Reel Pride

Film 🎬: Jaripeo

Saturday, Sept. 19 | 6:15 PMThe Addendum
$15/$10*

Director: Efraín Mojica & Rebecca Zweig2026 • Mexico/USA/France • 70 min.Spanish & English with English Subtitles

Every Christmas in Penjamillo, Michoacán, the annual jaripeo, or central Mexican rodeo, draws locals and returning migrants from the U.S., celebrating what it means to be a cowboy from Michoacán. It evokes nostalgia and reinforces cultural norms, reminding the diaspora of “what it means to be a man” in rural Mexican society. Beneath the jaripeo’s spectacle, another narrative unfolds: fleeting touches, knowing glances, and secretive hookups in the woods behind the rodeo arena. These moments reveal a hidden q***r subculture born out of this environment. Filmmaker Efraín, who grew up between Penjamillo and Riverside, California, guides us through this world, blending personal experience with layered storytelling. A combination of Super8 footage, stylized memories, and raw verité are used to interrogate the very machismo that the jaripeo champions.
Efraín meets our two other protagonists at the Christmas jaripeo: Noé, a macho and desirable cowboy who, though out to some members of his family, still lives mostly in secret. And Joseph, a flamboyant diva and jaripeo super fan, who is a beloved pillar of his community.
We follow Efraín on a journey to recognize the self, while his interactions with our other protagonists create rich and complex portraits of each of their lives.Trigger Warning: Machismo, homophobia, s*xual imagery/references, discussions of violence and discrimination

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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Film 🎬: Bookends

Saturday, Sept. 19 | 12:00 PMSplash Fresno$15/$10*

Director: Mike Doyle2026 • USA • 99 min.English

When Nate (Noam Ash) is forced to leave his fabulous city life behind and move in with his grandparents after a bad breakup with his boyfriend, he is determined to escape the confines of retirement community life and his meddlesome grandparents’ relentless attempts to ‘improve’ him. But when his Holocaust-surviving grandfather, Saul (F. Murray Abraham), shows signs of cognitive decline and his grandmother, Miriam (Caroline Aaron), refuses to acknowledge her husband’s early dementia, Nate finds himself torn between his desire to flee, family responsibilities, and an unexpected romance with his grandparents’ handsome doctor (Charlie Barnett).Trigger Warning: Aging, family/relationship conflict, grief/loss, s*xual/romantic theme

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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Film 🎬: Something You Should Know About Me

Saturday, Sept. 19 | 1:15 PMTower Theatre
$15/$10*

Director: Andy Fidoten2026 • USA • 86 min.English

Meet Al. Al is an aspiring cartoonist. Al is insecure. Al has a mundane corporate job and a problematic boss. Al is a trans man who is secretly in love with his best friend Jesse, who happens to also be attending the same weeklong q***r artist workshop as Al.
As Al nervously rides the “will they, won’t they” tension with a clueless and effervescent Jesse, another attending artist named Mason threatens to insert himself into the picture, leaving Al on the verge of crashing out. What Al has trouble articulating through words comes to vibrant life in his drawings. Al’s meek demeanor belies his hyperactive and raunchy interior monologue, interspersed on the screen, as he tries to connect the dots between his art and his feelings.
Trigger Warning: Sexual references, gender dysphoria/identity issues, romantic rejection, emotional distress

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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Film 🎬: S**t & Ch*****ne

Saturday, Sept. 19 | 2:00 PMSplash Fresno
$15/$10*

Director: D’Arcy Drollinger2020 • USA • 90 min.English

When the drug-lords of the underworld kill your fiancé and your sister, and the cops stand idly by and do nothing, there’s only one thing left to do…dance! D’Arcy Drollinger’s tribute to female empowerment and the low-budget exploitation films of the 1970’s delivers high-kicking, ass-whooping comedy. After her fiancé, Rod, and her half-sister, Brandy (the world renowned calf model) are both brutally murdered, Ch*****ne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White (a divorcée and exotic dancer from the wrong side of the tracks) uses “all the right moves” to single-handedly take on the largest s*x, drug and back-to-school clothing ring in the country, Mal-Wart. But when her best friend becomes addicted to b***y bumps and is forced to work as a Mal-Wart brand discount pr******te, Ch*****ne has no other choice than to go undercover and infiltrate the corrupt organization. Using an arsenal of disguises, a plethora of kung-fu moves and a cornucopia of one-liners, Ch*****ne dances her way down the fast and furious road to revenge.
Trigger Warning: Nudity, s*xual content, drug use, murder, violence, injury, coarse/s*xual humor

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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Film 🎬: What Will I Become?

Sunday, Sept. 20 | 4:30 PMTower Theatre
$15/$10*

Director: Lexie Bean & Logan Rozos2026 • USA • 86 min.English

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 50% of transgender boys have attempted su***de. In What Will I Become?, directors Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos explore the vulnerability of their transmasculine community. They delve into their own personal experiences, intertwining the stories of two young trans men who died by su***de.
Homecoming king Blake Brockington and soft-spoken Kyler Prescott were poets, musicians, and community advocates. The film traces their joys and challenges, their tragic deaths and resulting media attention, and the larger aftermath within their communities. Kyler’s story is told by his close-knit family in San Diego, while a second portrait combines interviews with Blake and his vast network of found family in the Carolinas.
The film showcases spaces that uplift resources for trans boys and the LGBTQIA2S+ community. The T-Man hiking group provides space for elder trans men to convene in nature; Darb Garb offers gender-affirming accessories; and Trans Lifeline is a peer support call line. These outlets provide an understanding of su***de-prevention practices, which serve as a counterpoint to traditional spaces, such as hospitals and schools, where transphobic incidents and alienation might prevail.What Will I Become? considers the lives of these individuals, the environments that provide care, and spaces that lend to ostracization—asking why the transmasculine community is particularly vulnerable to living briefly and dying quietly.Trigger Warning: Su***de, su***de loss, grief, depression, mental-health struggles, transphobia/discrimination

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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Film 🎬: Second Nature

Sunday, Sept. 20 | 6:30 PMTower Theatre
$15/$10*

Director: Directed by Drew Denny2024 • USA/Netherlands • 53 min.English

Debunking myths that females are “inferior” and being q***r is “unnatural,” Second Nature follows trailblazing trans Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden as she meets other groundbreaking scientists exploring other animal species who engage in same-s*x s*xual behavior and parenting, change s*x, form matriarchies, and more.From homos*xual penguins and s*x-transitioning fish to pregnant male seahorses and s*xually dominant female bonobos, there are thousands of species that defy our expectations of gender and s*xuality. Director Drew Denny takes the nature documentary to a whole new level in this eye-opening and entertaining expedition to the places David Attenborough overlooks, where giant duck pen*ses and corkscrew vaginas take center stage.
Turns out Darwin wasn’t right about everything. He nailed that theory of evolution, but his understanding of gender and s*xual diversity in the animal kingdom was more than a little misguided. Turns out the natural world is way more diverse and complex than he — or your high school biology teacher — may have led you to believe. Meanwhile, many unsung contemporary evolutionary biologists and primatologists, have been zealously studying animal behavior and anatomy and exposing the myth of the gender binary for decades, despite ongoing resistance to their findings from the research establishment.
Narrated by Elliot Page
Trigger Warning: Discussoions of s*xuality/gender, s*xual behavior in nature, discrimination/erasure of q***r identities, discrimination and censorship, s*xuality/gender-related imagery

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Film 🎬: Hunky Jesus

Saturday, Sept. 19 | 11:00 AMTower Theatre
$15/$10*

Director: Jennifer M. Kroot2026 • USA • 85 min.English

Hunky Jesus is a feature documentary that explores the legacy of the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a global, secular order of q***r and trans “nuns” who combat guilt, shame, and exclusion through joy, humor, activism, and irreverence, serving their communities while challenging bigotry and redefining spirituality.
Each year, their irreverent Easter Sunday pageant, Hunky Jesus, transforms a San Francisco park into sacred ground for seekers of all kinds: a pilgrimage of outsiders, misfits, and the spiritually curious who gather in search of belonging, inclusion, and divine fabulousness.
Hunky Jesus Audience Q&A:Join members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for a lively conversation about q***r community, chosen family, activism, and the joy of creating our own traditions.Trigger Warning: Nudity, s*xualized imagery, s*xual references, religious satire, discussion of homophobia/religious discrimination

* Seniors (60+), Military Members, & Students with relevant I.D. may purchase discounted feature film tickets for $10 at the Box Office at Tower Theatre beginning Thursday, Sept. 17th, 2026

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