Utah Queer Film Festival October 24-26, 2025.

Tickets and passes are on sale now!

2023 Film Program

Over 20 feature and 20 short films have been chosen for the 2023 Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival, a pioneering event showcasing LGBTQ+ cinema and culture that is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Festival will take place October 12-15, 2023, in person at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City, along with a selection of films available online starting October 15th. The Damn These Heels curated lineup of films has been selected by an LGBTQ+ programming committee that has cultivated the most impactful queer films for festival attendees this year.

FEATURE FILMS

English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

While uncovering the origins of homophobia of the conservative church, a gay seminary scholar and a straight activist make a shocking discovery: An erroneous translation in the Bible that has been weaponized against the LGBTQIA+ community ever since.

October 15, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter, but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas.

Opening Night Film. Post-film Q&A with the film’s subject Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe, moderated by KUER’s RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio.

October 12, 2023 at 7:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

A teenage boy’s unexpected crush turns a camping trip into a weekend of self-discovery in this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy.

October 14, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Empty Orchestra is a documentary based in Provo, UT, where a group of self-proclaimed misfits seek alternative methods of devotion and community through weekly karaoke singing.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Italian, Live Action, Not Rated

1982, in the heat of a Sicilian summer, two teenage boys, Gianni and Nino, meet and fall in love. The relationship soon becomes a topic of gossip in the small town and while the two dream of living together, their community is determined to stop it.

October 14, 2023 at 8:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Parodying classic Hollywood films about Hollywood, Richard Day’s drag-drama showcase follows three actresses at various places on the Hollywood food chain navigating the minefield of love, aging, and ambition.

October 13, 2023 at 9:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

When basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention in this classic coming-of-age drama set in the digital age.

October 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated, Spanish

The coexistence of a family of drag queens and a trans woman who travel by motor-home to Murcia to show their support for a child who was assaulted by another minor at the gates of his school.

October 14, 2023 at 5:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary KOKOMO CITY, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City.

October 14, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), French, Live Action, Not Rated

Novelist Stéphane Belcourt returns to the city of his youth, where he meets Lucas, the son of his first love. Memories flood in: irrepressible desire, bodies coming together, a passion that must be silenced?

October 14, 2023 at 10:00 am
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Listless Milo becomes the surrogate for an older gay man she meets at a bar. As the pregnancy progresses, she must contend with the implications of their evolving relationship.

October 13, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated, Spanish

Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past.

October 15, 2023 at 10:30 am
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated, Russian

Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism, and put her life in danger.

October 13, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Shorts Program

A smart, varied, rare and risky collection of the best queer short films from around the world this year. This program includes Aikane, Greetings From Washington DC, Mama Doesn’t Want to Go to the Beach, Y, Stone, Apayauq.

Screening as part of the Saturday Short Film Program

October 14, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Featuring rock-star female investors who invest in diverse women entrepreneurs with innovations that will change the world, Show Her The Money reminds us that money is power, and women need it to achieve true equality.

October 15, 2023 at 3:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

Mariña has an intense love affair with Ada when Tomás, a mutual friend, enters the couple’s intimacy. Six moments of the relationship articulate the film, thrown like flashes of light.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
Shorts Program

The Sunday Short Film Program includes Insta Gay, Shafted, A Spell For Queer Home, Happy BirthGay

Screening as part of the Sunday Short Film Program

October 15, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love, but after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family.

October 14, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

Evading a mob contract on his life, a straight man winds up hiding out at a gay bathhouse.

October 14, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

A down-on-his-luck movie collector discovers a legendary lost film and must deliver it to the right hands before it is lost forever.

October 14, 2023 at 10:45 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

An autobiographical documentary by a mother who interviews her transgender son as he comes to his identity, addressing the conflicts, certainties, and uncertainties amidst a deep search for his true self.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

As religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ people intensifies in the US and abroad, a team of creatives upends 1700 years of religious iconography by producing photo art depicting Jesus as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

October 15, 2023 at 10:00 am
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15

SHORT FILMS

English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

While uncovering the origins of homophobia of the conservative church, a gay seminary scholar and a straight activist make a shocking discovery: An erroneous translation in the Bible that has been weaponized against the LGBTQIA+ community ever since.

October 15, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

Growing up, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe learned to be a fighter, but never imagined having a chance to make history as the first openly elected transgender official in Texas.

Opening Night Film. Post-film Q&A with the film’s subject Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe, moderated by KUER’s RadioWest host Doug Fabrizio.

October 12, 2023 at 7:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

A teenage boy’s unexpected crush turns a camping trip into a weekend of self-discovery in this heartwarming coming-of-age comedy.

October 14, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Empty Orchestra is a documentary based in Provo, UT, where a group of self-proclaimed misfits seek alternative methods of devotion and community through weekly karaoke singing.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Italian, Live Action, Not Rated

1982, in the heat of a Sicilian summer, two teenage boys, Gianni and Nino, meet and fall in love. The relationship soon becomes a topic of gossip in the small town and while the two dream of living together, their community is determined to stop it.

October 14, 2023 at 8:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Parodying classic Hollywood films about Hollywood, Richard Day’s drag-drama showcase follows three actresses at various places on the Hollywood food chain navigating the minefield of love, aging, and ambition.

October 13, 2023 at 9:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

When basketball-obsessed Aleks moves in across the street, Asian-Canadian teen Jake finds himself trying out for the basketball team to get his attention in this classic coming-of-age drama set in the digital age.

October 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated, Spanish

The coexistence of a family of drag queens and a trans woman who travel by motor-home to Murcia to show their support for a child who was assaulted by another minor at the gates of his school.

October 14, 2023 at 5:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

In the wildly entertaining and refreshingly unfiltered documentary KOKOMO CITY, filmmaker D. Smith passes the mic to four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City.

October 14, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), French, Live Action, Not Rated

Novelist Stéphane Belcourt returns to the city of his youth, where he meets Lucas, the son of his first love. Memories flood in: irrepressible desire, bodies coming together, a passion that must be silenced?

October 14, 2023 at 10:00 am
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Listless Milo becomes the surrogate for an older gay man she meets at a bar. As the pregnancy progresses, she must contend with the implications of their evolving relationship.

October 13, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated, Spanish

Feña, a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past.

October 15, 2023 at 10:30 am
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated, Russian

Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism, and put her life in danger.

October 13, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Shorts Program

A smart, varied, rare and risky collection of the best queer short films from around the world this year. This program includes Aikane, Greetings From Washington DC, Mama Doesn’t Want to Go to the Beach, Y, Stone, Apayauq.

Screening as part of the Saturday Short Film Program

October 14, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

Featuring rock-star female investors who invest in diverse women entrepreneurs with innovations that will change the world, Show Her The Money reminds us that money is power, and women need it to achieve true equality.

October 15, 2023 at 3:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

Mariña has an intense love affair with Ada when Tomás, a mutual friend, enters the couple’s intimacy. Six moments of the relationship articulate the film, thrown like flashes of light.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
Shorts Program

The Sunday Short Film Program includes Insta Gay, Shafted, A Spell For Queer Home, Happy BirthGay

Screening as part of the Sunday Short Film Program

October 15, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
English, Feature, Fiction (Dramatic etc), Live Action, Not Rated

Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love, but after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family.

October 14, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

Evading a mob contract on his life, a straight man winds up hiding out at a gay bathhouse.

October 14, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Black Box at the Rose Wagner
$15
Feature

A down-on-his-luck movie collector discovers a legendary lost film and must deliver it to the right hands before it is lost forever.

October 14, 2023 at 10:45 pm
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15
Feature

An autobiographical documentary by a mother who interviews her transgender son as he comes to his identity, addressing the conflicts, certainties, and uncertainties amidst a deep search for his true self.

October 15 to October 22, 2023
Streaming Online via Eventive
$15
English, Feature, Live Action, Non-Fiction (Documentary), Not Rated

As religious discrimination against LGBTQ+ people intensifies in the US and abroad, a team of creatives upends 1700 years of religious iconography by producing photo art depicting Jesus as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

October 15, 2023 at 10:00 am
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
$15

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Utah Queer Film Festival!