SQIFF 2016: First Events Announced!

The second annual Scottish Queer International Film Festival has announced two major strands for this year’s event – and tickets are on sale now!

Running at venues across Glasgow including the CCA and GFT from 29th September to 2nd October, SQIFF 2016 will host nights of classic horror with a distinctly queer slant and a showcase of the best new web series created for and by the LGBTQ+ community.

A Saturday night double-bill of scares will screen 1980s cult favourite Fright Night which sees teenage horror addict Charley convinced that the posh gay couple that just moved in to the neighbourhood are blood-sucking vampires and Otto; or Up With Dead People, a unique update on the zombie genre from transgressive filmmaker Bruce LaBruce that sees the undead evolving to be able to speak and reason but still persecuted by the living – a savagely irreverent critique of consumer culture and a moving parable for being different, featuring hardcore zombie-on-zombie sex and a lot of flesh-eating. 

The shivers continue with the all-but-openly lesbian Theodore joining a group braving a stay in a haunted house in spine-tingling 1963 classic The Haunting, plus there’s a collection of contemporary queer horror shorts from across the globe in SQIFF Shorts: Specimen featuring a terrified man dealing with the dead body of his ex-lover and homophobic thugs in Russia getting a surprise when they pick on the wrong gay. All feature screenings are introduced by gay horror expert Jordan Phillips from Queen Margaret University.

Reflecting the huge growth in web series created by LGBTQ artists recently, SQIFF 2016 will also host its first ever Web Series Showcase. With increased funding and distribution challenges, queer filmmakers have had to innovate to discover new ways to tell their stories. The showcase highlights some of the best and most original talent emerging from this independent medium and explores the range and diversity of work that the online, non-traditional format can accommodate. The Showcase will see the premiere of new BBC web series They, shot in Glasgow, together with episodes of the Emmy nominated Her Story and Hannah Hart’s Words With Girls plus a Q&A with Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, director and producer of London-set series BoxxJoy will also host a free workshop where participants can submit their ideas for a web series before the session, with several then being chosen for workshopping. Practical topics covered will include how best to tell a story in web format, the most cost effective way to shoot a web series, and the journey from script to final production.

The full SQIFF 2016 programme will be announced on 26th August.

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