8:15 - 9:30am

The Believers

Recipient of the Frameline 30 Audience Award for Best Documentary and of a 2005 Frameline Film & Video Completion Fund grant, The Believers is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, gender, and religion. Built around the world's first transgender gospel choir, the film portrays the choir's dilemma - how to reconcile their gender identity with the widespread belief that changing one's gender goes against the word of God.

Set against the story of the Transcendence Gospel Choir's founding, the documentary reveals the lives of its members, including Tom, once a radical lesbian feminist; Ashley, choir founder and professional sound engineer; and Bobby, a recovering drug addict and former sex worker. The film takes us from the Transcendence Gospel Choir's shaky beginnings - a heartwarmingly chaotic, cacophonous group unable to agree on much of anything, arguing over appropriate wardrobe and learning to sing with transitioning voices - through their transformation into the polished, award-winning choir and close-knit family they are today, garnering major performances and winning an Outmusic Award in 2004 for the album Whosoever Believes.

The intimate personal stories shed light on the complexity of balancing social change, family history, religion and identity. At the heart of their dilemma is a struggle for acceptance within two worlds historically at odds with one another. As one of the film's subjects eloquently says, "I'm living in a window. I get to see both sides."

The Believers is a unique story of determination and perseverance and an important look at the intricacy and diversity of spirituality and the LGBT community.

9:45 - 11:00am

The Aggressives

They don’t aspire to be men, and they can’t be called drag kings, though they do participate in NYC’s predominantly African-American lesbian drag balls. This fascinating documentary reveals the lives of a varied group of aggressive women. Homeboy Marquise fosters a masculine image by strapping her chest until suddenly forced to live as a woman after enlisting in the army. Passing as a femme boy, Tiffany doesn’t identify as a lesbian because she only dates transgender men. Raw and uninhibited ex-con Octavia goes from drug dealer to construction worker. Androgynous Kisha balances her aggressive life with a career as a fashion model. The Aggressives is an insightful look at a little explored subculture.

11:15 - 12:30pm

Film and Panel: Transparent

with film-maker Jules Rosskam

Pink or blue. Male or Female. Mommy or Daddy. Categories that we all take for granted are broken apart in transparent, a documentary about 19 female-to-male transsexuals living in the United States who have given birth and, in all but a few stories, gone on to raise their biological children.

transparent focuses on its subjects' lives as parents, revealing the diverse ways in which each person reconciles giving birth and being a biological mother with his masculine identity. Traditional views of gender are further re-examined through the variety of genders the children use to conceive of their parents. The first-person stories in transparent explain how changing genders is dealt with and impacts the relationships, if at all, within these families.

This film has a shocking façade - as a story about transsexual parents, but the subjects resonate powerfully as typical parents and as human beings dealing with issues like single parenthood, teen pregnancy and their children's emotional and physical development. Through these extraordinary men, the film challenges the ways that people relate to one another, particularly within our immediate families, based on gender.

1:30 - 2:45pm

FTMs on Screen

Ken Rowe, Jules Rosskam, and Loree Erickson

A panel of filmmakers who have put FTM+/SOFFA images on screen will discuss the educational, diversity, accuracy, and other moral and practical challenges of bringing a diverse, stigmatized, and underrepresented population to a larger audience. Panelists will include the producer of erotic films involving transmen, a filmmaker who looked at FTMs who have given birth, and others.

3:00 - 4:15pm

Austin Unbound

From the age of three, Austin knew that his female anatomy did not fit him. In middle school, he changed his name and began to dress as a boy. Today, Austin identifies as a straight man and a member of the Portland queer ASL community. Austin Unbound documents this Deaf man's choice to get a double mastectomy. He and his best friend, James, travel from Portland to San Francisco for the surgery. This social issue film also follows Austin’s life in his local queer ASL community and includes time with his girlfriend, his mother, grandmother and sisters.

4:30 - 6:00pm

Trans shorts

• Unhung Heroes (15min.) Unhung Heroes is a short narrative video about five FTM (female to male) transgendered guys who, after discovering an internet article announcing the availability of penis transplants, plot ways to raise over a million dollars in surgery.
• Just Call Me Kade (26 min.)
• Junk Box Warrior (5 min.) Junk Box Warrior explores the alienation, frustration and fear of not fitting into society's gender binary
• OPERATION INVERT (Tara Mateil, video, 12.5 min., 2003)
• Phallocracy 3 min, 2 sec
• Drive Thru 4 min

9:00 - 10:15pm

Enough Man

Raven Kaldera, Joshua Tenpenny

Screening of Luke Woodward's documentary on FTM sexuality, in which the participants discuss the challenges and variety of FTM sexuality, and then proceed to demonstrate it on camera. This film contains explicit sex, including unusual sexual activities.) Afterwards, two members of the cast will discuss what it was like to make the documentary, and talk about the ambiguous position of FTMs in social categories of desirability and erotica.

[Documentary meets explicit sexuality in Luke Woodward's groundbreaking debut video about body image, relationships, sex and sexuality from the perspective of nine female-to-male (FTM) transmen and their partners. Featuring health educators, college students, sex workers, activists and artists, Enough Man navigates the terrain between objectivity and personal identity, allowing viewers into some of the most personal and rarely discussed areas of transgender life.]

Want

(Loree Erickson, 2006, Canada, 9 minutes)

Explicit images merge with everyday moments for a different - and sexy - view of disability.

11:00 – midnight+

Cubbyholes: Trans Men in Action

(Prince Warren, M. Van Helsing & Chopper Pierce, 2007)

Welcome to a new generation of Trans Men Porn... definitely gay, definitely FTM, definitely HOT! A group of trans cubs, boys and men meet up with other guys at the premiere San Francisco gay sex club for a wild adventure.

Cubbyholes: Trans Men In Action features: Ian Foxe, Dex Hardlove, Ian Sparks, Mark Van Helsing (of Morty Diamond's TrannyFags), Marlo Davis, CJ Cockburn, and an anonymous cub.

9:00 - 10:15am

Call Me Malcolm

Malcolm describes his childhood like this: “I always thought of myself as one of the brothers. I have two brothers so that would have made me the third brother. But other people perceived me as a girl and I couldn’t really correct them. It made me feel like I wasn’t there.” This reality led to years of self-doubt and confusion as he wondered why his perception of himself did not match that of the people around him. Additionally, all the messages in his church community seemed to indicate that God hated him. He became estranged from his family, his friends, his church and even himself. All roads toward claiming an identity seemed to have dead ends.

Eventually, Malcolm, while still under the name Miriam, ended up at seminary. Initially he enrolled to see if he could reconcile the conflict between his heart and the things being taught in his home church. It was around that time that he first learned the word “Transgender” and began to investigate the necessary steps for his own self-actualization. Much to his surprise, Malcolm found his greatest support in his new Christian community at Iliff Theological Seminary and began the process of gender transition. The first—and in some ways biggest—of these steps was taking on his new name and repeatedly saying to people, “From now on, call me Malcolm.”

As the film begins, so does Malcolm’s final year of seminary. It is a time filled with great concern and apprehension. He is, by all accounts, unemployed, uncertain about his future as a minister, unrecognized as “Malcolm” by his parents and without a love in his life.

Before the school term begins, he steps away from his safe environment and sets out on a road trip. He travels across the country visiting with many people along the way, each of whom have a different perspective on the issues of identity, faith, and love.

In a small town outside of Denver, Malcolm reconnects with his past by visiting a former high school teacher whom he has not seen since he transitioned. In Cortez, he meets Pauline Mitchell, whose Nadleeh, or two-spirit, Navajo son was murdered while still in high school. In Los Angeles, Malcolm talks religion with Calpernia Addams, the subject of the Showtime film Soldier’s Girl. Malcolm then travels to San Francisco to meet a police sergeant, who gained international attention when he transitioned on the force.

By the time Malcolm arrives in New York, his journey has covered more than just miles. And his future holds more possibilities than he ever could have dreamed.

10:30 - 12:00pm

Odd Ones Out

ODD ONES OUT documents four years in the courageous lives of three transgender teens, Naomi, David and Tot, as they transition into adulthood and face life-altering events. Family intolerance, abuse, homelessness, sex work, violence and harassment in their schools and community are only the backdrop for a dramatic story of acceptance and rejection, identity and change. Through candid verité footage and home video diaries, ODD ONES OUT is a unique and intimate look at the most tender time in the lives of these three young people as they struggle with the universal search for self and of being found. It’s a coming of age story about trying to fit in while fighting against society’s rigid boundaries. With Naomi, David and Tot, you will reconsider the definitions of male and female and then discard them as you grow closer to three teenagers who just want to grow up.

1:30 - 2:45 pm

FtF: Female to Femme

(Kami Chishol & Elizabeth Stark, 48 min., color, digital video,
Imagine a world in which the journey toward femme was understood to be as radical as journeys to claim and inhabit other queer bodies. Envisioning more than it documents, FtF: FEMALE TO FEMME celebrates dyke femme identities, combining farce and seduction with analysis and personal history. For years, femmes have forged community and created space for themselves out of edgy performance and authentic parody. FtF recognizes these strategies and builds them into an unforgettable sexy, funny and moving film. Bursts of queer burlesque amplify the idea of a femme drag. A satire of a femme transition support group uses humor to disarm viewers (as it did its participants), finally stripping away layers of performance to arrive at a raw recognizability of specifically femme tactics. Interviews feature a host of fabulous femmes, including actress/ writer Guinivere Turner, novelist/activist Jewelle Gomez, poet Meliza Bañales, rock stars Leslie Mah (Tribe8) and Bitch (Bitch & Animal), professors, activists, artists and dancers. The filmmakers ask these brilliant thinkers and performers to use the language of gender transition to talk about femme identity, opening up new possibilities for understanding femininity while reinforcing connections among gender warriors around the world. A wildly original extravaganza, FtF: FEMALE TO FEMME presents a saucy, indelible portrait of a people and a politics central to the gender revolution.

3:00 - 4:15pm

Screaming Queens

Victor Silverman & Susan Stryker

EMMY® Award-winning Screaming Queens tells the little-known story of the first known act of collective, violent resistance to the social oppression of queer people in the United States — a 1966 riot in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, three years before the famous gay riot at New York’s Stonewall Inn.

Screaming Queens introduces viewers to street queens, cops and activist civil rights ministers who recall the riot and paint a vivid portrait of the wild transgender scene in 1960s San Francisco. Integrating the riot’s story into the broader fabric of American life, the documentary connects the event to urban renewal, anti-war activism, civil rights and sexual liberation. With enticing archival footage and period music, this unknown story is dramatically brought back to life.

Screaming Queens is a production of Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker produced in association with ITVS and KQED, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Best of the Film Fesival (Grand Ballroom)

TBD