Reeling 2024—the 42nd edition of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ International Film Festival—launches the evening of Sept. 19 with a screening of Young Hearts, a Belgian story of first-time love, at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., at 7 p.m.
Director Anthony Shatterman will be on hand to meet filmgoers at a reception at 6 p.m. The screening kicks off showings of dozens of films, in numerous categories and genres at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St., and Chicago Filmmakers, 1326 W. Hollywood Ave. A number of films will be available to be screened virtually as well.
Among the highlights at Reeling this year are Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, a Canadian documentary about the disappearance of the famous trans soul singer; Pink Ulysses, a restoration of Dutch filmmaker Eric de Kuyper’s 1990 pastiche incorporating film clips and classical music for a retelling of The Odyssey; Sally!, a documentary of the work of lesbian activist Sally Gearhart, who marched alongside Harvey Milk in ‘70s San Francisco; Duino, an Italian drama about a filmmaker revisiting the Adriatic Coast, site of his first love; and Carnage for Christmas, a new horror film from 20-year-old filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, whose work already “continues to evoke shades of John Waters and Gregg Araki in…colorful, wild films that exude the essence of queer punk,” according to Reeling.
Writer Steve Warren has compiled reviews for nine of the upcoming Reeling films. For more information on the festival, visit reelingfilmfest.org.