The latest edition of the MiFo LGBT Film Festival will screen a variety of queer films April 21 through 30. For ten days, you can catch movies that offer something different from the straight white nonsense you endure daily. But given dozens of films, which should you prioritize? We’re here to help.
A Colorful World
The three-part screening event pairs 195 Lewis, a dramedy web series, with the short films Private Dick and Cocoon. Ever since the debut of 195 Lewis’ trailer last year, we’ve been as hyped as can be. It’s not a film, but a dramedy web series, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, with seductive colors and lighting filling every frame. Plus, it’s about a group of women navigating being black, queer, and polyamorous in New York City. So, basically, the opposite of Girls — and seemingly a lot more interesting. The Brooklyn-based series follows two characters, Yuri and Camille, as they test the boundaries of their open relationship. Private Dick and Cocoon offer complementary takes on the lives of queer women of color.
A Colorful World will screen at Regal South Beach Wednesday, April 26.
Apricot Groves
The brilliant Apricot Groves is the rarest kind of queer film: one that eschews the usual tropes, such as coming-of-age tales, jokey plots, and tragic narratives. Pouria Heidary Oureh’s film is about an Iranian-Armenian trans man living in the States since childhood. He returns to Armenia to meet his girlfriend’s family and go through the motions of marriage prep. This sounds like it could lean into melodrama, but it never does; the film is more interested in showing the anxieties of marriage and relationships than it is in focusing on the trials that come with transitioning. It’s a quiet, beautifully shot feature that reminds us that trans stories don’t have to and shouldn’t always be tragic narratives.
Apricot Groves will screen at Regal South Beach Saturday, April 22.
Heartstone
Heartstone is the winner of a number of festival awards, including Venice’s Queer Lion, which awarded it “for the exquisite touch in showing the coming of age of two young friends and analyzing the acceptance of homosexual feelings and passions.” Coming-of-age tales can grow tiresome, but Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s film, though a bit too long for its own good, shows what it feels like to be a teenage boy, whether you’re queer or queer-adjacent. The setting of a remote Icelandic fishing village makes the familiar tale only all the more interesting.
Heartstone will screen at Regal South Beach Sunday, April 23.
Women Who Kill
Ingrid Jungermann’s Women Who Kill is an amusing feature that actually premiered at MiFo last year during its Fort Lauderdale edition and took the Best Feature Film prize. The film follows ex-girlfriends Morgan and Jean, who host a podcast about female serial killers. One day, Morgan meets a mysterious fan of the podcast, with whom she becomes entangled; potential danger ensues. It’s a funny film that plays with a concept that’s been done before — how exes feel about their former partners dating new people — but does it well.
Women Who Kill will screen at Regal South Beach Sunday, April 30.
MiFo LGTB Film Festival
April 21 through 30. Visit mifofilm.com. Ticket prices vary.
Miami New Times by Juan Barquin
