New Orleans Queer Film Night

An Evening of Queer Short Films

Thursday, November 21st, 2024
7-9:30PM
Cafe Istanbul

In the New Orleans Healing Center
2372 St Claude Avenue,
New Orleans, LA 70117 [MAP]

New Orleans Queer Film Night is an evening of community and film. The bar will be open so come in, grab a drink, sit back and enjoy. “We look for films that need to be part of the zeitgeist of contemporary queer men’s culture,” said Brayden Shayne. In November, Brayden Shayne will be showing an international selection of short queer films.

“One night, at the Out There Bar in Twentynine Palms, California, Willa Justice is busy drowning her troubles in her favorite drink and getting lost in the memories of her dead boyfriend Jamie Bondopolous. Her reminiscing is interrupted suddenly by the gruesome murder of a vacationing straight couple. Thankfully, Willa is the world’s greatest private investigator and she’s doing it all in drag! Willa pursues the clues left by the Pink Mob deep into the desert where the ghost of Jamie sends a trustworthy chicken, Doctor Eggs, to guide Willa straight to the killer.” Jonathan Andre Culliton’s Willa Justice: Drag Queen Private Eye, is a riot from start to finish.

Chicago-based filmmaker Martin Mulcahy uses experimental animation to explore personal history through memories and locations in Assemblages.

The Second First Kiss by Chicago-based filmmaker Mathias Blake tells the story of Emmett and Theo who’s first date ends in an awkward fashion, can the two reconcile?

From New York City, Iree Mann shares Butterfly, a coming of age queer love story about two teenage girls who unexpectedly fall in love catapulting them to freely express their sexual identity, in the limited time they have.

In First Date, Andy navigates the vibrant tapestry of Queer, non-monogamous dating which leads to a series of humorous and heartfelt encounters.

Spanish filmmaker Ander Iruretagoyena Castro’s Refugio (Haven) follows a young man as he struggles with job insecurity and a terminally ill mother. When he turns to prostitution to make money, an older man goes from being his client to becoming the most important person in his life, taking him to a state of emotional dependence.

From Paris, France, Johan Gayraud directs this ode to libertarian gay utopia where bodies rub against each other until everything is consumed. Baise Platine, set against the music of Sébastien Delage, is “intended as a lesson on what queer sexuality can be, which is polymorphic and often paradoxical,” wrote Gayraud. “I illustrate both gay sexual euphoria, through the erotic and joyful charge of the multiplicity of meetings, but also the dysphoric aspect through the overload of shots and situations.

Through art and film, Australian Albert Koomen documents “the often secretive world of gay bears.” My Bear Path explores what it personally means to him to be part of the big, wide and furry bear community.

New Jersey animator Kurt Fleischer offers, Frank, delightful meditation on what happens when Frankenstein’s monster discovers he’s been stitched to the wrong body.

RAM (Like the Verb) by writer and director Chance Calloway in collaboration with Charlit Dae is a rotoscoped animated short where an openly gay Asian actor reconciles his sexuality with his career struggles.

Filmed primarily at Always Lounge in New Orleans, Robbie Morgan’s How Do You Sleep? is the story of a drag queen who has to reconcile her past and inner self while putting on the show of her life.

Brayden Shayne is a queer artists’ collective based in North America that is interested in queer art and thought and good faggotry. We show up in the world as a magazine; products; events; film; and sounds.

Brayden Shayne invites filmmakers to share their projects with us and members of the queer community to share with us what films they would like to see. SEND US AN EMAIL.

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Party Monster

In this film based on a true story, Michael Alig (Macaulay Culkin) arrives on a Greyhound bus in New York City desperate to leave his boring Midwestern past behind. After meeting downtown club kid James St. James (Seth Green) and influential nightclub owner Peter Gatien (Dylan McDermott), a fame-hungry Alig decides to throw the most controversial and over-the-top parties in the city. In just a few years Alig’s drug addiction and erratic behavior threaten to destroy the empire he’s created.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Circus of Books

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop Circus of Books gave Los Angeles’ LGBT+ community a space to socialize and celebrate themselves without judgment. Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Circus of Books is the debut documentary from artist Rachel Mason, who finally asks the least radical people she knows- her parents- how they became American’s biggest distributors of gay porn.

TUESDAY, May 21, 2024

Cruising

Cruising is a 1980 crime thriller film written and directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, and Karen Allen. “A psychopath is scouring New York City gay clubs and viciously slaying homosexuals. Detective Steve Burns (Al Pacino) is ordered to don leather attire, hang at the city’s S&M joints and keep an eye out for the killer. But as Steve becomes immersed in club hopping, he begins to identify with the subculture more than he expected. Meanwhile, Steve behaves distantly around his girlfriend, Nancy (Karen Allen), the police force’s homophobia becomes apparent and the killer remains at large.”

TUESDAY, April 16, 2024

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Priscilla is the name of the bus!

When drag queen Anthony (Hugo Weaving) agrees to take his act on the road, he invites fellow cross-dresser Adam (Guy Pearce) and transsexual Bernadette (Terence Stamp) to come along. In their colorful bus, named Priscilla, the three performers travel across the Australian desert performing for enthusiastic crowds and homophobic locals. But when the other two performers learn the truth about why Anthony took the job, it threatens their act and their friendship.

TUESDAY, February 20, 2024

Queer Short Films 

At February’s Queer Film Night, Brayden Shayne presents a full slate of short films from filmmakers around the world.

Cockleidoscope is a deliciously queer short film from Vancouver, Canada filmmaker Clark Nikolai where “asking for help at a seaside mansion, a ship captain is told ‘You’re just in time for coffee. Come on in.’ He then is sucked into a world of discussions about video art.

A lush film shot in New Orleans City Park by Tulane student Cameron Brown, The Bench “is about the stasis that lies in between moments of abuse. The stasis that carries the greatest weight, the greatest pain, and the greatest hope.” Brown writes, “This film represents an incredibly therapeutic, fulfilling creative experience for me, an experience where I painted my truth onto a park bench that I pass by on walks.”

South African filmmakers Iban Bester and Roelof Hayward offer the magical coming out story, Metamorphosis. “A young gay man named Lerato is struggling to become intimate with his boyfriend Jaden, due to feelings of gay shame.”

Jesse Cracks bends his back to impress his crush in Eli Hoffman’s Gen-Z take on romantic, coming-of-age comedy.

Always, Azul is a compelling short film that follows the life of Carlos, a humble janitor from Mexico who leads a secret life as a captivating drag queen in the vibrant Latin club scene of Los Angeles. By day, he cleans the floors of an upscale office building, blending into the background, unnoticed and uncelebrated. But when the sun sets, he transforms into the fierce and fabulous “Azul”.

In Hair to Stay, Canadian director Pree Rehal uses clay stop-motion animation to tell the story of a young, trans, brown kid getting bullied by their crush. Andy Frans Coleman’s moving, drawn animation, Pieces of You, tells the story of a crow who has lost their partner. In Alice Roncier’s animated film, Running Still Running, two criminals rob a diner then drive away in their hover car. Will they be able to escape unharmed? One thing’s for sure: they’re in love and one of them likes to sing about it.

In Pastry, Writer Alison Rayner and Director Eduardo Barreto deliver a sweet, seductive, campy comedy where “romance blossoms between an inspirational baker and an overweight businesswoman with a seriously sweet tooth.”

A prying journalism student interviews a world-wearied drag queen about her life and career in Ramblings of a Middle-Aged Drag Queen, a short film written by gender queer Hamilton, Ontario actor and screenwriter Darren Stewart-Jones. The film was produced by Prince Edward Island, Canada filmmaker Goldy Locks and directed by Aharon Jinjihashvili.

In Warehouse, a queer, Latino-Indigenous, warehouse worker must choose between keeping his job or standing up to his boss when his LGBTQ colleagues are fired for demanding better working conditions. Director Ahuatl Amaro is “a proud queer, Latinx-Indígena screenwriter and director born and raised in Los Angeles to working-class Mexican migrant parents.”

When Glasgow, Scotland-based queer performer Derek McLuckie went to see the Stranglers in 1978, his eyes were opened as he felt part of a youth movement – yet there was struggles due to his sexual orientation. In My First Punk Gig, Derek reflects back on this gig and how punk provided the soundtrack for his coming of age

From the United Kingdom, Company is a short film “about letting love take the wheel and trailing your own path to happiness. In a world where words falter, love speaks louder than anything else.”

TUESDAY, January 16, 2024

Myra Breckinridge & Queer Short Films 

Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American comedy film based on Gore Vidal’s 1968 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Michael Sarne, and featured Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia’s ‘studs.’

“Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) flies to Europe to get a sex-change operation and is transformed into the beautiful Myra (Raquel Welch). She travels to Hollywood, meets up with her rich Uncle Buck (John Huston) and, claiming to be Myron’s widow, demands money. Instead, Buck gives Myra a job in his acting school. There, Myra meets aspiring actor Rusty (Roger Herren) and his girlfriend, Mary Ann (Farrah Fawcett). With Myra as catalyst, the trio begin to outrageously expand their sexual horizons.”

Furious Saint Jack & Otter, Alone

A lonely young man rhythmically narrates his leap from isolation to ecstasy when he meets a beautiful stranger at a bar. Juxtaposing self-consciousness and fear with the joy of liberation, Furious Saint Jack & Otter, Alone dynamically explores the visceral, breathless poetry of a sudden romantic connection.

Self-described “shy otter, queer filmmaker,” Ethan Roberts currently lives in San Francisco. “With a religious background, a distinctive political eye, and an interest in queer history, desire, and discourse, Ethan makes up one half of the filmmaking partnership CINEMA~PARMESAN. His 2014 short Furious Saint Jack & Otter, Alone played at over thirty festivals worldwide, winning Best Drama at the Canton Film Festival and the LGBT Honorable Mention Award at the Columbus International Film+Video Festival. It was called ‘a beautifully shot and exquisitely narrated spoken word tale’ by the Wotever DIY Film Festival and was mentioned by the Calgary Herald as one of the “Five to See” at the Fairy Tales Film Festival.”

TUESDAY, December 19, 2023

Tangerine & Grow the F*ck Up 

7:15PM Grow the F*ck Up

Grow The F*ck Up is a coming-of-age story set contextually in the Afro-Present, which allows our hero, Kit Benoit, a young queer woman of color, to exist in the world as she is, rather than in the extremes that our past and current media culture tends to situate individuals like her. The show explores the intersectionality of someone who doesn’t have the privilege of fitting into any particular culture, exploring different queer identities (or a lack thereof), and the deconstruction of Black Exceptionalism. Kit is no more likely to slay at a hip-hop night – we’re looking at you Issa Dee- than she is to be mistaken for one the foible-ridden yet exceptional children of Bow and Dre. That’s not say she doesn’t have the potential, but, based on the events of GTFU, that potential may be all she has. This show was written for people like its co-creator, who are looking for a representation of themselves in the light of day with a flashlight.

There are a lot of stories out there about people in their thirties, trying to get their shit together and striving to achieve the mystical level of Adult. Does adulting look different these days than it did for our parents, or are so many millenials’ growth just stunted? Regardless, it’s a struggle many of us can relate to. Our story (based on real events) is from what we think is a fresh perspective, and one that we think warrants representation.

The filmmaker will be present.

8PM Tangerine 

It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee (newcomer Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend (James Ransone, STARLET, “Generation Kill”) hasn’t been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the sex worker and her best friend, Alexandra (newcomer Mya Taylor), embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Queer Short Films & The Sons of Tennessee Williams

“Mardi Gras, drag balls and politics–where else could these elements come together but in New Orleans? Interweaving archival footage and contemporary interviews, The Sons of Tennessee Williams charts the evolution of the gay Mardi Gras krewe scene over the decades, illuminating the ways in which its emergence was a seminal factor in the cause of gay liberation in the South.” A staple of Mardi Gras documentaries since its debut in 2010, the 75-minute documentary is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand the role gay Mardi Gras krewes play in the fabric of queer life in New Orleans.