Reel Q Pittsburgh 41st LGBTQ+ Film Festival: Messy & Beautiful: Dramatic Shorts

Love, sex, friendship, heartbreak, and bad decisions collide in a collection celebrating the beautiful mess of queer life. Carnegie Mellon University, McConomy Auditorium 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213 October 9, 2026 8:30, 10:00 PM Callback Max arrives home to find that his boyfriend has booked a callback. All hell breaks loose. Fresh Cut When the son of a respected community barbershop owner comes in for a routine haircut, buried tensions and unspoken expectations force him to confront masculinity, identity, and the weight of approval. How to Find a Career That Loves You Back Khloe and Joyce, two trans women who work for a defense-technology corporation, fall in love when they’re sent to a college career fair together. Their fragile bond forces Khloe to choose between safety and the uncertain path of freedom. Goodnight Ladies One night in the basement of a drag bar, rehearsals are underway for the evening’s show; queens Kim and Ava face the pressures of change when Oli, the bar owner, replaces their colleague for a younger queen. Meanwhile, upstairs in the bar, young couple Jack and Nora try to salvage their relationship despite their secrets. And not too far away, washed-up actor Robert Lamore catches up with his agent in the hopes of a comeback. Despite their disparate nature, each story comes together through the shared pressures of performance, pride, and second chances. White Glass Globe The White Globe is a human drama about the romantic relationship between two girls, one Iranian and one Afghan, in a religious and traditional society. The Afghan girl, who fled to the neighboring Iran with her family due to war in her own country, is seeking to build a future in Iran in pursuit of her hopes and dreams. The First Times Emilia and Caterina write letters to each other, revisiting their adolescent memories and earliest experiences at a boarding school in the 1950s. ​Did they choose the lives they truly wanted, or only those they dared to imagine?