The 2021 Frameline Voices Collection Presents 4 New Short Films

For a decade now, Frameline — the world-famous, San Francisco-based international LGBTQ film festival — has used the initiative Frameline Voices to “give a voice” to filmmakers telling stories of our community. And best of all, these short films and episodic content are made available for free online.

By exhibiting these works, Frameline Voices advances the careers of queer and gender-nonbinary filmmakers, putting more representations of the queer experience into the mainstream. (Watch the archive of past Frameline Voices short films here.)

The Frameline Voices program began in 2011 and is being relaunched this month with multiple platform partners, including Alaska Airlines, Teen Vogue and Here TV, a streaming platform where you are now able to watch the 2021 Frameline Voices collection.

Here are the four short films that are part of the 2021 Frameline Voices collection, along with their official descriptions:

1. Carving Space

Unity Skateboarding, founded in 2016 by Jeffrey Cheung and his partner Gabriel Ramirez in Oakland, seeks to create a safe space and visibility for queer skateboarders within the hetero-masculine mainstream skateboarding culture. Carving Space follows Unity and affiliated queer skate activists—including 2019 US Olympic Skateboarding team member, Leo Baker—as they provide spaces and voices to the often-overlooked queer community.

2. Flood (full film below)

A queer teenage boy takes his younger sister on an adventure wearing face paint and glitter on her tenth birthday. These colorful bandits move through their environments experiencing small joys while turning a blind eye to reality. It isn’t until their celebration is interrupted that the cost of their freedom is exposed.

3. Mr. Navajo

Zachariah George is a twenty-five-year-old Native American living in the rural outcrop of White Rock, New Mexico. Going by the moniker Mr. Navajo, George wears two hats; the first as a public figure renowned for event speaking and singing in the Navajo language, the second is as an advocate for LGBT communities.

4. Were You Gay in High School?

Two queer women recall their awkward, closeted high school days of kissing boys and straight-girl crushes.

Head to frameline.org/voices for more info about the 2021 Frameline Voices collection.