Pride Continues: Seattle Queer + Trans Film Fest Celebrates 30 Years

June is Pride Month, true, but it’s also true that Pride is a state of being. It is a level of consciousness all people in the LGBTQ+ spectrum strive for and one that can be hard to maintain with outside forces trying to dehumanize you. When the glitter and sweat from a month of celebration is still sticky, there is a duty to keep on celebrating—and Three Dollar Bill Cinema has just the event.

For their 30th Queer and Trans Film Festival, Three Dollar Bill Cinema is taking us back to 1996 when it all began. This event will be a mix of throwback favorites and some new shorts in the TRANSlations Shorts program. The festival will open with Beautiful Thing, which was the film that kicked it all off 30 years ago.

Erikson Theatre Off Broadway, one of the fest venues

The Evergreen Echo

The festival also includes Saving Face, which is a story of a Chinese American woman struggling to come out to her mother. It is a comedy of misinterpretations, strange bedfellows, and trying to find the right words to say how you feel. The film from 2004 is the debut of filmmaker Alice Wu who went 16 years before releasing another great Queer coming of age film, The Half of It, on Netflix in 2020.

Another film that craves your attention is Portrait of a Lady on Fire. This period piece about a wealthy Frenchwoman sitting for, and falling in love with, the woman painting her portrait, has been making hearts flutter since its debut five years ago. It's a staggering work of perspective, glances, breath, and the agony of longing. If you need even more incentive, it came in at number 38 on the newly published “100 Best Movies of the 21st Century” list that the New York Times compiled with the help of 500 notables in Hollywood, and on Rolling Stone's list it came in at 82.

If you loved last year's Anora, now is your chance to see filmmaker—and the most golden of all Oscar winners—Sean Baker's breakout feature Tangerine. The film was shot entirely on iPhones and has a resounding vérité feel from fade in to fade out. The film is about two transgender sex workers attempting to get through Christmas Eve in one piece and maybe get out of the dangerous lives they find themselves in.

Rafiki is also one of the best Queer films of the last ten years. The film follows the love story of two young women in Nairobi who, in spite of all the people in their lives telling them not to, they choose joy and love with each other. Rafiki is a gorgeous, glittering testament to the power of love in the face of ignorance. It radiates joy and passion and is a rarity to come out of Africa, where Queer people still face harsh discrimination.

The 2025 Queer and Trans Film Festival runs from July 10-12. The festival will run in two venues just across the street from each other, the Broadway Performance Hall and the Erickson Theater. Both are a part of the Seattle Central Community College campus. If you're more of a party animal than a cinephile, they've got you covered there too with opening and closing night parties as standalone events.

Broadway Performance Hall façade at Seattle Central College

The Evergreen Echo

Film festivals are a great way to see a film you can relate to, even if it is not exactly your story. There are so many unique Queer voices putting out incredible Queer films. A film festival like this one is a way to find something new to you or sit in on a favorite you may not have seen since the first time. It’s a way to build community and celebrate the magic of Queer art and storytelling.