DAMN THESE HEELS : Utah's LGBTQ Film Fest

Of all the years I flew into Salt Lake City for my annual trip To Sundance Film Festival I sadly never made any other trips to Utah. It meant for the past (19) years I’ve been missing the Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival

This festival based at the Utah Film Center was born out of community collaborations and has thrived because of our strong support from people like you. While the name ‘Damn These Heels’ may sound a little silly, the origins are inspired by the notion that when you walk in someone else’s shoes you come to understand their unique perspective which can ultimately foster empathy and kindness toward our fellow humans.

It is in fact now the longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the Mountain West and its compact diverse program explores LGBTQ+ issues, ideas, and art through dramatic and documentary films from around the world.

If you going then can we suggest these 4 must-see films you just have to see.

PAT ROCCO DARED In this colorful trip back in time, legendary queer filmmaker and trailblazing gay rights activist Pat Rocco shares his incredible life story as one of Hollywood’s original boundary-pushing pioneers. This really is a must-see film to fully understand the history of American queer culture and activism over the past 50 years. Rocco is the most famous gay person you might not have heard about before. Canadian documentary filmmaker Charlie David combines fantastic vintage footage, film clips, and interviews with Rocco and friends such as Phyllis Diller, to tell the story of Rocco, the activist, filmmaker, artist, and entertainer. RF

WILDHOOD. is a beautiful queer coming of age story set within Canada’s first nation Mi’kmaq people, a community over 14,000 years old, based in rural Nova Scotia. The road movie introduces us to Link, (Phillip Lewitski), a Two-Spirit, half Mi’kmaq teenager, and his younger half-brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony). The term Two-Spirit loosely refers to queer first nation people – a more detailed indigenous definition is the intersection of the relationship to land, gender, sexuality, ceremony, and culture.

FRAMING AGNES. Canadian trans filmmaker Chase Joynt confidently left the recent Sundance Film Festival clutching two awards, knowing he has been successful in a rare achievement. His sophomore feature-length documentary Framing Agnes is even better than his remarkable debut No Ordinary Man which he had co-directed with Aisling Chin-Yee.

In this new movie, Joynt gently chips away on how being transgender is so widely misunderstood mainly by our sheer ignorance. His film continues an important message to dispel so many long help myths as it gives such dignity and grace as part of a continuing dialogue about the transgender community. RWD.

Queerguru is based in Provincetown all summer and one of our neighbors is queer auteur John Waters. His influence can be seen in other filmmaker’s work like Amanda Karmer’s PLEASE BABY PLEASE. This is an edgy outrageous cinematic gem wth a very bold vision that you will love (or hate as there is no in-between in his case). The star is the uber-talented Brit Andrea Riseborough and an unexpected Demi Moore is quite the scene stealer

DAMN THESE HEELS Film  Fest will begin on 10/14 
and end on 10/16 To see the whole 
program and book tickets check out 
https://damntheseheels.org/

For the full reviews of these films and over 
1500 other queer movies check out 
https://queerguru.com/ and whilst you are there 
be sure  to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants 
on queer cinema….. even better IT’s FREE