by Oriel Pe'er 2025 80 min USA
A Deeper Love traces her rise of trans icon Peppermint - from NYC clubs to Drag Race and Broadway fame, revealing the artist and activist behind the spotlight through 9 years of fighting for acceptance and trans visibility.
BRIGITTE'S PLANET B
US PREMIERE
directed by Santiago Posada 2025 87 min COLUMBIA
BRIGITTE’S PLANET B is a feature documentary about transgender ecologist Brigitte Baptiste, whose groundbreaking research and alternative discourse has challenged scientific and social conventions for years, eroding prejudice, building bridges and inspiring change. Through observational footage, rare archival material and digital animation, the film weaves an intimate soliloquy and a nuanced portrait of an extraordinary character, whose refreshing arguments about life, family and current affairs may rekindle our hope for our planet’s future.
QUEER AS PUNK
directed by Yihwen Chen 2025 87 min MALAYSIA-INDONESIA
Being LGBT is criminalised in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Trans man Faris and his punk band still travel the country playing gigs and protesting on the streets. A documentary portrait of courageous people, humorous friendship and the spirit of punk.
A BODY TO LIVE IN
directed by Angelo Madsen 2025 98 min USA
The queer art of Body modification took center stage in 1989 when Fakir Musafar’s “Modern Primitives” movement hit alternative cultures around the globe via the punk subcultural magazine Re/Search. A photographer, performance artist, and ritualist, Musafar’s work mobilized an entire generation of artists, thinkers, and seekers. Through oral histories, photographic meditation, and filmic abstraction, A Body To Live In introduces this riveting “Gender Flex” icon, and the rich history of western body modification's controversial intersections with sexuality and spiritual practices.
SALLY!
directed by Deborah Craig 2024 94 min USA
A radical lesbian feminist (not to mention something of a sapphic Casanova) whose trailblazing vision and ebullient personality were the spark for movements with far-reaching impacts, the legacy of Sally Gearhart has also largely been erased from history.From the defeat of the Briggs Initiative to the founding of the first Women’s Studies program in the nation, to groundbreaking writing on lesbian separatist communities, Gearhart was a fierce-hearted San Francisco political preacher at the center of many iconic movements of the 1970s and 1980s. In this heartfelt documentary following her journey from a 23-year-old professor at a Christian college to her final days surrounded by a diverse and dedicated community, director Deborah Craig (A Great Ride, Frameline42) re-centers the charismatic Gearhart who ignited movements, fought tirelessly for change, and created lasting bonds. Deftly weaving archival footage with interviews spanning decades, Sally! illuminates the personal and political context that defines Gearhart’s legacy, humorously and thoughtfully celebrating her while also confronting the controversies and limitations of lesbian separatism. Sally! is a rare watch that honors its subject as both an icon and a beloved, complex individual.
MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE!
directed by Elegance Bratton 2025 92min USA
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.
Short Films
Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens
Playing with A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint
PLaying with directed by Kristal Sotomayor 2025 9 min USA
Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens pays homage to the legendary Mother Cavallucci by weaving together the present and past to provide a striking portrait of belonging and memory. Joseph “Josie” Cavallucci (aka Mother Cavallucci) is a legendary New Hope drag queen that would host annual wedding celebrations in the 70s and 80s that served as fundraisers and a community party. Poetically merging archival photographs and present day footage from a community drag show, the film sparks conversation about the modern day issues Mother Cavallucci revolutionized.
Heels to Heal
playing with Queer As Punk
directed by Justice Khor 2024 20 min MALAYSIA
A musical documentary celebrating Malaysian queer resilience as three local drag queens heal deep wounds through what they do best—heels, makeup, music, and dance.
Community, Connection, and Visibility: Real Lives Shorts Program
This documentary shorts program brings together powerful true stories that illuminate LGBTQ+ courage, connection, and celebration around the world. From a trailblazing trans football club and a dancer reclaiming identity through movement, to a daughter forging fragile bonds with her donor father, these films explore resilience, family, and self-determination. Alongside a dazzling ode to queer Oz fandom and a forgotten fight for equality at Disneyland, we also meet two spirited seniors embracing freedom on the road. Together, these stories honor chosen community, the power of visibility, and the many ways we create home, history, and joy on our own terms.
We'll Go Down in History
directed by Cameron Richards, Charlie Tidmas 2025 25 min UK
WE’LL GO DOWN IN HISTORY tells the story of TRUK United, a grassroots, proudly trans football club. Filmed over two years, it captures the team’s highs and lows on and off the pitch as they create a safe haven for their community in the face of rising transphobia.
Dance Like Everyone's Watching
directed by Ashlea Hingston 2025 14 min AUSTRALIA
Our documentary follows Hayden, a trans Irish and pole dancer, who lives under a constant spotlight. He finds refuge on stage in two contrasting forms of dance, the rigid traditions of Irish dance and the liberating freedom of pole, expressing his gender on his own terms. Through his strength and advocacy, Hayden shines as a beacon of light for the trans community. At its heart, the film is an uplifting celebration of resilience and the joy of dancing to the beat of your own drum.
While We Still Have Time
directed by Ava Grimshaw-Hall 2025 15 min AUSTRALIA
While We Still Have Time is the debut from daughter-cum-documentary filmmaker, Ava Grimshaw-Hall, who embarks on a poignant journey to connect with her sperm donor father John, as he battles an aggressive cancer. Together, they explore their unique bond, seeking understanding and closure amidst life’s uncertainties.
Friends of Dorothy: The Yellow Brick Code
directed by Randy Schmidt 2025 22 min USA
Friends of Dorothy: The Yellow Brick Code is a dazzling short film exploring the queer legacy of Oz, from L. Frank Baum’s book to the camp of the 1939 MGM classic and the world of Wicked. Featuring drag superstar Ginger Minj and author Gregory Maguire, it celebrates Judy Garland as a gay icon and Oz as a haven for LGBTQ+ fans. A spirited tribute to chosen family, fabulousness, and the enduring magic of Oz.
Dancing in Tomorrowland
directed by Jakob Roston 2025 16 min USA
An unsung gay rights activist fights to overturn Disneyland’s ban on same-sex dancing in the early 1980s.
Two Traveling Aunties
directed by Christine Seow 2025 22 min SINGAPORE
Two spirited Singaporean seniors ditch conventional living for van life, embracing adventure, newfound freedom, and the joy of living on their own terms.
UPCOMING THIS WEEK
The Queer Film Institute and the Wicked Queer Film Festival present a special free screening of Annalise Ophelian's MAJOR!
Winner of the Audience and Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2016 WQFF, MAJOR! follows the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a 73-year-old Black transgender woman who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 40 years.
Miss Major’s personal story and activism for transgender civil rights, from mobile outreach and AIDS prevention to fighting the prison industrial complex, intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today. She is a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and was incarcerated at Attica months after the 1971 Uprising. Most recently, Miss Major has served as the executive director of the San Francisco-based Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a grassroots organization advocating for trans women of color in and outside of prison that is led by trans women of color.
Miss Major passed away on October 13th, 2025 in Little Rock, Arkansas, surrounded by family and friends after a recent hospitalization.
This is a free event but tickets are required.
7 PM, Bright Family Screening Room, Paramount Theatre, Emerson College.
This free screening is supported by a grant from the City of Boston’s Beyond Pride Grant Program. A special thanks to the Mayor's Office of LGBTQIA2S+ Advancement for their support.
For more information about Miss Major and to learn about ways to support her surviving partner and child please click here.
Free Screening! November 6th. Cambridge Public Library.
Fallen Fruit.
Dir. Chris Molina. 2024. 86 min.
Alex (Ramiro Batista), is a 20-something-year-old who begrudgingly moves back to his childhood home in Miami from New York after a breakup. Blinded by his optimism of returning to New York after the Summer, Alex underestimates the inevitable hurricane that is adulthood. As his Miami life takes its turns, Alex documents his version of rock bottom with an old camcorder found in his bedroom-turned-storage closet. Looking for an escape, he soon finds comfort in Chris (Austin Cassel), a random hookup, who shows him what a life in Miami might have to offer. Blinded by optimism and lust, the reality of adulthood comes flooding in, forcing him to begin to grow up.
This is a FREE screening co presented by MGH Sexual Health Center and the CHA Sexual & Reproductive Health Department
Wicked Queer and WQ: Docs are projects of the Queer Film Institute.
