July Events...

Reel Queer

Reel Queer

Kaleidoscope LGBT Film Festival

Thursday, 21 August 2025 until Sunday, 24 August 2025

The Kaleidoscope LGBTQ+ Film Festival is a celebration of LGBTQ+ films, filmmakers, and stories from around the world. With a mission to provide innovative, unique, and diverse programming we hope to engage the hearts and minds of audiences in Arkansas and the surrounding region.

Kaleidoscope observes the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community by presenting stories that reflect, document, and celebrate LGBTQ+ lives truthfully and with respect. The festival demonstrates the power of storytelling and filmmaking to transform lives of those inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community.

Entries are eligible for Audience & Juried Awards in the various categories for Narrative and Documentary Features and Shorts.

Awards for Feature Films
Specific Juried and Audience Awards TBD

Awards for Short Films

GRAND JURY AWARDS
Diamond Award
Best U.S. Narrative Short Film
Best International Narrative Short Film
Best Documentary Short Film
Best Student Short Film

AUDIENCE AWARD
Audience Award for Best Short Film

2025 films...

12 minutes | United States | 2025

Who wouldn't wanna be one of the girls?

17 minutes | United States | 2024

A young man invents a female alter ego to become closer to his roommate, a high school dropout who dreams of leaving their small town to become a breakout star.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

98 minutes | United States | 2024

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story reveals the extraordinary rise, sudden disappearance, and resurgence of trailblazing Black trans soul singer Jackie Shane.

98 minutes | United States | 2025

Visionary artist Rashaad Newsome merges art, AI, and performance to create a multimedia tribute to vogueing and Black queer culture. Invited to stage a show at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, he reclaims the space from its white military past, transforming it into a Black queer utopia. Joined by global collaborators and Being—an AI ‘digital griot’—Newsome’s creative journey unfolds in this immersive documentary. Through striking visuals and storytelling, the film celebrates community, resilience, and the power of art to heal, unite, and spark liberation.

107 minutes | Brazil, France, Netherlands | 2025

After being released from a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo, without any contact from his parents and lacking the resources to rebuild his life. During a visit to a porn theater, he encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving. Gradually, their relationship turns into a conflicting passion, oscillating between exploitation and protection, jealousy and complicity.

16 minutes | United States | 2024

A former barrel racing champion, haunted by a tragic fall, must find the courage to ride again after forming an unexpected bond with a young woman who harbors a secret of her own.

17 minutes | United States | 2024

Set against the backdrop of Desolation Canyon, UT, Mikah Meyer, a world-record traveler and LGBTQ+ advocate, reflects with three close friends and his mentor, Larry Edwards, on their stories and the power of mentorship within the queer community. As a child, Mikah believed he could never have a successful life AND be publicly out and gay. When he moved to college and met Larry, his openly gay choir professor, a lifelong mentorship was born. Amidst conversations and joy along the river, we understand the power and importance of their friendship. As Larry enters what he calls the ‘final chapter’ of his life, he reflects on the lifelong fight for openness and vulnerability within the queer community, and through the desolation of nature, finds contentment in a job well done.

11 minutes | United States | 2025

A young teen questions his place in the world after one of his friends kills a deer.

15 minutes | United States | 2024

A late-blooming trans woman grapples with a life-altering, assigned-male-at-birth Trans specific dilemma, and with the help of her besties, navigates the complexities of this debacle as she defines her womanhood on her own terms.

Disruption: Tactics

3 minutes | United States | 2024

Inspired by The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, the film reflects on what it means to leave behind rural sanctuaries—fraught with both nostalgia and rejection—for cities that promise inclusion yet remain dominated by patriarchal control. Through vignettes of disruption, it examines the power of queer presence to unsettle the status quo, whether in the quiet intimacy of a kiss or the defiant rhythm of bodies in motion. These acts, unintentional provocations, reveal the fragile veneer of tolerance in spaces shaped by the heterosexual men who resist change.

13 minutes | United States | 2025

In the fall of 2020, Hayden and Avery's friendship is tested when a hot new e-boy comes to play on the mini-golf course where they work.

8 minutes | Switzerland, United Kingdom | 2024

Sam's search for identity gets interrupted by a mysterious neighbourhood fox. Together they embark on a magical journey to the attic to discover the surprising things they might have in common, and how to celebrate the ways in which they differ.

20 minutes | United States | 2024

A coming-out story of a second-generation Bengali-American who desires to live life fully as a man in a trans-phobic immigrant culture.

12 minutes | United States | 2025

And yet the past follows

106 minutes | United States | 2025

A lush 16mm fever dream that reimagines The Fool’s Journey of the Major Arcana of the Tarot through the story of AP—a rosy young woman seeking salvation from a curse. She is promised by not just one, but multiple psychics, that it can be lifted for a cool $1000 and a simple teeny tiny sacrifice of a baby lamb. So she makes money the only way she knows how: scootering her way deeper into the night, and into the uncouth underbelly of Trashtown. In this irreverent and sexy dark comedy, AP collides with a series of larger-than-life characters and absurd situations—each more unhinged than the last—as she winds her way towards the inevitable. Fucktoys is a campy romp that explores the intersection of intimacy, exploitation, and class in a pre-millenium alternate universe; a rich collage of humid industrial landscapes and pastel cotton candy skies.

12 minutes | Canada | 2024

Rhys, a dedicated people pleaser, winds up at their boss’ gender reveal party with their two partners. The trans throuple soon realize that they are dealing with more than they were prepared for and their ability to survive the event comes into question.

20 minutes | United States | 2024

Gert’s Boys centers on Cindy “Gert” McMullin, an original volunteer and co-founder of The

13 minutes | United States | 2024

A 1950s Southern teen questions her faith and sexuality on the eve of her baptism when urged to repent her feelings for her best friend.

I'm the Most Racist Person I Know

13 minutes | Australia | 2025

When Lali unexpectedly ends up on a date with another woman of colour for the first time, it unravels prejudices she has long ignored.

6 minutes | United States | 2024

A gay couple’s relationship is put to the test when their reality no longer aligns with their fantasy.

17 minutes | Brazil | 2024

João and Vitor used to be paramours but haven't spoken to each other for 30 years. At 70, they reunite and reconcile past, present, and a possible future after the passing of Vitor's wife, at a moment when so much of their lives seem to have reached an end.

15 minutes | United States | 2025

A young gay man wrestles with the end of a life-changing romance.

96 minutes | United States | 2025

A promising undercover officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies professional orders when he falls in love with a target.

Queens of Drama

114 minutes | Belgium, France | 2024

It's 2055 and Steevyshady, an obsessive Mimi Madamour stan, tells us of their idol’s mad destiny from the very peak of her career in 2005, all the way down to the pits of hell, a downfall brought about by her love story with punk icon Billie Kohler. Over the course of half a century we follow these drama queens as they top the charts and set sail on the course of mad queer love.

105 minutes | Denmark | 2025

Johan is a completely ordinary young man who keeps all doors open when it comes to both love and sex. He has landed a job as a receptionist at Adonis, Copenhagen's only gay sauna, where he not only works but also gathers his very personal experiences and encounters with the sauna's other guests. For Johan, the city is like a boundless paradise of opportunities with bars, parties, and one-night stands, but it is only when he meets the transgender William that he experiences love up close. The love between the two is put to a tough test, as is often the case when living in a society governed by rigid ideas about gender, love, and identity.

15 minutes | United States | 2024

When a widowed grandmother is challenged by her gay grandson to start online dating, she must reignite her passion for life and overcome the painful memories of losing her late husband if she hopes to find love once again.

Summer's Camera

83 minutes | South Korea | 2025

After her father passed away, Summer stopped taking photos. One day, she falls for Yeonwoo, the school's soccer star, and takes her picture with her late father's camera. When she develops the film, she finds mysterious photos of her father's high school lover. In these photos, Summer uncovers a secret about her father. Will she be able to pursue her first love and uncover her father's hidden truth?

9 minutes | United States | 2024

Baby gay Emma is worried that her lack of experience with female partners will ruin an upcoming romantic evening. To avoid certain humiliation she uses advanced VR technology to rehearse her date over and over, with mixed results.

12 minutes | United States | 2024

A Love Story That Sparked A Movement

What's Left Unsaid

11 minutes | United States | 2025

Jaden, a 17-year-old girl, is left reeling after discovering her mother, Elle, has overdosed. Forced to move in with her grandfather, Jaden struggles to process the emotions surrounding her mother. Jaden’s grief manifests as feelings of isolation and avoidance. Her grandfather recognizes Jaden’s unhealthy coping mechanisms. Through the exploration of difficult topics like maternal relationships, drug addiction, and death, Jaden must come to terms with her reality.