Chelsea Alexandra
Founded and directed by Jonathan Andre Culliton and Graham Kolbeins, the 29 Queer Film Festival recently took place over a three-day weekend in Twentynine Palms, California. The festival celebrates and highlights queer cinema. Its goal is to uplift the diverse voices of the LGBTQ+ community. There is no singular queer experience. Although roads may intertwine, each queer person has their own story that highlights their experiences of queerness. The festival has a wonderful selection of POC voices who often don’t get the same opportunities to have their experiences heard.
The 29 Film Festival opened on Friday, September 20, 2024, premiering the autobiographical documentary Papi’s Pregnant. Other titles shown during the weekend were Inside the Beauty Bubble, Encuerados, Grace, and many more.
Papi’s Pregnant (dir. Oliverio Rodriguez)
Directed by Oliverio Rodriguez, Papi’s Pregnant follows Rodriguez’s journey as a transgender, non-binary, queer person who is navigating pregnancy. Papi’s Pregnant follows Rodriguez from the very early stages of their pregnancy journey up to the birth of their child.
The entire documentary is Rodriguez at their most vulnerable. Papi’s Pregnant opens in 2006 with a conversation between Rodriguez and their mother. As they sit around the kitchen table of a small dimly lit apartment, Rodriguez talks about their gender and transitioning. For some, it can be an uncomfortable conversation to listen to with Rodriguez’s mother using what could be considered triggering language and not approving of the transition. With the documentary ending around 2021, there are glimpses of their mother’s continuous struggles, especially with their pregnancy. However, their mother loves them.
Rodriguez along with the medical professionals that they interviewed mention that there is a lack of research and information on pregnancy and transness. Papi’s Pregnancy balances the emotional journey, being informative, while also bringing awareness. It sheds light on the biases that queer people face when embarking on parenthood. The struggles that queer people face when looking at the healthcare system aren’t just on journeys to become parents. The healthcare system that is currently in place does not keep in mind queer bodies and finding healthcare professionals who can navigate the nuances of gender and queerness while providing the proper healthcare is hard to come by.
Tell Me (dir. Jeanine Fisher)
There is nothing scarier than the first time and Tell Me directed by Jeanine Fisher captures that anxious fear perfectly. Emma is a baby gay who is filled with anxiety because of her lack of experience with female partners. To avoid humiliation while on the date, Emma decides to use her VR headset to rehearse every outcome of her date. Each time that she changes something in the VR scenario, the result is more discouraging than the next. No matter what lie is told to her date, the outcome never favors Emma. This nine-minute short from Fisher is not only sweet but also relatable to anyone who has had any anxiety surrounding their first intimate experience. There is a certain fear of being perceived a certain way because of a lack of experience. It is a fear for some queer people who are just coming out. The vulnerability in being honest with your partner can be scary and we try anything to avoid it. With its light-hearted story and color aesthetic, Tell Me is relatable. There is a soft spot in my heart for Emma the baby gay.
Inside the Beauty Bubble (dir. Cheryl Bookout and Cheri Gaulke)
Found in the middle of the desert is The Beauty Bubble Salon & Museum, a pastel time capsule filled with hair artifacts that have been collected by Jeff Hafler. Inside the Beauty Bubble chronicles a year in Hafler’s life during the COVID-19 lockdown. The short documentary starts by recalling the early milestones of Hafler’s career as a beautician. By 2004, he moved his salon from LA into the heart of the desert in the Joshua Tree area.
The Beauty Bubble & Museum is part salon and part museum with over three thousand pieces of hair history. One of the oldest pieces is a 1940s perm machine donated to Hafler and the museum by Veronica Lake’s stylist. Hafler has spent over twenty years collecting pieces for the museum. Today post-pandemic the museum is the main attraction and Hafler cuts hair only once a week.
Inside the Beauty Bubble is a colorful story about love, family, and passion for one’s life work. Hafler is unapologetically himself. When the odds were against him and many beauticians who faced unemployment, he was able to find a way to move forward. Hafler has a heart of gold and is passionate about curating and preserving hair history. One of the beautiful forms of love is showcased through Hafler’s family. He talks about his son, Cash’s adoption story and how he met his partner Mikal. They are a close-knit family who love each other with every fiber of their being. The one thing to take away from Inside the Beauty Bubble is love. Inside the Beauty Bubble is about a love for hair and a love for life. Regardless of it being one of the darkest times in recent history, Inside the Beauty Bubble proves there is still joy, beauty, and a light at the end of the tunnel.
Encuerados (dir. Orlando Bedolla)
ENCUERADOS follows seven Latino men in the leather scene. The primary focus is on the first Latino man who won the title of Mr. Los Angeles Leather, Leo Iriarte. As mentioned in the documentary, Iriarte was the first Latino man to win the competition in 2011. He was unaware of being the first Latino man to win the title. Directed by Orlando Bedolla, ENCUERADOS examines the underground subculture of the LGBTQ+ Leather community, a community dominated primarily by the white LGBTQ+ community.
In the city of Los Angeles, California, the population is mostly Latinos. Since 2011, there has been a progression in representation in the leather community however, it is still a slow progression. Several queer Latino men who are interviewed in ENCUERADOS talk about the racism that is experienced within these communities. There is a limited amount of access for queer Latino men to be a part of the leather community. Iriarte’s win inspired other queer Latino men to feel welcomed in those spaces. It was one of the first steps towards progress. ENCUERADOS is about a community of people who have become inspired and will continue to inspire other Latinos to be seen and feel seen. It is a theme that surpasses representation in the leather community but a universal call for more queer Latino representation in queer spaces.
Grace (dir. Natalie Jasmine Harris)
For some queer people, religion is a very complicated conversation. Having any relationship with religion can be complicated but with the additional layer of questioning sexuality, it can become less black and white. Most heteronormative ideals are built off of some interpretation of the bible. To live and to serve God, the only real unions God recognizes are ones between a man and a woman. If you do something wrong in the eyes of God, you must repent for all that you have done wrong.
In the short film directed by Natalie Jasmine Harris, Grace follows a 1950s southern teen, Grace, who begins to question her sexuality within the context of her religion and her relationship with god. On the eve of her baptism, Grace and her best friend share a charged moment that leaves her more confused and conflicted. Jordan Rayanna Wells who plays Grace is wonderful and brings so much truth to the character. There is a heaviness to Grace, she carries the weight of just wanting to understand the order of things. When asking why she needed to be baptized twice, Big Mama (C L Simpson) does not give a direct answer it is an order not to question god. Spirituality, like sexuality, is something that isn’t tangible, it isn’t as black and white as the world around us tries to make it and Grace proves that. With its ambiguous ending, Grace is a short that connects to anyone queer person who has challenged their ideas of faith. This one will leave an impact on your soul.
