SQIFF

Kokomo City
2023-09-28 15:30 - 17:30 UTC | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
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Kokomo City presents the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia. Shot in striking black and white, the boldness of the facts of these women’s lives and the earthquaking frankness they share complicate this enterprise, colliding the everyday with cutting social commentary and the excavation of long-dormant truths. Unfiltered, unabashed, and unapologetic, D. Smith and her collaborators offer a refreshing rawness and vulnerability unconcerned with purity and politeness.
In honour of Koko Da Doll, this screening is hosted by House Ball Scotland, holding an aftercare space which will be detailed on the evening.
House Ball Scotland is a QTIBIPOC-led community and platform for the underground ball scene in Scotland.
Co-curated by Nusa.
Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale of FREE, £2, £4, £6, £8, or £10. To book, click here or call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900.

ACCESSIBLITY
Content Warnings:

Discussions of abuse, violence, trauma, transphobia, racism, sex work.

This screening is recommended for ages 18+
73 minutes long with an optional aftercare space.
English audio with English captions. BSL-English interpretation and live captioning provided.
Audio description is available for this film. Headsets available at the cinema entrance.
We have an Audience Access Fund for travel. If you would like to take this up, please visit the access desk at the entrance of the CCA, or contact info@sqiff.org.
You can find out more information about accessibility at SQIFF 2023 here. If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2023, please get in touch with us at info@sqiff.org or by phone on 07873 331 036.
We ask that you wear a mask if possible and please don’t attend the screening if you have any symptoms of Covid-19 or have been in recent contact with a confirmed case. FFP2 masks will be available for free around the building.
Image: from Kokomo City (2023, Dir. D Smith)

SQIFF x Porty Pride Film Night
2024-06-28 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Portobello Town Hall, 147-149 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh, EH15 1AF
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This year SQIFF and Porty Pride are partnering to bring an exciting selection of short films from Scotland and beyond to Portobello Town Hall!
This screening presents a mix of animation, documentary and fiction film exploring various queer identities. The Singer, Coming Out Autistic and Living with It are Scottish films made by queer people with various disabilities. Still We Thrive is an experimental documentary directed by Campbell X, showcasing a rich tapestry of image, music and poetry is interwoven in this powerful meditation on Black resilience. Digital Natives is a personal film and exploration of Jo’s relationship to the internet. Finally, Not Quite That is a raw documentary about a queer woman and breast cancer survivor in Canada. The film is an intimate and insightful exploration of how we are seen, how we see ourselves, and why it matters.
Join us for an incredible conversation after the screening with Scottish filmmaker Holly Summerson, and hosted by Nat Lall. BSL-English Interpretation, and wheelchair access are available at this event.
Curated by Indigo Korres.
Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale of £5, or £10. To book, please click here.

The Singer (2023, Dir. Cora Bissett): In the loud streets of Glasgow, deaf song-writer Joe meets busker Andy. The two learn to communicate over their love of music and realise together they can create something unique.
Coming Out Autistic (2023, Steven Fraser): This animated documentary explores the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+.
Living with It (2023, Holly Summerson): Perfectionist Lee must adapt to the imperfect reality of living with an illness – brought to life as her chaotic supernatural flatmate Bug.
Still We Thrive (2021, Campbell X): A rich tapestry of image, music and poetry is interwoven in this powerful meditation on Black resilience.
Digital Natives (2022, Jo Reid): A film by Jo Reid (2022) – an exploration of Jo’s relationship to the internet.
Not Quite That (2023, Ali Grant): Might a genetic mutation be the very thing that allows this nice Jewish butch lesbian to be fully seen at last? Meet Sarah, 57. Lesbian? For sure. Jewish? Yes and no. Mother? In all but one sense. Trans? No, just often mistaken as such. Breast cancer survivor? Well, that’s the plan, the survival bit, but without the cancer or the breasts. Not Quite That is an intimate and insightful exploration of how we are seen, how we see ourselves, and why it matters.

ACCESSIBLITY
Content Warnings:

Discussion of cancer diagnosis, surgery, colonialism, body image;
Depictions of pregnancy, nudity, drains, hospitalisation, ableism.

This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 16+.
89 minutes long with a introduction and Q&A.
English audio and British Sign Language with English language descriptive subtitles. BSL-English interpretation provided.
If you have any questions about accessibility at for this event, please get in touch with us at info@sqiff.org.
We ask that you wear a mask if possible and please don’t attend the screening if you have any symptoms of Covid-19 or have been in recent contact with a confirmed case.
Image: from Living with It (2023, Dir. Holly Summerson)

Music as Resistance - SOLD OUT
2024-10-12 15:00 - 17:00 UTC | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
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**Please note this event is now sold out – we may be able to release more tickets nearer the screening. CCA Box Office are operating a waiting list for sold out events – please contact them directly or go to their website to be added to this!**
People have been gathering to perform and listen to music since the dawn of time. How is it being utilised by queer people now? Music As Resistance delves into the universal language of music being used across the globe to gather and empower marginalised communities. Expect informative films on the history of newer sub-genres such as Bounce and Guaracha and current insights into underground music by Armenian and Asian-American artists.
This screening is followed by a panel discussion hosted by Nat Lall with Nxa and Queer History of Dance Music duo Duncan Ross McBride and Amy Rodgers.
Curated by Nat Lall.

Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale of FREE, £2, £4, £6, £8, £10, or £12. To book, click here or call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900.

Accessibility:
This programme has:

Armenian, English, Spanish audio with English language descriptive subtitles.
English-BSL interpretation for the introduction and panel discussion.
Live Captioning for the introduction and panel discussion.

This screening is 47 minutes long and has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
You can find out more information about accessibility at SQIFF 2024 here. If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2024, please get in touch with us at info@sqiff.org or by phone on 07873 331 036.

Films in this programme include:

Symptom, Dir. Kamee Abrahamian, 2023, Armenia, 23 min
Embodying the dreams and poetics of a post-Soviet generation, two young Armenian women share their politics of justice and feminism with the world through their music.
Content notes: Discussion of queerphobia. Depiction of physical violence, police violence, alcohol use, cigarette use.
Access notes: Minimal flashing lights.

Confluence: A Meditation in Documentary Form, Dirs. ETA, Shanhuan Manton, 2021, United States, 15 min
CONFLUENCE is a meditation on ancestry and identity through the lens of APIDA and queer artists, filmed during moonroom’s 2019 PHASE event series celebrating APIDA Heritage Month in Southern California. This mix of hypnotic images and heartfelt testimonies explores the turmoil of being othered, while creatively shattering community and perceptual barriers. The film directly challenges reductive myths about the Asian American diaspora, advocating for self-defined identities.
Content notes: Discussion of colourism, racism, colonialism, fetishisation.
Access notes: Hypnotic layered imagery appears throughout the film.

furious guaracha (videomanifesto), Dir. Resonantes Ruido Trans, 2023, Colombia, 4 min
⚧️🔥🚨may the scream embrace us and our fury lead us to tenderize our emancipation🔥🚨⚧️
🏳️‍⚧️ we share with you the videomafiesto of our furious guaracha, a creation resulting from our outbreaks of trans love
In this piece we weave elements from our collective archive of the trans present, with the party as a struggle. 📢📢
Content notes: Discussion of sex work.
Access notes: Minimal glitchy imagery, flashing lights within party footage.

Jump, Dir. Wilberto Lucci, 2023, United States, 5 min
A history about the origins of twerking and the uber-successful Bounce Music genre of New Orleans. Narrated by New Orleans own LGBTIQA+ artist & award winning reality show star “Big Freedia”. Big Freedia is featured on Beyonce’s current #1 hit”Break My Soul” and Drake’s #1 bounce music hit “Nice For What”.
Content notes: Discussion of hurricane destruction.
Access notes: Minimal flashing laser lights within party footage.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Symptom, Dir. Kamee Abrahamian, 2023

Closing Film: Lesvia - SOLD OUT
2024-10-12 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
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**Please note this event is now sold out – we may be able to release more tickets nearer the screening. CCA Box Office are operating a waiting list for sold out events – please contact them directly or go to their website to be added to this!**
Since the 1970s lesbians have been gathering in the village of Eressos, Lesvia, once home to the ancient Greek poet and ‘First Lesbian’, Sappho. Lesvia is a documentary film chronicling the site of queer pilgrimage and tensions felt between local villagers and new sapphic arrivals of the last four decades. The feature will be followed by two shorts exploring Barbara Hammer and the lesbian iconography of the carabiner, respectively.
This screening will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Nat Lall with Looking for Barbara director Helen Kilbride.
Curated by Nat Lall.
Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale of FREE, £2, £4, £6, £8, £10, or £12. To book, click here or call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900.

Accessibility:
This programme has:

English, French, Italian, Greek with English language descriptive subtitles.
English-BSL interpretation for the introduction and panel discussion.
Live Captioning for the introduction and panel discussion.

This screening is 93 minutes long and has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
You can find out more information about accessibility at SQIFF 2024 here. If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2024, please get in touch with us at info@sqiff.org or by phone on 07873 331 036.

Films in this programme include:

Lesvia, Dir. Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, 2024, Greece, 77 min
Since the 1970s, lesbians from around the world have been drawn to the island of Lesvos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. When they find paradise in a local village and carve out their own queer lesbian community, tensions simmer with the local residents. With both groups claiming ownership of lesbian identity, filmmaker Tzeli Hadjidimitriou—a native and lesbian herself—is caught in the middle and chronicles 40+ years of love, community, conflict, and what it means to feel accepted.
Content notes: Depiction of nudity, sex toys, alcohol use, cigarette use. Discussion of homophobia, sex, harassment, political legislation, oppression, gender dysphoria, body image, fatphobia, childhood trauma, xenophobia, physical violence, police violence, patriarchy, sexism, alcohol.
Access notes: Minimal flashing light in some party scenes.

Looking for Barbara, Dir. Helen Eve Kilbride, 2021, United Kingdom, 9 min
Looking for Barbara is a short experimental film exploring personal archives—photos and cine film from home. Using the filmmaker’s mid-1990s Super 8 footage, it questions memory’s significance and whose stories are prioritised. Inspired by Barbara Hammer, the film blends an ethereal soundtrack with personal testimony, offering a queer perspective on memory and how archives can be reinterpreted to amplify marginalised narratives.
Content notes: Depiction of nudity. Discussion of queer erasure, sex.

The History of The Carabiner, Dir. Gianna Mazzeo, 2023, Netherlands, 7 min
A tongue-in-cheek, historical documentary / fashion film hybrid that takes viewers on a journey through queer history to trace the origins of the carabiner as a lesbian symbol.
Content notes: Discussion of sexism, sex, homophobia.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Lesvia, Dir. Tzeli Hadjidimitriou, 2024

Reas + Post Screening Discussion
2025-08-13 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Edinburgh Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ
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In collaboration with Scottish Documentary Institute, we’re proud to present REAS: a ground-breaking documentary-musical by Lola Arias that explores queer solidarity and kinship within the carceral system. The screening will be enriched by a post-film relaxed 30-minute workshop with filmmaker Erica Monde.
Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a trans man who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in jail. Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long-term inmates or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, they all re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison.
Reas is a collective work that reinvents the musical genre: the performers dance and sing about their past in prison, relive their life as fiction, and invent, through fantasy and imagination, a possible future for themselves.
Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale. To book, click here.

Accessibility:

An age recommendation of BBFC 15.
Content Notes: Contains mentions of drug and people trafficking.
Spanish language audio with English language descriptive subtitles.
Filmhouse is wheelchair accessible, with gender neutral toilets.

This screening is 79 minutes long with an introduction and post-film workshop.
If you have any other access needs you would like to discuss with us, please get in touch with us at info@sqiff.org.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Reas, Dir. Lola Arias, 2024, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland

Neirud (Edinburgh) - SOLD OUT
2025-09-13 18:15 - 20:15 UTC | Edinburgh Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ
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Neirud died shrouded in mystery, leaving behind no trace of her past. Confronting family secrets, the filmmaker pieces together the mysterious life of her enigmatic “aunt”. In doing so, she discovers Neirud’s colourful life as a pioneering black lesbian wrestler in an all-female circus troupe through the 60s and 80s. As she investigates Neirud’s controversial ring persona, the filmmaker paints a fascinating story touching on race, identity and queer life through changing Brazilian society.

To book your ticket for this event, click here.

Accessibility
This programme has:

Portuguese audio with English language Descriptive Subtitles
English-BSL interpretation for introduction and panel discussion

This screening is 72 minutes long and has a BBFC U age rating.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Neirud, Dir. Fernanda Faya, 2023

Neirud (Glasgow)
2025-09-19 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | GMAC Film, 103 Trongate, Glasgow, Scotland, G1 5HD, United Kingdom
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Neirud died shrouded in mystery, leaving behind no trace of her past. Confronting family secrets, the filmmaker pieces together the mysterious life of her enigmatic “aunt”. In doing so, she discovers Neirud’s colourful life as a pioneering black lesbian wrestler in an all-female circus troupe through the 60s and 80s. As she investigates Neirud’s controversial ring persona, the filmmaker paints a fascinating story touching on race, identity and queer life through changing Brazilian society.

To book your ticket for this event, click here.

Accessibility
This programme has:

Portuguese audio with English language Descriptive Subtitles
English-BSL interpretation for introduction

This screening is 72 minutes long and has a BBFC U age rating.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Neirud, Dir. Fernanda Faya, 2023

Queer as Punk + intro + pre-recorded Q&A
2026-05-13 20:30 - 22:30 UTC | Edinburgh Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ
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Cinetopia:DOC in collaboration with SQIFF presents this Scottish special preview of Queer As Punk ahead of its wider UK release with T A P E Collective. The screening will have an introduction by artist Kai Khidir Hassan (fka Aki Hassan) and the film will be followed by a 20-minute pre-recorded Q&A.

Faris is a transman and the lead singer of “Shh..Diam!” (meaning “shut up!” in Malay), an openly queer punk band in Malaysia. Together with his bandmates Yon and Yoyo, they use their music to fight for LGBTQI+ rights in a country where conservative Muslim policies and society severely curtail human rights and freedom of expression. As discrimination against them intensifies, Yoyo chooses to leave the country. However in the face of the many challenges, Faris opts to stay, determined to continue using their music as a platform to advocate for freedom and equality, refusing to let the pressures of society silence their voice.
Director Yihwen Chen followed the trio for several years as they toured, documenting their gigs, experiences, and wide-ranging discussions. Queer As Punk continue to use their nonconformist live performances to fight for justice, in the face of intense pressure to and threats to silence their voices.
Kai Khidir Hassan (fka Aki Hassan) is a visual artist, researcher and organiser who primarily works with expanded sculpture, drawing and self-publishing. Rooted in collaborative inquiry and community-building, Aki’s practice extends beyond the studio into organising spaces that foreground collective knowledge, mutual support, and slower modes of active engagement.
Cinetopia:DOC is a monthly club bringing audiences together around exceptional documentary films alongside filmmaker Q&As or conversations, followed by continued discussion and networking in the Filmhouse Bar. Cinetopia:DOC is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI and the Scottish Documentary Institute and produced by Cinetopia, a hub of activity around filmgoing and filmmaking based in Edinburgh.
SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) is a charity formed with the aim of showcasing diverse queer cinema and uplifting creative voices from the LGBTQIA+ community in Scotland and beyond. The organisation runs an annual film festival in Glasgow, pop-up and year-round events, and community-focused programmes across Scotland.
T A P E Collective: Reppin’ could-be-cult classics, T A P E is a UK-based film company working across exhibition and distribution to platform the works of global majority filmmakers. Cross-curatorial, but firmly rooted in film, T A P E creates ties with art, music, talks and more, to bring exciting and subversive filmmaking to new and established audiences. With a focus on representation, identity and heritage, we champion the forgotten could-be cult films of the festival circuit.
Tickets are on a pay what you can sliding scale of FREE, £4, £8, £12, £16, or £20. To book your ticket for this event, click here.

Accessibility
This programme has:

English and Malay audio with English language Descriptive Subtitles
Text on Screen for the introduction

This screening is 88 minutes long.

Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery.

Donate:
Donate to SQIFF via PayPal or sign up to one of our four Patreon tiers to support our work and show us you’re a big SQIFF fan 🌈✨

Image Credit: Queer as Punk, Dir. Yihwen Chen, 2025
