Much like film festivals, the raison d’être of Short of the Week is to bring visibility to emerging filmmakers and their short films. However, where festivals are set around specific dates in the calendar, here at S/W we get to showcase films all year round, for free. Festivals are always exploring avenues to connect with their audiences on a more regular basis though and San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival Frameline has turned to online distribution with Frameline Voices – a 12-month short film distribution program.

Currently in its 10th edition and described as ‘a package of the finest and freshest LGBTQ+ shorts curated from the annual festival’, Director of Distribution and Educational Programming Lindsey Hodgson, who spearheads the initiative, explained (in conversation with S/W) that Frameline Voices originated as an in-cinema exhibition of the program. Over the years, it evolved into its current format, becoming easily accessible online (free on both YouTube and Here TV) and bringing the fun of Frameline outside of the Castro.

Showcasing the films to a wider audience aligns with the main goal of the project, which is to ‘improve and equalize mainstream media representations of LGBTQ+ people through content distribution and career development of LGBTQ+ creators’. Although it’s common for a festival to aim to amplify the voices of the filmmakers whose work they have selected, with Voices, Frameline puts its money where its mouth is by using their platform and visibility to effectively promote filmmakers after the closing night of the festival.

Curated from the shorts program of the festival, with the idea of giving a voice to the stories that are still untold within the queer community, the films that are selected are offered a license fee, and obviously benefit (along with the filmmakers) from this prolonged exposure. The films are currently available on their YouTube channel for a limited time, while some of the films from their archives are also available.  

Without further ado, here are the seven films of the 10th Frameline Voices, with direct access to the ones currently available.

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Flex

DIR. Matt Porter

Previously featured on Short of the Week. Charles explores the gray areas of his own sexuality after going through an unexpected breakup.

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4 Fruit Bites

DIR. Dave Quantic

An introduction to four unique queer, trans, and genderqueer voices as featured in the Fruitbowl Podcast. 

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Blackness is Everything

DIR. Alba Roland Mejia

This experimental/performative short film celebrates the diversity of the Black diaspora in the Bay Area. 

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My Aunties

DIR. Richard O’Connor

Raised by gay parents in the early 1980s, Stefan Lynch was cared for and loved by a group of adults, largely gay men, who he called his “aunties.” Stefan remembers the succession of AIDS-related illnesses in his family, but even in the face of sickness and loss, his aunties showed him how to survive and care for one another. 

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Luv U Cuz

DIR. Eric Pumphrey

Available on May 6th. Set in a not-too-distant future, two cousins bond over the course of a night on the town, until their relationship is tested in more ways than one.

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Noor and Layla

DIR. Fawzia Mirza

Available on February 11th. Noor and Layla are breaking up. Is it the end of the road for these two Muslim women… or is it just the beginning?

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The Rogers

DIR. Joe Wilson & Dean Hamer

An intimate glimpse of the first visible group of transgender men in the Pacific Islands: the Rogers of Samoa. From the loneliness of family rejection and homelessness to the camaraderie of church, cooking, and dance, their stories reveal the challenges and possibilities of life in an island society rooted in culture and tradition.

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