The Rainbow Resource Center’s annual Queer Film Festival sparks conversation and community

I’ve been responsible for the Queer Film Festival since I started working at the Rainbow Resource Center in 2019—I’m the resident movie buff in the office, so once I heard this was something we did, I was like, oh yes, sign me up. Students are often overwhelmed with finals during Pride Month, so hosting this festival in April lets us honor our LGBTQ+ community all together.

This year we’re screening three films: “Will & Harper,” “Tahara,” and “Riley.” When I’m building the slate, I’m trying to highlight the nuances of the LGBT+ experience. Queer stories in mainstream media commonly look like white male gay stories—and those stories are beautiful and need to be celebrated—but the L’s, the B’s, the T’s, the Q’s, the pluses, and the BIPOC versions of all of those things sometimes get overlooked. This year, across these three films, I’m highlighting the trans experience, the queer, Jewish female experience, and the queer male experience.

I also try to find the balance between movies with popular appeal that get people in the door and films that expose students to something they may never have heard of before. If you’ve been talking about “Heated Rivalry” with me at the RRC—and I know you have—come watch “Riley,” because one of its actors is Connor Storrie from that show.

There’s a misconception that specific, niche stories don’t have widespread appeal, but the opposite is true. When stories are more specific, they feel more authentic, and people find unexpected ways into them. I was talking to a student recently about “Heated Rivalry”—they don’t identify as male nor are they attracted to men, so on paper that storyline isn’t “for them.” But what resonated was the long-distance relationship, these intense meetups followed by months of non-contact. You don’t have to see yourself in every detail of a story to find yourself in it.

That kind of conversation is what this festival is really about. One of my favorite screenings ever was “Flee,” an Oscar-nominated animated documentary about a Muslim Afghan man navigating asylum while coming to terms with his identity as a gay man. After that film, everyone stayed. No one left. People could have kept talking for a good 30 minutes after we were done. It was one of those movies that opened up this really robust conversation about immigration, identity, and what it means to live authentically when that carries real danger.

Something I’ve been talking about a lot recently is the idea of queer joy. Not every queer story has to end with something tragic. We’re finally getting more stories where someone just happens to be trans, and their queerness isn’t the whole conflict. “Will & Harper” is one of those films, and I can’t wait for our community to see it together.

While you can watch these films at home, you can’t replicate the experience of watching with other people—the reactions, the laughter, the conversation afterwards. Come watch with us!

The 10th Annual Queer Film Festival runs April 14–16.