Baltimore is one of the largest cities in the United States to lack a queer film festival. Well, no more. This year’s two-day Charm City LGBT Film Festival at the Creative Alliance was meant to be the first of what would become an annual event. But just after the program was set for this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 20-21), KJ Mohr, CA’s director of film and digital media, received word that a much larger four-day festival called Baltimore QFest would premiere this June, in venues across the city (including Creative Alliance). The Charm City fest will thus be a one-off. In her other life, Mohr programs the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, a 10-day event, so choosing films for the Charm City festival was a cinch. “I’d seen all this awesome work at the festival there and it was really easy to pick all my favorites and slot them in,” she says. Here’s City Paper’s guide to Baltimore’s first queer film fest in a long, long time, annual or otherwise. (Andrea Appleton)

Leave It on the Floor

Directed by Sheldon Larry

Friday, 7:30 p.m.

When Brad (Ephraim Sykes) is kicked out of his home by his homophobic mother, he lands in Los Angeles’ ball scene, an underground party where wildly dressed sex sirens walk down the runway for adoration and ridicule. Through the ball, he makes the acquaintance of the House of Eminence, a collective of outcasts led by the ferocious Queef Latina (Mark Peacock, aka Barbie-Q). Will Brad find a new family to accept him as he truly is? Ultimately, this musical has more flash than heart, though it genuinely makes an attempt to address touchy subjects. Where it succeeds, though, it does so stylishly. The songs are catchy and well produced (the music was written by Kim Burse, who has worked with Beyoncé and Nelly, among others), and the choreography is impressive (thanks to Frank Gatson Jr., the brain behind the “Single Ladies” moves), but the characters and story are flat and underdeveloped. (Erin Gleeson)

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same

Directed by Madeleine Olnek

Friday, 9:30 p.m.