BECAUSE I'M HERE work-in-progress screening

For decades, Earl Gilmore—a flamboyant, African American, self-taught musician—was the most interesting person in the tiny coal town of Clinchco, Virginia. Just ask any of the generations of children who came to his house to learn about Black history, music, dancing, dress-up and just having fun. But underneath the surface there was so much more. A filmmaker returns to rural Virginia to finish a film about the queer, devoutly Christian man who became his friend, and discovers more than he expected.

A story of inventing a life, living with contradictions, resisting internal censors, and a meditation on a hidden LGBTQ* ancestor and on who gets to tell a story in film.

Content includes frank discussion of sexuality and violence.