Queer Mvmnt Fest: Film Screening

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Digital Gym CINEMA Park & Market 

1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101

We’re showcasing queer movement and artistry from across the globe on screen with our 2025 Queer Mvmnt Fest film selections! Film artists include Victor De La Fuente, Shannon Yu 余香儒,  Esmée van Loon, Esther K. Liew,  Casey Hall-Landers, Surf Ford, Domenico Pontoriero, Hadi Moussally, Meesh Herd, and Antonis Christodoulou, Following the screening, please join us for a brief discussion with some of the film artists! During the event, you’ll have the opportunity to vote for your favorites, and film prize selections will be announced on the last day of the festival - Sunday, June 8th!

 This event is $25 for general admission, and $15 for artist/student/low-Income.

No one turned away for lack of funds. This event is ADA accessible. DISCO RIOT is committed to accessibility and holds with great care the needs of our entire community, especially those who are disabled and economically marginalized. We encourage you to contact Alyssa Rose, our accessibility specialist, (email: operations@disoriot.org) regarding any specific accommodation needs or waiver of admission fees.

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About the Artists:

Victor De La Fuente he/him/his

Victor De La Fuente (he/ him) is a visual and performing artist, dance-theater maker, and educator. He studied Visual Arts and Dance at UCSD. His most recent staged works have been presented here in San Diego with the support of companies such as Disco Riot. Victor grew up in the border town of Calexico CA. He has lived and studied art and dance here in San Diego since 2008.
Throughout the years Victor has collaborated with various local performing artists and choreographers both in and out of institutions. He currently works mainly in solo staged works or with his long-time collaborator Auhbre Yruretagoyena. Victor's work has been described as experimental comedic theater with elements of dance and singing. He currently works in a new solo work for the stage, and is working on a series of feature length documentaries. As a high school teacher, Victor works with Seniors in teaching foundational principles of filmmaking and cinematography leading them to produce their own short films.

Shannon Yu 余香儒 sha/shas

Shannon Yu is a dancer-choreographer, multi-disciplinary artist, and queer creator. Sha streamlines Hip Hop, Contemporary dance, and Wing Tsun Martial Arts with video projection and sound design, portraying connections between humanity and geometry. Shannon holds an MFA in Performance and Performance Studies from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from National Taiwan University. In 2021, Shannon founded multimedia dance company SHA Creative Outlet in Brooklyn, New York, and continues to create and perform in Lenapehoking land.
Sha has shown work at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, Abrons Art Center, Chen Dance Center, New Dance Alliance, and The Center at West Park. Shannon has performed in festivals such as Performance Mix Festival, the Evolution Festival, YES! Dance Festival, Your Moves Dance Festival, Queer Mvmnt Festival, Inter-Grant Festival and WOW Festival. Shannon was named 2023 Asian American Arts Alliance’s Jadin Wong Fellow for Dance, and 2024 Bandung Fellow for Black and Asian solidarity.

Esmée van Loon she/her

Esmée van Loon (1996) is a Rotterdam-based documentary director whose work is driven by observation, humanity, and engagement. She tells socially relevant stories, often inspired by personal experiences. Her debut Ma’MaQueen (2016) won Best Film at a Dutch talent competition, and her graduation film Double Lucky (2018) was broadcast by the national public television network. In 2022, her documentaries Coming In and Mama premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival. Her work has been screened at international festivals such as IFFR and Sheffield DocFest. In 2023, she completed the CICAE Art House Cinema Training in Berlin and produced an episode for a well-known investigative documentary series. She has also served twice as a jury member for the Venice Film Festival (Giornate Degli Autori). In addition to directing, she works as a film programmer at LantarenVenster and is currently developing a new documentary.

Esther K. Liew they/them

Esther K. Liew is a Malaysian-born, Los Angeles-based director and producer with a passion for visually poetic storytelling. With a background in narrative filmmaking, their work explores themes of identity, movement, and emotion, often blurring the lines between fiction and performance. Drawing from their experience in both traditional cinema and screendance, Esther crafts evocative visual worlds where movement becomes a language of its own.
Their films have screened at festivals internationally, showcasing a distinct cinematic style that merges the raw energy of dance with the depth of narrative storytelling. Whether working with actors, dancers, or non-performers, Esther approaches filmmaking with a deep sensitivity to physicality and space, creating immersive and emotionally resonant experiences.
Beyond directing, Esther has worked as a producer collaborating on projects that champion bold, expressive voices in independent film. Their work continues to push the boundaries of storytelling through the intersection of cinema and movement.

Casey Hall-Landers they/them

Born and Raised in San Diego, Casey Hall-Landers trained as an elite child athlete in martial arts and after graduating from San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts decided to pursue a career as a professional dancer. After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia while in the dance program at NYU Tisch, Casey forged a niche pathway in live event production, accessibility, multimedia performance, and improvisational movement. This led them to Berklee College of Music to learn playback and projection design software, live audio mixing, and lighting design, taking on roles as an event producer, stage manager, and camera director for live-streamed performances. Today, Casey advocates for accessibility in the live arts spaces where they work in production and technology and shares their journey with chronic pain and disability through interdisciplinary work with their artist duo, Sensory Dimensions.

Surf Ford she/her

Surf Ford (she/her) is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, mover, and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Michigan, they spent the past five years in San Diego and now live in Puerto Rico, where land, movement, and community deeply inform their creative practice. Surf holds a B.A. in Film and Video and has worked as a freelance artist for over 13 years. Their work explores themes of connection, vulnerability, and reverence—capturing raw emotional landscapes through both still and moving images. They have collaborated with artists, farmers, elders, and youth across mediums and geographies. Rooted in relationship—with people, land, and body—their process often weaves in movement and somatic presence. Surf is currently developing new visual projects that integrate documentary and photography with their life as a grower and woodworker.

 Domenico Pontoriero he/him

Domenico Pontoriero is an accomplished composer and pianist with many of his works released under the moniker "Boy in the Rain." Becoming is his first film project.

Hadi Moussally he/him

Hadi Moussally is a multi-faceted artist: filmmaker, photographer, producer and performer. He was born in Lebanon in 1987. At the age of 18, he decided to study filmmaking in France, where he obtained a Master's degree in “Cinéma de fiction” at the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée. He then pursued a complementary master's degree in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” at the Université Paris X Nanterre, in the section created by Jean Rouch. This training enabled him to familiarize himself with cinéma du réel, develop a keen sense of observation and appreciate instant shooting, while his experience of fiction encouraged him to create impactful and aesthetic images.
In 2013, Hadi Moussally began exploring the world of film and photography with h7o7, a duo with Olivier Pagny focused on experimenting with still and moving images. In 2014, he made his first documentary, “Ma vieille grand-mère”, about the end of his grandmother's life, and in 2016, he directed a docu-portrait about a senior model entitled “Bowl of Cherries”. The same year, he formalized the creation of the production company h7o7, which aims to produce and promote films and photos with a “hybrid” vocation, favoring the mixing of genres.
At the same time, Hadi Moussally takes an interest in the world of fashion, creating films that are recognized in the fashion world and gaining recognition thanks to his multiple selections in festivals. In 2019, he begins collaborating with choreographers on dance films, expanding his artistic repertoire. In 2020, his films become hybrids, mixing fiction, documentary, fashion, dance and experimental elements. Notable works from this period include “Bellydance Vogue”, selected for over 90 festivals worldwide, “Space Woman”, acquired by French TV channel Canal+, and “La Casquette”, winner of the France TV competition. Hadi Moussally's films have won awards all over the world, with over 50 prizes and 400 selections in international festivals.

Meesh Herd they/them

Meesh is an interdisciplinary teaching artist working and moving through the southwest United States. They create work and experiences inspired by the gifts they feel they have received back from their own love and devotion to sound and movement. They work to ground their art-making through community and service.
Meesh’s path through the competitive dance worlds and into the somatic ones, has deeply informed their ability to find freedom within discipline. And re-define discipline for themselves and others through their containers, as a deep caring practice. They believe that the process itself, informs the product, and are interested in projects that center “how” we do, just as much as “what.”
Their most heartfelt intention is to create pathways for others to feel free to express themselves, art that inspires others into wonder and making. And to allow their body to move in ways that invite others to find joy in theirs.

Antonis Christodoulou he/him

Antonis Christodoulou is a present-day director and performer based in the East Midlands, born and raised in Nicosia, Cyprus. He has created work for some UK-producing theatres and international venues. He believes anything normal is dull; he works experimentally, encourages surprises and confusion as part of his approach and creates new realities and norms. Credits include; “ugly people”, and “Immaculate”

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For more information about the week of Queer Mvmnt Fest: https://discoriot.org/queer-mvmnt-fest-2025/