Sophie E. Constantinou

A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.

An intimate study of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century tracking feminist icon Susan Sontag’s seminal, life-changing moments through archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, as read by Patricia Clarkson.

Images set to a tape recording that slain San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk made in November 1977 to be played in case he was killed.

The first major uprising against police brutality, harassment, and societal oppression was not at Stonewall in 1969, but at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco three years earlier. Those who stood up were trans women and gay men. Now, nearly 40 years on, Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman tell the story of this oft-overlooked event in the history of American civil rights.

A blending of documentary and experimental narrative strategies, combining stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voice-over to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as “suicide landmark,” and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.

From the moment David Brower first laid eyes on the beauty of the Yosemite Valley, he wanted to the fight to preserve the American wilderness for future generations. The story of a true American legend, Monumental documents the life of this outdoorsman, filmmaker and environmental crusader, whose fiery dedication and activism not only saved the Grand Canyon (among other accomplishments) but also transformed the Sierra Club into a powerful national political force, giving birth to the modern environmental movement. Seen through Brower's own eyes - he was an accomplished filmmaker, and his stunning footage is included here-- a 1956 raft trip down Glen Canyon, before its damming, evokes the awful sadness of losing public land we've failed to protect. And in period footage of Brower's early rock-climbs (done in sneakers, with hemp ropes) and of his training in the 10th Mountain Division (who defeated the Nazis in the high Alps).

Fractured into a Turkish North and a Greek South, the island of Cyprus is divided by ethnicity, faith and land. through a tragic modern history, this island, historically shared by Greek-Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, now llies desecrated and divided. This documentary explores diaspora identity and national identity of immigrants and exiles through their bittersweet memories of the lost homeland.

Fractured into a Turkish North and a Greek South, the island of Cyprus is divided by ethnicity, faith and land. through a tragic modern history, this island, historically shared by Greek-Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, now llies desecrated and divided. This documentary explores diaspora identity and national identity of immigrants and exiles through their bittersweet memories of the lost homeland.

Fractured into a Turkish North and a Greek South, the island of Cyprus is divided by ethnicity, faith and land. through a tragic modern history, this island, historically shared by Greek-Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, now llies desecrated and divided. This documentary explores diaspora identity and national identity of immigrants and exiles through their bittersweet memories of the lost homeland.

Fractured into a Turkish North and a Greek South, the island of Cyprus is divided by ethnicity, faith and land. through a tragic modern history, this island, historically shared by Greek-Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, now llies desecrated and divided. This documentary explores diaspora identity and national identity of immigrants and exiles through their bittersweet memories of the lost homeland.

First premiering in the 18th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (now Frameline) and moving on to play every major North American LGBTQ festival between 1994 and 1996, Sophie Constantinou’s playful document of trans man Henry gives first-hand voice to his nuanced experience and extolls the singular joy of wearing a suit.