A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

A Russian man Sergey Matveev is sent on a business trip to New York to deliver an important package to a local businessman. As soon as he arrives in a hotel, he finds himself entrapped by the FBI. They know he used to be a GRU agent and threaten to imprison him if he would not reveal the secret information regarding "the mole". But Matveev escapes right from the hotel room and finds himself on the streets of an unknown city and enters New York city subway to hide away from the FBI. On his way home, he would have to face greedy federal agents and local criminal gangs.
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.
The story of the loss of innocence of the young prey who has been maimed by the predator. *Trigger Warning, sexual abuse and assault is discussed in this short film.
A summary of the films featured in this annual event taking place in Westchester.
Zombie apocalypses have been metaphors for late-stage predatory capitalism, but never a system disrupter that brings about freedom.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning musical translates beautifully to the screen.