3:30PM SHORTS SHOWCASE GIRLFRIEND GIRLFRIEND DIVIDE CLEAN SLATE SPACE DADDY DOUBLE DATE TIGER LILY MOUNTAIN PASS JUST BETWEEN US PORELESS TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE
7:00PM VINTAGE SHORTS PSYCHO BEACH PARTY 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING HOSTED BY VANITY REX
Premiere Night Celebration:
Kick off our 25th anniversary in style! Join us upstairs at Kan-Kan for a festive pre-film reception featuring hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, and great company as we toast to 25 years of queer cinema.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 6:00PM
3:30PM DOC SHORTS SHOWCASE A-OKAY DANCING IN TOMORROWLAND AUTOEROTICA: WE BUY GAY STUFF TESSITURA THANKS, BABS! BIG BASS SHELLY’S LEG
5:30PM TIPPI & BARB HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY
TUESDAY — NOVEMBER 11
7:00PM BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY
THURSDAY — NOVEMBER 13
7:00PM DOUBLE FEATURE—VELVET VISION: THE STORY OF JAMES BIDGOOD FOLLOWED BY PINK NARCISSUS
WELCOME TO THE 25TH ANNUAL INDIANAPOLIS LGBT FILM FESTIVAL!
What began in early 2001 as a small gathering of friends passionate about queer cinema has grown into a cherished cultural tradition. For 25 years, the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival has celebrated LGBTQ+ stories, voices, and artistry—building community through the power of film.
We’re proud to celebrate a quarter century of queer cinema in Indianapolis. This year, we present 32 films that showcase the diversity, creativity, and resilience of LGBTQ+ voices from around the world.
Step into the magic of Oz on Premiere Night with It’s Dorothy!—a dazzling documentary that celebrates cinema’s most iconic dreamer and the generations of fans and filmmakers she continues to inspire. To mark our silver anniversary, don’t miss the 25th anniversary screening of the cult favorite Psycho Beach Party, hosted by Kan-Kan’s own Vanity Rex. (We dug into the archives for some vintage shorts as well!) We’re also thrilled to present Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, winner of the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at this year’s Frameline festival—earning its place as one of the year’s most celebrated queer features. And for our closing night, join us for an extraordinary double feature: the new documentary Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood, followed by the dazzling 4K restoration of his 1971 masterwork Pink Narcissus
We’re thrilled to be back at Kan-Kan Cinema, where films are best experienced—together. So grab your popcorn, lean into the joy of shared stories, and celebrate this milestone year with us. Here’s to the films, the filmmakers, and you—our festival family—who make the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival what it is.
Thank you for celebrating 25 years with us. Let’s make it unforgettable!
Matt Mutchmore | Director Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival
AT RIGHT:
The popcorn bucket from our first home, Key Cinemas, and buttons from our 2008 poster—also sold at the event.
kankanindy.com
November 7-9, 11, and 13
Film Screenings—$12
Closing Double Feature—$20
Full Festival Pass (All 9 screenings)—$85 1258 Windsor St, Indianapolis, IN 46201 (317) 800-7099
ROYCE COLE JR
Served as Director of the Festival in 2010 and as a member of the Festival Steering Committee from 2004 to 2024. Throughout nearly two decades of involvement, Royce played a pivotal role in fundraising and was instrumental in expanding the festival’s reach and impact.
PAM POWELL
A founding member, Pam served as Director from 2002 to 2007 and Co-Director in 2008. From 2001 to 2021, Pam was a dedicated member of the Steering Committee. As one of the festival’s earliest leaders, Pam helped shape its vision and also recounted its beginnings, writing a remarkable oral history of the festival’s first decade.
MARK HARPER
Served on the Festival Steering Committee from 2006 to 2007, became Co-Director in 2008, and Director in 2009. Known for his deep insight into film, Mark continued his passion for cinema in the English Department at IUPUI and currently as an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Heartland Community College.
KEISHANA VAZQUEZ WHITE-HICKS
Served on the Steering Committee from 2010 to 2021 and was Co-Director in 2012. Keishana initiated key fundraising efforts and as our longtime box office manager, she welcomed audiences year after year, bringing joy to the community. She also helped create—and memorably wore—our beloved Poppy mascot costume.
KAT HICKS
Served on the Festival Steering Committee from 2010 to 2021. Known for their creativity and vision, Kat brought forward innovative ideas—many of which were put directly into action—helping the festival grow in fresh and exciting ways.
NEW TO DEKKOO
Rent Free
Studio One Forever
Mad About The Boy
High Tide
Love's Green Patch
JUST BETWEEN US
These films are our nominees for the 2025 Best of Festival Award. The winner is selected by our panel of judges and announced at the end of the festival.
DRAGFOX
Director: Lisa Ott
TWO BLACK BOYS IN PARADISE
Director: Baz Sells
SHELLY’S LEG
Director: Wes Hurley
GIRLFRIEND GIRLFRIEND
Director: Sara Werner
Director: Zac Hug
THANKS, BABS!
Directors: Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow
Festival Selection Chairs
Ted Letherer
Petra Fippen
Festival Steering Committee
Jerlyn Southwick
Greyson Gullion
Social Media Assistance
Annette Marino
Festival Director
Matthew Mutchmore
Special Thanks Lilly Indy Pride SDA
Westmont Apartments
Diagonal Hospitality Group
Indy Bag Ladies
Zay Cooley
Kan-Kan Cinema
TLA Releasing
Tracy Robbins Smith
Scott Benson
Mike Barclay
Mickey Rogers
Royce Cole Jr
Pam Powell
Mark Harper
Keishana
Kat Hicks facebook.com/IndianapolisLGBTFilmFestival
Premiere Night
Friday NOVEMBER 7
DINNER
GHOST DRAGFOX IT’S DOROTHY!
Heightened Scrutiny
An urgent story of resistance unfolds as ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio—a Queens-based attorney, father, and cat lover—joins forces with journalists and activists to confront a rising anti-trans backlash in workplaces and communities across America. At the same time, the film exposes how mainstream media has fueled and normalized attacks on hard-won trans civil rights.
Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase through the full arc of an epic legal fight: LW v. Skrmetti, a 2023 challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. With a Supreme Court decision looming in June 2025, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Chase, the first out trans person ever to argue before the Court, is not only fighting for trans youth but also for the future of bodily autonomy—from contraception to abortion to reproductive healthcare. Along the way, the film features appearances from Jeani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen, Gina Chua, Laverne Cox, Elliot Page, Peppermint, Phillip Picardi, and Annette Bening, who lend their voices to this historic struggle.
Directed by Sam Feder USA, 2025, 85 Minutes
Preceded by the short film Tippi & Barb
As attacks escalate nationwide, the film offers a sharp, unflinching look at the backlash machine and the media’s complicity in enabling the far right’s agenda. At once deeply personal and politically explosive, Heightened Scrutiny traces the battle for trans rights all the way to the steps of the Supreme Court—where the outcome could reshape American democracy itself.
Kan-Kan, Sunday, November 9, 5:30pm
Tuesday
NOVEMBER 11
BEAUTIFUL EVENING
BEAUTIFUL DAY
Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day
A sweeping historical epic of love, loyalty, and resistance, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day charts the lives of four friends whose art and identities collide with the demands of a repressive state. From the ashes of World War II to the height of Cold War suspicion, their fight for truth and freedom echoes across decades.
The story follows lovers Lovro and Nenad and their lifelong companions Stevan and Ivan, filmmakers who achieve acclaim in post-WWII Communist Yugoslavia even as they are forced into making propaganda for the regime. Though accepted by family and peers, their visibility draws the gaze of state surveillance, where whispers of suspicion threaten to dismantle everything they have built. Assigned to undermine them is Emir, a party loyalist concealing his own secrets, whose loyalties begin to fracture.
Selected as Croatia’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards and Best Film at this year’s Frameline festival. Drama
Directed by Ivona Juka Croatia, 2024, 137 Minutes
English subtitles
Note: Explicit content
Infused with lush imagery, sensual honesty, and a piercing critique of authoritarianism, Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day blends historical realism with emotional urgency. Juka’s drama—part love story, part political thriller—captures the peril of living authentically under a system that demands conformity. With its resonant parallels to today’s political climate, the film serves as both a stirring history lesson and a poignant celebration of art, friendship, and the unbreakable pursuit of truth.
Kan-Kan, Tuesday, November 11, 7:00pm
Thursday
NOVEMBER 13
VELVET VISIONS: THE STORY OF JAMES BIDGOOD + PINK NARCISSUS
Closing Double Feature — Feature 1
Velvet Vision
Velvet Vision is a dazzling exploration of artist James Bidgood, whose 1960s fantasy-laden “beefcake” photographs and cult classic film Pink Narcissus forever changed queer visual culture. Initially shrouded in mystery and misattributed to Warhol and Anger, Pink Narcissus emerged decades later as Bidgood’s singular creation, a dreamworld conjured entirely within the walls of his Manhattan apartment.
Directed by Bart Everly, this 2025 documentary invites audiences into both the mythology and reality of Bidgood’s artistry. Featuring appearances by filmmaker John Waters, art historian Jonathan David Katz, designer Christian Louboutin, and Bidgood himself, the film chronicles his attempts to return to photography after a forty-year hiatus while revisiting his past as a drag artist, window dresser, and costume designer. Through rare archival material and intimate present-day encounters, the film captures the tension between Bidgood’s exuberant imagination and the societal rejection he endured as a queer outsider.
Directed by Bart Everly, USA, 2025, 97 Minutes
There will be a 15-20 minute intermission between the two features
Velvet Vision also situates Bidgood’s legacy within the broader arc of LGBTQ+ art and culture, illustrating how his lushly colored fantasies became lifelines—both for himself and for generations of artists who followed. At once a biography and a meditation on the power of beauty, the film reveals how one man’s devotion to fantasy served as a means of survival, and how his vision continues to inspire today.
Kan-Kan, Thursday, November 13, 7:00pm
Closing Double Feature — Feature
Pink Narcissus
A dazzling work of underground cinema, James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus follows a young hustler who escapes the gritty realities of his life by retreating into vivid dreamscapes of beauty, desire, and erotic fantasy. Shot almost entirely within Bidgood’s New York apartment, the film stands as a fevered vision of queer longing and imagination unlike anything that had come before.
Constructed over seven painstaking years with hand-built sets and intoxicating colors, the film was controversially wrested from Bidgood’s control and completed without his approval—released in 1971 to little fanfare and without his name attached. Yet in the decades since, Pink Narcissus has been reappraised as a landmark of queer cinema, its aesthetic DNA echoed in the work of artists such as Pierre et Gilles and generations of visual stylists who followed.
Now restored in 4K after a years-in-the-making effort, Pink Narcissus’s erotic tableaux shimmer with new life, inviting both longtime admirers and first-time viewers to immerse themselves in Bidgood’s uncompromising vision. More than just a film, it is a mythic artifact of queer art history—achingly beautiful, defiantly imaginative, and eternally seductive.
Kan-Kan, Thursday, November 13—Film begins after intermission
Drama
Directed by James Bidgood USA, 1971, 65 Minutes
Guide to
Big stories meet small packages: Each of these short films paired with a feature packs its own unforgettable punch.
Dragfox
Director: Lisa Ott, UK, 8 Minutes
Sam's search for identity gets interrupted by a mysterious neighborhood fox. Together they embark on a magical journey to the attic to discover the surprising things they might have in common, and how to celebrate the ways in which they differ.
The Dinner Ghost
Directors: Christopher David Herbst, Zachary Allen Kapinos, USA, 3 Minutes
Sam, an anxious lesbian, who on the night of her proposal is surprised by the sudden appearance of her Grandpa's ghost!
BEFORE SHE’S THE HE
Cockroach
Director: Heather Older, USA, 9 Minutes
Juliette tries to survive a recent breakup with her longtime girlfriend by chronically masturbating and trying to convince herself to start dating men. Her delirium is finally relieved (sort of) by an unexpected stranger. Like cockroaches, love always finds a way to survive against the odds.
Gender Reveal
Director: Mo Matton, Canada, 13 Minutes
Rhys, a dedicated people pleaser, winds up at their boss’ gender reveal party with their two partners. The trans throuple soon realize that they are dealing with more than they were prepared for.
Tank Fairy
VINTAGE SHORTS BEFORE PYSCHO BEACH PARTY
Director: Erich Bettstatt, USA/Taiwan, 10 Minutes (2022)
Once upon a time, the magical Tank Fairy delivered tanks of gas (with plenty of sass) to the home of young Jojo, a lonely dreamer in need of a glittery godmother.
Mother Bunker
Director: George Metaxas, Australia/USA, 6 Minutes (2021)
Set during the robot-human war, a military robot begins to self-express by dressing in human drag and performing to a robot army.
BEFORE TO THE MOON
Director: Kevin Hartford, Canada, 10 Minutes (2022) Slay
Faced with the impending departure of his BFF, Glen makes an effort to rekindle old female friendships, to varying degrees of success.
BEFORE HEIGHTENED SCRUTINTY
Tippi & Barb
Director: Brad Burleson, USA 12 Minutes
Tippi and Barb’s Arkansas love story shatters on their wedding day when one phone call costs Tippi her career. Refusing silence, their fight for justice transforms them into unlikely champions for LGBTQIA+ rights and launches Tippi into politics. A powerful story of love, resilience, and the courage to spark lasting change.
POSTER GALLERY
Supporting LGBTQ+ young people, building caring communities.
Programs.
Programs at IYG revolves around building community, developing leadership qualities, and increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy. Through this programs, our staff hopes to lessen the impact of stressors most commonly faced by LGBTQ+ youth.
Case
Management.
One of the most important resources we offer to the youth is case management. Our case managers interview and evaluate youth to complete intakes and assessments.
Basic Needs.
One in four LGBTQ+ youth that comes out to their family is kicked out of their home. Many youth “couch surf,” stay with family/friends, or end up living on the street. IYG offers a plethora of resources for these youth including laundry, shower, food pantry, rapid rehousing assistance, clothing, and transportation assistance.
Indiana GSA Network.
IYG's Indiana GSA Network provides support to Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSA) and Diversity clubs in middle and high schools across the state. Support comes in the form of information, community, skill-building resources, regional and state-wide events, and annual site visits.
Parent Resources.
IYG offers education and support to parents/guardians, family, and other caring adults. Meetups, online support, and both one-on-one and family counseling sessions are all available.
