CIFF47: PSQ March 22 – April 1, 2023 | Streams April 2 – April 9, 2023

Special Programs

Festival DReam Maker
You are currently viewing the CIFF46 lineup. Programming for CIFF47 will be announced in early March 2023.
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DReam Maker is the Cleveland International Film Festival’s Program and Award, established in 2019 to honor the life and memory of David K. Ream (1949–2017), a beloved CIFF trustee. An indexer by profession, a master of puns by choice, and a true Renaissance man at heart, Dave loved Cleveland and everything about it.

David ream
Chase

CIFF is thrilled to recognize pioneering LGBTQIA+ filmmaker, Chase Joynt, Director of the CIFF46 film FRAMING AGNES, as its fourth DReam Maker Program participant and Award recipient.

In addition to Chase’s film, CIFF is expanding the DReam Maker Program to highlight a variety of films made by LGBTQIA+ directors and featuring LGBTQIA+ themes. 

Chase Joynt (he/him) is a director and writer whose films have won jury and audience awards internationally. His debut documentary feature, FRAMING AGNES, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed “No Ordinary Man,” a feature-length documentary about jazz musician Billy Tipton, which won CIFF45 Stream’s Portrait Documentary Competition. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, “No Ordinary Man” has been hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and by Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.” The film has won nine awards on the international festival circuit, including being named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten. Chase’s first book You Only Live Twice (co-authored with Mike Hoolboom) was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and CBC. Chase also directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories for The CW, which are now streaming on Netflix. With Samantha Curley, Chase runs Level Ground Productions, a collaboratively run production company in Los Angeles.

Chase will spend his time in Cleveland meeting with local organizations whose missions support the LGBTQIA+ community. The DReam Maker Award, which is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award to support future work, will be presented to Chase at his first CIFF46 screening on Friday, April 8, 2022 at 5:00pm ET.

BOULEVARD! A Hollywood Story

USA
Directed By Jeffrey Schwarz
Running Time: 85 Minutes

Picture it. 1950. Old Hollywood is abuzz over leading lady Gloria Swanson, star of the era’s hit “Sunset Boulevard.” The film’s heroine, Norma Desmond, finds herself falling out of Hollywood’s spotlight and desperate to make a comeback. While Gloria’s own... {more}

Candela

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Directed By Andrés Farías
Running Time: 87 Minutes

Told in three parts, CANDELA reveals the frantic and fatal few days before a hurricane in Santo Domingo and discloses the layered tragedy of life in the Caribbean. Cloaked in neon lights and the weight of a predetermined future, a... {more}

Fanny: The Right to Rock

CANADA
Directed By Bobbi Jo Hart
Running Time: 96 Minutes

In the 1960s, an all-female rock band was making a name for themselves in the music scene…and their name was Fanny. With their long hair, rocking stage presence, and incredible instrumentation skills, Fanny was unlike any other girl group before... {more}

Firebird

ESTONIA
Directed By Peeter Rebane
Running Time: 107 Minutes

As a private on a Soviet Air Force base during the Cold War, Sergey is counting the days until his service is up. While there’s an unspoken assumption that he and fellow comrade Luisa are in love, both have instead... {more}

Framing Agnes

CANADA, USA
Directed By Chase Joynt
Running Time: 75 Minutes

In the 1950s, far before the word transgender was used in the mainstream, Agnes Torres approached the UCLA Medical Center seeking sex reassignment surgery. Born male, Torres always felt she was meant to be in a woman’s body, and she... {more}

Homebody

USA
Directed By Joseph Sackett
Running Time: 75 Minutes

If you're looking for a body swap film in a chaotic “Freaky Friday” style…look elsewhere. Joseph Sackett’s HOMEBODY approaches the trope with a more gentle and steady hand, though chaos does still ensue…Nine-year-old Johnny is attached to his babysitter, Melanie.... {more}

Mama Bears

USA
Directed By Daresha Kyi
Running Time: 91 Minutes

Like many other devout Christians, Kimberly Shappley grew up believing sexual and gender orientation was a choice—and deviating from the cisgendered heterosexual norm was not only the wrong choice, but also a deadly sin. But everything changed after her son... {more}

My Emptiness and I (Mi vacío y yo)

SPAIN
Directed By Adrián Silvestre
Running Time: 98 Minutes

Raphi, young and naive, enjoys writing love poems and dreams about falling in love. She decided to leave her native France and moved to Barcelona, where she works in a call center. Her many attempts to maintain relationships with other... {more}

No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics

USA
Directed By Vivian Kleiman
Running Time: 78 Minutes

When Rupert Kinnard‘s comic strip character the Brown Bomber (inspired by the boxer, Joe Louis) came out as gay in 1977, he became the first ever Black, queer comic character to be serialized. And he was a superhero to boot!... {more}

Private Desert (Deserto Particular)

BRAZIL
Directed By Aly Muritiba
Running Time: 120 Minutes

Sara boldly stares Daniel in the eyes before turning around and unzipping the dress he bought for her. She shimmies out of the garment and holds it out to him, but lets the dress fall before he can grab it.... {more}

Sweetheart

UNITED KINGDOM
Directed By Marley Morrison
Running Time: 103 Minutes

At the wise old age of 17, AJ has the world figured out: it’s all going to hell, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Perpetually apathetic, AJ is dreading the annual family vacation, where the pool, beach, and... {more}

TRAMPS!

CANADA
Directed By Kevin Hegge
Running Time: 104 Minutes

With the vibrancy and pop of the movement it covers, TRAMPS! is a colorful deep dive into the New Romantics. A group of 1980s London artists and creators of film, fashion, music, and visual art, at times they have had... {more}

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