This story was originally published by Queer Kentucky, Kentucky’s only LGBTQ+ newsroom.
It all started with an acorn. Now, it’s the United States’ only lesbian film festival.
Laura Petrie founded Cinema Systers – a four-day film festival in Paducah, Kentucky connecting lesbian creatives through workshops, open mics, film screenings, dinners, dances, and more – in 2016, following an inspirational visit to Michigan to participate in the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
At the event, Petrie was given an acorn and instructed to plant it in her hometown in the name of forging new spaces for women and their passions. For Petrie, that acorn is the Cinema Systers Film Festival.
“We’re celebrating a decade here of something unusual,” Petrie said. “We’re starved to see our stories on screen. We’re not victims or villains or stereotypes. We can have joyous stories, come together, and celebrate each other.”
A Festival Built on Sapphic Storytelling
For the past ten years, Petrie has platformed hundreds of artists and their work through Cinema Systers. Now, named on the 2026 Curve Power List as an empowering figure in the arts, Petrie hopes to continue summoning like-minded lesbians and sapphic filmmakers from across the globe to Paducah to celebrate Cinema Systers’ ten year anniversary.
Each year, guests enjoy four days surrounded by Paducah’s lovely nature, participating in workshops and open mics hosted by prolific lesbians, and escaping the pressures of performing for male and straight audiences.
“I wanted to dedicate a weekend to lesbian films,” Petrie said. “It doesn't have to be lesbian content, but the perspective of a lesbian filmmaker. We want to uplift the visions and voices of the sapphic filmmakers.”
Since the festival’s invention a decade ago, Cinema Systers has featured films spanning genres, countries, and perspectives. Previously, films from France, Germany, and the UK have graced Maiden Alley Cinema’s vintage screens. Whether these works of lesbian art are animations, documentaries, or horror shorts, Petrie believes they create safe spaces for women and “normalize our lifestyle and existence” as queer people.
Although this year’s festival is jam-packed with additional anniversary celebrations, Petrie’s favorite part of the event remains the same: hearing the emotion, joy, and relief of women in the theaters.
“I love to hear the women's laughter, the collective sighs. The recognition of things that the mainstream might not get in the dialogue, on the screen; things we can laugh at collectively and know that we’re safe.”
Petrie, raised on a horse farm twenty minutes outside the city, believes Paducah is “the perfect spot for that.” Paducah is not only the home for Cinema Systers, but one of only nine UNESCO Creative Cities: places where creativity, culture, and cooperation thrive. At the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, Paducah represents the bridge between southern comfort and artistic innovation. Fans traveling in to view films can also visit Paducah’s National Quilt Museum, its historic lowertown, and the many thriving restaurants, breweries, and boutiques located downtown – some of which provide discounts to Cinema Systers patrons.
“Women return year after year, and bring friends,” Petrie said. “It’s a homecoming. A community, a family.”
Workshops That Turn Audiences Into Filmmakers
Dr. Marie Cartier, a professor of Women and Gender Studies at California State University Northridge, travels to Kentucky each spring to attend the festival, teach filmmaking workshops, and indulge in Paducah’s charming southern setting.
“Go get your discount and go through the quilt museum, eat the ice cream, see the sunset, walk by the water. I really look forward every year to doing those things in Paducah,” Cartier said. “But more importantly, being with my friends that I’ve now met, that I see every year.”
Cinema Syster’s 2026 lineup features a musical performance from The Grace Theisen Trio, a poetry reading from E. Nina Jay, and over twenty unique films made by and for the sapphic perspective.
Cartier will be teaching a filmmaking workshop on transitioning between scenes, but she’s previously taught participants how to direct actors, make short films, and write scripts. Her goal is always the same: to transform moviegoers into filmmakers.
“Many times now, people go, ‘oh, I could do a film. I could do it.’ And then the next year, they have something on screen,” Cartier said. “It’s a really big accomplishment of Paducah. It’s a great place to go as an accomplished filmmaker; it’s a great place to go as a beginning filmmaker.”
Petrie’s passion extends further than just film – she’s a committed advocate for building belonging, growing communities, and celebrating queer identities.
“I think Laura had a vision ten years ago,” Cartier said. “A lot of people can have a vision and not be able to carry it through. And she had a vision and she has really done the footwork to make it happen.”
Beyond the Festival: A Nonprofit, a Farm, and a Community
Cinema Systers isn’t the only space she’s carved out for queer Kentuckians.
Petrie founded the nonprofit My Syster’s Art, Inc. to help produce Cinema Systers and other filmmaking events, such as filmmaking workshops tailored to uplift the often underrepresented voices of queer women, women of color, and other marginalized women. In 2016, she renovated her 34-acre property into The Art Farm: a women’s retreat designed for creatives to disappear and produce work while surrounded by the gorgeous Paducah scenery.
Whether on her farm, through her nonprofit, or during Cinema Systers, Petrie is committed to creating safe, celebratory spaces for marginalized women – allowing them to tell their own stories, embrace their identity, and unite with a community of queer moviegoers, artists, and Kentuckians.
“Be ready to feel loved and joyous from the first event,” Petrie said. “Because you’re going to find your sisterhood: artists who have similar points of view to our own, which is a perspective you don’t see on mainstream tv and movies.”
Lesbians and queer women eager to experience Petrie’s vision of community, celebration, and creativity can now purchase tickets to the Cinema Systers Film Festival, which runs from May 21st to May 24th.
This article first appeared on Queer Kentucky | Kentucky's Only LGBTQ+ Newsroom and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
