Hilary Harp + Suzie Silver present the inaugural Fairy Fantastic! screenings of Out in the Woods: Queer Folk and Fairy Tales and Over the Rainbow: Queer and Experimental Shorts for Kids of All Ages at Pittsburgh Filmmakers as part of their Luna Park Experimental Film and Media Series.
Out in the Woods includes eleven queer interpretations of world folk and fairy tales including Filipino and Chinese mythologies exploring queer diasporic identities; same-sex love in a prehispanic Mexican ritual; a Samoan Cinderella; and a queer retelling of a Swedish folk-tale about two sisters, three wishes and a calamitous obsession with a sausage. The films in Out in the Woods are both a reinterpretation of traditional folklore or mythology and the invention of a new queer folk culture.
Over the Rainbow: Queer and Experimental Shorts for Kids of All Ages presents eight short films on difference-affirming, gender-variance, and anti-bullying themes. A shy boy’s heart jumps out of his chest to follow a bookish boy right into school – will the shy boy ever get his heart back? Why are all of Alexa’s favorite things, like car-shaped beds, super balls, and soccer called “boy things?” If your Mom is an airplane, what is your Dad? Can a merman ensnare a beautiful landsman by playing a song from Disney’s Little Mermaid on the violin? Can a bat who sleeps all day find a night-time friend? The answers to these and many more questions can be found in Over the Rainbow a screening of queer and experimental videos for kids of all ages. The short films in Over the Rainbow are moving, hilarious, beautiful and inventive visions of a genderfluid world. As finely wrought as they are entertaining, the films in Over the Rainbow will delight kids and parents alike.
Over the Rainbow was preceded by Drag Queen Story Hour presided over by the delightful Akasha L. Van-Cartier.
Press: WESA, Pittsburgh City Paper