Salt Lake City
Utah
Damn These Heels Film Festival 2023
Arts and Entertainment
October 10, 2023
From: Utah Queer Film FestivalDamn These Heels Film Festival explores LGBTQ+ issues, ideas, and art through dramatic and documentary films from around the world.
The 2023 Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival features 20 feature films and 20 short films for our 20th anniversary. A pioneering event showcasing LGBTQ+ cinema and culture, the Festival takes place October 12-15, 2023, in person at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City, along with a selection of films available online starting October 15th. The Damn These Heels curated lineup of films has been selected by an LGBTQ+ programming committee that has cultivated the most impactful queer films for festival attendees this year.
This schedule shown below includes films, workshops, special guests (Miss Coco Peru!), and community events.
2023 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Thursday, October 12, 2023
7:00 PM
DILATING FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS
A whack, irreverent comedy about a black trans woman who tries to dilate, after four years of not dilating, to hook up IRL with her online boyfriend.
A RUN FOR MORE
Your Opening Night Film ticket includes access to the Opening Night Party!
Space is limited at the party and entry is not guaranteed.
Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter, but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas. Unfolding amidst an onslaught of trans legal attacks, A Run for More immerses viewers on Frankie’s journey as she finds her voice, questions her relationship to community, and tries to win an election. Shot over 4 years, A Run for More immerses viewers into Frankie’s unique campaign and the impact it has on her, the city, and the LGBTQ+ community in San Antonio.
Featuring an in-person Q&A with the film’s subject, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe, and local candidate, Sophia Hawes-Tingey, and Max Green from Equality Utah’s Political Action Committee, moderated by KUER’s RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio
Friday, October 13, 2023
1:30 PM
QUEENDOM
Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism, and put her life in danger.
4:00 PM
MILKWATER
Listless Milo becomes the surrogate for an older gay man she meets at a bar. As the pregnancy progresses, she must contend with the implications of their evolving relationship.
SHIFTING BODIES TO FLUID FICTION
A fluid examination of physical closeness, which matches itself in repetitions, reflections as well as irregularities.
7:00 PM
DTH 2023 SPECIAL GUEST: MISS COCO PERU
Damn These Heels is thrilled to welcome special guest, Miss Coco Peru, to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the Festival’s 20th anniversary celebration! With 33 years in the business as a working drag queen, Coco offers an evening of inspired storytelling and song followed by a moderated discussion that includes audience engagement.
9:00 PM
GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS
Parodying classic Hollywood films about Hollywood, Richard Day’s drag-drama showcase follows three actresses at various places on the Hollywood food chain navigating the minefield of love, aging, and ambition.
Saturday, October 14, 2023
10:00 AM
LIE WITH ME
Novelist Stéphane Belcourt returns to the city of his youth, where he meets Lucas, the son of his first love. Memories flood in: irrepressible desire, bodies coming together, a passion that must be silenced?
10:00 AM
WORKSHOP: VIDEO SELF-PORTRAIT (BEGINNER LEVEL)
In this hands-on workshop, participants will be guided through the process of making their own video self-portrait.
12:00 PM
COMMUNITY EVENT: BANNED BOOK READING & BOOK SWAP
Join Under the Umbrella Bookstore and Damn These Heels for a Banned Books Reading & Book Swap!
12:30 PM
SATURDAY SHORT FILM PROGRAM
A smart, varied, rare and risky collection of the best queer short films from around the world this year, this program includes Aikane, Greetings From Washington DC, Mama Doesn’t Want to Go to the Beach, Y, Stone, and Apayauq.
MAMA DOESN’T WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH
A transgender mother resumes her hormone treatment while her daughter begins puberty. Their bodies’ changes make going to the beach a new chore.
GREETINGS FROM WASHINGTON DC
A kaleidoscope of music, dance, stories and laughter shared at the first gay and lesbian rights march on Washington.
AIKANE
A wounded island warrior falls into a mysterious underwater world and is rescued by a valiant young man.
STONE
A young woman’s discovery that her father was a transgender woman makes her rethink her childhood.
APAYAUQ
Apayauq Reitan’s journey of gender, mental health, and purpose on her way to become the first out transgender woman to complete the legendary Iditarod sled dog race.
Y
An empty paper depicts a struggle between artistic composition and decomposition a woman reminisces on her tumultuous relationship with a former girlfriend.
1:30 PM
WORKSHOP: DIRECTING FILMS, FROM THE POV OF AN EDITOR (INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED LEVEL)
Workshop designed to give filmmakers tools to help them write, develop, and produce a project with the final product in mind.
3:00 PM
A teenage boy’s unexpected crush turns a camping trip into a weekend of self-discovery in this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy.
4:00 PM
DEFENDING DRAG DISCUSSION
Drag is under attack. You’ve seen the headlines. Increasingly intolerant forces are trying to erode access to this artform by reducing access to resources. What are your options? This discussion aims to provide empowering, informational, and inspiring ideas to help you safely and successfully host an event with or without community and civic support. Moderators and panelists will come from the drag community, legislative bodies, and contested drag show events. Join us for this thoughtful discussion to find out more!
Featuring conversation with local legends Gia Bianca Stephens and KayBye, with Micah Barrick from HBO’s St. George episode of We’re Here, moderated by Madazon Can-Can.
5:00 PM
QUEEN BEES
A vibrant documentary following local drag in the scene of Utah. Join a group of local SLC queens through their ups and downs, local pressures from a conservative environment, and celebrate the art of drag.
HEELS OVER WHEELS
The coexistence of a family of drag queens and a trans woman who travel by motor-home to Murcia to show their support for a child who was assaulted by another minor at the gates of his school.
5:30 PM
HIDDEN PRIDE – LIFE AT BYU AS A QUEER STUDENT
Five queer past and present BYU students tell of their struggle to live truthfully to themselves and their identities while trying to avoid academic and social backlash from the conservative Mormon University.
KOKOMO CITY
In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary KOKOMO CITY, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City.
7:30 PM
WE ALL DIE ALONE
The hubris of an inept conflict negotiator leads two warring gangs into an 8-way standoff. The consequences are both comical and tragic in this whip-smart short.
THE MATTACHINE FAMILY
Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love, but after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family.
8:00 PM
FIREWORKS
1982, in the heat of a Sicilian summer, two teenage boys, Gianni and Nino, meet and fall in love. The relationship soon becomes a topic of gossip in the small town and while the two dream of living together, their community is determined to stop it.
10:00 PM
THE RITZ
Evading a mob contract on his life, a straight man winds up hiding out at a gay bathhouse.
10:45 PM
THE SIXTH REEL
A down-on-his-luck movie collector discovers a legendary lost film and must deliver it to the right hands before it is lost forever.
POP-OFF
A nervous young gay man has an eye-popping first experience hosting a hookup.
Sunday, October 15, 2023
10:00 AM
HOLY MADONNA
Martina, a young novice, helps priest Francisco with funeral masses but must confront her own fears and past in the LGBTQ+ community after the death of drag queen Aphrodite, leading her to embrace love and authenticity.
WONDERFULLY MADE
As religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ people intensifies in the US and abroad, a team of creatives upends 1700 years of religious iconography by producing photo art depicting Jesus as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
10:30 AM
MUTT
Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past.
12:00 PM
QUEERING THE FILMMAKING PROCESS – A CONVERSATION
Join Damn These Heels and local queer filmmakers, Jack Hessler, Marissa Lila, and Amanda Madden, for a facilitated conversation about the importance of not just telling queer stories but queering the filmmaking process itself.
12:30 PM
1946: THE MISTRANSLATION THAT SHIFTED CULTURE
While uncovering the origins of homophobia of the conservative church, a gay seminary scholar and a straight activist make a shocking discovery: An erroneous translation in the Bible that has been weaponized against the LGBTQIA+ community ever since.
1:00 PM
SUNDAY SHORT FILM PROGRAM
The Sunday Short Film Program includes Insta Gay, Shafted, A Spell For Queer Home, Happy BirthGay
HAPPY BIRTHGAY
A mom throws her son a grandiose surprise BirthGay party, celebrating a year of his coming out of the closet.
SHAFTED
This standard romantic comedy about finding love in an elevator falls apart when the filmmaker is forced to step out of the fantasy and decide whether he believes in the story he’s telling.
A SPELL FOR QUEER HOME
Braiding together embodied exploration, spell songs, stories and wisdom from queer and trans folks across the country, the film asks- what does it mean to be at home as a queer person?
INSTA GAY
A gay millennial reels after breaking-up with a popular influencer.
3:00 PM
GOLDEN DELICIOUS
When basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention in this classic coming-of-age drama set in the digital age.
3:30 PM
SHOW HER THE MONEY
Featuring rock-star female investors who invest in diverse women entrepreneurs with innovations that will change the world, Show Her The Money reminds us that money is power, and women need it to achieve true equality.
Date: October 12-15, 2023
Location: Rose Wagner Theater in Downtown Salt Lake City
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