Roxie First Looks #12

First Looks, the Roxie’s Oscar-Qualifying Theatrical Release program, supports filmmakers in their Academy Award quest. We put together a unique lineup of shorts (with running times of 40 minutes and under) from any genre (documentary, narrative, and animation) to serve as the film’s Academy qualifying run. 

Filmmakers interested in participating can check out more info here.

On Queer Aging and Endings (19 minutes)
Director: Christian Schulz-Quach

Synopsis: On Queer Aging and Endings (2025) is a short documentary from existentials:lab that
extends Christian Schulz-Quach’s work at the intersection of psychiatry, psychoanalysis,
oncology, and queer health into a cinematic inquiry into mortality and identity. Centered
on the life and illness of Norwegian trans physician and queer rights advocate Esben
Esther Pirelli Benestad and their partner Elsa, the film explores how queer embodiment,
serious illness, and late-life finitude refract experiences of love, vulnerability, and care.

Against the director’s professional background in palliative and psychosocial oncology,
the project becomes an experiment in “visual psychoanalysis,” tracing how endings—of
bodies, relationships, and social roles—open spaces for re-narration rather than
closure. As an outlet of existentials:lab, the film stages an intimate, dialogical encounter
where clinical expertise meets personal testimony to ask what it means to age and to die queerly today.

Born Secret (19 minutes)
Director: Riley Fitchpatrick

Synopsis: A filmmaker returns to his hometown Oak Ridge, the secret city that built the atomic bomb. There he meets the workers who created humanity’s greatest weapon, while their grandchildren inherit a world on the brink of nuclear catastrophe.

Gloria (9m 39s)
Director: Kim Blanck

Synopsis: In the San Francisco Bay Area, a Chinese immigrant struggling with her memory finds new purpose in teaching herself Spanish. Starring Emily Kuroda of “Gilmore Girls,” Gloria was shot on 16mm in Oakland and Redwood City with a Bay Area–based crew.

Lost Opportunities (21min 25s)
Director: Jason DaSilva

Synopsis: Lost Opportunities follows filmmaker Jason DaSilva’s fight to remain present in his son’s life after disability bias and the family court system reshape their relationship. Through intimate personal footage and expert testimony, the film examines how assumptions about disability can be mistaken for parental incapacity.