Coming up May 17-21 is Reel Out Charlotte, the city’s LGBTQ Film Festival and a part of the annual program of Charlotte Pride. The event will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary and showcase five days of independent cinema at The Independent Picture House, in partnership with the Charlotte Film Society.
“We are so excited to bring the festival back for another year and celebrate our fifteenth anniversary,” Lupe Silva, Board member of Charlotte Pride said in a release. “We are especially excited about partnering with the Charlotte Film Society to host our festival at The Independent Picture House for the very first time.”
The Independent Picture House is located at 4237 Raleigh St. in Charlotte, with readily available and ample parking. Public transit options include LYNX Blue Line, Sugar Creek Station (approximately half-mile from venue) and CATS routes 4, 13, and 211.
The multi-evening event will show eleven short films during the opening Shorts Night Wednesday, May 17 and eleven feature-length films Thursday, May 18 through Sunday, May 21.
Among the opening night shorts screenings are “Separate,” a post apocalyptic survival; “Assemblé,” which examines the struggles of a ballet dancer attempting to prioritize her identity and love for dance; “The Butch and the Baby Daddy,” a Canadian short that explores how a trans/butch lesbian struggles to fulfill her dream of having a baby; “Pop-Off,” the story of a high strung young gay man and has first experiencing hosting a hookup; “Mother(s) and Son,” a biographical short that follows a wife’s journey of a high risk pregnancy and her own fears and insecurity surrounding parenthood while contemplating the adoption process in North Carolina; “Boundless,” an animated short exploring trans and non-binary spirits; “Are You Sure,” an exploration of a transgender woman and her struggles to overcome the same transition hurdle over and again; “Church Camp,” the story of Josh, a gawky camp counselor who considers coming out as bisexual to the entire Bible camp; “Dilating for Maximum Results,” a comedy about a black trans woman who attempts to dilate (after four years of not) in order to hook up with her online boyfriend in person for the first time; “Maverick the Mystifying Oracle,” a comedy about a woman named Lindsay who realizes her mother has ordered a psychic-in-training for her birthday party; and “First Time,” the story of a young man who goes out to dinner with his supervisor and is pressured into his first sexual encounter with a man.
Full length features throughout the remaining days of the festival include “Soy Niño,” “Golden Delicious,” “Scott Pilgrim Vs the World,” “Big Boys,” “A Run for More,” “Finlandia,” “Private Desert,” “You can Live Forever,” “Our League,” “When Time got Louder” and “Esther Newton Made me Gay.”
Individual tickets can be purchased for $10 and an All Access Pass can be purchased for $80, which will get you ten (10) passes to the Festival, including exclusive access to our kickoff event, Drag Cocktail Hour at Artisan’s Palate Saturday, May 13 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and special access to the Scott Pilgrim pre-screening party, with complimentary food and beverage, on Friday, May 19.
For more details visit the website at https://charlottepride.org/reelout.