QFest St. Louis, the St. Louis-based LGBTQ+ film festival presented by Cinema St. Louis, is back for its 16th year beginning May 4 at CSL’s newly acquired Hi-Pointe Theatre. QFest is the first public event Cinema St. Louis is hosting in this new space. CSL artistic director Chris Clark notes that having the Hi-Pointe allowed for more flexibility when it comes to scheduling, without having to deal with otherwise costly theater rentals or working around existing programming. “Having our own space, we have the luxury of planning to fit around our needs,” Clark says. “Now we can spread things out with one prime time and try to make each screening a special event.”
This year’s program runs through May 10 and includes eight narrative features, two documentary features, and two shorts programs comprising 16 shorts altogether, with nearly half of the overall program coming from filmmakers who are women or non-binary. As with any festival lineup, it’s good to have a sense of what’s in store, so we’ve picked a handful of films we think you should see.
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May 6 at 8:30 p.m.
QFest is presenting a 4K restoration of this early masterpiece from legendary queer filmmaker Gregg Araki. The 1995 film, which stars Rose McGowan and James Duval, follows two teenage lovers who pick up a handsome young drifter and embark upon a journey across America that is equal parts road movie, sex comedy, and thriller.
May 7 at 4:15 p.m.
Jimmy McDowell was a 24-year-old American Vietnam War veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in 1972. His brother, filmmaker Peter McDowell, was only 5 years old when Jimmy died. This documentary chronicles Peter’s quest to better understand his brother, investigating his politics, his drug use, and his sexuality in a journey that stretches around the world.
May 7 at 7 p.m.
This film follows the story of Monica (played by Trace Lysette), a trans woman returning home to care for her dying mother (Patricia Clarkson). Andrea Pallaoro’s film takes a quiet, layered approach to showing Monica’s journey towards healing as she reconnects with her family for the first time since she left as a teenager.
May 10 at 7 p.m.
Director Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please follows the life of a bohemian couple, played by Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling, living on the Lower East SIde in the ‘50s whose lives are turned upside down when they encounter a leather-clad gang known as The Young Gents. The encounter sparks the couple to further explore their increasingly complicated sexuality as they dig into the world of underground fetishism.
May 6 at 4 p.m.
Following the death of a close friend, Jimmy, a down-on-his-luck film collector played by drag legend Charles Busch, unearths a long-lost final reel of a classic Tod Browning horror film. As Jimmy and his cohorts engage in all sorts of schemes to try and cash in on the sale of this legendary lost reel, they inadvertently bring the moviegoing community together.
To learn more about the 16th annual QFest St. Louis and purchase tickets, visit cinemastlouis.org/qfest
A previous version of this story misstated the demographics of the festival’s featured directors. SLM regrets the error.
