Film Programming

Sarah Fonseca gleaned her first insights into the intricacies of film programming in the mid-2010s as a volunteer barback and usher at NewFest, New York's LGBTQ Film Festival. Fonseca eventually transitioned to a role as a NewFest Screening Committee member, and became the festival's Associate Programmer in 2019, where she and three other devoted queer cinema professionals selected the festival's largest-ever slate of 120+ international films representing a rich array of experiences. Fonseca also devoted time at the two-week festival as a filmmaker liaison and talkback moderator. Additionally, she has assisted with facilitation at Coming Out Again, NewFest's repertory screening series at the storied Quad Cinema in New York City.

As part of NewFest 2019, Fonseca singularly helmed Color Me Barbara, the first posthumous retrospective of films by venerated lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer, and the first program to intentionally juxtapose Hammer's films with those of her filmic progeny, including Fair Brane, Joey Carducci and Sasha Wortzel.

In the pandemic era, Fonseca often screens films independently online in chat-based streaming interfaces in the effort to connect cinephiles with underseen queer cinema, not to mention one another.