Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Sunday, September 20 – 11:30 AM
Theatre One – Shorts: Three Decades to Remember
Encore Screening: Saturday, September 26 – Noon
Theatre Three – Shorts: Three Decades to Remember
Palm Springs Cultural Center
2300 East Baristo Road
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/17/26 – One of the wonderful things about being a media partner with Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival is having the opportunity to spotlight films that preserve our history while also reminding us how important our community remains today.
One that is especially close to my heart is Lesbians in Boystown, directed by filmmaker and professor Betsy Kalin.
The 27-minute documentary will screen as part of Cinema Diverse’s Three Decades to Remember shorts program on Sunday, September 20, and again on Saturday, September 26. The film tells the often-overlooked history of lesbians and queer women who helped create, organize and shape West Hollywood — the city so often remembered simply as “Boystown.”
For me, this story has always been personal.
Many of the people highlighted in the film — including Sepi Shyne, Marna Deitch, Alana Roshay, John Heilman and John Duran, along with cultural icons Robin Gans and Sandy Sachs of Girl Bar — are people I’ve known, worked with and celebrated through the years.
I even had the joy of honoring Robin and Sandy at Desert Legends, an event I co-produce here in Palm Springs.
I first spoke with Betsy via Zoom about Lesbians in Boystown and why she felt compelled to document a part of LGBTQ+ history that has too often been left out of the story.
The inspiration, she told me, came from her wife and producer, Chris Chew.
“We noticed, as some of the few queer women in West Hollywood, that our story really wasn’t being told,” Kalin said.
“We suspected there was this long history of queer women doing amazing things in the city, but their contributions weren’t part of the record. So we thought it was important to tell the story.”
The film reaches back into the 1980s and explores the enormous role queer women played in both the political and social life of West Hollywood.
Places such as Little Frida’s, The Palms and Girl Bar were much more than places to socialize. They became places where women met one another, built friendships, organized politically and created support systems, particularly during the devastating years of the AIDS crisis.
Kalin explained that while there is certainly some wonderful nostalgia in hearing what those places were like, the film is really about allowing the women who were there to tell their own stories.
“It’s mostly about these women telling their own stories, what it meant to be part of a vibrant queer community,” she said.
And that history feels particularly meaningful now.
“We’re really under fire right now, and it’s important not just to know our history, but to use it,” Kalin said.
Click below for our exclusive interview with filmmaker Betsy Kalin, originally conducted during the film’s previous festival run.
That may be one of the most powerful messages of Lesbians in Boystown. Remembering our history isn’t simply about looking backward. Knowing how earlier generations created community can teach younger LGBTQ+ people what is possible when people come together.
Kalin also talked about the trust involved when you are telling other people’s stories.
“I make it clear what direction the film will take and ask for their input,” she explained. “It’s not me dictating their story, it’s about collaboration and trust.”
Nightlife also plays an important role in that story.
As Kalin explained, queer bars and women’s spaces were not frivolous. They were an essential part of building community.
“If you have nightlife, you’re building community. And when you build community, you can organize and take action. Creating those spaces for women to come together was itself a radical act.”
I love that point because it is easy to look back at places like Girl Bar or The Palms and simply remember the fun. But underneath that fun was something much bigger – visibility, connection and power.
The documentary originally wasn’t supposed to become what it eventually became.
Kalin had envisioned roughly a 10-minute short. Once she began interviewing people and discovering how much history there was to tell, that quickly became impossible.
“There was no way we could tell the story we wanted in that time,” she said.
Editing became part of the writing process itself, and Chris Chew proved invaluable in helping Betsy see how the many pieces fit together.
“She was able to see things differently, saying, ‘this goes here, this goes there, this is your message.’ It was incredibly helpful.”
And there is still much more history waiting to be told.
Kalin’s dream is eventually to expand the project into a feature-length documentary and look beyond West Hollywood to places such as Chicago, New York and other cities where lesbian communities helped shape LGBTQ+ history but have not always received the recognition they deserve.
That makes having Lesbians in Boystown at Cinema Diverse particularly appropriate.
Cinema Diverse has long provided a home in Palm Springs for LGBTQ+ films and filmmakers telling stories that might otherwise never reach audiences. This year, Lesbians in Boystown joins a shorts program appropriately titled Three Decades to Remember, alongside films examining different pieces of queer history and experience.
For me, though, Betsy’s film carries an especially emotional connection.
These aren’t simply historical names and places.
They are women I’ve known. Places I’ve been. People who fought, organized, celebrated and created spaces where the rest of us could belong.
When I originally asked Betsy what she hoped audiences would take away from seeing the film, her answer stayed with me.
“I want people to be inspired. I want them to feel hopeful. Our existence is under attack, but we have community, and we can take action. I want the film to be celebratory, but also a call to action.”
That’s exactly what Lesbians in Boystown accomplishes.
It’s a documentary, but it’s also a living archive, a love letter and an act of preservation.
By putting these women and their stories on screen, Betsy Kalin and Chris Chew are making certain an important chapter of lesbian and West Hollywood history isn’t allowed to disappear.
And now Palm Springs audiences have two opportunities to experience it at Cinema Diverse.
I hope people, especially younger LGBTQ+ audiences, see it.
Because knowing where we came from isn’t only about honoring the past.
It’s how we make sure the people who helped build our community are remembered, and how the next generation learns that they have the power to build the future too.
Screening Information
LESBIANS IN BOYSTOWN
Part of Three Decades to Remember
Sunday, September 20, 2026
11:30 AM – Theatre One
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Noon – Theatre Three
Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Palm Springs Cultural Center
2300 East Baristo Road
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Festival tickets and passes are available through the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
By Valerie Milano
