Persistence of Vision

Two Encounters

Armed with hidden buttonhole cameras two gay men, one black and one white, go to two gay bars in New York, one predominantly black and one predominantly white, to uncover the “racialized geographies of New York’s gay bar scene.”

Vision Portraits

Filmmaker Rodney Evans embarks on a scientific and artistic journey, questioning how his loss of vision might impact his creative future. Through illuminating portraits of three artists: a photographer (John Dugdale), a dancer (Kayla Hamilton), and a writer (Ryan Knighton), the film looks at the ways each artist was affected by the loss of their vision and the ways in which their creative process has changed or adapted.

Gummo

Teenagers Solomon and Tummler kill time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.

Brother to Brother

A drama that looks back on the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of an elderly, black writer who meets a gay teenager in a New York homeless shelter.

The Happy Sad

Two young couples in New York-one black and gay, one white and heterosexual-find their lives intertwined as they create new relationship norms, explore sexual identity, and redefine monogamy.

The Mountain King

A reserved young man meets an impulsive stranger on a secluded beach. Their brief friendship leaves each subtly changed.

Billy & Aaron

A short narrative drama that explores the personal and professional dilemmas faced by the openly gay jazz composer, Billy Strayhorn, in the early 1940's.

May

A weary white French professor and a young black drug dealer share an impalpable connection on a single night in Philadelphia.

Portal

Reflections on connection during the pandemic, and finding joy in small and unsuspecting ways.