Part of Queer Qlassics
Written, directed by and starring Silas Howard and Harry Dodge, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK is a landmark queer independent film that follows two trans-butch drifters searching for connection on the margins of American life. Reeling from his father’s death, Shy leaves his small town determined to pursue a “life of crime” in the city. There he meets Valentine, a quick-witted adoptee searching for her birth mother. Together, the unlikely pair embark on a chaotic journey of friendship, survival and self-discovery — confronting poverty, loneliness and the pressures of a world that refuses to accommodate them.
Shot on Mini-DV and celebrated at Frameline and Sundance, the film was among the first critically acclaimed queer indie features to place trans and gender-nonconforming characters at its center. Its frank exploration of identity, class, and chosen family remains strikingly contemporary more than two decades later.
This screening features the new 4K restoration created by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in partnership with Frameline, Outfest, Steakhaus Productions and the Sundance Institute. Remastered with improved color correction, the restoration preserves the film’s groundbreaking vision for new audiences.
“One of the best queer films of the century.” —The Guardian “Twenty-five years later, its lens on queer friendship still feels as fresh and vital as ever.” —Cameron Scheetz, Queerty “A gritty survival adventure about friendship between two charming gender outlaws…” —Jude Dry and Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire "Raw-edged and not afraid of hard, ugly stuff that hits you when you come out of a small town looking like a boy and liking girls, but with a poetic sharpness in there too, something to lift up trouble and let it rain down sweet." —San Francisco Bay Guardian
