#newfest

October means a lot of great things (Halloween, changing leaves, mosquitoes dying), but right now it means one more great thing:

NewFest!

The LGBTQ+ film festival, with most of the films available online!

And I like to post the films we watch here so I can remember all the gloriousness later. So:

SHE'S THE HE

A lovely trailer for the festival plays before each film, and when we saw a clip of this one I said I was excited about it. My roommate grinned and said it was what we were about to watch. We high-fived.

But yes, this is about Ethan and Alex, two teens who decide to pretend to be trans girls so one of them can woo a girl, but then Ethan realizes she's not actually pretending. Classic crass teen movie vibes meets trans awakening. Lead actress was particularly lovely.

SHORTS: QUEER TEEN POWER

One especially great thing about this festival is all the collections of shorts. We stuck to the teen theme following the movie for tonight.

"Baba I'm Fine": A queer girl's girlfriend is clearly dropping her. Her father doesn't know why she's sad, but is determined to cheer her up. So sweet, so teen, so wish I could spend more time with the characters!

"A Friend of Dorothy": The friendship between a lonely elderly woman and a teen boy who isn't out yet. So heartening, and I wanna be Dorothy when I grow up.

"One for the Team": A teen trans boy can't get a break on the boys lacrosse team at his school, so his aunt sets up a tryout at one an hour away. Turns out this is a pilot, so I was definitely surprised at how quickly he was open with folks, but it was a pleasant surprise. And because it's a pilot there was no dire consequence to anything, just fun getting to know people.

"Dragfox": An animated short about a fox helping a youth learn to be true. Super short and cute!