October Events...

ImageOut: Rochester

ImageOut: Rochester

Thursday, 10 October 2024 until Sunday, 20 October 2024

ImageOut is a premier LGBTQ+ film festival in Rochester, NY. We present LGBTQ+ arts and cultural experiences showcasing films, other creative works and artists to promote awareness, foster dialogue and build community. ImageOut is recognized and respected as a major arts and cultural organization in New York State, celebrating and bringing visibility to LGBTQ+ artists and themed work.

This year, we are hosting our 32nd annual Fall Film Festival on October 10-20, 2024.

We are also hosting our 4th annual First Cut Film Festival on April 25-28, 2024.

ImageOut is an Iris Prize partner and is one of the few select LGBTQ+ film festivals from around the world who can outrightly nominate a film for the Iris Prize Shorts Film Competition in Cardiff, Wales. It is one of the richest shorts film competition in the world.

The festival awards Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Short. The audiences also vote for their favorites and Audience Prizes are given for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Short. All feature-length films receive a $500 cash prize along with a commemorative certificate. Short films receive $250 cash prize and certificate.

FLOWER CITY FLICKS: Short films by local and area filmmakers can also compete in a juried competition with the winner receiving $500 cash prize and certificate. This is to encourage LGBTQ+ filmmaking in Western New York. The annual awarding of this prize is subject to festival discretion and contingent upon number of submissions.

Short film submissions will also be considered for possible nomination to the Iris Prize competition in Cardiff, Wales.

2024 films...

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

103 minutes | 1994

Two drag queens and a transgender woman contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a town in the remote Australian desert. As they head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, the three friends come to the forefront of a comedy of errors, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, whilst widening comfort zones and exploring new horizons.

All Shall Be Well

93 minutes | 2024

When her partner Pat unexpectedly dies, Angie is left to worry about the flat in which the couple lived together for over 30 years. Supported by her chosen family, Angie begins a later-life journey into emancipation.

All the Men I Met but Never Dated

10 minutes | 2024

The closet is Ali's refuge, but it's a prison for Oliver - can love break through?

Along Came Love

125 minutes | 2023

On a beach, Madeleine, a waitress in a hotel restaurant, mother of a little boy, meets François, a rich and cultivated student. The force of attraction that pushes them towards each other is commensurate with the secrecy that each carries. If we know what Madeleine wants to leave behind by following this young man, we discover over time, what François is desperately trying to flee by mixing Madeleine's fate with his.

20 minutes | India | 2024

AMMA's PRIDE chronicles Valli's trials and tribulations as she watches her trans daughter Srija, fall in love, marry, and fight for state recognition of her marriage in a traditional small town in South India. When societal pressures push Srija’s marriage to the edge, Valli clings to the hope of a miracle.

27 minutes | Australia | 2024

Based on the real experiences of asexual and transgender writer-director Kylie Aoibheann, Asexy is a groundbreaking story of intimacy and desire which makes history as one of the very first short films by, for, and about “aces”. In the stark Southern Highlands of New South Wales, two young asexuals strip naked for a shared bath… but a shocking sexual awakening threatens to send their romantic evening, and entire future together, down the drain.

The Astronaut Lovers

116 minutes | 2024

A man who travels from Spain to Argentina for a vacation at his family home, where he becomes attracted to a childhood friend. But their relationship is full of misunderstandings as they try to hide it from family and friends.

14 minutes | Argentina | 2023

Veronica is known for falling in love with her middle aged teachers. One day, wondering why this is, she has an epiphany.

98 minutes | 2023

George, a 16-year-old who believes he is a future star musician, can't believe his luck when the son of a famous duo takes an interest in his music. This new arrival helps him rehearse for a talent show and leads both boys to learn from each other and grow closer.

24 minutes | Taiwan | 2023

Guang has difficulty focusing during school choir. He's distracted by something more enticing than singing. When a charismatic new student arrives, Guang's curiosity and sexual desire is taken to a new level.

16 minutes | United States | 2024

A coming of age queer love story about two teenage girls who unexpectedly fall in love catapulting them to freely express their sexual identity, in the limited time they have.

Carnage for Christmas

70 minutes | 2024

When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again. Lola must solve the case before her community is slaughtered. She's up against not only a psychotic killer, but a town haunted by secrets.

Chuck Chuck Baby

102 minutes | 2024

Helen's mundane life at the chicken factory takes an unexpected turn with Joanne's return. They were each other's secret teenage passion. As they fall in love, Helen's zest for life returns but Joanne faces something darker from her past.

99 minutes | 2024

A trans man returns to his hometown for the first time in years. On his journey, he confronts his relationship with his family, reunites with a first love, and discovers a newfound confidence in himself.

106 minutes | 2024

Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.

Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens

9 minutes | United States | 2024

"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.

22 minutes | United States | 2024

Two young men cross paths on the back roads of the American Southwest and despite their different backgrounds, find common ground along the Border. Emerald City is an lgbtqia+ story of two young men: one who has aged out of foster care where he was placed after his parents were deported and the other on his way to join the border patrol. Each isolated in their own way, both seek a sense of community, of belonging, and meet on the back roads of the American Southwest, where they develop a tentative friendship that gradually becomes more.

105 minutes | 2023

F.L.Y. is a funny slice-of-life movie about Max and Rafael, former partners, forced to quarantine together during the COVID pandemic. They haven't seen each other in five years, and now Rafael has a new boyfriend. With the added twist of Rafael pursuing a dream of becoming a drag superstar in LA, their reunion gets off to a bumpy start.

82 minutes | 2024

In the Georgian mountains, a cable car connects a village with a smaller town in the valley. Iva started working for the cable car as a conductor and is now in charge of handling the gondolas. While one gondola goes up to the village, the other goes down to the valley. Halfway down, the gondolas meet every half hour. This is exactly the moment when Iva and Nina, the conductor of the other gondola, meet each time. Where at the beginning only collegial greetings were exchanged, over time a flirtation develops. What follows is the big love and stress with the boss.

Grand Super Buffet

10 minutes | United States | 2023

Two Asian American college students struggle to reconnect at their favorite hometown Chinese buffet. Over the course of the evening, the two begin to question their friendship and why they still come to Grand Super Buffet.

17 minutes | Canada | 2024

Between loads of laundry at the corner laundromat, Cooper shares the tumultuous story of her gender reassignment journey.

I'm fine, mum (Estoy bien, mamá)

5 minutes | Spain | 2023

Blanca is a young illustrator who has just become independent and her life is a mess. But when her mother bombards her with questions, Blanca prefers to disguise reality to avoid worrying her. On the walls of her house, she invents an illusory life, drawn to life size. The story is narrated through phone messages and shared photos between mother and daughter. But on the other side of the mobile camera, Áurea, her partner, observes the lies weaving around their relationship.

8 minutes | Spain | 2024

One letter can tell more than a lifetime. Iván faces the moment of opening up to his recent date after returning from dinner. When they get home and everything seems ready for their first sexual encounter, Iván surprises Mónica with a letter that will reveal a reality that she ignored.

Last Days of Derby

12 minutes | United States | 2024

The Ithaca League of Women Rollers keeps the sport of roller derby alive in central New York. Co-captain Mary Morphosis reflects on her time with the team as she prepares to move across the country.

77 minutes | 2024

Since the 1970s, lesbians from around the world have been drawn to the island of Lesvos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. When they find paradise in a local village and carve out their own queer lesbian community, tensions simmer with the local residents. With both groups claiming ownership of lesbian identity, filmmaker Tzeli Hadjidimitriou—a native and lesbian herself—is caught in the middle and chronicles 40+ years of love, community, conflict, and what it means to feel accepted.

Like Wave Like Cloud

17 minutes | China | 2023

On a surfing trip, a female couple with an age difference attempts to navigate their uncertain relationship. Yet after an unexpected change in circumstance, they each begin to see themselves and their relationship in a new light.

86 minutes | 2023

In Oslo, 15-year-old Mahmoud is looking forward to the summer vacation. All that’s missing is a job, money or something to do. So when his uncle arrives on a visit from Pakistan, Mahmoud takes on the task of showing him everything the capital city has to offer. At the same time, his younger brother Ali lets him in on a very personal secret, leaving Mahmoud facing the biggest test of his life to keep the family together.

15 minutes | United States | 2024

Two estranged men reconnect in a jazz bar where they embark on a forbidden dance.

My Name Is Jonas

11 minutes | 2024

On his first day in rehab, a young gay songwriter struggling with meth addiction reveals a shocking truth: he's a prophet destined to save NYC from Judgment Day.

110 minutes | 2023

74-year-old Yamazaki, having been handsome as a young gay man, grows narcissistic of his beauty and is unable to bear his own aging. One night, Yamazaki meets a young and beautiful man named Leo. Having loved only himself during his long tumultuous life, Yamazaki falls in love with another person. Through this love, he finally begins to forge the relationships he failed to carve during his youth with his friends and family.

One Story at a Time: Celeste Lecesne

10 minutes | United States | 2024

In the docu-short One Story at a Time, Celeste Lecesne candidly shares how he not only escaped the confines of homophobia but combatted it by finding the courage to share his truth with the world. In a seemingly fateful chain of events, an off-broadway solo-show becomes an Academy Award-winning film that ultimately inspires The Trevor Project, the largest suicide prevention lifeline for LGBTQIA+ youth. Now, 25 years later, countless lives have been saved, and Celeste stays the course, inspiring the next generation to have the bravery to claim their truth and continue to change the world, one story at a time.

92 minutes | 2023

On the eve of a future-defining championship, promising volleyball player Sofia (17) is faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Seeking an illegal termination, she becomes the target of a fundamentalist group determined to stop her at any cost – but neither Sofia nor those who love her are willing to surrender to the blind fervor of the swarm.

13 minutes | Canada | 2024

Prism is a visually striking short experimental fiction film, following Miranda as she bursts from her beige cocoon and embraces her queer identity for the first time. In a hyper-sexual world, there are very few movies exploring what it feels like to be on the asexual spectrum. Director Gina Hara sets out to create refreshingly unique asexual representation on the silver screen, while taking inspiration from movies by Maya Deren and Roy Andersson.

The Queen of My Dreams

99 minutes | 2024

Azra is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined; from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.

Realness with a Twist

13 minutes | United Kingdom | 2023

A talented footballer is forced to battle between his secret passion for voguing and the fear of his teammate's disapproval.

18 minutes | United States, Spain | 2024

Nothing says "it's complicated" like breaking your crush's arm.

105 minutes | 2024

Sabbath Queen is a remarkable 20 year journey in the life of Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a 39th generation Orthodox rabbi — and drag queen.

16 minutes | United States | 2024

In the dystopian near future, a gay and a lesbian couple form an unlikely friendship as they flee the midwest for safety in New England. As rights are being rolled back and travel bans are going into effect, Shay and Quincy decide to leave their home in Ohio and travel East to a safety state where it is safe and legal to be queer. They meet up with another couple, Jacob and Michael, so together they can pose as straight married couples. Quincy takes an instant dislike to her new "husband", Jacob, as she resents depending on the men and pretending to be straight. As they face different threats on their journey, they form an unlikely friendship.

Sally Gearhart was a charismatic radical lesbian activist, author, and academic who spearheaded the 1970s and 80s lesbian feminist movement yet has been largely forgotten. But the film SALLY is not just a straightforward biography of this “hidden figure” deserving more recognition. It also shows the symbiotic relationship between spokeswomen like Sally and movements for social change, which are necessarily collective. And it highlights Sally’s captivating iconoclasm and contradictions: SALLY is both a wild lesbian safari and a timely and deeply moving meditation on the tensions inherent in revolutionary movements: ideological principles versus human realities, separatism versus mainstreaming, and throwing down the gauntlet versus reaching across the aisle. Ultimately, Sally and compatriots’ key contributions can help guide our current, urgent battles for social justice.

110 minutes | 2024

Max, a 25-year-old aspiring writer living in London, begins a double life as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel.

87 minutes | 2024

Three gay men, Jose, Charlie, and Rigg, plagued by trauma of their own, undergo an emotional journey toward healing to become resilient, overcome their past, and finally speak out.

11 minutes | United States | 2023

Stud Country, the largest queer country western line dancing event in America, was created to preserve Los Angeles' little known 50+ year queer line dancing tradition. Despite its success and fiercely committed community, the event is set to lose its venue due to gentrification.

Sunflowers at Night

23 minutes | 2024

Back in his hometown to celebrate the success of his latest book, David learns that his assistant and friend, Michael, is going to become a father. Shaken by this discovery, the young author must confront his truth and understand who he has become, especially when Sasha, a past love, suddenly reappears that same evening. Faced with these two surprises, David wonders if he can still employ the manipulative persona that he has built for himself?

5 minutes | United States | 2024

Through interactions with a self who has yet to exist, Constanze creates a time capsule for herself in 10 years exploring themes of aging, transition, and consciousness.

102 minutes | 2023

Suellen is a toll booth attendant who starts using her job to help a gang of thieves steal watches from people driving to the coast. But only for a noble cause: to send her son to an expensive gay conversion workshop.

Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania

12 minutes | United States | 2024

In the 1970s and 1980s, the small Pennsylvania town of New Hope was among a few safe havens outside of major cities for gay men to find community. Over 30 years later, the town’s legacy remained, but now for a different community: transgender women. Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania explores the untold story of legendary, weekend-long parties that saw hundreds of transgender women and self-identified crossdressers take over the town, traveling from all over the country to meet other people like them. Through both interviews and stunning animation sequences that utilize never-before-seen archival photography, audiences not only get a glimpse into the heyday of these events in the early 2010s but also the iconic gay bar The Raven which became the unlikely cornerstone of these weekends.

The Trash Goes Out on Tuesday

68 minutes | 2024

With heart and humor, actress and comedian Tuesday Thomas takes you on the journey of her life: growing up trans in the 70s when there was no road to follow, escaping a lunatic ex-husband, and surviving killer boobs.

11 minutes | United States | 2023

Volunteering at an AIDS clinic in 1985 Manhattan tests an uptown rebel’s benevolence.

22 minutes | Canada | 2024

Two women reckon with a broken beer industry in Canada and start a movement to change it.

97 minutes | 2025

Fourteen-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets his new neighbour of the same age, Alexander, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.