Movies

6 Can’t Miss Films About Queer Women at Miami’s MiFo LGBT Film Festival

With two film festivals a year (one in Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale), the MiFo LGBT Film Festival can’t be missed if you can help it. This year’s Miami edition runs from April 22 to May 1 and a big batch of lesbian themed movies will be playing there.

We’ve compiled a list of some standout movies we think you should consider. Enjoy!

Femme invisibility in the lesbian community is very real, and few women know that better than the women of Girl on Girl. They have had, and continue to have, their queerness questioned by both straight and gay communities. This documentary profiles several such women from different backgrounds and parts of the U.S.

Familiar faces include The Real L Word stars Lauren Russell and Kiyomi McCloskey (Hunter Valentine).

What’s great about this film is the broad range of interview subjects. We get the perspective of an older woman and former activist, women of color, an Air Force veteran and a couple with children. For all these women, acceptance from others and their own self-acceptance didn’t come easy.

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s website.

UIO: Take Me For A Ride is Ecuador’s offering of the classic ‘new girl at school changes everything’ storyline. With a lesbian twist, of course.

Andrea (María Juliana Rángel) is the aforementioned new girl at school. There she meets Sara (Samanta Caicedo), who’s not so popular with the other girls. They’re both so obviously different from everyone else that it’s no surprise that a friendship soon forms. And after a bit of a slow build, something else forms too.

Like typical high schoolers, you get the usual awkwardness of the day after. Unfortunately, that’s the least of their worries when someone posts photos of them kissing online. Take me for a ride, indeed.

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s Facebook page.

Restless Love revolves around three best friends: a straight woman, a gay man and a lesbian. They’re all in their 30s and they all have their love lives in the crapper. But hey, they have each other!

Mica (Renata Gaspar) has been involved with Duda (Ana Cañas), an actress, for over a year. Despite this, she’s never been introduced to her girlfriend’s family or friends. What’s more, Duda has made it pretty clear that it’s just not going to happen.

Mica’s the type to make excuses for others, and she definitely extends that courtesy to her girlfriend, who she explains is new to this. But even Mica has her limits, as we fortunately see. This relationship has been mostly about compromise, especially on Mica’s part. How much more is she willing to take and what, if anything, is Duda willing to give?

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s Facebook page.

If you don’t usually watch lesbian thrillers, Alena might be the movie to tempt you. Or it’ll turn you off scissoring forever. It really depends on your sensibilities.

Alena takes place in a private all-girls Swedish high school. Alena (Amalia Holm) is the new girl with a mysterious past and shy demeanor. Immediately, she gets on the bad side of Filippa (Molly Nutley), the school’s obviously blonde bully. But to Filippa’s horror, Alena finds her way onto the school’s lacrosse team and befriends the beautiful and oh so cool Fabienne (Felice Jankell).

But Alena has a stalker/protector situation going on with her best friend, Josefin (Rebecka Nyman). It’s especially weird because Josefin’s dead. Yup. But if you do okay with blood, this film is so worth it just to see how cute Alena and Fabienne are together. You know, all things considered…

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s website.

Older Italian women in love? Yes, please! Me, Myself and Her follows couple Federica (Margherita Buy) and Marina (Sabrina Ferilli) who have been together for five years and are now going through a rut in their relationship.

Marina is a former actress and very out. Federica, however, is much more reserved. She’s also lived a very different life from Marina, having been married to a man and having raised a son with him. So when Marina gets offered a role in a new movie, conservative Federica worries the press will be all over their relationship.

But Federica’s got other worries too, worries Marina should be concerned with as well. A man from Federica’s past is back in her life and she’s more than tempted. Of course, things are more complicated than just the surface level stuff. Can these two actually make it work?

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s Facebook page.

What if being homosexual was the norm and the religious right was actually on the side of same-sex couples? What if hate crimes motivated by people’s real or perceived sexual orientations still persisted, but now the shoe was on the other foot? That world would probably look a lot like Love Is All You Need?

Jude (Briana Evigan) is the star of her school’s football team and girlfriend to homecoming queen hopeful Kelly (Emily Osment). They’re a great looking couple and certainly care about one another, but Jude’s world is turned upside down when she realizes she has feelings for Ryan (Tyler Blackburn of Pretty Little Liars).

They’re not the only “ros” (a derogatory term for heterosexuals used throughout the movie) in town either. Emily (Kyla Kenedy) is a young girl who’s bullied relentlessly throughout the film. There’s also Susan (Ana Ortiz), who moves into town with her husband to head the local school’s Hetero Alliance. And no, there doesn’t seem to be space for bisexuals in this world either, as the word’s never mentioned. I guess some things never change, as this movie shows over and over again.

For updates on future screenings, visit the movie’s website.

Other films of interest at the MiFo LGBT Film Festival include Girl Gets Girl, First Girl I Loved, Suited, The Firefly.

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