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Dating in New York can sometimes feel like a horror movie, but for one night this month, it’s getting the rom-com treatment.
NewFest and Hinge are teaming up for "My Sunny Valentine," a free outdoor screening devoted to the funny, messy and occasionally magical business of queer dating. The event takes over Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery on Wednesday, August 19, with six short films, a DJ set, storytelling, free drinks and popcorn and, potentially, a meet-cute among the graves.
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Doors open at 7:45 pm with music from DADDIE, followed by activities and story time with special guest Michelladonna at 8:30pm. The films start at 9 pm, with a Q&A following the roughly 80-minute program.
The lineup covers pretty much every possible version of looking for love. In Nyala Moon’s How Not to Date While Trans, a Black trans woman breaks the fourth wall while navigating a succession of problematic men. Steven Chew’s sci-fi short Orion’s Quest follows an extraterrestrial being attempting to understand love by studying relationships between Black gay men before a powerful eclipse.
Sara Monge’s Happy Place centers on a woman who heads to a lesbian engagement party while questioning her sexuality, only to encounter something she finds considerably more terrifying. Take Me There, directed by Elliot Slade, follows two best friends preparing for dates across San Francisco and grappling with questions of identity and sexuality.
Rounding out the program are And Then There Was Her, from Alexander King and Nyala Moon, about two women finding an unexpected connection at a Friendsgiving dinner, and Kendall Alex Payne’s Riis, which should feel particularly familiar to New Yorkers. The latter follows a hopeless romantic who drags friends to Jacob Riis Park in hopes of running into an Instagram crush, kicking off a chaotic search when the hoped-for encounter doesn't quite go according to plan.
NewFest, founded in 1988, is New York’s largest presenter of LGBTQ+ film and media and runs programming throughout the year in addition to its annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival. My Sunny Valentine is completely free, and every guest gets a complimentary drink and popcorn. RSVPs allow up to four tickets per person.