Summer Solstice

Bobbi Salvör Menuez is luminous as Leo, a young trans man weekending in the countryside with Eleanor, his cis straight crush from college. Their seemingly carefree youth collides with the realities of adulting, forcing the actor and nomadic photographer to question whether they still belong together as kindred spirits and chosen family. In his burgeoning acting career and love life, Leo is impatient to be wholly accepted. Not current with the intricacies of Leo’s transition, Eleanor feels shut out and reverts to wild abandon, expecting Leo to tag along. Made vivid by Marianne Rendón, Eleanor is loath to face her own artistic and romantic disappointments, and rehearsing an emotional family scene for Leo’s audition frames a long overdue reckoning. In their first narrative feature, writer-director Noah Schamus takes an assured dive into the challenges of two creatives seeking home with each other in a relationship that’s shifting and changing. (Mill Valley Film Festival)