Love in Focus: Black Queer Rhapsody

Justice Jamal Jones

Justice Jamal Jones is a NYC-based filmmaker, actor, and writer. As a Black Queer Alchemist, they integrate Black Feminist Queer theory alongside Black diasporic Spirituality into their work. Their film How To Raise a Black Boy was a reimagining of Jones’ childhood, linking their boyhood to their trans/non-binary identity. 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Twiggy Pucci Garçon

Twiggy Pucci Garçon is an activist, creative director, event producer, culture curator, performance artist, and runway trainer. Twiggy has worked at True Colors United for nearly a decade, protecting rights for young people experiencing homelessness. They are also the Overall Overseer for the Legendary International House of Comme des Garçon.

Photo courtesy of the artist

NOVA CYPRESS BLACK

NOVA CYPRESS BLACK writes deir name in all caps as a reminder to take up space as a Black trans gender-expansive lighthouse. NOVA was a Outfest Screenwriting Lab, Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, and Film Independent Project Involve fellow as well as a Staff Writer on The L Word: Generation Q. 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Tee Park

Tee Jaehyung Park is a transgender writer, director, and actor who migrated from Seoul when at the age of 12. Park’s directorial debut, The Pupal Stage, screened at multiple festivals including NewFest and NFTTY. In 2021, Park participated in the Disruptors Fellowship for marginalized television writers. Her second directorial effort, Winter Insect, Summer Flower, premiered at Slamdance in 2022. 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Gbenga Komolafe

Gbenga Komolafe is a Nigerian artist currently based in Los Angeles working across photo, video, textile, and sculpture—often exploring their intersections. They have directed various experimental and commercial video projects. Winter Insect, Summer Flower, which Gbenga wrote and co-directed, premiered at Slamdance 2022. 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Miranda Haymon

Miranda Haymon is a Princess Grace Award-winning director and writer originally from Boston, MA. Miranda has developed and staged theater work with The Tank, NYTW, Roundabout, and more, and served as visiting faculty at Fordham, Dartmouth, and Sarah Lawrence, among others. They recently wrote Dylan Mulvaney’s 365 Days of Girlhood Live! 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Sterling Hampton IV

Sterling Hampton IV is a film director, photographer, producer, writer, and composer from Southern California. He is the head of Clash of the Artistic Minds. His films, Kylie and Merman, have screened at Sundance, Tribeca, and Urbanworld. He has directed music videos for The Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.am, and Mario. 

Photo courtesy of the artist

Queer Rhapsody Film Series Curators

Martine McDonald, Queer Rhapsody Series Creative Director and Senior Programmer  
Martine Joelle McDonald is a film curator and teaching artist. With over a decade of experience at the intersection of the social impact storytelling and anti-bias media arts, she champions historically excluded artists to transform industry disparities in narrative and documentary film pipelines. Founder of Practice Wonder, a creative studio and narrative change consulting practice, her curatorial and educational endeavors platform stories rooted in joy as resistance, underrepresented childhoods, the politics of care, and the cultivation and practice of wonder. Most recently, Martine served as the Director of Artist Development at Outfest, leading professional development initiatives to empower emerging talent. Her narrative arts collaborations have included Tribeca Institute, Firelight Media, National Endowment for the Arts and GLAAD. Queer Rhapsody is a devotional practice of bearing witness to the kaleidoscope of reverence, reinvention and curiosity that drives the heart of queer life.  

Natalie Jasmine Harris, Queer Rhapsody Series Associate Programmer  
Natalie Jasmine Harris is a Black queer filmmaker and Associate Programmer with Queer Rhapsody. Her short film, GRACE, premiered at The 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and her 2022 NYU thesis film, PURE, received The DGA Student Film Award and was acquired by HBO. She is currently developing PURE into a feature-length film of the same name with producer Avril Speaks. Natalie has participated in artist programs with Film at Lincoln Center, GLAAD, SFFILM, Outfest, and more. To Natalie, Queer Rhapsody is a necessary reflection of the joy, resilience, and tenderness that we hold close to as a community, no matter the times.

Moi Santos, Queer Rhapsody Series Senior Programmer  
Moi Santos is the Manager for the Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program at Sundance Institute. In this role, Moi works across all Sundance Institute Programs to deepen engagement with, and support of, storytellers and audiences across ethnicities, genders, abilities, sexual orientations, and geographic regions. She is the founder of the Trans Possibilities Intensive, an incubator program that provides a supportive environment for transgender artists of color to work on their projects, sharpen their craft, develop community and challenge the obstacles that continue to exclude transgender artists of color. She holds a degree in Ethnic Studies with a concentration in visual culture and gender studies from the University of California, Berkeley.  

Daniel Crooke, Queer Rhapsody Series Senior Programmer  
Daniel Crooke (he/him) is a film programmer in Los Angeles whose core work aims to amplify narrative and documentary filmmakers from around the globe and connect their work with audiences. At present, he is a Senior Programmer at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Previously, he worked as the Senior Programmer at Outfest, where he held various programming roles including lead Shorts Programmer from 2016–2023. He has served on festival juries including the Nashville Film Festival and Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, and is proud to have taken posts across many leading arts organizations in the United States such as the Atlanta Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Overlook Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, AFI Fest, NewFest, Palm Springs ShortFest, and TCM Classic Film Festival.