Appalachian Queer Film Fest Brings Hundreds To Shepherdstown

Films at the tenth annual Appalachian Queer Film Festival stretched across genres.

From a will-they-won’t-they about two college students in Ohio to a short film about weekend parties hosted by trans women in Pennsylvania, the festival brought together stories depicting the breadth of rural LGBTQ experiences, with a particular focus on Appalachia.

Planning Committee Member TJ West said the time spent curating this year’s selection of films paid off. More than 200 people gathered for the weekend-long screening.

The Appalachian Queer Film Festival is an annual event hosted in West Virginia. West said it aims to make LGBTQ people in Appalachia feel represented on screen, while also introducing them to new aspects of the LGBTQ experience.

“We want to make sure that everyone feels like they have a voice at the table,” he said. “There’s a whole gay world out there that they can experience.”

The festival is based upon submissions, with film creators sending their work to the planning team to review. West said the festival also works to showcase up-and-coming talent both in front of and behind the camera.

“One of the most exciting things is being on the board and seeing what the new up and coming queer creators are bringing to the table,” he said. “Because they have new methods. They have new stories.”

This included student directors like Chastity Yocum. A recent graduate of Western Kentucky University’s film production program, Yocum wrote and directed “Longing for the Unfound,” which was screened Saturday and earned an award for best student short film.

“Longing for the Unfound” follows protagonist Addie as she feels herself drifting apart from her girlfriend and longs to feel whole again. The film was shot at Nolin Lake in Kentucky, which Yocum said created a connection between a narrative of LGBTQ soul-searching and the natural world.

Plus, filming outside brought moments that were experimental and exciting.

“It was just like that sort of dirty grittiness that you only experience when you’re like a kid going out and playing, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I found something really cool,’” Yocum said.

Austin Lewis, a director from Virginia, screened a film he wrote and directed through his own production company, Remember Tommy Productions.

Entitled “WILDMAN,” the short film follows the story of a trans woman whose estranged father claims to have shot Bigfoot. It was also his master’s thesis at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Lewis said being part of a film festival centered around the LGBTQ experience was particularly meaningful, especially as he got to witness audience members react to his work in real time.

“It’s really special seeing so many queer people being represented on screen, and in an area that you typically wouldn’t expect,” he said. “It’s just been really amazing to see different people in the audience respond to stuff and really find themselves in it.”

“To have someone see it fresh and have them have such a strong emotional reaction — I mean, it makes me have an emotional reaction,” he added.

West, a native of the Mountain State, said he and his colleagues hope the event helps create representation and community-building opportunities for LGBTQ people in Appalachia that they did not have growing up decades prior.

“As what we call a ‘geriatric millennial,’ I came of age in the late 90s and the early 2000s, and this was not on our radar at all,” he said. “If I’d had this kind of viewing experience as a young person, I think it would have greatly facilitated a stronger, more confident sense of self.”

For more information on the Appalachian Queer Film Festival, visit the event’s website.