Sidewalk’s SHOUT series brings free Brokeback Mountain screening to Birmingham

Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema opened its SHOUT run with a free Brokeback Mountain screening on June 25, using one of its most recognizable titles to pull Birmingham audiences into queer film culture through an easy, no-cost entry point. The movie night is presented and curated by Birmingham AIDS Outreach in conjunction with Sidewalk, and seating is first come, first served, with registration recommended but not a guarantee of admission.

That access point sits inside a series built to do more than fill a calendar slot. BAO says SHOUT Movie Night is meant to ensure that all members of the community are represented, a mission that grows out of the organization’s own history. BAO was incorporated in 1985 as Alabama’s first AIDS service organization, founded as a grassroots response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Birmingham, and it now says it provides free services to more than 1,400 HIV-positive individuals while reaching thousands more through testing, prevention outreach, and community events.

Sidewalk has turned that partnership into a visible part of its downtown footprint. The cinema is a two-screen independent movie theater in The Pizitz Building, in the heart of Birmingham’s historic theatre district, and Sidewalk says its broader work includes the Sidewalk Film Festival, the SHOUT LGBTQ Film Festival, and filmmaker education programs. Its flagship festival showcases work from more than 250 filmmakers and welcomes 15,000 film lovers to Birmingham each year, a scale that helps explain why SHOUT functions less like a one-night booking and more like a community on-ramp.

The current SHOUT lineup pairs that free screening with a wider mix of queer cinema across multiple dates from June 25 through early July 2026. SHOUT Spotlight Weekend includes The Chronology of Water, Blue Film, and a 25th anniversary screening of Mulholland Drive. The range is deliberate: The Chronology of Water is Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut and an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, with Festival de Cannes describing it as a story about transforming trauma into art and re-possessing personal history. Blue Film, identified elsewhere as an Elliot Tuttle film starring Reed Birney and Kieron Moore, has also drawn attention for facing rejection from mainstream festivals before finding a release path.

Taken together, the schedule gives Birmingham a mix of free access, newer queer indie work, and repertory name recognition that can bring in newcomers as easily as longtime Sidewalk regulars. SHOUT is doing what the strongest community cinema nights do best: making the room feel open before the lights go down.