Film

Kawa is a gorgeously cinematic drama from New Zealand that tells a transcendent tale of bravery, love, family and pride. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Witi Ihimaera. 

Keep Quiet is a feature length documentary film chronicling the struggle of journalists and pro-democracy advocates in their fight against the constitutional change and in favor of democracy in the Republic of Congo. 

Finlandia explores the lives of a group of muxes—the third gender of the Zapotec indigenous community—as they navigate transphobia, globalization, and love in southern Mexico. Awarded Best Feature Film at the OUTshine Film Festival as well as the Audience Award at the Festival de films LGBTQI+ de Toulouse.
Run time: 120 minutes
Language: Spanish

Sid’s mother has one wish: for Sid to get married and have some kids. Sid’s not opposed to the idea, but to get there…Sid has to introduce their boyfriend to the family and come out as a transgender woman. Oh, and by the way, a fourteen-year-old boy pops up claiming to be Sid’s son. Join us for this heartwarming film that explores what it means to be a family.

Jonathan spends his days caring for his father, Burghardt, who is terminally ill. Burghardt’s outlook is bleak until an old friend, Ron, shows up, and Jonathan learns that his father and Ron were perhaps more than just friends. Can Jonathan come to terms with his father’s sexuality? Will newly revealed truths bring a father and son together or tear them apart? Released in 2017, Jonathan is a beautifully shot German film that was awarded the Audience Award (Best Gay Film) at the Pittsburgh LGBT Film Festival as well as the Jury Prize (First Feature) at the San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival.

One of the most searing romances of the 1990s, Wong Kar Wai’s emotionally raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown casts Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing as a couple traveling through Argentina and locked in a turbulent cycle of infatuation and destructive jealousy as they break up, make up, and fall apart again and again.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh's LGBTQ+ Film Festival. February’s screening presents Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, a 2013 romantic comedy directed by Arvin Chen.

In this moving program presented in partnership with Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (PINJ), City of Asylum hosts a screening of the new work in progress Working Films & Appalshop documentary film, Calls from Home. An intimate portrait of rural prison expansion, Calls From Home documents WMMT-FM’s longstanding radio show that sends messages over the public airwaves to reach those incarcerated in Central Appalachia.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. March’s screening presents "Sweetheart," the 2021 dramedy directed by Marley Morrison.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. April's screening presents "Being Thunder," a moving documentary directed by Stéphanie Lamorré.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. June’s screening (Happy Pride Month!) presents Walking With Shadows, a 2019 drama directed by Aoife O’Kelly which stars Ozzy Agu and Zainab Balogun.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. July’s screening presents "Just Friends," a romantic comedy directed by Ellen Smit.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. August’s screening presents "Instructions for Survival," a 2021 documentary directed by Yana Ugrekhelidze.

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. October’s screening presents León, a film by Andi Nachon & Papu Curotto.

This exciting and enlightening program offers a community film screening and conversation about Beyond Walls, a collection of short documentaries that examine prison abolition from a wide range of perspectives.

Pittsburgh film festival Reel Q offers a screening of "Blue ID" a Turkish documentary on a trans man's experience navigating transition.

Presented in partnership with one of the oldest LGBTQ+ film festivals in the world, Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema. Our February Reel Q screening presents Out of Uganda. 

Our March Reel Q screening is "A Place of Our Own."

An evening of film to honor the life and legacy of acclaimed writer and friend Russell Banks

April's Reel Q Reel Stories screening is "Petit Mal"

Reel Q presents the regional debut screening of "The Queen of My Dreams" this Pride Month at City of Asylum

Reel Q presents the regional premier screening of "Sublime."

From filmmaker Jules Rosskam, Desire Lines is a hybrid feature documentary that blends personal interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction as a framework for exploring the complicated and often unwritten history of transmasculine sexuality.

Pittsburgh-based film organization Reel Q presents the in-person regional premiere screening of South Korean film "Made on the Rooftop."

Watch a screening of "I never promised you a Jasmine Garden" and seven other short films in this global film event presented by Queer Cinema for Palestine.

A film screening and panel discussion on how housing instability prevents children from receiving a formal education with filmmaker Jose Muniain, photographer Richard Sharum, and community health worker John Whigham.

A film screening curated by Writer-in-Residence Rania Mamoun, highlighting filmmaker Reem Alghazzi’s feature-length creative documentary following the story of nine Syrian women’s escape from war.

City of Asylum hosts a film screening of global shorts as part of Reel Q’s 40th Annual Film Festival (the longest-running festival in Pittsburgh!)

We welcome back our partners at Reel Q this fall for an international film screening!