Heavenly Brown Body

The opening line of Leslie Foster's Heavenly Brown Body makes a bold statement, with gorgeous cinematography to match. This experimental short film is a perfect visual Queer Anthem for the current times. You get four frames of lush and poetic visuals woven together as one, to create a dreamy tapestry of queer lives, presented in a harmonious aesthetic worthy of a big screen experience.

Heavenly Brown Body is one of the best short films of Outfest 2020. It's the kind of relevant, and artistic narrative that the LGBTQ+ community needs to celebrate and bring to the forefront of the movement. Leslie Foster is an indie filmmaker that should to be on your radar, and I am delighted to see where his career goes next.

For those fatigued by white lesbian seaside films becoming the "new face" of LGBTQ representation in cinema, let the beauty of Heavenly Brown Body be a short remedy, and reminder, that Black and BIPOC narratives rightfully deserve exquisitely shot feature films that showcase longing and love in epic coastal dramas as well. 

Also, of note, Heavenly Brown Body was filmed on location on "unceded Gabrielino-Tongva and Chumash territory." Hollywood desperately needs more Indigenous representation in film & TV. I would love to see more LGBTQ+ stories emerge that center on the Indigenous experience. 

Bottom line: Heavenly Brown Body is a film worth celebrating!