Screens: Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 1:30 PM in Cinépolis Theater 9 as part of Shorts Program 5 – QUEER MIXTAPE at the Hollywood Park Film Festival
Film Festival at Hollywood Park, Oct. 6-12, 2025
By Valerie Milano
Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/30/25 – In a season overflowing with shorts and fresh voices, few films shine with the luminous energy of Thanks Babs!, a 14-minute documentary that captures the unstoppable spirit of Babs Daitch. The film screens on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 1:30 PM in Cinépolis Theater 9 as part of Shorts Program 5 – QUEER MIXTAPE at the Hollywood Park Film Festival.
Thanks Babs! is more than just a documentary, it’s an intimate and unscripted portrait of an octogenarian who refuses to slow down. Co-directed by Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin, the short follows Babs through laughter, reflection, and risk-taking as she continues to reinvent herself.
During our lively interview, Babs, equal parts storyteller and performer, explained her signature “five-year plans” with characteristic humor:
“At this stage, I have to conserve my energy so that I can use it when I want to use it. So, I’m still speed-racing through life … everything is in five-year pieces of a big, big pie. I’m not sure if it’s eating me or I’m eating it.”
The film embraces both the comedic and poignant sides of its subject. One unforgettable moment features Babs giving a lap dance at what she calls “the 41st anniversary of my 39th birthday.” In contrast, another sequence finds her in San Francisco’s AIDS Memorial Grove, honoring the friends she lost to the epidemic. As she shared:
“I lost at least 50% of my male friends in the late ’80s and ’90s. Even though physically they’re not here, it doesn’t mean that in my head they’re not there.”
The documentary culminates with the long-awaited maiden voyage of Babs’ 40-foot motor cruiser, an adventure as comic as it is triumphant. “After all these years, I finally steered the boat into the horizon … actually, it was just a creek,” she laughed.
Beyond the humor, Thanks Babs! resonates as a manifesto of self-reinvention. Asked what she hopes younger queer audiences will take away, Babs answered without hesitation:
“Get yourself out of your comfort zone. Take risks. You have to be honest with yourself, to thine own self be true.”
Babs’ career spans entertainment, travel, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. From Olivia Cruises to the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, she’s long embraced the world as her stage. Now, she brings that same zest to social media, joking about her new role as “a gay granny influencer” under the handle @ThanksBabs on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
With trips to Portugal and an upcoming IGLTA screening ahead, Babs is already looking forward: “I really would love to do commercials. Maybe even a sequel to this … but above all, I want my health. I can’t do anything unless I keep my health … and as many body parts as I can. I still have all of them except my appendix.”
With warmth, wit, and irrepressible energy, Babs Daitch proves that life at eighty is just the beginning of another act. Thanks Babs! is her love letter to living boldly, and an unforgettable highlight of this year’s Hollywood Park Film Festival.
Catch Thanks Babs! at Hollywood Park Film Festival:
Saturday, October 11, 2025
1:30 PM
Cinépolis, Theater 9 – Shorts Program 5: Queer Mixtape
