Queens World Film Festival fosters community at LGBTQ+ film screening
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Filmmakers Lucy Teitler and Paula Hung-Palmer take questions after screening. Photo by Jordy Antonio
By Molly Friedrichs
In 2010, husband and wife Katha Cato and Don Preston Cato created the Queens World Film Festival with the mission of building community through film and art. The multi-day, multi-venue event features a diversity of films intentionally selected to spark connection among the population of Queens.
Earlier this month, the Catos collaborated with Flushing Town Hall on the second annual Pride in the Community film programming featuring films from the Queens World Film Festival.
“It’s about having a collective experience where we imagine together,” Katha Cato said. “There’s only so many feelings and we all have the same ones. Alienation, hope, loss, grief. It's important that all voices be part of the conversation.”
The film festival screenings featured a curated selection of work meant to flow from one piece to the next through a common theme. In this edition, Queens World Film Festival presented six short films, all centered around the LGBTQ+ experience in New York City and beyond. The free screening was held at Flushing Town Hall’s 308-seat theater and included a panel discussion and reception after the films.
Each film highlighted a new story, point of view, or part of the world within the theme of Pride. The screening opened and closed with playful, comedic shorts that the audience appeared to love – the shorts were full of relationship issues and shocking plot twists. Between the pieces were three films that represented distinct points of view on more serious aspects of LGBTQ+ identity and experience.
The first of these, “I Am Illegal,” a short by Meryem Lahlou, brought to light the fear and emotion experienced by the LGBTQ+ community in Morocco, a country where LGBTQ+ people are largely oppressed. The film itself, Lahlou explained over email, would be illegal to view in the country it examines.
Laulou’s film is comprised of a series of shots and images overlaid with interviews between the filmmaker and people she encountered on the streets of Morocco when asking about their views of the community.
Following “I Am Illegal,” NYU student Paula Hung-Palmer’s “Build Me Through The Image” centered around family and identity while combining aspects of Hung-Palmer’s dual studies in anthropology and film.
“Especially in my documentary work, I like to think of myself as an anthropologist and a filmmaker, wherein the art I make is very closely tied to deep consideration on positionality, representation, and communication,” Hung-Palmer said. “Film is a powerful medium for LGBTQIA+ stories because it's both communal and private – the ultimate reassurance that you are not alone.”
“Build Me Through The Image” was followed by Yinlin Chen’s “Mahjong Butterfly,” a documentary-style piece that directly responded to Hung Palmer’s wish to show others that they are not alone. The short featured an individual finding a community in Queens and coming to accept and express their identity through the help of the people they met in Flushing.
Wholesome and touching, the film showcased aspects of solidarity and support that Queens World Film Festival hopes to accomplish through their organization, as well.
Not only did the filmmakers gain exposure, Flushing Town Hall paid them for their work. Several organizers and filmmakers cited the importance of seeing the audience reactions to their films.
“It’s really fun to see where people laugh. Hearing that lets you hear an audience understand your work,” Lucy Teitler, the filmmaker behind “Keep it Open,” explained. “It’s gratifying to see, you can track how they’re understanding the narrative.”
For the event organizers, there is little reward that could top how it feels to be a part of the project that helps bring people together.
“You work on a lot of projects in tech, and it means so much more when it’s a film that really speaks to you,” Fiona, a tech manager explained. “You remember that you really do want to be a part of making this happen.”
Following the film screenings, a number of audience members stayed back to chat and share food. The filmmakers also stuck around, and discussed the themes of the films with their friends, family, film students and others who had just watched their films. There was a strong sense of community in the room.
For Katha and Don Preston Cato, this is precisely the goal of their work.
“There are two positions in the theater I love,” Cato says. “One is up by the screen looking at the audience, where I can see the lights dancing on their faces – I see the images landing on their faces. The other is the back of the house where everybody’s head will maybe tilt in the same direction, laugh, gasp – I get to see everybody have this experience together. They don't even know how special it is.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story credited Queens Rising as the producing entity of this event. It actually was organized by the Queens World Film Festival.
