Last month, the organizers of the Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Phoenix announced that they canceled the event “in direct response” to Trump’s executive order aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at publicly funded institutions. This would have been their 17th Edition. In their statement, the organisers said Continuing with the festival this year could risk the loss of all federal funding to the district, including student financial aid and grants that support hundreds of employees and critical student services. And so it begins!
However, all is not lost as the fabulous folks who run NEWFEST, the annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, have stepped up to the plate and announced that it will provide Arizonans with free virtual access to a selection of this year’s featured films in response to the cancellation. Reading this reminded Queerguru how very proud we are of our community and the sheer camaraderie and love that exists, which is something The Orange Man can NEVER destroy.
NewFest executive director David Hatkoff, said hearing about Desperado’s cancellation was “a gut punch,” because it was one of the first instances where he saw the effects of one of the Trump administration’s executive orders in his sector. He told NBC News. “It felt scary, it felt enraging, and I felt sad for the folks in Arizona who were anticipating being able to engage with this festival and being able to to experience these queer stories. We know firsthand how impactful these stories are, and have been, and, in some ways, now more than ever, as these efforts are in place to try to silence queer voices.”
He said that NewFest worked alongside the organizers of Desperado to create the Arizona Queer Film Access Initiative, which will allow those watching from Arizona free virtual access to a selection of the New York City festival’s 130 films for the duration of the festival, which will run from Oct. 9 to Oct. 21. The films Arizonans will have free access to will include all of the festival’s roughly 100 short films, which Hatkoff said run the gamut of genres, including animated, horror and comedy
People from other states who want to watch the films will still be able to pay for a virtual pass, which Hatkoff said has been available since the start of the pandemic.
Hatkoff added “The antidote to that is telling our stories loudly and proudly. So the loss of this relatively small festival in Phoenix is something we should be paying attention to, because when people lose access to these stories, they stop being able to see themselves. That, in tandem with cuts in suicide hotline funding and things like that — this is a crisis.”
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