29 Queer Film Festival spotlights high desert cinema and LGBTQ+ filmmakers

The 29 Queer Film Festival is set to make its debut in the high desert town of Twentynine Palms on Sept. 20-22 at Theatre 29.

Bringing together queer filmmakers, this inaugural event will showcase an array of films, shorts, and special events, shining a spotlight on diverse and groundbreaking stories from the LGBTQ+ community. From world premieres to special screenings, the festival pledges to be a blend of cinema, live performances, and community engagement against the backdrop of Joshua Tree National Park.

The 29 Queer Film Festival was born out of an inspiring creative challenge, one that was deeply connected to the local arts community of Twentynine Palms. Co-founders and life partners Graham Kolbeins and Jonathan Andre Culliton, who are filmmakers themselves, were both participants in Workshop 29, a city-run artistic career development program. The program paired mentors with mentees, pushing participants to explore new artistic avenues.

As Culliton recalls, “One of the things we were challenged to do by that program was to come up with an idea for an event, and that’s what spurred us to conceive The 29 Queer Film Festival.” Inspired by the lack of local movie theaters and the pop-up screenings they often had to travel an hour to see in Palm Springs, the couple decided to bring a festival to their own backyard. “We just thought, what better way to do it than in this wonderful Black Box Theater, nice air conditioning, and pop a screen up there.”

For Kolbeins, spotlighting the beauty and potential of the high desert was a key motivation behind the creation of the 29 Queer Film Festival. Having relocated to Twentynine Palms a few years prior, Kolbeins was struck by the region’s natural appeal as a film location.

“I thought, this is naturally such a beautiful, quiet place, great sun, and great audio. So what better place to shoot a film?” Kolbeins said. While the area boasts a rich artistic community, cinema hasn’t taken center stage. “That was really important to us, to highlight local filmmakers and desert films, films shot out here.”

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Creating a space for queer filmmakers in the high desert isn’t just about showcasing local talent—it’s deeply personal. As a queer filmmaker themself, Kolbeins understood the challenges of finding welcoming platforms for their work. “We’ve been on the other side of it, sometimes not finding the festivals to be welcoming or not being interested in our films,” he explained. This experience was a driving force behind the festival. “That was part of what led us to want to create a space for queer filmmakers here in the beautiful high desert—because there just hasn’t been an event like this here before.”

Among the films headlining the 29 Queer Film Festival are Papi’s Pregnant, a world premiere directed by Oliverio Rodriguez, chronicling the filmmaker’s experience navigating pregnancy as a transgender, non-binary, and queer person, and The People’s Joker, a satirical superhero film by Vera Drew that critiques societal norms while telling a personal story of identity and transformation. These films, along with numerous shorts like the haunting Howling and the hilarious Spookable, showcase the range and depth of queer storytelling that the festival has curated.

In addition to the film screenings, the festival will feature live performances, including a drag performance by Lady Chilane and a panel discussion with the cast and crew of Willa Justice.

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“We’re really excited about celebrating our local drag artists too, and showing to the community that drag is truly an art form,” Culliton said. “We’re hoping to make drag more accessible to people in our area because we feel that it’s important, especially during this time.”

Attendees can also look forward to a special presentation of the Golden Coyote Awards, where Vico Ortiz, a trailblazing figure in the LGBTQ+ community, will be honored with the Coyote Courage Award for their work in uplifting queer voices through artistic expression.

When selecting the first-ever recipient of the Coyote Courage Award, the founders sought someone whose work embodied the energy and passion they had for new queer projects and trans stories.

“We were looking around for somebody who would kind of be the emblematic energy that we had been bringing. And I think Vico was literally telling some of those stories. These are things that we take for granted now, but then, if you really look, it did not exist before, and Vico began all of that.”

As the festival prepares to welcome filmmakers and audiences alike, Kolbeins and Culliton hope that 29 Queer Film Festival stands as a testament to the power of storytelling in amplifying queer voices for years and possibly decades to come.

“The idea that we’re laying the groundwork for something that could grow into a yearly festival with additional programming is really exciting to me,” Culliton shared. “We never imagined ourselves doing this when we first moved out here, I just thought we were settling into this beautiful, quiet place without much queer culture. But now, it’s thrilling to know we are a part of something bigger that can be a part of creating the culture here.”