The MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival, taking place Nov. 20-22 at the Quad Cinema, features dozens of short films. Here is a rundown of films from three of the festival’s six programs.
“Every Archive Ever Incomplete,” screening Nov. 21 at 7 p.m., features four shorts that use archival footage to recount queer histories.
“The Ruins (Al Atlal)” is Raed Rafei’s fascinating essay film, an investigation into hammams (Turkish baths), “where histories of empire merge with histories of sex.” Using film clips, illustrations, text, and location footage, Rafei considers how bathhouses are sites of loss and longing; places where male bodies are washed and massaged; but they are also spaces where men can be arrested. The homoerotic imagery is hypnotic and well edited, offering viewers much to contemplate about how bodies are treated.
“Lloyd Wong, Unfinished” is an intriguing profile of the late Lloyd Wong, a Canadian Chinese artist who died from AIDS in the 1990s. He is seen in clips from an unfinished film project talking about his life. As he explains how to prepare an IV bag (while programming from the Learning Channel plays behind him), split screen footage shows Wong in a hospital bed. Other scenes feature Wong talking about identity, his weight loss, and other issues. The film, compiled by Lesley Loksi Chan, who co-directed with Wong, is an interesting portrait of an artist whose life ended too soon.
“The Fault Line” has director Brydie O’Connor mining her own archival footage to recount a story from her life. The filmmaker reflects on her relationship with her estranged, religious mother (Christina Saffran). She intersperses various video clips with dialogues to process how Brydie’s life is different from the one her mother wanted her to have. A letter O’Connor wrote provides some context for the “fault line” of the title that developed between mother and daughter, and it is quite powerful.
“the house was there before me,” by trans filmmaker Elian Mikkola, has them moving into a house with their partner Miranda only to feel like intruders. They contemplate various “ghosts,” and there are some striking images such as a rainbow-like reflection overlapping scenes of Elian doing the dishes or vacuuming. But there are also conversations about how the past conflicts with the present, as when Elian is deadnamed. A call they have with their mother is quite poignant, but “the house was there before me” also includes some uncomfortable moments, such as a dream about a tongue being caught on a fishhook. While non-narrative in scope, there are many images and sounds that play up the overarching theme of distortion and this gives this short its texture.
Also screening Nov. 21 at 9:15 pm is the program “Stop the Cruelty Machine,” which features five shorts.
“315” is Peruvian filmmaker Daniel Jacoby’s excellent short about the events that occurred on May 31, his birthday. Using a series of stop-motion photos, he chronicles various events and historical facts of things that happened on the day he was born. These include treasure hunt birthday parties, sharing his birthday with Clint Eastwood and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and “world no tobacco day.” But as “315” progresses, Jacoby recounts the “unfortunate event” that happened on May 31, 1989, when he was 4 years old. The film shifts into vibrant color to represent the episode before looking back over the years at how his life was influenced by it and the connections he shared.
“Whoever Deserves It, Will be Immortal” collects thoughts about mortality, regret, masculinity, and homophobia as four Cuban men of different ages — one is deceased and represented by his writing — reflect on being queer in Cuba. While members of the older generation recall concentration camps and discrimination, the youngest subject is seen swimming and enjoying some freedoms. This marvelous documentary short by Nay Mendl sheds light on Cuban culture and society, and it ends with a rousing drag performance to Annia Linares’ “Como Cualquiera.”
“Who Gets to Fly” offers a collage of images, narratives, and ideas as it tackles various forms of resistance. Filmmaker Hazel Katz considers fighter planes and falcons, the Hilary Swank film “The Core,” prisons, Tecumseh, and Brandon Teena’s murder. It provides food for thought even if some of the sequences have tenuous connections.
“The World Doesn’t End When You Do” is director marlow magdalene’s hypnotic non-narrative short that opens with a voiceover by Little Richard and features a series of vivid images — from fields of flowers to news footage, fires, slaughterhouses, video games, and Black bodies, all set to a droning soundtrack. The superb editing keeps this film compelling as it teases out meanings of destruction and rebirth in California over six decades.
Theo Panagopoulos’ wordless short, “The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing,” which won the Best Short Film award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, features footage of Palestinian wildflowers filmed by a Scottish missionary in the 1930s and 1940s. The vivid colors belie the violence hidden among the beauty. The film provides a unique time capsule as men, women, and children interact with the flowers. Some images are frozen in time, and some sequences examine specific flowers, like the yellow giant fennel or the purple rosebud tree. Eventually, Panagopoulos considers how the flowers “led us to today.”
On Nov. 22, at 9:15, pm the program “An Essence to Ooze,” features five shorts three of which were available for preview.
“the mirage of ultra realistic hands” is a kaleidoscopic short featuring images of hands accompanied by a voiceover and text. Addressing issues of tenderness and affection between men, there are discussions of (in)visibility and (in)vulnerability as the images intensify to the point of being unrecognizable.
“As I Belong to My Life” has footage of its 84-year-old subject, Jim, nude and gardening, as he talks in voiceover about his fears around growing up and desire to be as girlish as he wants in his old age. It is a sweet short that runs under 5 minutes but provides a moving snapshot of its subject’s life.
Closing out the program is the fantastic short, “You can’t get what you want but you can get me,” a chronicle of a year in codirectors Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh’s relationship. These two trans men meet in Berlin, and exchange texts. They soon travel to New York and Montreal to be with each other, forming a meaningful connection. They fret when they have to love long distance, but reconnect, meeting one’s families and falling deeper in love. Their story is told through a series of photographs and text messages as music creates a mood on the soundtrack. Their photos, which range from cute poses to moments of real intimacy, to the various stages of one’s top surgery, convey the depth of their love and emotion and it is truly inspiring.
For tickets, showtimes, and more information, visit: https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/mix-nyc/mix-fest-2025-pass
“Mix NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival 2025” | Quad Cinema | November 20-22
