2013

This exquisitely-crafted coming of age tale follows a pair of Latina teens who gradually fall in love against the backdrop of East LA. Studious, sweet-natured 15-year-old Yolanda feels the pressure to succeed under the eyes of her hard-working immigrant parents. When she meets her new neighbor, the feisty and alluring, BMX-riding Mari, Yolanda’s humdrum high school routine gets a jolt. The two girls don’t have much in common on the surface, but they become fast friends and their deep bond develops into a tension that neither one expected nor quite knows how to handle…

In celebration of our 20th anniversary season, Lesbian Looks is delighted to welcome filmmakers Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss to present a special screening of this groundbreaking, classic documentary. In 1969 the patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village decided to fight back, transforming a routine police raid into three nights of rioting which marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement.

Where most saw defeat, socialist activist Irina Layevska saw a call to action; it was now or never, and her body is her first site of revolution. Morir de Pie is the inspiring story of this tireless fighter in the war for personal freedoms, who continues to work for progressive causes from her wheelchair despite a severe disability. Born into a male body, Irina grew up idolizing Che Guevara and spent much of her young life fighting in the Cuban solidarity movement. It’s also the love story of Irina and her partner Nelida, whom she married as a man. Nelida has committed herself to understanding her feelings towards her partner’s disability and massive life changes.

Karen can’t believe that she has to work her receptionist gig on a gorgeous Fourth of July. Then a call comes from her long-lost father. Enlisting her janitor friend Meagan to help, Karen investigates her father’s trailer park home. She stumbles across a half-sister addicted to betting, a half-brother tortured by grade school bullies, a sketchy but charming buddy “just sleeping on the couch” and a potential lover in jail. Meanwhile, Meagan must decide between the stability of her longtime girlfriend and the thrill of a new love. With a small town like this, Karen’s own journey sets in motion a crazy chain of events that will change not just her but this one small town forever.

»Tanya’s six favorite web series of 2013