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Sqifflix & Chill
June 12, 2020 @ 5:00 pm - July 12, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Free
Click here to access the full programme.
Our shorts programme Sqifflix & Chill, as the title suggests, includes a varied bunch of films about romantic love, its joys, pain, and complexities. Sweet stories of intense connection are found in Selina Robertson’s Couple Time and Dickie Heart’s Passengers. Some of the painful and problematic aspects of love and dating are considered in Sam Berliner’s Dating Sucks about seeking love whilst trans, and Rob Eagle’s Harding & his camera, which investigates traces of illicit love in archives and the white gaze. Violent and oppressive structures that try to curtail who gets to be with who are the core of Adrian Garcia Gomez’s Mikveh about governments refusing to recognise certain relationships, and Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi’s Poly Amour, which decontructs conventional romantic structures. For a dark comedy approach to the madness that sometimes interferes with people’s love life, Netflix & Chips is about a woman with a hot date who can’t get her chip shop job off her mind.
All films have English language subtitles or captions. See notes for below for each film’s language/s, level of accessibility for blind and partially sighted people, age recommendation, content notes, and if the film contains flashing lights or sound levels that might be disturbing for some. These notes are also found on each film’s page on vimeo.
The films are all free to watch with thanks to the filmmakers. Click here to donate to LGBT Unity Scotland to support LGBTQIA+ refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants.
Couple Time (6m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Selina Robertson, Country: UK, Year: 2015
A suitcase full of Super 8 memories from Berlin.
Language/s: English (not spoken) and German
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No spoken English; mostly visual ideas and onscreen text; mix of bright and dark images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None
Dating Sucks: A Genderqueer Misadventure (13m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Sam Berliner, Country: USA, Year: 2013
Dating Sucks: A Genderqueer Misadventure is Episode 1 of an animated documentary webseries about the successes, failures, and incredible confusion of trying to date as a genderqueer/trans person.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover; bright images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of sex and queerphobia.
Mikveh (6m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Adrian Garcia Gomez, Country: USA, Year: 2016
In this reinterpretation of the mikveh – a purifying ritual bath performed by Jewish brides about to marry – the filmmaker and his husband’s immersions are disrupted by a government which refuses to recognise their marriage.
Language/s: No spoken language
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No dialogue – just sound effects; quite bright images.
Sound design access notes: Some abrasive and repetitive sound effects.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None
Harding & his camera (12m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Rob Eagle, Country: Palestine, Israel, Year: 2017
An ambiguous ‘love story’ documentary told through the 1930s archive of a British archaeologist who took a camera on his digs in the British Mandate for Palestine and fell in love with his Bedouin assistant.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue and bright images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 18+
Content note: Discussion of racism.
Poly Amour (7m) (version with audio description integrated) [click here to watch]
Dir: Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi, Country: UK, Year: 2016
How capable are we to love boundlessly? This film explores polyamory, deconstructing conventional stereotypes of the romantic relationship structure.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue and quite bright images. Version with integrated audio description.
Sound design access notes: Loud, abrasive sound effects at start of film.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of anti-polyamory sentiments.
Passengers (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Dickie Hearts, Country: UK, Year: 2015
A cab driver puts up with a series of irksome hearing passengers before picking up a cute guy more on his wavelength.
Language/s: American Sign Language and English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Limited dialogue, mostly in ASL with subtitles; mostly bright images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of ableism.
Netflix & Chips (6m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Lock Up Your Daughters, Country: UK, Year: 2015
A woman who works in a chip shop has a hot date but can’t get her job off her mind.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Limited dialogue with lots of visual storytelling; mostly bright images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of mental health issues.