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San Francisco Transgender Film Festival
Wednesday, 13 November 2024 until Sunday, 24 November 2024
Founded in 1997, the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) builds a strong and diverse community through the power of transgender cinema. SFTFF is the world’s first and longest-running Transgender Film Festival, and co-presents year-round screenings in collaboration with other LGBT film festivals. Our programs strengthen awareness of transgender identity, history and culture, support emerging and established independent filmmakers working with transgender themes and provide a dynamic and inclusive forum for dialogue about local and global transgender issues.
2024 films...
Program 1: Locally Brewed
Transiversary
Hayden, a young trans suicide hotline operator, is excited to celebrate their anniversary after their shift. However, their boss calls and forces them to work throughout the night. As the shift goes on Hayden begins to receive unsettling calls.
Director
Kamia Gutierrez
Year
2024
Fool’s Gold
Become golden as trans-vaquero Oliver Gold (Che Ortiga) sings his way through heartbreak and queer revelations of self worth in the instant country hit: Fool’s Gold by the time traveling boyband: Turnback Boyz!
Director
Che Ortiga
Year
2023
En Memoria
Roberto Fatal [they/them/ellos] is a filmmaker and storyteller. They come from Rarámuri, Genízaro, and Spanish ancestors and Mexican-American culture. Their Queer, gender fluid, Mestize/Mixed identity informs the sci-fi films they make. Their debut feature script, ELECTRIC HOMIES, was on the 2022 GLAAD/Blacklist for best unproduced scripts list and in 2024 the script won an SF Film Rainin grant as well as a development grant from the Sundance Film Institute Indigenous Film Lab.
Director
Roberto Fatal
Year
2024
Navel Gazer
Pregnancy-phobic Kora (they/them) does everything to be a good friend, including in supporting their roommate, Diana (she/her), through her challenges in trying to become pregnant. When Kora receives a generous check and thank you note for an egg donation from a mysterious fertility clinic called Fertile Crescent, Diana helps Kora investigate – except Diana doesn’t return. Kora is forced to enter Fertile Crescent alone, and is ensnared by a motherhood-enforcing society that only sees Kora for their idealized healthy body. With Kora’s eggs harvested and no exit in sight, Kora is forced to confront their fears around femininity and fertility.
Director
Shirin Mori
Year
2024
TOWARD
Danced upon cracked earth under wind-blown skies, TOWARD is a short dance film by transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey that uplifts how we can lean into and move toward that which we most desire. Performed by Sean Dorsey and Raúl Torres-Bonilla.
Director
Sean Dorsey
Year
2022
No More Longing
Seven years after moving from Brazil to California to pursue his love of music, and four years after starting testosterone, Jaime Jobim searches for his new voice.
Director
Connor Lee O’Keefe
Year
2022
Ghosts Cross State Lines
A surrealist mystery film. A trans woman is trying to outrun dangerous forces from her past. The question is: will she make it? Stay tuned.
Director
Shawna Virago
Year
2024
Saturn Risin9
Queer performance artist and musician Saturn Risin9 returns home to the Bay Area to share their journey of perseverance-centering self discovery, healing and creative expansion poetically told through documentary, dance, visual narrative, and performance.
Director
Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater
Year
2024
Program 2: Documentaries
Earth to KB
Earth to KB is a documentary portrait of KB Brookins: a Black, queer, and trans writer and artist from Texas. The film explores the expansive worlds within KB’s poetry, as well as intimate moments shared with their wife, friends, and community in Austin. KB performs selected poems from their collections, Freedom House, and, How To Identify Yourself With a Wound, within the film.
Director
Em Shapiro
Year
2024
Lavender Outlaws
Damon Beirne is a Brooklyn-based documentary director and editor from Richmond, Virginia. His latest short film, Lavender Outlaws, premiered at WickedQueer, and received an audience award from the TRANSlations festival and will screen at AmericanaFest in Nashville this fall. His upcoming feature documentary, Notes on N.O.P.E. is on track to be released in 2026 and is currently being workshopped around Brooklyn. He is an regular contributor at the Trans Film Collective and serves on the MIX NYC archival comittee.
Director
Damon Beirne
Year
2024
MY FIERCE AUNT BIANCA
While planning a birthday party for her late aunt Bianca “Exotica” Maldonado, María José Maldonado revisits the past in order to celebrate and correct Bianca’s legacy as a transgender woman.
Director
María José Maldonado, Latavia Alicia Young
Year
2024
Finding My Voice
This short student documentary is a crossed portrait of two transgender women working on their voice to make it sound more feminine and to match the new person they have become.
Director
Rouven Gueissaz
Year
2024
TRANS ALCHEMY (ALQUIMIA TRANS)
“ALQUIMIA TRANS” is a short documentary that delves into the unique experiences of trans masculine activists across Latin America. Through poignant narratives from individuals in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Puerto Rico, the film offers a compelling testimony to the challenges and triumphs encountered by trans masculine individuals in the region.
Director
Félix Endara
Year
2024
Chosen Family
Wes “Byeeeeee Yonic” Haack is a trans man and member of Bay Area Derby, aka BAD, a nonprofit roller derby league that has created a community rarely found in sports: Almost every one of the 20 skaters on BAD’s three teams is queer. Many are trans, an identity that laws being enacted across the country aim to push out of many sports.
Director
Salgu Wissmath
Year
2023
Love Don’t Bully
Middle School students are assigned studying systematic bullying and then decide to make their own film.
www.themesafoundation.org
Director
Yoyo Anchondo
Year
2023
Program 3: Music and animation
Fool’s Gold
Become golden as trans-vaquero Oliver Gold (Che Ortiga) sings his way through heartbreak and queer revelations of self worth in the instant country hit: Fool’s Gold by the time traveling boyband: Turnback Boyz!
Director
Che Ortiga
Year
2023
The Little Piratemaid
The Little Piratemaid is an animated short about what it takes to discover yourself as a trans person in a cis-normative world—even if that world is one of pirates and mermaids!
Director
Luke Beatrice
Year
2024
Ether Or
Ether cannot cope with the surreal chaos of the grocery store.
Director
Zander Constien
Year
2023
Butch Dyke
Transgender darkwave and industrial artist, A.S. Valentino’s music video “Butch Dyke” hits hard with a dark and sexy swagger. The music video, shot and edited by videographer/creative producer Cai Indermaur, features a kaleidoscopic carousel of shots of various butch and masculine-of-center people. The track was recorded, produced, and mixed by Valentino and mastered by Jessica Thompson (Bay Area-based, GRAMMY-nominated mastering engineer).
Director
Cai Indermaur
Year
2024
Your Part
Your Part is a strong condemnation of my extended family for not reaching out after my parents rejected me for being trans. It doesn’t mince words and gets real about the harms caused when well meaning folks don’t stand up for oppressed people against the violent status quo. The music video was shot at a catholic graveyard in Oakland, California.
Director
Nyah Edington
Year
2024
Gemini
Sarah and her two cats go about their separate lives. The cats have strange dreams about their desires, and Sarah develops an unshakable paranoia that something is wrong with them. Sarah’s paranoia bleeds into her social life, and her two cats have their dreams come true.
Director
Jamie Griffiths
Year
2024
No More Longing
Seven years after moving from Brazil to California to pursue his love of music, and four years after starting testosterone, Jaime Jobim searches for his new voice.
Director
Connor Lee O’Keefe
Year
2022
Wish You Were Here (Si Estuvieras Aqui)
An old cargo driver, named Papi, carries asteroid cargo deep outside our universe alongside his trusty sidekick, Pollito. One day, he receives space mail from someone from his past, causing the old man to panic. Intrigued, Pollito convinces Papi to share more about the curious mail which leads to a musical adventure into Papi’s memories. Together, we discover Papi’s emotional relationship to his child as well as his questionable treatment of them once he realized their true gender. Does this father still have time to redeem himself?
Director
Isa Moreno
Year
2024
Program 4: International
Daisy: Prophet of the Apocalypse
‘Daisy: Preacher of the Apocalypse’ is a mockumentary/experimental film that follows a radical Trans preacher and her cult following. After an encounter with a queer goddess atop a mountain, Daisy embarks on a journey to prophesy the end of the world, and save as many people as she can. She promises salvation for those who denounce heterosexuality, resulting in their ultimate rebirth as monsters in the New Queer World.
Director
Venus Patel
Year
2023
Stone
When Tess learns of her estranged father’s death, she travels to the funeral hoping for nothing more than some closure and the chance to meet the woman who stole him from her. Immediately blindsided by the revelation that her father was a transgender woman, Tess starts to wonder what else has been kept from her, turning to her mother for answers. Realising that nothing is as it seems, Tess must challenge not only everything she has been told about her childhood but, most importantly, her understanding of what it meant to be a father.
Director
Jake and Hannah Graf
Year
2023
TRANS ALCHEMY (ALQUIMIA TRANS)
“ALQUIMIA TRANS” is a short documentary that delves into the unique experiences of trans masculine activists across Latin America. Through poignant narratives from individuals in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Puerto Rico, the film offers a compelling testimony to the challenges and triumphs encountered by trans masculine individuals in the region.
Director
Félix Endara
Year
2024
Nest
A reluctant mother-to-be, struggling to accept the pregnancy she has to endure, has a deeply shocking labour experience. But when faced with her husband’s disgust at what she has birthed, she’s forced to take drastic measures to reconcile with who she has become.
Director
Willem Koller
Year
2024
I Feel (For) You [Los siento]
We embark on a journey in which the deepest feelings of a group of trans individuals will guide an intimate and emotional relationship between two trans people through their experiences.
Director
Bella Cintra
Year
2024
man enough
In the midst of a familial conflict sparked by transphobia, Caleb navigates the complexities of social prejudices, acceptance and unconditional love.
Director
Beru Tessema
Year
2024
Program 5: Mélange of Shorts
one | another
“one | another” follows an evening in Los Angeles where Violet, a musician, and Frankie, a model, meet for the first time at a house show. With both of them struggling to balance their non-binary identities with the expectations of their friends, families, and careers, the two find comfort in their shared experiences as the night goes on.
Director
A.B. Oddman & Rogelio Salinas
Year
2024
Body Varial
In a series of vignettes, a young transmasculine adult named Remy goes about their daily life while recovering from top surgery. Afraid of judgement from others, they often have a hard time opening up about themself and being honest as to why they are really “injured”. This leads to Remy feeling isolated around various people in their life, be it their mom, Lynn, or a random person at the skatepark. However, the one person Remy can always count on is their roommate Will, who supports Remy on their journey without judgement. Throughout the film, Remy goes through many ups and downs, as they slowly begin feeling more confident in their body. This is only just the beginning of Remy’s journey.
Director
Audrey Kerridge
Year
2023
The Treadmill Switcher
A woman who—like everyone else at her gym—walks on the same treadmill every day is fascinated by a person with a unique workout routine. When that person switches treadmills and runs directly next to the woman, she begins questioning their destiny in her life and the monotony of her own routine.
Director
LeeAnne Lowry
Year
2023
all the words but the one
Maya and Santiago haven’t seen each other since their explosive relationship ended years ago, so neither is expecting to be seated across from each other at a professional dinner with their new partners. Maya teeters through a minefield of delicate dynamics as she relives her most painful and electric memories. Fighting dissociation and embodied trauma, she must stay focused on showing up for her partner, Jio. As both couples contend with their realities, the past and present collide and Maya faces Santiago at last.
Director
Nava Mau
Year
2024
Love More
This is a film that dives into the depths of darkness. I created this during a time where I felt imprisoned in both my body and mind. Unknowing of how to navigate a long journey of addiction recovery and just beginning my transition. It was a darkness I had not known before. No light at the the end of the tunnel.
Director
Hayden J Frederick and Pierre Marais
Year
2020
Saturn Risin9
In a poetic mix of dance, visual narrative, and documentary, Saturn Risin9 follows queer performance artist Saturn on their return home to the Bay Area. We follow their journey of perseverance centering self discovery, affirmation, healing and creative expansion poetically told through fantastical imagery. Using diary style interviews and talk-alongs intercut with high fantasy staged performance, the film portrays Saturn’s creative transformation through their dreams, trials, career and progression.
Director
Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater
Year
2024
Butch Dyke
Transgender darkwave and industrial artist, A.S. Valentino’s music video “Butch Dyke” hits hard with a dark and sexy swagger. The music video, shot and edited by videographer/creative producer Cai Indermaur, features a kaleidoscopic carousel of shots of various butch and masculine-of-center people. The track was recorded, produced, and mixed by Valentino and mastered by Jessica Thompson (Bay Area-based, GRAMMY-nominated mastering engineer).
Director
Cai Indermaur
Year
2024
Falling
A visual dance interpretation of the song, “Falling” by Nenci.
Director
Mers Tran
Year
2021
Program 6: Shorts Grab Bag
Hey Man
Eli is a queer transmasculine person who starts driving for a rideshare company to pay for top surgery. He quickly learns that he has to pass as a cisgender male for emotional and physical safety. The problem is that he wasn’t socialized as a male and lacks the nuance of being a ‘man’. His nightly route starts by driving his best friend Niki, a professional dancer, to the strip club where she works. With each new passenger, Eli’s performance of gender shifts and unfolds. The film explores the ways in which queer and trans people survive in the gig economy and navigate gender socialization.
Director
Kai Tillman
Year
2022
Fresh Ace of Bel Air
Ace Fusion combines Bachata culture, Queer Culture and Afro Latin DJ. With Ace’s favorite TV show growing up.
Director
Sean Bautista and Ace Fusion
Year
2024
SKIN
A woman wakes up, noticing her facial skin is peeling off. In fear, she walks up to a mirror to look. Simultaneously, in a world on the other side of the mirror, a man covered in ice and snow, wakes up. “The ice man” represents a part of her identity she has neglected. He reaches out to her through the mirror to assist her transformation. As her old skin sheds, a new identity emerges.
Director
Leo Behrens
Year
2023
Claude
“Claude” is a window into the life of Her, a trans woman struggling with connection. We meet Her as she prepares for a date, addressing an unseen figure in her room as she gets ready. When she leaves, it’s revealed that she’s been speaking to her stuffed rabbit Claude, the constant in her life and the one who sees her completely and in her most vulnerable moments. What ensues is a mix of the mundane and the turbulent, the pieces of her life that can only be seen by Claude in her bedroom. From emotional hangovers and crippling isolation to tender video calls with her mother who lives far away. Enter boyish Him, presumably a lover from Her past. As he slips back easily into Her life, watching their seemingly comfortable rapport, Claude witnesses his owner try to balance life, pleasure, and even violence. Never seeing anyone’s face besides Claude’s unanimated one, the audience is invited to really lean in and pay attention to a woman and a story that often goes untold.
Director
Finola Hughes
Year
2023
Walking Progress
Rowyn Judd’s journey of self-discovery and transformation unfolds through dance and music. Before and after top surgery, Rowyn’s movement expresses the complex emotions of gender affirmation and the joy of reclaiming his body. Walking Progress is a moving testament to the power of trans resilience. Through intimate choreography and an original song, Rowyn’s journey unfolds, capturing the vulnerability and ultimate triumph of living authentically.
Director
Fox Fisher
Year
2021
Monster Cookie
Frankie wants to pay their rent, go to work, and be a good roommate but is hijacked by their love for weed.
Director
John e. Kilberg
Year
2023
Program 7: Adult Program 18+
Girls Don’t Like Boys, Girls Like Trucks & Leather
Mira Blush has had it up to here with little wannabe bitches and bird nerd himbos. She needs a real man to fuck her and Mushy just isn’t up to task…but pickup trucks and leather jackets have been known to help even the most desperate dipshits get some ass and this one is no exception.
Director
Cat Gold
Year
2024
The Farmer’s Daughter
It doesn’t take Ashley long to find good girl Manon hoeing on the farm and it comes as no surprise that Ashley just can’t seem to keep their cock in their jong.
Director
Cat Gold
Year
2023
I Really Want To Get Fucked
A nonbinary transmen of colors journey and reflections through sex work, trauma without being able to get penetrated and the complications this bring with it.
Director
Robin Astera
Year
2024
A Quick Fix
Housewife April Flores’ washing machine breaks down. When dykey plumber Manon Praline arrives, April turns on her bimbo charm, and reveals her real intentions. Soon Manon is sliding into April’s velvet robe, and she wants that wrench where?!
Director
Manon Praline, Oran Julius, April Flores
Year
2024
Dismantle Me
A comical proposition turns into an arousing powerplay when a smoldering-hot trans woman helps a heartbroken trans man tidy his messy bedroom.
Associate produced by Lilly Wachowski, Dismantle Me is a dark comedy-romance by trans people of colour, and created with a majority transgender and non-binary cast and crew. Made in collaboration with Trans+ On Screen.
Director
Max Disgrace
Year
2023
No Man Like Me
So you’re bicurious…. Big deal. Get online, you can be sucking dick or getting fucked within an hour – if that’s what you really want to do. It’s one of the easiest things on earth to do. …But instead you’re here with me. Let’s explore why that is.
Director
Jaq Quicksilver
Year
2023
3Some Collage
3Some Collage is a short movie that centers on the personal experiences and identities of three non-heteronormative individuals: a bisexual gender fluid individual, a cisgender gay man, and a bisexual transgender male. Through a stylized and artistic approach utilizing black and white cinematography, the film delves into the sensualities and gender expressions of its protagonists.
The film’s use of monochromatic visual storytelling enhances its aesthetic sophistication and stylization, while the cinematography’s intimacy and rawness allows the audience to form a deep emotional connection with the characters and their desires.
Director
No Pic No Chat
Year
2022
OCTOPUSS
OCTOPUSS is an apnea dive into wet fantasies, hot fountains and penetrating tentacles. Here, the fluids have flowed. Perhaps they are still flowing. A timeless immersion, OCTOPUSS travels in the abyss of our imaginary.
Director
Oil Productions (Mat* Avogadro, Arunà Canevascini, Julie Folly, Taje Mahalia Giotto, Alizée Quinche, Olivia Schenker)
Year
2022