On Saturday, Mar. 21, the Beloit College Content Creation and Marketing class put on their annual Queer Shorts festival.
The fest, part of the Beloit International Film Festival (BIFF), featured films from directors all over the world, with winners from the U.S., France, and Iran, and submissions and nominees from countless other nations.
At the beginning of the BIFF Queer Shorts festival, Dr. Joseph Derosier, professor of French at Beloit College, led a panel of three nominated filmmakers, a BIFF board member, and a Beloit LITS worker.
The three festival panelists, Allie Morgan, Myra Kathiria Rosa, and Hank Swift, answered questions about what made them want to pursue film, what the word “queer” means to them, especially in the context of media and the arts, and other questions.
Kathiria Rosa, nominee and winner of the “Best Student-Made Queer Short” category, talked about her experience with getting into the film world: “I’m not a trained filmmaker,” they said. But, it was during the height of the genocide that sparked questions that led them to tell their story, “How do I get people to listen?”
When asked about the beginning process of creating a short film, Kathiria Rosa emphasized the importance of real-life experiences. She talked about an incident that happened in real life, and “created a world around that incident.” They also pulled their previously written poetry and used it in their debut film, “Pura Sangre,” 2026 Queer-Short winner.
While the nominated films of Morgan and Swift weren’t shown, they both gave cinephiles in the audience advice. Morgan, on the question of process, told the audience to “write what you know,” but more importantly, to “write what you can afford.” The audience laughed, but they highlighted the importance of knowing monetary limits: “start with two actors and two locations, and see where you can go from there.”
All panelists had vast definitions of queerness in film. Swift said that to them, queerness is “refusing to conform to social standards.” Filmmaking, for Swift, is an opportunity to explore the self, and said that oftentimes “you know what you’re creating more than you know yourself,” and that it is a unique opportunity to be introspective.
Mary Elizabeth Schiavone, panelist, Beloit College Student Success & Engagement librarian, and Federal Depository coordinator, said that queerness comes with a level of performance, like any sexual and gender identity. But, they said, “queerness also comes with a sense of community.”
There were five categories, and six winners. The first category, “Best Student-Made Queer Short,” had a tie between Ulysse Thevenot’s “It Is Not Dirty,” an animated short about an older queer man’s relationship with being gay during the AIDs epidemic, and Kathira Rosa’s “Pura Sangre,” a story of two women navigating their complex relationship after years of separation.
The second category announced was “Best Documentary Queer Short.” The winning documentary was called “Handwoven,” by Dasha Levin, Mason Cazalet, Mihika Das, and Matthew Wisom, which followed the story of an indigenous nonbinary weaver and shepherd, Nikyle Begay.
Next, the “Best Experimental Queer Short” winner, “Eve” by Jesse Kogita, was announced and played. The short was an animated and illustrated film about Eve Palay, a trans woman who transitioned in her 60s. The film touched on feelings of isolation and existentialism in conversation with transition.
“Zahara” by Omar Mejia Robles was the next winner in the category “Best Narrative Short Film.” The film follows Ignacio, a drag queen with a stable desk job, and the tension between a stable job and life and following his passions.
The final category, “Best of the Fest,” was described by the student organizers as films that “stand above the rest of the films” in the festival. The winner of this category, “Butterfly Dream” by Elham Farashah, was a story of a couple who separated after one begins her transition, meeting after two years in a dream-like setting.
Compared to last year, there were fewer people in the audience. Professor Rick Rose, who taught the Content Creation class, said there was a full house last year, compared to a less-than-half-full house this year. He attributed the lack of attendance to the timing, since the event took place the Friday after spring break.
To watch any of the nominated films, go to beloitfilmfest.org. The film festival officially kicks off on Wednesday, Mar. 25, at 7:00 p.m. in the Wilson Theater.
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