The only real downside of the queer canon of cinema is that to often films disappear from view before we’ve have a chance to enjoy them.  It’s the reason we give kudos to some of our favorite Queer Film Fests like Boston’s Wicked Queer who always program a few excellent movies from our recent past.

This year, they have included the debut film of director,  writer  and actor Silas Howard whose very impressive resume  now includes episodes of  Transparent, Tales of the City –Pose and most recently Boots  (which we are NEVER going to forgive Netflix for canceling so abruptly!).  Queerguru has enjoyed the pleasure of filming two interviews with Howard : once in 2024  after he had just released DARBY AND THE DEAD.  It was an LGBTQ+ historic landmark as it was one of the first (and likely the last) studio-made films directed by an out trans masculine LGBTQ+ filmmaker. It was then about to be screened in the new LGBTQIA+ film series QUEER RHAPSODY, taking place in multiple city-wide venues in Los Angeles 

Now Wicked Queer is screening By Hook or by Crook, which Howard co-directed with Harry Dodge, and is considered a seminal transmasculine film, and chronicles the tale of two unlikely friends who commit petty crimes as they search for a path to understanding themselves and the outside world. Howard plays Shy (a transgender man), who leaves his small town after the death of his father, and heads to the big city to live a life of crime. Along the way, he encounters Valentine, a quirky adoptee, in search of his birth mother. An immediate kinship is sparked between these men, and they become partners in crime. Suffering money troubles, emotional problems, and physical confrontations, the duo face their issues head-on and learn to trust each other and support each other in pursuit of their goals.