This story is brought to you by our partners at MIX NYC.In 1987, when mainstream film festivals ignored queer stories and LGBTQ+ festivals avoided avant garde work, Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard created a space for both. Their New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, now known as MIX NYC, was built on the idea that queer art deserves freedom, visibility, and experimentation.Held at the Millennium Film Workshop in the East Village, that first event, A Queer Sort of Film, became a cultural spark. With help from curators Jack Waters, Peter Cramer, and Ela Troyano, the festival gave a stage to artists confronting censorship and the AIDS crisis.Breaking Boundaries from the StartFrom its earliest days, MIX operated like no other festival. Schulman and Hubbard paid all artists equally, welcomed everyone regardless of ability to pay, and presented the first program devoted to films by Black gay men. Early screenings included works by Maria Maggenti and a rough cut of Jennie Livingstons Paris Is Burning.As the AIDS epidemic devastated the community, Hubbard began preserving queer film, ultimately archiving more than 2,000 hours of AIDS-related footage now held by the New York Public Library.Expanding Queer VisionIn the 1990s, Shari Frilot and Karim Anouz moved MIX to The Kitchen and turned screenings into multisensory experiences. Programs like The 1000 Dreams of Desire and Cyberqueer explored sexuality and technology as art forms. The festival expanded globally through MIX Brasil and MIX Mexico.In 1996, its tenth anniversary brought MIX to Harlems Victoria Theater-the first queer film festival ever held there-featuring work by Marlon Riggs, Cheryl Dunye, and Isaac Julien, alongside ballroom events hosted by the House of Latex Project.The Warehouse Years and BeyondBy the 2000s, MIX transformed empty industrial spaces into queer art zones under director Stephen Kent Jusick. The festival fused film, performance, and community gathering.After a short pause, MIX resurfaced following the pandemic. In 2024, Blake Pruitt and Alex Smith revived the festival with the support of former directors Stephen Winter and Jim Hubbard with One Night Stands, a series of experimental screenings, leading up to a full-scale return.Nearly four decades later, MIX NYC remains a living archive of queer imagination, pushing cinema, identity, and performance beyond convention.