QFest Continues Monday with HOLLY NEAR, GEN SILENT and HARD PAINT

Come get your Q on! The 12th Annual QFest St. Louis, presented by Cinema St. Louis,runs April 28-May 2, 2019, at the Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar) .The St. Louis-based LGBTQ film festival, QFest will present an eclectic slate of 28 films (14 shorts, seven narrative features, and seven documentary features). The participating filmmakers represent a wide variety of voices in contemporary queer world cinema. The mission of the film festival is to use the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the lives of LGBTQ people and to celebrate queer culture. The full schedule can be found HERE

The 12th Annual QFest St. Louis continues Monday April 29th. Here’s Monday’s schedule:

5:00pm April 29th: HOLLY NEAR: SINGING FOR OUR LIVES – This is a FREE screening
(though tickets are required from box office)

Singer, songwriter, and social activist Holly Near has been performing and acting for more than 50 years, and in the process she’s created what Gloria Steinem calls “the first soundtrack of the women’s movement.” Tracing a path from small-town Northern California to sold-out shows and million-person peace marches, the film documents the long arc of Near’s fascinating story. As a teen actress, she joined the Broadway cast of “Hair” in 1970, guest-starred in TV shows (including “The Partridge Family” and “All in the Family”), and appeared in such films as “Minnie and Moskowitz” and “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Debuting as a singer/songwriter in 1973 with the album “Hang in There” — released on her own pioneering independent label — Near last year produced her 31st record, the simply titled “2018.” Throughout her career, Near has balanced art and activism, and she’s been widely recognized for her work promoting social change and LGBTQ rights, including honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, and Ms. Magazine. This lively and illuminating documentary, which features appearances by Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Pete Seeger, rightly celebrates Near as an iconic artist who speaks to anyone who believes in peace, justice, feminism, and humanity. 

6:45pm April 29th: GEN SILENT – This is a FREE event but it requires an online reservation found HERE

In “Gen Silent,” six LGBTQ seniors discuss why they believe they must hide their sexual orientation to survive. The film reveals what experts call an epidemic: gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender seniors who are so afraid of discrimination — or worse — in the delivery of their care that many go back into the closet. Through intimate access to the seniors’ day-to-day lives over the course of a year, “Gen Silent” shows how oppression in the time before Stonewall has left LGBTQ elders from the “greatest generation” not just afraid but dangerously isolated, with many dying prematurely because they don’t ask for help and have too few people in their lives. Although the film frankly examines the ways in which LGBTQ elders face discrimination, neglect, or abuse at the hands of some supposed caregivers, it also spotlights a growing group of impassioned professionals who are specifically trained to make LGBTQ seniors feel safe and who are trying to wake up the long-term-care and healthcare industries to this important issue.

9:00pm April 29th: HARD PAINT – Ticket information can be found HERE

Living in a lower-class urban jungle in a small Brazilian city, emotionally withdrawn Pedro (Shico Menegat) connects to the outside world as “Neon Boy,” an online erotic performer whose neon-paint-slathered, black-light dances have won him a cadre of adoring fans. By performing each night for these anonymous strangers, Pedro earns a meager income through tips and partially escapes his lonely existence. But Pedro faces an existential threat when a fellow camboy steals both his techniques and some of his customers, forcing the ultra-shy twentysomething to venture far outside his comfort zone to defend his space as a performer. In the process, Pedro discovers a shared connection with his rival, the outgoing and ambitious Leo (Bruno Fernandes), and he finds an unexpected tenderness in the heart of an unforgiving city. On its premiere at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, the Hollywood Reporter described “Hard Paint” as “a hypnotically intimate character study” that is “acted with naturalness and sensitivity by compelling screen newcomers.”