This weekend The Way Out West Film Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico  is screening a wee gem about some fascinating local queer history that we think will make for compulsory viewing…. especially for gay women.

In the 1970’s, a group of lesbian youth in Albuquerque had a particular way of finding each other and others like themselves. They created a special whistle that was both hard to learn and easy to go unnoticed by unsuspecting bystanders. It would go on to be known by their peers and by those who came up and out after them as the “dyke whistle.”

It was a rite of passage taught to newly out dykes by their peers. It was used to find friends in a crowd, to find out if other young women were also lesbians, and was used as a sort of friendly nod to groups of lesbians passing by at the mall or at the State Fair.

Decades later, director StormMiguel Florez returns to Albuquerque to tell the story of that secret code created by and shared among young lesbians in 1970s & 80s, as a means of self-­identification and finding community during that time. The hour-long screening will be followed by a Q&A panel with the film participants and the film director