The fourth annual Newark LGBTQ Film Festival, which shines a much-needed spotlight on the work of queer BIPOC filmmakers, will return on April 30 with a robust, four-day schedule of screenings and discussions.
This year’s festival, hosted by the Newark LGBTQ Center at multiple venues in Newark, includes five feature films, 35 short films, and two films by aspiring filmmakers who took part in a fellowship named in honor of Sakia Gunn, a Black lesbian teenager who was tragically murdered in downtown Newark in May of 2003.
Gunn was 15 years old when she was killed on her way home from Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. She and her friends, waiting for a New Jersey Transit Bus in downtown Newark, rejected sexual advances from two men — Richard McCullough and Allen Pierce — and informed them that they were lesbians. The men subsequently attacked the teens, and when Gunn moved to rescue a friend who was under siege, McCullough fatally stabbed Gunn in the chest. Gunn died in the arms of her best friend, Valencia Bailey, who now plays a key role in facilitating the festival.
Gunn’s legacy has lived on through the Newark LGBTQ Center, which opened in 2013 in part to provide queer people of color with a safe, affirming space in their own backyard — without needing to trek to New York City. Gunn is also remembered through murals in Newark.
The Newark LGBTQ Center plays a leading role in executing the festival and the Sakia Gunn Legacy Fellowship Program, which equips filmmakers with the resources they need — all in Gunn’s name.
“We wanted to do something that would keep [Gunn’s] legacy alive, but also give these creative artists an opportunity to do something that brings her into the future,” Denise Hinds, the president of the board of directors at the Newark LGBTQ Center, told Gay City News. “We don’t want to just keep telling a horrible story over and over again.”
Hinds said there were more than two dozen submissions this year, but the festival ultimately selected two individuals, Oluwademilade Omoregie and Abigail Espinal. The festival increased its funding to those filmmakers this year, giving them a couple thousand more dollars than last year — a sign of the festival’s growth.
“In year one, we had 15 films and thought, ‘oh my god, that’s unbelievable,’” Hinds said. “And now we’re at 40 films.”
Bailey, who recalled Gunn as both her cousin and best friend, said many of the filmmakers applying for the fellowship program are quite young and are just now learning about Gunn’s story.
“For them to learn about what happened to my cousin and her legacy, this is going to transform generations,” Bailey, who is on the festival’s board and helps select applicants, told Gay City News. “This is going to give hope and access to do what they want without fear or without worrying they’re going to have support.”
The festival schedule
The festival opens on Thursday with one award-winning short, “Two Black Boys in Paradise,” which is a stop-motion short following two Black teen boys; and a feature film, “I was Born this Way,” which charts the life and legacy of Archbishop Carl Bean, a gay Black singer, activist, and spiritual leader. The film features Lady Gaga, Questlove, Billy Porter, and Dionne Warwick.
The Friday night feature, “A Night in Texas,” is a documentary about the 1981 murder of a closeted Catholic priest and the wrongful conviction of James Harry Reyos, a gay Apache man who was sentenced to nearly four decades behind bars despite his innocence.
Saturday night will bring the premiere of the Sakia Gunn Legacy Fellowship Films, which will be presented in partnership with the Community Media Center at Express Newark. This year’s recipients are Oluwademilade Omoregie and Abigail Espinal.
Saturday night will also showcase an Academy Award-nominated short, “A Friend of Dorothy,” and a restored version of the feature film “A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde,” focusing on the late New York City-based poet, teacher, and activist whose legacy has lived on in LGBTQ history.
The festival will close on Sunday with two films: “Humans of Pride,” which revisits WorldPride in New York City, and “Saving Retting Street.”
Learn more about this year’s festival at newarklgbtqcenter.org/newarklgbtqfilmfestival.
