Groundbreaking when it was made and still fiercely innovative today, ‘By Hook or By Crook’ is a butch and trans buddy film that chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small town dreamer with a nagging messiah complex. Emotionally defeated after the death of his father, Shy heads to the big city to sink himself into a “life of crime.” He is quickly distracted by Valentine, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for his birthmother. The two freaky grifters join forces and learn the true meaning of “poise under pressure” in this visually stunning and wonderfully acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption.

Content notes: Fake guns, mental health issues, psychiatry, street violence, law enforcement, grief

On Sunday, the festival will take place in cooperation with lost & found exclusively for Inter-, trans-, detrans-, non-binary, and genderqueer people as well as their close companions.