Fargo, N.D. (August 10, 2022) – The Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival Jury is proud to announce the Official Selections for the 14th annual festival. After two years of online-only streaming, 13 films will be screened theatrically September 14-17 at the historic Fargo Theatre. A special online encore presentation of the films will take place September 18-25. Tickets and passes for the festival are on sale now.

“We’re excited to bring these exceptional films to Fargo-Moorhead and to online audiences in North Dakota and Minnesota,” said Shawn Cotter, Programming Director of the 2022 Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival.

The Official Selections for the 14th annual festival include:

Feature Narrative

Advent of Mary

Directed by Vinícius Machado

Maria, an 11-year-old transgender girl, tormented by the search for her identity, faces religious and family pressure until she meets Lena, her new neighbor. A pure friendship, free from judgments and prejudices, moves Maria to discover and understand her condition.

Two Eyes

Directed by Travis Fine

TWO EYES explores queerness, gender, & love, art, and passion, chasing after your muse and finding your true people along the way. The story follows three main characters in three distinct periods. The three characters’ lives are interwoven into a cinematic triptych and become a single powerful story that takes its meaning from the way many Indigenous tribes understood, respected, and honored those in their tribe that saw the world with two eyes: one that looks out as a man and one that looks out as a woman.

Wildhood

Directed by Bretten Hannam

Two brothers embark on a journey to find their birth mother after their abusive father had lied for years about her whereabouts; along the way, they reconnect with their indigenous heritage and make a new friend.

Feature Documentary

A Run for More

Director by Ray Whitehouse

As a transgender woman in Texas, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe expected to encounter resistance to her campaign for city council. She did not anticipate questioning her relationship with identity, activism, and civic engagement. On the campaign trail, she finds herself on an unexpected journey of self-discovery and healing.

Esther Newton Made Me Gay

Director by Jean Carlomusto

A feature documentary about the pathbreaking cultural anthropologist, dog agility enthusiast, and iconic butch lesbian, Esther Newton.

ESTHER NEWTON MADE ME GAY explores the life and times of cultural anthropologist Esther Newton. Throughout her career, Esther was a pioneer – questioning and challenging status quo assumptions on gender, sexuality, and anthropological methods. Her work inspired generations of scholars to pursue research in what would eventually become the field of LGBTQ & Gender Studies.

Keenly attuned to the cultural and societal forces that shaped her life, Esther guides us through an anthropology of herself, a study influenced by her love for a sport – competitive dog agility – that pairs her aging butch body with her beloved dog teammate on an obstacle course that is constantly changing.

In her persistent efforts to train her body back into shape after numerous health setbacks, we see the intense drive that has helped Esther navigate a lifetime of obstacles she faced in her quest to become who she wanted to be; a butch lesbian, scholar, and athlete. Agility, persistence, and passionate inquiry have driven Esther’s survival as a butch lesbian, octogenarian athlete, and groundbreaking scholar whose life’s work has influenced generations of LGBTQ activists and scholars.

Short Documentary

Nidhal

Directed by Bassem Ben Brahim

Between reality and animation, the story of NIDHAL is told, a young homosexual Tunisian who defended individual freedoms in Tunisia through his work on radio. He was under a lot of pressure, forcing him to leave the country and seek asylum in the Netherlands.

Short Narrative

All the Awards I Never Gave You

Directed by Caio Scot

An unexpected encounter between two young actors in the bathroom at an awards ceremony brings up unresolved feelings and a love story that may not have ended yet.

Bougie Baes

Directed by Tess Paras

Billy Upton, a proudly bougie, deaf, and gay man, finally meets his match in love. But will his bougie ways ruin it all?

Lesbian Miserables

Directed by Tess Paras

Across all of the United States, there are only 21 gay bars for the women, non-binary, and trans-masc community… this is the story of Lesbian Miserables.

Static Space

Directed by John Klein and Kate Black-Spence

Jamie is a young woman living in rural Indiana struggling to figure out her place and identity. When she inadvertently stumbles across a frequency on her ham radio and makes contact with astronaut Noa currently orbiting Earth, the two women are presented with the opportunity to find meaningful connection, even while worlds apart.

The Washing Machine

Directed by Diane Malherbe

To start a washing machine is not so easy for everyone. You still have to choose the right program…

Titi

Directed by Marzieh Fakhar

After five years of Marriage, she takes all the measures to undergo a transgender procedure when she realizes that she is pregnant and is faced with an important decision.

The 14th Annual Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival takes place September 14-17 at the historic Fargo Theatre in downtown Fargo, North Dakota. A special online encore will take place September 18-25. Tickets and passes for the festival are on sale now at www.fmlgbtff.org. 

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