Frameline Announces ‘How Not to Date While Trans,’ ‘Lucky Fish’ as 2023 Voices Short Program Selections (Exclusive)
The 11th annual iteration of the curated program of short films representing LGBTQ+ people and communities sees all five of its selected shorts explore queer love and relationships.
‘Lucky Fish’
Courtesy of FramelineLGBTQ+ love and relationships are at the heart of Frameline Voices’ programming for 2023.
How Not to Date While Trans, Chaac + Yum, Valentine, Grindr Baby and Lucky Fish have been chosen as the five shorts for this year’s iteration of the shorts program, Frameline’s executive director James Woolley and director of programming Allegra Madsen announced Tuesday.
This program of romantic stories from LGBTQ+ creators is set to premiere weekly beginning Feb. 3 and running through Feb. 24. Selections, beginning with How Not to Date While Trans, will air and can be streamed on Here TV, America’s first LGBTQ+ premium subscription TV and streaming service. They can also be viewed through Frameline’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook social channels.
Related Stories
“Supporting the careers of emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers and creating a space for nuanced queer narratives in the film industry is deeply aligned with Frameline’s mission of changing the world through the power of queer cinema,” Julie Ludwig, Frameline’s senior manager of distribution and educational programming, said in a statement.
How Not to Date While Trans comes from director Nyala Moon, with the dark comedy centering on the dating life of a Black trans woman and the problematic men she meets along the way. Chaac + Yum, which debuts on Feb. 10 and hails from filmmakers Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, Roberto Fatal and Xav S-F, is inspired by Mayan deities and follows two queer, Mayan-descended Two-Spirit people who meet at a queer San Francisco bar.
Directors Beck Kitsis and Chris McNabb’s Valentine, sees two people struggle to redefine their relationship with their gender and identity in flux, and will debut on Feb. 14. Grindr Baby, from helmer Gaby Dunn, follows a non-monogamous queer couple grappling with a pregnancy test after one of them has a one-night stand. The Feb. 24 short Lucky Fish centers on two Asian American teenagers who meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant and is directed by Emily May Jampel.
The 2023 lineup serves as the 11th annual edition of the Frameline Voices short distribution slate, with the program from the nonprofit behind San Francisco’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival aiming to foster the career advancement of queer, trans and gender non-binary creators through the exhibition of their work.
The Voices program also aims to improve and equalize mainstream media representations of LGBTQ+ people through content distribution and career development of LGBTQ+ creators.