Film Categories: Theatre

  • Warning Shot

    One death. Three versions of the crime. James H. Wakasa, a 63-year-old Japanese American bachelor, was shot to death by military police at Topaz concentration camp during World War II. Was it justifiable homicide, an accidental fatality, or second-degree murder? The press said he was trying to escape, the shooter claimed it was a warning shot, the case file suggests he was killed while walking a dog. This experimental film essay uses the “Rashomon effect” to juxtapose the conflicting accounts detailing the circumstances and cause of Wakasa’s untimely death. Part of the Queer Camp Trilogy.

  • Arvind

    After his mentally ill mother is released from prison, Arvind, a 16 year-old biracial queer teenager in Austin, Texas, revisits old family wounds when he writes and produces a play written from his mother’s perspective. When his relationship with the actress who portrays his mother on stage deepens, it sets Arvind on a course that will change his perception of his past.

  • Brunch Queen

    “Brunch Queen” is a hybrid film that follows a hilarious gay couple (who can’t stand each other’s company but are still very much in love) as they prepare for the opening night of a musical based on their infamous insult diner. This 11-min short doc is shot like an episode of a mockumentary television sitcom, like The Office or Modern Family. It’s a humorous and poignant exploration of love and aging in the LGBTQ community.

  • The Promise

    Set in an open field, the two men dance, jumping from reality to dream, as they follow a path, a metaphor for structure in their pursuits, giving meaning to their struggles.

  • Mezzo

    When Breanna was 12 years old, she discovered opera and began exploring and acknowledging her gender identity. At age 25, she is the first transgender woman to complete a Masters in Opera at a major conservatory. The film traces the days leading up to her graduation recital while harkening back to the defining moments of her girlhood.

  • Derby and Groma

    While taking a stroll in Buenos Aires on his birthday several years ago, photo collector Pablo Cruz Aguirre came across an unusual gift. Blowing down the street towards him was a collection of letters, postcards and photos depicting a performing duo named Derby and Groma. This collection of artifacts contained a fragmented narrative of two people. Desolina Merlino, alias Derby, was born 1891 and of Italian descent. Samuel Salomón Gromatzky, alias Groma, was the son of Jewish immigrants in Argentina, born in 1895. Under the name of Derby and Groma, the two performed acrobatic dance routines in variety theaters throughout…

  • Inferno

    Dante’s fantasy of hell, and his yearning after the Epic Poetry form of Virgil, the Latin poet and the magnificent illustrations of Gustav Dore (the actual inspiration for the film). Presented on each of the 76 illustrated first edition plates, a fast-moving condensed version of Inferno takes place, with a voice speaking the appropriate lines of Dante, according to the Lawrence Grant White English translation.

  • Adagio

    Music as sensuous and longing as a fragrance. Phrases that rise and fall slowly at first, then more and more passionately. A love poem. And also a study of the relation between film phrases and musical phrases. As in the music, the film uses only fades and dissolves between statements. Based on Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”

  • Man That Got Away, The

    A musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor’s great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs.

  • Verona

    Inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “Verona” is the story of two young lovers separated by their rival fraternities. Set in a small college town wherein young men are groomed for corporate success in All-American hyper competitive fashion, “Verona” presents the fate of star-crossed lovers in a society that condemns the very nature of their love.