QFEST at Proctors

“Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives Of Q Lazzarus” (2025)

7 p.m. Thursday, June 5

We are kicking off this year’s QFEST with an intimate journey through the life of singer and LGBTQ+ icon, Q Lazzarus (aka Diane Luckey). Working as a NYC cab driver, Lazzarus had the good fortune to pick up film director Jonathan Demme, who – after she played her demo tape for him – chose to feature Lazzarus and her music in FOUR of his films: “Something Wild,” “Married to the Mob,” “Philadelphia,” and – most famously – “Silence of the Lambs.”

And then she vanished. Absent for 25 years, Lazzarus returned to earning money as a driver when she just happened to pick up filmmaker Eva Aridjis Fuentes. Recognizing her immediately, Fuentes convinced Lazzarus to make this documentary and share her story in her own words, music, and lyrics. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, “Goodbye Horses” stands as a moving testament to the exceptionally talented, yet vastly under-appreciated, Q Lazzarus.

Not Rated. 103 minutes

“Watermelon Woman” (1996)

7 p.m. Tuesday, June 10

Sometimes you have to create your own history.

The first feature film created by an out black lesbian filmmaker, director Cheryl Dunyen stars as Cheryl, an out black lesbian filmmaker probing into the life of “The Watermelon Woman,” a 1930’s black actress who played ‘mammy’ archetypes.

Unrated. 85 minutes.

“The Birdcage” (1996)

7 p.m. Thursday, June 12

Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star as a gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion who attempt to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing, conservative parents. Gene Hackman, Diane Wiest and Calista Flockhart also star in director Mike Nichols’ popular remake of 1978 Oscar nominee, La Cage aux Folles.

Rated R. 117 minutes.

“Portrait Of A Lady On Fire” (2019)

7 p.m. Tuesday, June 17

On an isolated island in Brittany, at the end of the 18th century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman who refuses to pose. The reluctant subject was recently returned home from a convent following her sister’s suicide and is now expected to replace her sister in marrying a titled aristocrat she has never met. For his part, before agreeing to the substitution, the aristocrat desires a portrait of his bride-to-be. Portraying the commissioned painter “as a rebel for her time, with glowing shots of the woman lounging nude before a roaring fireplace, smoking a clay pipe while her clothes dry. Director Céline Sciamma’s interest clearly lies in the nuances of emotion and attraction, and ways in which women who are brought into proximity without men, relate and bond” (Barbara Scharres; Robert Ebert.com).

Rated R. In French and Italian with English subtitles. 122 minutes.

“Hedwig And The Angry Inch”

7 p.m. Thursday, June 19

Director John Cameron Mitchell stars as a gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin who tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/bandmate who stole her songs. Also starring Miriam Shor (American Fiction) and Andrea Martin (SCTV).

Rated R. 95 minutes.