CinemaQ Film Festival Celebrates Fifteen Years of LGBTQ+ Films

Summer is always a busy, exciting season for Denver Film‘s Keith Garcia. It’s the time of year when the nonprofit runs some of its biggest programs and generally welcomes some of the biggest openings at its home theater, the Sie FilmCenter, where Garcia is artistic director. But for him, there’s no event more meaningful than celebrating the August birthday of CinemaQ, the LGBTQ+ film festival that he founded as a monthly series nearly two decades ago.

The festival turns fifteen this year with a run from Thursday, August 10, through Sunday, August 13. It was born in 2006 when Garcia, then programming manager, found himself with a growing stockpile of noteworthy queer films from around the world and no dedicated platform for them. He took the initiative to do something about it.

“It actually started about three years before our full-fledged festival as a monthly film series,” he remembers. “At the time, I was discovering so much new queer content that I promised to play at least one queer film a month until I ran out.” Not surprisingly, that never happened, leading him to create the festival version in 2009.

Under Garcia’s stewardship, CinemaQ has become fundamental to Denver Film and one of the high points on its busy calendar of mini-fests and focused film series. The festival lives where the LGBTQ+ rainbow and the cinematic palette meet, and it fully embraces the vibrancy and diversity radiating from that intersection. At every annual celebration, film-goers can see highly anticipated work from exciting new voices, thoughtful documentaries that explore identity from a wide variety of perspectives, and classic films that convey the art and struggle of earlier generations.

Garcia has curated another strong lineup this year, characterized by particularly juicy horror options (and one of the biggest guests the fest has ever nabbed: Udo Kier) as well as some equally great intimate documentaries. This edition of the festival also welcomes many directors in person, including Sav Rodgers, Sharon “Rocky” Roggio and the Saint Drogo creative team. Non-film activities include two themed panels with filmmakers and a “Hangover Ice Cream Social and Marketplace” with treats from Little Man Ice Cream and goods from local queer vendors.

As much as it is a joyous celebration of community, CinemaQ also shines a light on contemporary LGBTQ+ battles and issues. Many of the community’s struggles received an extra turn of the screw during the Trump years, and the event’s topics then and now frequently align with current headlines, which give further context to the films. And that backdrop, considered over the festival’s fifteen-year history, can sometimes be dispiriting for its creator.

“Unfortunately, things actually feel worse for our community, like we stepped into a time machine back to some portion of the Bush era,” Garcia says. “Regardless, visibility of our community through these films is key, and that hasn’t changed since we started. That visibility is needed now more than ever.”

He also sees hope in the current crop of queer filmmakers who share his own passion and commitment. “That’s the one place where growth has occurred,” he notes. “There are more active queer voices telling their stories and putting out an array of amazing stuff. We’re very lucky in that regard.”

It’s certainly hard to think of a more amazing recent plot than that of CinemaQ’s opening-night film, Bottoms, which gets the festival rolling at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 10, with the misadventures of two high school misfits (Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri) who are seeking to lose their virginity to cheerleaders by starting an all-girl fight club. It’s a raunchy journey into subjects often left to “boy movies” – teen horniness, sexual hijinks and violence – from director Emma Seligman. Seligman co-wrote the movie with Sennot, who was the star of Seligman’s debut feature, Shiva Baby, and one of the most likable presences in last year’s delightful neo-slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies.

The other would-be pugilist is Edebiri, a multi-talented performer who is on something of a tear this year, popping up all over the comedic, television and film landscapes. Bottoms is just one of her twelve credits so far in 2023, including The Bear, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Black Mirror and Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part II. She’s also a comedy scribe, having penned an episode for What We Do in the Shadows’ fourth season last year.

On Friday, August 11, there’s a contrasting match-up between a bittersweet nonfiction film and a low-key simmering thriller. Last Dance, by Coline Abert, which showcases legendary New Orleans drag queen Lady Vinsantos, asks: What happens when a queen decides to hang up her heels? The French-produced documentary, which screens at 6:30 p.m., poses piercing questions about the boundaries between the spotlight and the backstage, as Vinsantos decides to say farewell to her popular persona with a final performance in Paris.

Saint Drogo, on the other hand, evokes comparisons to suspense classics from the ’60s and ’70s. The film, which screens at 9:30 p.m., follows gay couple Adrian and Caleb (Michael J. Ahern and Brandon Perras, who also co-wrote and directed the film), who are attempting to repair their relationship with a stay in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but find an ever-deepening (and darkening) mystery surrounding Caleb’s ex, Isaac.

Saint Drogo is one of several strong horror-tinged (okay, maybe all-out splashed) titles screening at this year’s fest, alongside the Saturday, August 12, screenings of Jennifer Reeder’s teen-horror Perpetrator (1:30 p.m.) and a retrospective of Paul Morrissey’s Andy Warhol-produced reimaginings of Dracula and Frankenstein from the 1970s (6 p.m.). LGBTQ+ representations within that genre are also the theme of a panel titled “The Deep Roots and Dark Branches of Queer Horror,” which takes place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, with the Saint Drogo directorial team discussing the film as well as the genre’s past and future.

The double feature of Morrissey’s unconventional classics Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974) will be hosted by Theresa Mercado as a crossover between CinemaQ and her horror series, Scream Screen. In between the screenings, Mercado will be joined for a conversation by the star of both films: prolific cult icon Udo Kier. The actor is known for his long list of credits and collaborations with such filmmakers as Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Lars von Trier. “He is a true legend of the silver screen,” says Mercado, who was first captivated by his piercing blue eyes in 1977’s landmark Suspiria.

Joining the robust horror selection is an equally strong set of documentaries, including Last Dance. There’s also Break the Game (3 p.m. on Saturday), which follows Narcissa Wright when her identities as a world-record “speedrunner” – a player who completes video games as quickly as possible – and a trans woman collide, derailing her career but setting the stage for a triumphant comeback. On Sunday, August 13, Chasing Chasing Amy (2:30 p.m.) explores the intimate relationship between director/subject Sav Rodgers and Kevin Smith’s famous comedy Chasing Amy, which has been both criticized and championed for its representations. Also on Sunday is 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture (12 p.m.), which stuns audiences by exposing a biblical translation error at the heart of the decades-long efforts by Christian conservatives to limit gay rights.

That film also ties into a panel titled “Your Own Personal Jesus – Finding Faith in the LGBTQIA+ Community,” which includes 1946 director Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, local drag performer Kai Lee Michaels and faith leaders from inclusive Denver-area churches. The panel will discuss the complexities and challenges of holding on to your faith as a member of the queer community. The two panels seem especially well-chosen complements to the strengths of this year’s programming.

“Queer horror is just an evolving genre, and I thought it was time to reflect and talk about what’s going on,” says Garcia. “In regard to the religion panel, I’m not religious, but I think it was time to have a conversation about that subject, especially in light of the focus in the film 1946.”

There are plenty of other cinematic jewels screening throughout the weekend, including the closing-night film, Problemista (Sunday at 5 p.m.), which tells the story of an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who seeks to remain in the U.S. by persuading an erratic art-world figure (Tilda Swinton at her most aggressively kooky) to co-sign his visa. It’s both funny and fantastic, a topical comedy with a generous dash of magical realism, and the perfect ending to another diverse year, Garcia attests.

“I feel like culling through the best queer films out there that we ended up with the magical balance of just the right mix of movies for everyone,” he says.

CinemaQ Film Festival, Thursday, August 10, through Sunday, August 13, Sie FilmCenter, 2510 East Colfax Avenue. Get the full schedule, tickets and passes at denverfilm.org.