Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen in Leviticus
QFest St. Louis returns for its 19th year with a slate of films organized around the theme of “OUT, LOUD” that visibility and joy that in a time when the LGBTQ+ community is threatened from many sides and it can be an act of courage to simply be who you are. All screenings are at the Hi-Pointe Theatre and all shorts programs are free, as are the feature documentary Come See Me in the Good Light (but tickets must be reserved) through the Gay-It-Forward program.
On Friday, June 12, Barry Jenkins’ 2016 film Moonlight will screen at 7:30 pm, following an opening reception at 6:30 pm. Moonlight (2016), based on a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, offers a look at the life of a queer Black man in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It features a star-studded cast including Mahershala Ali, Naomi Harris, André Holland and Janelle Monáe and won three Oscars: Best Picture (for which it was the recipient of the infamous announcement error on live television), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Saturday June 13 features three programs. At 1:00 pm, Betsy Kalin’s 25-minute documentary short “Lesbians in Boytown,” which explores the history of lesbians and queer women in West Hollywood, will be followed by Julia Applegate and LuSter P. Singleton’s doc feature Free Beer Tomorrow, which tells the story of Jack’s/Summit Station, the longest-running lesbian owned and operated bar in Ohio. Filmmakers Betsy Kalin, LuSter Singleton and Jenrose Fizgerald will attend the screening and take part in a post-film Q&A.
Pedro Almodóvar’s classic feature comedy drama All About My Mother will screen at 4:00 pm on June 13. This film, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, follows Manuela (Cecilia Roth), an organ transplant nurse whose teenage son dies in a traffic accident. Following this tragedy, she resigns her job and attempts to contact the boy’s father, transgender woman Lola (Toni Cantó) and reunites with an old friend, transgender sex worker Agrado (Antonia San Juan) and meets Rosa (Penelope Cruz), an HIV-positive nun who works in a shelter for battered sex workers.
Adrian Chiarella’s feature film Leviticus will screen at 7:00 pm on June 13. This supernatural romantic horror film, which premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, features two queer boys (Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) living in a small and extremely religious Australian town where they must come to terms with their desires for each other while dealing with a curse placed on them by a so-called deliverance healer. No passes are accepted for the screening, which is rated R.
Sunday June 14 features four programs. At 1 pm, the first shorts program of the festival, “Living Out Loud: 1” will play. It includes six short films: “Gallina” by Fernando Reinaldos, “Inside” by Álvaro García Company and Mario Hernandez, “Separate Roads” by Shalina Saleira, Vivian Ip’s “Bobo in Bliss,” and “Rock, Paper, Scissors” by Miguel Ángel Olivares, and “Don’t Go” by Miguel Muñoz Gascón. The documentary shorts program “Echoes of Resilience” plays at 2:45 pm and includes five films: “Ademi” by Zhamilya Sakhari, “Dancing in Tomorrowland” by Jakob Roston, John Haley’s “Victoria,” “Voice Shift” by Roberto Duque, and “Welcome to the Tool Shed” by Andrew Klaus-Vineyard and Daniel Talbott.
Haley Kiyoko’s feature film Girls Like Girls will screen at will play at 4:00 pm on June 14. Featuring a new version of Kyoko’s hit song of the same name, it explores the relationship of two young women: Coley (Maya da Costa), who is learning to navigate intimacy after the death of her mother, and Sonya (Myra Molloy), who is uncertain if she wants to be in a relationship with another woman. At 7:30 pm, Stéphane Glynn and Jared Ruga’s documentary feature Barefoot Boy will explore the career of queer dancer and choreographer Bill Evans, who grew up in Lehi Utah and is returning, at age 82, for a career retrospective in Salt Lake City.
The life and work of queer poet Mary Oliver, who was both popular and critically acclaimed, is the subject of Sasha Waters’ Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, which will screen at 7:00 pm on Friday, June 19. The film includes readings of many of Oliver’s poems by, among others, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Lucy Dacus, and Oprah Winfrey. Longtime social justice advocate and owner of Left Bank Books Kris Kleindienst will introduce the film, and Mary Oliver books will be on sale in the lobby.
Four programs are featured on Saturday, June 20. At 1:30 pm, Ryan White’s documentary Come See Me in the Good Light explores the life and work of lesbian poet and activist Andrea Gibson as she and her partner Megan Falley deal with Gibson’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer. This free screening will be introduced by photographer and filmmaker Jess Dugan and is partnered by Left Bank Books, who will be selling books in the lobby. At 4 pm, the shorts program “Finding Each Other” will include 8 short films: Ryan Rox’s “Not Exactly Strangers,” Luke McCornick Gardiner’s “Evergreen,” Conor Larsen and Zachary Kornblum’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” Jacob McKee’s “My Dear Watson,” Elizabeth Chatelain’s “I & Me,” Zoë Calsyn’s “One Move At A Time,” Whitney Chitwood’s “Sam Wants Her Sweater Back,” and “You and Me Makes Three” by Emmalie El Fadli.
Rodrigo Areias and Aaron Brookner’s Nova ’78 will screen at 6:30 pm on June 20. This documentary includes restored footage of the 1978 Nova Convention in New York City including William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, and Allen Ginsburg. Kris Kleindienst of Left Bank Books will introduce the film and be selling books by the featured artists in the lobby. At 9 pm, Charlie David’s documentary P$rn Star University will screen. It features OnlyFans star Andy Lee, who decides to open a school for aspiring male performers, including men making their first venture into gay adult content.
QFest 2026 will conclude on Sunday June 21 with three programs. At 1 pm, Luchina Fisher’s documentary The Dads explores the efforts of a group of fathers of transgender and gender expansive children to support and fight for their children in an increasingly hostile United States. The festival’s final shorts program, “Becoming, Loud,” screens at 3 pm and includes six films: Aranxta Ibarra and Kaz Tokgöz’s “Krizalit,” Sean Au’s “Just Not Naked Enough,” Alessandro Magnabosco’s “Against Your Nature,” Rosa Brooke’s “Birthday Boy,” M.A. Cardona’s “Omedeto,” and Shayan Hekmat’s “Things I Can’t Tell You.” The Festival comes to a close at 5:30 pm with Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, an erotic thriller set in Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s. Crosses and double-crosses, switched identities, and sado-erotic pornography all play a role in this exquisitely staged and shot film won numerous international awards including Best Film Not in the English Language at the British Academy Film Awards. | Sarah Boslaugh
QFest St. Louis 2026 takes place at the Hi-Pointe Theatre (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis 63117; 314-644-1100). Individual tickets are $15, or $12 for students and Cinema St.Louis member, and festival passes are also available. More information about QFest is available from the festival web site.
