The moment has arrived! We now present to you, our 2022 Reel Pride 33 Film Line-Up!
You can purchase your 2022 Reel Pride 33 Festival Pass and Film Tickets today: www.reelpride.com/festivalpasses
Opening Night Film: Sissy
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Sissy" (Opening Night Film) on Friday, September 30th at 8:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Hannah Barlow & Kane Senes --- 102 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ When a traumatic schoolyard incident severed their friendship, childhood besties Cecilia and Emma went their separate ways. Twelve years later, Emma is about to get married to her fiancée Fran while Cecilia has collected over 200,000 followers through her viral self-help videos. After a chance encounter, the two rekindle their bond, and Emma invites Cecilia to her bachelorette weekend (or “hen’s weekend” as they call it Down Under). But when Cecilia realizes Alex, the bully who orchestrated Cecilia and Emma’s falling out, will also be joining them, the wounds of the past are reopened with savage consequences.
The second feature collaboration from Kane Senes and Hannah Barlow, Sissy is a timely exploration of how social media culture and trauma feed off each other. A dynamic lead performance from Aisha Dee (The Nowhere Inn) as Cecilia propels the film through its sudden twists and genre-bending, turning from grisly to wickedly funny in a heartbeat. Sissy never misses an opportunity for a laugh or a gruesome gross-out, delivering a modern spin on Carrie that is as clever as it is unexpected.
*This film contains scenes of violence.
Love is a map
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Love is a Map" on Friday, September 30th at 7:30 p.m. at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium.
Directed by Ryan Balas --- 90 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️
Annie and Mary were in love in college but didn't realize it until it was too late. Years later, they decide to spend a weekend together after Mary asks Annie to help spread her husband's ashes in the Catskill Mountains. Their love is given a second chance...but are they living in a dreamy bubble or can they go the distance this time? They will have to follow their own map.
queering yoga
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Queering Yoga" on Saturday, October 1st at 1:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Ewan Duarte --- 45 minutes and 20 seconds
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Queering Yoga is a documentary about stories of personal transformation and healing through yoga in the Queer, Trans, and QTPOC communities through the lens of decolonizing yoga.
youth feature Film: dawn, her dad, & the tractor
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor" (Youth Feature Film) on Saturday, October 1st at 2:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Shelley Thompson --- 92 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ After the death of her mother, a young trans woman returns to the family farm where she sees her father and sister for the first time since her transition.
Set on a Nova Scotia dairy farm, John Andrew has just lost his wife Miranda to cancer. When a young woman with a startling resemblance to Miranda appears on his porch, an odyssey towards understanding begins.
Mama bears
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Mama Bears" on Saturday, October 1st at 1:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Daresha Kyi
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ MAMA BEARS is an intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the journeys taken by Sara Cunningham and Kimberly Shappley, two “mama bears”—conservative, Christian mothers whose profound love for their LGBTQ+ children has turned them into fierce advocates for the entire queer community—and Tammi Terrell Morris, a young African American lesbian whose struggle for self-acceptance perfectly exemplifies why the mama bears are so vitally important.
Shot in a poetic, deeply intimate style, MAMA BEARS uses social media posts, home movies, photographs, personal journals, blogs, interviews, and cinema verité footage to explore the complex intersections of politics, religion, faith, and true, unconditional love.
Jeanette
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Jeanette" on Saturday, October 1st at 4:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium.
Directed by Maris Curran --- 78 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Filmed in striking vérité, this portrait of competitive bodybuilder and lesbian single mother, JEANNETTE unfolds as an intimate story of balancing the relentlessness of daily existence with the realities of living through trauma. Set in the aftermath of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub mass shooting, Jeannette seeks support and healing through community while she continues to coach fellow survivors at the gym, contend with a strained relationship with her Puerto Rican mother, and raise her teenage son. As her life begins to calm, Hurricane María hits Puerto Rico and Jeannette is thrown back into crisis mode.
Skirting sensationalism to focus on the tenderness of healing, director Maris Curran has created an unforgettable window into one woman's life -- her strength and vulnerability -- in the aftermath of trauma.
JEANNETTE is a film about resilience that gives an audience the opportunity to move past the headlines and ask: in the wake of tragedy, how do we move toward wholeness?
unidentified objects
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Unidentified Objects" on Saturday, October 1st at 6:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium.
Directed by Juan Felipe Zuleta --- 96 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ In this surreal, darkly humorous, and inventive American indie, two people whose worlds seem light-years away converge on an impromptu, border-defying road trip to find their true places in the world… or out of it.
When Peter (New Amsterdam’s Matthew August Jeffers), an unemployed, curmudgeonly gay man with dwarfism, awakes to early morning pounding on his door, it could have easily been bill collectors making good on past due notices. Instead, it’s his neighbor Winona (Flesh and Bone’s Sarah Hay), a buxom and bubbly sex worker whose everyday makeup choices rival the night sky’s glittery stars. In desperate need of a ride for a mysterious emergency, Winona offers him money to borrow his car. Hard up for cash, Peter agrees with one major stipulation: that they make a pit stop along the way for him to fulfill a long overdue promise.
women's feature Film: maybe someday
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Maybe Someday" (Women's Feature Film) on Saturday, October 1st at 6:30 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Michelle Ehlen --- 91 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Maybe Someday follows the character of Jay, battling a mixture of denial and depression, in what appears will be a long road ahead to fully recover from her divorce. Life does have a way of giving us happy endings, but they aren’t the kind that usually appear in movies. This film aims to show a more realistic portrayal of struggling to become whole again, to normalize the idea that it isn’t just time that heals us; it’s our own willingness and participation in the process.
Join Maybe Someday for a Q&A immediately after the film.
nana's boys
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Nana's Boys" on Sunday, October 2nd at 11:00 a.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Ashton Pina --- 78 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ With subtle, vulnerable performances, Nana's Boys focuses on the intimate life of a couple who are confronted with the fact that their relationship is not as solid as they thought.
presidential pick: black as u r
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Black As U R" (Presidential Pick) on Sunday, October 2nd at 1:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Micheal Rice --- 84 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Do all Black lives matter, or only heterosexual Black lives? This is the question theater and film director Micheal Rice powerfully explores in this deep, necessary dive into the intertwined damage of racism and homophobia within Black communities. Brilliantly weaving together history and contemporary lived experience on the streets of America, Rice revisits gay civil rights icons James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, interviews preachers and professors, and talks to Black trans youth. He adds his own experience to the mix, with home movies and reflections on growing up Black and gay in the South. In one memorable sequence, Rice visits a Black barbershop for a frank discussion of the prejudices many of its patrons cling to.
Mi Vacío y Yo (My Emptiness and I)
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Mi Vacío y Yo (My Emptiness and I)" on Sunday, October 2nd at 1:30 p.m. at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium.
Directed by Adrian Silvestre --- 93 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Raphi, from France, fantasizes about romances with princes, and about starting a traditional family. But in reality, things aren't like that. She works in a call centre in Barcelona, struggles with at times embarrassing dates, and is diagnosed by her therapist as having gender dysphoria. During this confusing, yet valuable period, we follow this trans woman as she makes her transition, as well as in her everyday life. She talks candidly with colleagues, queer friends, and the men she meets through apps. In spite of all the advice she receives, it turns out that it is mostly time and experience that will help her embrace her place in this world.
Sex Scene; Nudity; Male Frontal Nudity.
men's feature film: all kinds of love
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "All Kinds of Love" (Men's Feature Film) on Sunday, October 2nd at 3:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Joseph Sackett --- 77 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Set in 2015 against the backdrop of the Supreme Court's upholding of Marriage Equality, a long time gay couple divorce just as everyone else is getting married. After a commitment-phobic husband divorces him, Max, a stuck-in-his-ways gay man tries to start over. When he becomes accidental roommates with a younger hip nerd who is as romantically challenged as he is, sparks fly. "All Kinds of Love" is a feel-good comedy about people trying to follow their hearts, whether it involves an inter-generational romance, a middle-aged interracial throuple or an artistic trans man looking for love in all the wrong places.
Please notate in program that there is Nudity.
trans feature film: homebody
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Homebody" (Trans Feature Film) on Sunday, October 2nd at 3:30 p.m. at the Fresno City College Old Administration Building Auditorium.
Directed by David Lewis --- 77 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ Johnny loves his babysitter Melanie, and he’s heartbroken that today is her last day with him before she transitions into being a full-time doula. He discovers a YouTube video that teaches him about Free-Spirit Meditation, a practice by which you can send your spirit out of your body and into someone else’s body.
Johnny sends his spirit into Melanie. He can see through her eyes and operate her body from the inside out. Johnny-as-Melanie plays dress-up, uses Melanie’s credit card to buy an obscene amount of candy, and has an awkward run-in with a high school friend of Melanie’s.
From there, the pressures of pretending to be someone else stack up fast. Melanie’s boyfriend Tom comes over for a visit and they have to get rid of him. Then: Sharon and Priya, Melanie’s clients, call needing their doula — Melanie — to come over right away. But Johnny is trapped in Melanie’s body and doesn’t know how to get out.
So, Johnny-as-Melanie, a 9-year-old boy in a woman’s body, has to lead the home birth with only Melanie’s spirit to coach him. It’s a Cyrano-de-Bergerac style comedy of errors around an inflatable birth pool in a Park Slope apartment.
closing night feature: shouting down midnight
Fresno Reel Pride presents: "Shouting Down Midnight"(Closing Night Feature) on Sunday, October 2nd at 5:00 p.m. at the Fresno City College Theatre.
Directed by Gretchen Stoeltje --- 97 minutes
⭐️ Film Synopsis ⭐️ In 2013, women shared real stories to help Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibuster in defense of Texas women’s access to reproductive healthcare. As the capitol filled to capacity for the first time in its history, and people all over the world tuned in, Sen. Davis read testimony from women strongly opposed to the bill which would effectively force draconian, pre-Roe v. Wade conditions on women again. The bill ultimately passed, but not before Texas women - and the men who love them - made it clear that day that the Texas legislature had gone too far.
Forcing debate on the bill provided citizens a view of the process and a role in demanding accountability from their elected representatives. People were activated. Lives were transformed. History was made.
Our characters are women whose letters Senator Davis read during the filibuster, Senator Davis herself, and one young activist who chose her fate that day. Since then, we’ve followed these women to understand how that day changed their lives, and why the fight for reproductive freedom is more important than ever.
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You can purchase your 2022 Reel Pride 33 Festival Pass and Film Tickets today: www.reelpride.com/festivalpasses