While there are a wide variety of films in the 2026 Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, religious trauma is one of the themes in the forefront, according to festival selection co-chair Ted Letherer.
For Letherer, 50, it’s a theme that resonates. “I grew up in the church, and it wasn’t good to be gay in the church,” he said. “I think that some churches come around, even though I know there’s some that haven’t.”
The festival will run Nov. 13-22 with screenings taking place at the Kan-Kan Cinema & Bar Nov. 13-15 and 18-19 and an online streaming option, featuring additional films you can watch through Nov. 22.
Campy Christ and shorts
The festival opens with the documentary “Hunky Jesus,” based on a contest where participants enact campy interpretations of Jesus Christ.
The contest is organized by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which originated in San Francisco and now has chapters in Indianapolis and other cities throughout the U.S.
“These people get up dressed as Jesus or Mary,” Letherer said. “It’s kind of draggy. It’s very irreverent, obviously, and it’s very very funny and very entertaining … it’s also a way to deal with religious trauma.”
The Sisters are perhaps better known for their provocative drag pageantry than for their volunteer work during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s.
“As the AIDS epidemic started, during that horrible time, they did lots of fundraisers and lots of things to take care of the community,” Letherer said.
Alongside the presentation of the film, a discussion will unfold with members of the Indianapolis chapter of the group, the Indiana Crossroads Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The film will be preceded by a showing of the short film, “So Be It,” an animated documentary reflecting on the love stories of aging LGBT couples.
In addition to such paired shorts — thematically similar shorts running side by side with features — there are two short film showcases on Nov. 14 and 15.
Memory and life-changing lesbian bars
Aging is another theme prominent in this year’s festival, Letherer said.
One of the feature films scheduled on Nov. 15 is “Out of the Woods,” starring Frances Fisher as Max, a woman in the early stages of dementia, rekindling romantic feelings from decades ago.
Also scheduled for Nov. 15 is “Free Beer Tomorrow,” which grapples with the memory of a place.
This documentary focuses on Summit Station (also known as Jack’s A Go-Go and Logan’s off Broadway), Ohio’s longest running lesbian-owned and operated bar. It was a meeting place in the 1970s and 1980s, when gathering places for LGBT people were rare.
The presentation of “Free Beer Tomorrow” will feature a panel discussion with the filmmakers. One panelist is Indianapolis eastside resident Peg Bryant, who is interviewed in the film.
Bryant, 73, first visited the Columbus, Ohio, bar back in 1971, when she was having relationships with women, but not openly. She had visited gay bars before, in Bloomington while attending Indiana University, but those bars were primarily geared towards men.
“I remember walking in,” she said. “There was a bunch of women sitting outside smoking cigarettes and talking.”
Bryant said about 100 women were playing pool, drinking and socializing. “There were people dancing, and I’m like, this is absolutely wonderful,” she said.
The next day, Bryant went back to Bloomington to quit school and move out of her apartment. She moved to Columbus, half a block down from the bar. “I was there for the next two decades,” she said.
She would find work there as both a bartender and a bouncer.
Julia Applegate, co-director and co-producer of the film, said the documentary grew out of a desire to research and place a historical marker in front of the bar.
“In the process of applying for the marker, it just became clear there were so many stories about that bar that needed to be captured and shared.”
Reappraising the past
If you go:
- Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival
- 🗓️Nov. 13-15, 18-19
- 📍Kan-Kan Cinema & Bar, 1258 Windsor St.
- 🎟️$13 film screenings; $24 closing double feature; $125 festival pass (11 features)
With “Xanadu,” a disco-roller skating musical extravanganza scheduled for Nov. 14, it’s perhaps a little less clear why that movie had to be made.
The 1980 film — described as a “mushy and limp musical fantasy” by the late film critic Robert Ebert — is scheduled as a special presentation hosted by alternative drag performer Vanity Rex.
Hosting movies the Kan-Kan describes as “classic, queer, cult or quirky” is a monthly gig for Vanity Rex and their Vanity Cinematic Movies series.
Rex provides irreverent commentary and makes remarks “Mystery Science Theater”-style, but from the side of the theater.
“It’s its own weird thing where it’s at the same time the worst movie you’ve ever seen and the greatest movie you’ve ever seen,” Rex said of “Xanadu.” “It’s a weird amalgamation of the cheesiest ‘80s, where Olivia Newton-John is a good star presence, but then they have her doing dance scenes with Gene Kelly.”
Another film Ebert gave a thumbs down to is “Cruising,” a 1980 feature directed by William Friedkin. The director was lambasted by the gay community for his portrayal of the serial murders of men frequenting gay bars in Manhattan, New York.
Based on actual murders that are unsolved to this day, the film “has since undergone a remarkable reappraisal” per the festival program.
The film fest’s finale at the Kan-Kan, on Nov. 19, will be a double feature pairing “Cruising” with “Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders,” a documentary that goes deep into the history behind the film.
Lederer said they will likely make a few comments on “Cruising” and “Mineshaft” before or after the films.
And you just might find Vanity Rex in the audience, perhaps incognito, for these and other films.
“I’m always incognito,” they said. “I go there a lot.”
Related
A look back at 25 years of Indy LGBT Film Festival
Watch animated films, documentaries and movies with queer protagonists Nov. 7-13.
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Dan Grossman is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at dan@indycorrespondent.org.
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