Frameline’s San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival is about more than just its films.

The crux of Frameline is a head nod from a rainbow-clad screening volunteer, a reference only your queer friends know whispered as the lights dim, a scream during a silent moment of subtlety onscreen. Here, a community that so often finds its representation in the margins, in the subtextual and inexplicit, receives not just one film but an entire festival.

There’s an incomparable sense of pride in the air at each screening — these are films that are often made by LGBTQ+ folks, screened primarily for LGBTQ+ folks, and always about LGBTQ+ folks.

The films may be laugh-out-loud funny, whether filled with queer in-jokes or jokes your straight or cisgender friends or parents may enjoy. Some may be calls to arms — after all, Frameline42’s tagline is “Lights. Camera. Take Action.” While there’s still a long way to go for LGBTQ+ cinematic representation — having yet to move away from the upper-middle-class, white, cisgender stories it so often prioritizes — Frameline will be there, supporting LGBTQ+ films as they develop and progress, as they mirror our world and reflect what it could be.

‘Fun in Girls Shorts’ presents humorous, heartfelt representation in short films on queer girls

‘Yours In Sisterhood’ shares moving stories from 1970s feminist letters

‘50 Years of Fabulous’ exhibits ultimate Castro district pride

‘Fish Bones’ is overly restrained meditation on convergence of sexuality, culture

‘Life in the Doghouse’ is profound, cinematic equivalent of Instagram dog accounts

‘Freelancers Anonymous’ is LGBTQ+ comedy with bad jokes, worse representation

Moody story bogs down excellent performances in ‘Anchor and Hope’

Frameline42: LGBTQ+ films to watch out for