The Del Shores Foundation will host a one-night-only 25th anniversary benefit screening of the film Sordid Lives at the Angelika Film Center – Dallas on Tuesday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. The evening will be hosted by the film’s director Del Shores with proceeds going toward the Del Shores Foundation and its mission to find and elevate new LGBTQ+ writers living in the South.

Also in attendance will be Emerson Collins and original cast member Ann Walker. The screening event will feature a post-show Q&A and VIP tickets that will include a pre-show mixer with Shores, Collins and Walker.

This year marks the third year the DSF has held its Writers Search and Writers Festival and so far, has awarded more than $50,000 in cash awards and production grants. The Writers Festival brings in a dozen LGBTQ+ winners and finalists from the Writers Search for a weekend of private workshops, public panels and stage readings of all three
winning scripts and has been hosted in Dallas, Atlanta and Birmingham.

“We know it’s a challenging time on so many fronts for so many people, and we’re still committed to our mission of supporting and helping bring into the world new stories from fresh LGBTQ+ Southern voices more than ever. Telling our stories is one of the most impactful ways to change hearts and minds,” Shores stated in the announcement for the event.

Shores told Dallas Voice the significance of bringing this movie to Dallas.

“As a young filmmaker, what a thrill it was to see Sordid Lives take off in several cities, including Dallas where it ran over a year at The Regent — 25 years ago,” he said in an email. “So, to return to Dallas where the Sordid fans are still ‘crazy but loyal’ makes me giddy. For this screening to benefit The Del Shores Foundation, where we facilitate the development of new southern queer artistic voices, well, it just feels full circle. Big thanks to Dallas for 25 years of Sordid love.”

As Shores mentioned, This years marks the 25th anniversary of Shores’ classic Southern film. The comedy centers on “white trash as a gay actor struggles to come out to his
eccentric, dysfunctional Texas family. When the family matriarch trips over the two wooden legs of her lover in a seedy motel room, her funeral brings three generations of the family back together in a story about learning to love the family you have as they are, not as you wish them to be.”

The film premiered at Camelot Theatres in 2001 and ran for 96 weeks, making it the longest running film in Palm Springs history. The film would go on to expand its Sordid-verse with Sordid Lives: The Series and the sequel A Very Sordid Wedding. The film’s cast includes Walker, Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, Beth Grant and Leslie Jordan.

See Shores’ video invitation to the event below:

For more information and tickets, visit the Del Shores Foundation site.

–Rich Lopez

In the aftermath of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub mass shooting in 2016, one woman seeks support and healing through her community while she continues to coach fellow survivors at the gym. Jeannette, a new documentary follows Jeannette Feliciano, a competitive bodybuilder, personal trainer and single mother who survived the massacre. The film is directed by Maris Curran.

“When we met, Jeannette and I recognized something of ourselves in each other. We’re both tough, feminine, queer women who have dealt with sexual and physical violence,” the director said in the film’s press materials. “At our core, each of us was formed in response to violence we faced as girls and later, women, and much of our adult lives have been spent trying to articulate the personal impact of violence and yet, not be defined by it.”

In the film, after settling from the shooting, Hurricane María hits Puerto Rico, where she is from, and she is thrown back into crisis mode.

The film explores both Feliciano’s resilience and vulnerabilty.

In her statement, Feliciano stated “I look at this film like I look at life—I want this film to inspire people to keep going; regardless of what they may be going through we are all warriors but it takes the strong mental willingness of never quitting. We all struggle, we are all going through something and I hope this film gives people an example of resilience for their own lives.”

Watch the trailer for Jeannette below:

–Rich Lopez

Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian

RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com

GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, has released the findings of its 13th annual Studio Responsibility Index this month — and it didn’t look all that great.
The index examines films released in the 2024 calendar year from the 10 top studio distributors — A24, Amazon, Apple TV+, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery — including subsidiary distribution labels and majority-owned streaming services. The big picture results? LGBTQ content is at a three-year low.

And that sucks big time. But it’s Pride Month, so let’s focus on what positives we can.
Within its findings, GLAAD also listed approved films that passed its Vito Russo Test, named after the GLAAD founder. Deciding on what to watch or thinking of hosting a Pride movie night? Get started with these films, all of which feature meaningful queer inclusion to celebrate both Pride and the cinematic works themselves.

Love Lies Bleeding (A24): A romantic thriller set in the ’80s, this film follows gym manager Lou and her budding relationship with Jackie, a bodybuilder passing through town. The two women strike up an intense sexual and romantic relationship, but complications arise due to Lou’s criminal family and Jackie’s steroid abuse. The core narrative centers on a love story between two women and never wavers from it, a rarity seen in this genre. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian and Ed Harris. Stream on HBO Max.

My Old Ass (Amazon): This dramedy follows 18-year-old Elliot during the summer before she leaves for college when a trip on mushrooms causes her to see her 39-year-old self. The older Elliot warns the younger Elliot to stay away from a boy named Chad. Younger Elliot doesn’t think it will be a problem as she’s only been attracted to women. This nuanced and layered bi protagonist fills a representation void, and the film shows Elliot’s world where her identity is accepted and gives her space to figure out what that identity is. Starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella. Stream on Prime.

Drive-Away Dolls (NBCUniversal): This comedy follows two lesbian best friends, Marian and Jamie, as their road trip to Tallahassee goes awry due to a mysterious package in the trunk of their rental car. The film is, overall, extremely queer and allows lesbian characters to lead the story in an unabashed comedy where they are in on the joke. The film stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan. Rent on Prime or AppleTV.

Fancy Dance (Apple TV+): Jax, a woman living on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, tries to uncover what happened to her missing sister. Early in the film, Jax goes to a strip club and has a sexual encounter with another woman, Sapphire. These two have an ongoing relationship, cementing Jax’s identity as a queer woman. Queer Indigenous women are a group so rarely seen in the media, and this film told Jax’s story with heart and compassion. Starring Lily Gladstone. Stream on Apple TV+.

The Radleys (Lionsgate): This British film follows the titular family of vampires who refuse to drink the blood of others until their Uncle Will comes to town. The film’s narrator is Rowa Radley, who tells the audience he’s gay in a voiceover at the start. He has a crush on his classmate Evan, who is bisexual, and eventually asks him out. During their date, Rowan struggles to stop himself from harming Evan, so he leaves, but then later finds out that Evan has been bitten by Will. Though Will is the villain of the film, he is not the only queer or bi+ representation nor does his queerness define his villainy. Also, it’s gay vampires! The film stars Damian Lewis. Stream on Tubi.

Discover more passing films — or figure which films to maybe stay away from — by reading the full Studio Responsibility Index at GLAAD.org/SRI/2025.

The first of June means time to start filling in your calendar of Pride parties, events and some movies — particularly under the night sky.

In the heart of downtown Fort Worth, Rooftop Cinema Club (RCC) sits on the the terrace of the Worthington Renaissance Hotel. For the month of June, the film series celebrates Pride and invites guests to kick back and relax with popcorn, cocktails and bar fare while watching cult-classic movies amid skyline views. 

Alongside its films, the RCC mixes in special events, mixers and more. The club also gives attention this month to Father’s Day and Juneteenth to add to its festivities.

The club stated in it schedule release, “This June, we’re turning up the volume on visibility, celebration, and community. Join us at Rooftop as we spotlight iconic LGBTQ+ stories, queer joy on screen, and the people who make our spaces vibrant, bold, and beautifully themselves. We’re partnering with local LGBTQ+ organizations doing the real work — because Pride is celebration and action. Come out, show up, be loud, be soft, be seen.”

The June Pride schedule includes:

June 3: Cool Cool Chaos: Community Mini Marathon. There’s TV. And then there’s Community with paintball. We’re screening four of Community’s most mind-bending, paintball-splattered, cult-favorite chapters. The ones that made Greendale… Greendale.

June 5: Challengers. Spend a late night with this hot threesome led by Zendaya as a tennis player turned coach Tashi and her husband, Art who finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. 10 p.m.

June 8: Pride Giveback Night: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Three New York drag queens findt themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. What’s a girl to do? Fifteen percent of ticket sales from this screening will go to LGBTQ SAVES as part of RCC’s commitment to celebrating and supporting our LGBTQ-plus communities.

LGBTQ SAVES is a nonprofit based in Fort Worth that creates safe and brave spaces for LGBTQ youth to feel seen, supported and celebrated. Through weekly programming, scholarships and community events, the organization works to uplift young people and help them thrive—at home, at school and in the world. Every donation helps toward its life-saving work.

June 11: Wine Wednesdays with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 7:35 p.m.

June 12: Gay and Lesbians Singles Night. RCC teams up with the viral dating team at Matchbox Dating to shake up the usual singles scene with curated matches and spicy mini dates. Think speed dating meets personality quiz—but queer and iconic.. 6:05 p.m. Bottoms screens at 7:35 p.m.

June 20: Set it Off. Queen Latifah serves butch realness in this film centerd on four women who have decided to take measures into their own hands and undertake to rob banks. 10:15 p.m.

June 15: Die Hard. This one’s for dads, bonus dads, chosen dads — and anyone who knows all the lines.

June 17: Pride Giveback Night: RuPaul’s Drag Race Mini Marathon. Okay, Hunties, get ready to lip sync for your lives because we’re serving up drama, eleganza and legendary shade with three episodes from the iconic Season 9, often considered one of the greatest seasons of the show.

June 19: Juneteenth at RCC. Celebrate culture and connection with iconic films at Rooftop Cinema Club. A portion of proceeds from screenings on Juneteenth supports National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), working at the intersection of racial and LGBTQ+ justice.

June 24: Gay and Lesbians Singles Night. 10 p.m.

June 28: Pride Giveback Night: Jennifer’s Body.

June 29: Drag Me to the Movies: The Birdcage.We’ve got one drag show, 20 wigs, and zero Pirin tablets. A rooftop drag performance celebrates the film with more drama than a dinner with the Keeleys and more sparkle than Agador’s thong drawer.

Arrive early for games, socializing and concessions. Visit the site at RooftopCinemaClub.com/Fort-Worth for its full schedule of films and to purchase tickets as well as more information about its experiences.

–Rich Lopez

In the new film Egghead and Twinkie, filmmaker Sarah Kambe Holland brings a loosely autobiographical coming-of-age queer story to the screen. While the film does draw from some of Holland’s personal experiences and the emotions of that teenage angst of coming out. In her filmmaking debut, the comedy is a mix of romance, young adult friendships, queerness all set amid a road trip from Florida to Texas – specifically Dallas. 

“Twinkie is the protagonist that I needed when I was growing up as a queer mixed-Asian kid in Texas, and I want the audience to see the world through her eyes,” Holland said in the film’s press release.

After playing the festival circuit, the film debuts today, April 29, on demand and digitally on Apple, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Vudu, Direct TV and through local cable providers.

For her first film, Holland, 27, talked about writing and then seeing her life on the big screen – sorta. 

“It’s very loosely based on me and I took  a lot of liberties with the material for sure. But I think it’s more so, you know, trying to capture the emotions that I felt when I was going through all those changes,” she said. “And I think that that aspect of it has been really positive to get to kind of process those experiences and like a comedy film.”

Egghead and Twinkie centers on teenage animator Twinkie just shy of adulthood and misunderstood by her adoptive parents. She secretly begins DM-ing her Insta-famous DJ crush BD who suggests meeting in person for the first time at their show some 500 miles away from Twinkie’s Florida home. Twinkie enlists her best friend Egghead to steal her parents’ car and hit the road. 

The film touches on themes of racial and sexual identity and ride-or-die friendships through a Gen Z perspective – much of it through Twinkie’s POV. When casting that character, Holland mentioned that she thought casting “herself” might be tough; not just in finding a carbon-copy of her, but more of the right actor who could embody so many layers in the character Holland had written.

“When I cast Sabrina [Jie-A-Fa], it was her first speaking role and she really blew me away. She has a lot of characteristics as Twinkie,” she said. 

The film also stars Louis Tomeo as Egghead. The two were first cast in these roles in the film’s first iteration as a nine-minute short. Holland was impressed by their chemistry that it was a natural choice for the two to be in the feature. 

When Holland wrote Twinkie, she said she knew it would be challenging to find the right actor. 

“It was really important to me that she’s Asian American and exploring that identity alongside her queerness and knew it was going to be tough,” she said. 

She even began to DM people on their Instagram or websites to reach out. But then, Holland recalled one meeting. 

“Sabrina and I had met on a commercial shoot like a year and a half before, and I thought, is it going to be really creepy if I DM her on Instagram now? Like I’m sure she doesn’t remember me,” Holland said. “But it worked out, she showed up to the audition and obviously here we are.”

Set in Florida and Texas, these were both places Holland had lived. She grew up in Austin but ironically, the road trip doesn’t take the two to the state capital. Instead, the film makes its way to Dallas. Why Dallas?

That’s a very legit question,” she said. I think it was our budget. This is a super scrappy microbudget indie film and we couldn’t actually afford to film in Texas. We shot entirely in central Florida. Having grown up in Austin and having visited Dallas, I felt like we could mimic Dallas a bit easier. I feel like there are very iconic spots in Austin that I couldn’t fake, so we made it Dalas.”

Speaking of budget, and fun fact, Egghead and Twinkie is the first feature film to successfully fundraise its budget entirely through TikTok. Also, Dallas was a distinct choice for Holland and mixed with her own familiarity with Austin, it all made sense to take Twinkie elsewhere in Texas. 

She added, “I chose Dallas as the destination for the road trip, because I wanted Twinkie to go on a search for a big city, full of diversity and with a large queer community, set in Texas, to represent what it’s like to grow up gay in the South. It was important that Twinkie have fantasies about urban gay life, full of dance parties and celebration. Dallas was my choice as a great Texas city to represent the life that Twinkie aspires to have.”

Watch the trailer for Egghead and Twinkie below:

–Rich Lopez

Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang in The Wedding Banquet
(Photo by Luka Cyprian/Bleecker Street)

STEVEN LINDSEY | Contributing writer
StevenCraigLindsey@GMail.com

Here we are in 2025, and making an LGBTQ-themed movie can still be a challenge. The same goes for getting a film with a predominantly Asian cast onto the big screen.

Now, imagine the challenge of producing a theatrical release where those two worlds collide.

The good thing is, queer Korean-American filmmaker Andrew Ahn has the industry cred to prove there’s an audience for queer Asian stories.

His breakthrough film, Spa Night, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and took home a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance. Next up, Driveways premiered in 2019. And in 2022, he experienced his most high-profile hit to date with Fire Island on Hulu.

Last week, The Wedding Banquet opened in theaters nationwide.

Ahn wrote and directed a modernized version of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy for contemporary audiences. Both films feature queer Asian characters agreeing to heterosexual marriages for the sake of acquiring green cards and pleasing traditionalist parents.

Ahn joined Dallas Voice for a conversation about the film, as well as why audiences need to see queer Asian characters in media.

Dallas Voice: Hey, Andrew! Thanks for taking the time to chat about The Wedding Banquet. Now, if my math is correct, you were about seven years old when Ang Lee’s movie was released. When did you discover the movie, and what made you decide to update it more than 30 years later? Andrew Ahn: I think I saw it when I was eight years old, when it was on home video. My mom saw the VHS at the video rental store and rented it, not knowing that it was a queer film, and so we watched it as a family. And as a nascent gay boy, it kind of blew my mind. I very vividly remember the opening sequence where the main character is at the gym, and I remember thinking, “I like this,” but, you know, I didn’t know why, but I liked it.

I realize, in retrospect, that was the first gay film that I had ever seen, and the fact that it was a gay and Asian film feels really special. I watched the film later as an adult but never thought, “Oh, I’m going to be a filmmaker, and I’m going to remake this.” It wasn’t until 2019 when producers approached me about an update.

I was just so inspired because, like so many great films, it triggered a lot of different emotions in me. And a lot of that turned into the initial inspiration for the film. I thought a lot about getting married, having kids — all these conversations I’ve had with my boyfriend over the years. These subjects became my creative North Stars in this adaptation.

Do you think, many years after the first film, it’s any easier to make a queer gay film in Hollywood? I do think that there’s more opportunity to make Asian-American films now, and it’s something that I’ve been cultivating throughout my career. With Spa Night, Driveways and Fire Island, I’ve been working very hard to kind of till the soil.

I believe the financing for the original film came out of Taiwan, and this one had to be financed in the U.S., which made it a different kind of project. The original film was an indie.

And I think that the success of it, to even just play at your local art house theater, is incredible.

I think the vision for this movie from the get-go was, “Can we play it at AMCs?”

Given the current politics and everything, did you ever think when you were making this movie that you’d be releasing an immigration-fraud comedy in the middle of what we’re dealing with right now? (Laughs) In some ways, I wish this weren’t timely, you know. I wish we lived in better times. I could not have predicted the era in which this would get released.

My hope is that this film can offer a sense of humanity for these characters, so that people can’t deny that we have a right to exist, that we have a right to love who we want to love. And I get that this film might not change everybody’s minds, but hopefully it offers the opportunity to have a conversation and maybe move the needle just a little bit.

Your movies have mostly been about Asian and queer spaces. Why is it important still for you to continue to tell these stories about either the Asian experience through a queer lens or vice versa, the queer experience through an Asian lens? I’m not opposed to telling stories outside of this intersectional community, but I just find it so inspiring. And I also know that there are very few filmmakers who have the opportunity to tell these stories at a certain scale and to have a platform for them. So, I take that responsibility very seriously.

I’ll see where my interests take me, and that’s a gift to myself as an artist. But I think I’ll always want to make something queer and Asian, because I think that there are so many stories within this community that are worth telling.

The Wedding Banquet was written and directed by Andrew Ahn and stars Bowen Yang, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, Kelly Marie Chan and Lily Gladstone. It is currently in theaters.

Earlier this month, the Dallas-based USA Film Festival announced its films and schedule of events for the film festival’s 55th edition opening April 23 through April 27. Over its five days, the festival will bring a roster of new and classic films from the the U.S. and abroad. Among this year’s selections are a number of queer-centric films as well.

“We are pleased to once again celebrate Dallas Arts Month with our annual Spring Festival,” USAFF Managing Director Ann Alexander said in a press release, “We are honored to bring a number of distinguished Master Artists to our stage in Dallas and to celebrate so many talented filmmakers with new works as well as revisiting a few classic favorites.  With support from our sponsors, once again this year most of our programs will be presented as free admission.”

All screenings and events will be held at the Angelika Film Center (5321 E. Mockingbird Lane).

Two films have queer ties among the festival’s selections. USAFF will present the new queer romance drama On Swift Horses on April 24 at 7 p.m.

Directed by out filmmaker Daniel Minahan, based on the novel of the same name by Shannon Pufahl, the period film follows Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her husband Lee (Will Poulter) as they begin a bright new life in California when Lee returns from the Korean War.  But their newfound stability is upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi), a wayward gambler with a secret past, and a dangerous love triangle forms.  When Julius takes off in search of the young card cheat he’s fallen for (Diego Calva), Muriel’s longing for something more propels her into her own self discovery, leading to a secret life of gambling on racehorses and exploring a love she never dreamed possible.

USAFF welcomes queer director Sue Ann Pien to Dallas to present her directorial debut Once More, Like Rain Man as part of the Narrative Short Films block on April 25 at 9 p.m.

The short film follows the day-in-the-life of an autistic actress running the gambit of stereotypes she has to deal with in a funny, frustrating, painful and sometimes triumphantly sarcastic kind of way. USAFF celebrates Autism Awareness Month with this screening.

Pien is an autistic actress and director and a strong advocate for representation for people on the autism spectrum. And she enjoys performing alongside music composer and wife Cynthia Catania.

The festival begins with the Opening Night salute to Hollywood legend Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song), with a look at her career and signing of her memoir, The World of Nancy Kwan.

Opening night also honors filmmaker Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes), featuring a screening of his latest film, The Last Rodeo, with the film’s stars Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) and Mykelti Williamson (Forrest Gump) in attendance.

The festival will include a 25th anniversary screening of Christopher Nolan’s classic crime-thriller Memento (2000), with Dallas actor Stephen Tobolowsky in person.

Closing Night will feature a 40th anniversary screening of Brigitte Berman’s Academy Award-winning documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got (1985) and works from Texas artists and filmmakers. Also celebrated, will be veteran actor Martin Kove, with a 50th anniversary screening of the Roger Corman cult classic, Death Race 2000 (1975).

Tickets range from free-$10 and available here. Day-of-show tickets will be available at the Angelika’s sales desk upstairs one hour prior to showtime. For more details and to view the full schedule of programs, visit usafilmfestival.com.

—Rich Lopez

After its limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles, Dekkoo — the streaming platform for queer content — announced the release of Throuple, the new film from writer, star and queer indie musician Michael Doshier. The film will be available to stream on all major platforms including Amazon, iTunes, InDemand, Google, and Dekkoo on June 6.

The film is loosely based on Doshier’s own life. The inception of the story was when Doshier’s closest friend and longtime creative collaborator, Tristan Carter-Jones — who plays Tristan in the film — entered her first serious relationship. At the same time, Doshier was exploring intimacy with married men in open relationships. He used both experiences to craft the Throuple narrative.

From publicity:

The film follows a lonely gay singer-songwriter as he navigates the messy terrains of modern desire, friendship, and unconventional love. When he unexpectedly becomes romantically entangled with a married couple, he’s forced to reevaluate the relationship he desires. All the while, he lives in fear that he’s losing his lifelong best friend to her new girlfriend.

The emotional heart of the film lies in Michael’s dual journeys — romantic and musical. A dreamer struggling to voice his own needs, Michael drifts through life in a state of quiet passivity. It’s only through his evolving connection with Georgie and Connor, a married couple seeking to reignite their spark, that he begins to confront the patterns holding him back. Meanwhile, his decade-long friendship with Tristan is shifting as her girlfriend, Abby, begins asserting healthy boundaries — creating an emotional triangle just as complex as his romantic one.

The cast includes Jess Gabor as Abby, the film’s moral compass with Tommy Heleringer and Stanton Plummer-Cambridge as Connor and Georgie, whose relationship is tested, redefined and deepened by the presence of a third.

Watch the trailer for Throuple below:

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.

That’s the premise of Ponyboi, the new film release by Fox Entertainment Studios’ new indie label Tideline. The film will premiere on June 27 as part of Pride Month celebrations. The studio debuted the film’s first trailer on Tuesday. Directed by Esteban Arango, Ponyboi stars Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), River Gallo, Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), Victoria Pedretti (You) and Indya Moore (Pose).

The young sex worker Ponyboi (Gallo) is thrown into chaos when a drug deal goes wrong, forcing him to go on the run from the mob and his abusive pimp (O’Brien). With help From Bruce (Bartlett), a cowboy in the city, Ponyboi journeys through New Jersey’s underbelly on a quest for freedom.

Following its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it earned a Grand Jury Prize nomination, Ponyboi has worked the festival circuit garnering awards including Best Feature at NewFest and Best Performance for writer and star River Gallo at the Torino Film Festival. 

The actor/screenwriter reflected on his personal reasons for creating the movie.

From Gallo (excerpted):

Despite being raised as a “normal” boy, when I was 12, my parents disclosed I had Anorchia, a condition where my testicles were absent at birth. Without my consent, I was forced to undergo cosmetic plastic surgery and testosterone treatment to present as a cisgender man. I spent years hiding my true identity.

When I was 27 years old, I decided to explore this part of myself by making the short film iteration of Ponyboi. In that process, I discovered for the first time that the condition I was born with is part of the intersex umbrella, a term for those born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male. I belong to a community of 1.7 percent of the world’s population that has faced stigmatization and still endures non-consensual human rights violations.

Ponyboi will not only empower the intersex community, but all marginalized people. My goal is to make a film for BIPOC, the LGBTQIA+ community, and anyone who has ever felt they didn’t belong. By the end of the film, I want audiences to feel transcended beyond their suffering, where self-actualization is possible.

Ponyboi will utilize a Direct To Audience theatrical distribution strategy developed by GATHR, a platform that integrates film, talent and venue booking with ticketing and sales. It’s easy to see on the Ponyboi website how this unique approach will be utlilized by the film.

Watch the trailer below:

–Rich Lopez