Maybe due to the changing of the seasons, October’s a big month for film festivals in the Pacific Northwest. Hot on the heels of Local Sightings and just as SIFF’s Docs Fest is winding down, the Seattle Queer Film Festival rises. In-person screenings for the 29th SQFF start tomorrow (October 10th) with a bang: an opening night gala and the PNW premiere of Ponyboi, which tracks a turbulent Valentines day for a New Jersey sex worker juggling family tragedy, a drug deal gone wrong, and … a mysterious cowboy? The cast includes writer/director/star River Gallo alongside Dylan O’Brien and Murray Bartlett. The film screens at SIFF Egyptian at 7:00 pm and the party continues a couple blocks away at Stoup Brewing. Ten three dollar bills ($30) get you into both.
In a change from the usual ten day format, this year the festival focuses its in-person component over this weekend and then transitions to virtual screenings from October 14-20th. Festival director Trent Farrington describes this year’s festival:
This year’s theme, Q-thartic, is about feeling, healing, and everything in between that comes with our community. With over 80 films in our lineup, we’re ready to take you on an emotional journey. These stories offer a much-needed release, arriving at a time when the world feels heavier than it should.
Much like this year’s SIFFTY, SQFF is doing it’s closing night party early — on a Saturday night — with Veit Helmer’s Gondola, a “nearly wordless charmer” about two women whose flirtation begins with a pomegranate passed between cabins on the title aerial tramway. The Georgian/German film shows at AMC Pacific Place and is followed by an afterparty at the hottest club in town (a TBA secret location); a ticket covering both runs $25.
Festival Centerpiece, ASOG, winner of the Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Award, promises “a glitter-filled journey across the Philippines” for a non-binary comedian aiming to “slay in a drag pageant” and ends up on a surreal road trip of discovery. With a production team including Alan Cumming, Joel Kim Booster, and Adam McKay, it looks like a crowd-pleaser with bigger issues on its mind. It plays at 8:00 pm on Friday the 11th and online beginning on the 14th.
Sunday’s “Spotlight Feature” is The Astronaut Lovers, a queer comedy set during a lazy seaside Argentinian summer, where a straight guy’s curiosity about “gay shit” turns to a lighthearted deception, and maybe something more. The Marco Berger feature explores blurred lines, straight crushes, with an update for a fluid generation. It screens at Pacific Place on at 2pm Sunday afternoon.
Those are just the tentpoles amid a weekend+ of queer cinema. Dive into the full program, which includes 27 feature films, 11 documentaries, and 10 short films programs hailing from 26 countries around the world. SQFF hosts the US premiere of documentarian Sam Ho’s Hero Camp! and the world premiere of Connection | Isolation, which explores trans lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those looking to get into the Halloween spirit might want to consider the likes of Under the Influencer, Mother Father Sister Brother Frank, or Haze.
In addition to individual tickets and ticket packs, there’s an all access pass for the virtual program ($150) and a $200 All Access pass that gets you into all screenings, events, and to the full buffet of virtual films.
Tickets and more information can be found at the SQFF homepage.