Screening times:
Saturday, August 1, 8:30 PM

Harry Dodge and Silas Howard | United States | 2001 | 95 mins

Groundbreaking when it was made and still fiercely innovative today, By Hook or By Crook is a trans and butch buddy film that chronicles three weeks in the life of Shy, a handsome, gender-bending, small town dreamer with a nagging messiah complex. Emotionally defeated after the death of his father, Shy heads to the big city to sink himself into a "life of crime." He is quickly distracted by Valentine, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for her birth mother. The two drifters join forces in this visually stunning and wonderfully acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption.

By Hook or By Crook has been digitally restored in 4K by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Frameline, Outfest, Steakhaus Productions, Inc., and the Sundance Institute.

"The essential humanity of the characters shines through, giving face and form to a subculture the movies have largely neglected." - Dave Kehr, The New York Times

“Quite a few of the film’s quick meditations on sexuality and gender are laugh-out-loud funny, and some are heartbreakingly hopeful, but nowhere does By Hook or By Crook feel like a PSA for cis people on how to interact with an unfamiliar, previously intangible gender.” - Shayna Maci, Warner Paste

Winner: Audience Award for Narrative Feature, South by Southwest, 2002

Tickets $12 ($11.40 at the door if available)