South Florida Filmmakers Showcase: Fort Lauderdale Edition (Cocktails & Cinema™)

COCKTAILS & CINEMA Celebrates South Florida Filmmakers:
South Florida Filmmakers Showcase - Fort Lauderdale
South Florida has a small but mighty filmmaking community with plenty of interesting and compelling films. Some are students, or beginners while others are seasoned veterans of the industry who just happen to call South Florida HOME.

Please join us after the screening for cocktails in honor of the South Florida Filmmakers/Cast/Crew whose films are playing on this program. The reception will be in the held in theater to encourage everyone to attend.

I Know Who My God Is
Smita Adhikary, 28 minutes, USA
I Know Who My God Is explores the role of faith within the LGBTQ+ community, delving into how belief, spirituality, and identity intersect in deeply personal and often complicated ways. For centuries, mainstream religious institutions have positioned themselves in opposition to LGBTQ+ lives, shaping a narrative of exclusion, judgment, and silence. To say that the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals by many orthodox traditions has been “unkind” is to understate the pain, rejection, and loss countless people have endured in the name of faith.

Yet, faith is not a monolith. For every story of exclusion, there are also stories of resilience, reclamation, and redefinition. For many queer people, the journey has been less about choosing between identity and belief, and more about forging a path where both coexist—where God, or the divine, can be experienced on one’s own terms.
This project seeks to give voice to those stories: of struggle and survival, of questioning and discovery, of love and belonging. It asks: What does faith mean to someone who has been told they don’t belong? How do you reconcile the God you were taught with the God you come to know for yourself? And, ultimately, it asserts that faith is not about who others say you are—it’s about knowing who you are and who your God is.

HIM+
Creed Smith, 32 minutes, USA
HIM+ follows the journey of Chris, a young Black man whose life takes a drastic turn when he learns he is HIV positive. Struggling with fear, stigma, and uncertainty, Chris is forced to confront himself and the world around him in a new way. Through the support of his faith, friends, and mentor, he begins to discover strength and resilience he didn’t know he had.

Myrna’s Deal With The Dead
Andy Perrrott, 50 minutes, USA
In the seventh installment of this telenovela-style comedy series, Myrna is desperately searching for Baby Oscur, the missing heir to the family fortune—stolen by her arch-nemesis, Kittay. Out of options and at her wits’ end, Myrna seeks help from her longtime friend Dixie Longate, a psychic whose séances offer a hilariously unconventional path to the truth.

A wild journey to Texas sets off a chain of unexpected revelations as Myrna uncovers not only the mystery of Baby Oscur’s whereabouts, but surprising truths about herself. Secrets unravel, loyalties shift, and—as always in Myrna’s chaotic world—another unfortunate soul ends up dead.

Created to support Julian’s Fountain of Youth, this comedic series raises funds to empower LGBTQ+ youth through programs that build confidence, character, and courage to make ethical, life-enhancing choices for themselves and their communities