Cassandro, the Exotico!
2019-10-05 18:15 - 19:30 UTC | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Cassandro is a well-known lucha libre wrestler known for his extravagant gayness and equally spectacular wrestling moves. Shot on 16mm over the course of 5 years, Marie Losier’s film follows a champion coming to terms with his increasingly ailing body. We bear witness to Cassandro’s scars, both mental and physical, his pain contrasting with his flamboyant masks and aerial manoeuvres in the ring. The Mexican legend struggles to deal with past addiction and abuse, which continue to haunt him. But his joy and strength in creating space for his queer self within conservative cultural traditions make for a fascinating and invigorating watch.
Presented in partnership with Document Human Rights Film Festival. Part of our strand Latinx Legends.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 15+.
Film has English and Spanish audio with English language subtitles/captions. Hearing loop available.
Film is moderately accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with some visual storytelling, some explanatory dialogue, majority in English but some in Spanish. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Stonewall Scotland presents: Before Stonewall
2019-10-05 19:00 - 20:30 | The Seamore Neighbourhood Cinema, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow, G20 7YE, United Kingdom
On June 27 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. In a spontaneous show of support and frustration, the city’s queer community rioted for three nights, an event often considered the birth of the modern LGBT Rights Movement. Revealing and often humorous, Before Stonewall exposes the fascinating decade-by-decade history of homosexuality in America, from 1920s Harlem through to World War II and the witch hunt trials of the McCarthy era. Essential viewing for all those who have celebrated their sexuality, or have been persecuted because of it.
In partnership with Stonewall Scotland, working to ensure LGBT communities here and abroad are Accepted Without Exception.
#ComeOutForLGBT
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below.

ACCESS
This event has an age rating of 12.
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions.
Film is relatively accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences – there is some visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue with moderately bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
The Seamore Neighbourhood Cinema has reasonable access for wheelchair users and welcomes assistance animals. Please get in touch with access@sqiff.org for further venue access information.
Programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
If you would like to reserve seating at this event, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

SQIFF Shorts: Some Like it Rough
2019-10-05 21:00 - 22:25 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
We delve into the varied practices of BDSM and societal attitudes towards this age-old erotic preference, which continues to be subject to stigmatisation and censorship. In Lasting Marks, one of sixteen gay men put on trial for taking part in consensual sadomasochism in late 80s England narrates his experience. Berlin-based conscious BDSM practitioner, Caritia, explains her spiritual journey through eroticism and life in Rituals + Worship. In French dramedy, Dressed for Pleasure, a young disabled woman seeks a more exhilarating sexual satisfaction. Mockumentary No Democracy Here sees a lefty dominatrix employed by right-wing Israeli men to force them into recanting their politics. The programme concludes with super hot non-binary, lesbian action with a punk boidyke given the rough-tender treatment in Driven.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
Films have English, French, Hebrew, and German audio with English language subtitles/captions. Hearing loop available.
Films are moderately accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with two of them English language with explanatory dialogue and voiceover but the others non-English language, a fair amount of visual storytelling throughout, and a mix of dark and bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Lasting Marks (14m)
Dir: Charlie Lyne, Country: UK, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
The story of sixteen men put on trial for sadomasochism in the dying days of Thatcher’s Britain was told by the police, the prosecution, and the tabloid press — but not by those in the dock. Director Charlie Lyne has created an experimental recreation of what happened offered by the men themselves.
Content note: Discussion of sex including BDSM, homophobia, mental health issues, and police persecution.
Rituals + Worship (13m)
Dir: Morgana Muses, Country: Germany, Year: 2015, Language/s: English
A short BDSM documentary that explores the workshop culture in Berlin and focuses on conscious BDSM practitioner, Caritia.
Content note: Depiction of BDSM. Discussion of racism.
Dressed for Pleasure (17m)
Dir: Marie de Maricourt, Country: Switzerland, Year: 2017, Language/s: French
Sarah, a young disabled woman, lives with her parents. She is increasingly subject to many fantasies and sees her sexuality taking up more and more of her attention. The arrival in the house of a new cleaner, Victoria, a trans woman, will upset the family balance.
Content note: Depiction of nudity, sex including reference to BDSM, and transphobia.
No Democracy Here (25m)
Dir: Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, Country: Germany, Palestine, Israel, Year: 2017, Language/s: Hebrew
No Democracy Here deals with the topic of political domination. Liad, a lefty human rights defender dominatrix, re-educates her Israeli right-wing-leaning obedient submissive slaves to follow upstanding leftist ethos and morals, like freedom of movement, economic justice, direct democracy and human rights by using domination practices such as humiliation, doggy-training, coercion, and administration of pain.
Content note: Depiction of light BDSM and racism.
Driven (13m)
Dir: Toni Karat, Country: Germany, Year: 2018, Language/s: German, English
A punk boidyke, handcuffed, facing the wall in a sparse, empty room, breathes heavily with anxiety and expectation. And anxious she should be, for the rough treatment she will face in the 13 minutes that follow! The film is a contribution to much-needed lesbian visibility – conveying a proud and unashamed image of dyke eroticism and BDSM – also at the age of 50+!
Content note: Depiction of BDSM including consensual non-consent.

Pity Party Film Club presents: Evil Come, Evil Go
2019-10-05 21:15 - 22:45 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Pity Party Film Club presents a rare screening of Walt Davis’ lesbian sexploitation opus Evil Come, Evil Go. Sister Sarah Jane (Cleo O’Hara) is hellbent on ridding the world of evil, sex-obsessed men. Taking to the streets of Los Angeles, she quickly befriends a gullible young woman and the two embark on a mad, sex-filled killing spree.
Prior to the film, two of Glasgow’s most outrageous drag artists, SHREK 666 and Puke, will be teaming up for a thrilling performance exploring religion in their own irreverent way.
Part of our strand on queerness and religion, You Gotta Have Faith.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions. The introduction and drag performance will be BSL interpreted. Hearing loop available.
Film is moderately accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with some explanatory dialogue and relatively bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Rainbow Families presents: Beauty and the Beast Singalong
2019-10-06 12:15 - 14:25 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Sing along with Emmas Watson and Thompson and Ewan McGregor in this romantic fairytale with a queer twist. Belle, a bright, beautiful, and independent young woman, is taken prisoner by a beast in its castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the beast’s exterior, allowing her to recognise the kind heart and soul of the true prince that hides on the inside. Come along and celebrate this “tale as old as time” – featuring Disney’s first openly gay character, Josh Gad as Le Fou.
In partnership with LGBT Health and Wellbeing’s Rainbow Families Project, which runs events and support for LGBTQ families in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age certification of PG (Parental Guidance).
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions/lyrics. Hearing loop available.
Film is relatively accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with some visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

SQIFF Shorts: You Gotta Have Faith
2019-10-06 12:30 - 14:10 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Short films exploring what it means to have faith as a queer person today. A seemingly pious Hasidic man living a secret double life faces a challenge when his two worlds collide. A chaplain from Cheshire sets up a helpline for gay farmers and is inundated with calls. LGBTQIA+ people in Nepal use a Hindu festival as a medium to appear in public. Plus more compelling stories in this captivating selection.
Join us for a discussion after the screening with playwright and author of The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, Jo Clifford, LGBTQIA+ Muslim charity Imaan, and Rev. Jane Clarke from Glasgow’s LGBT+ Metropolitan Community Churches. Part of our strand on queerness and religion, You Gotta Have Faith.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Films have a mixture of English, Hebrew, and Nepali audio with English language subtitles/captions. The discussion will be BSL interpreted. Hearing loop available.
Around half the films are relatively accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with explanatory dialogue and relatively bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Black Hat (15m)
Dir: Sarah Smith, Country: USA, Year: 2019, Language/s: English, Hebrew
A seemingly pious Hasidic man living a secret double life misplaces his black hat one night causing his two separate lives to collide in a way he never imagined.
Content note: Sexual content.
Two Blinks (8m)
Dir. Bruno Fraga Braz, Country: UK, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
After her father rejects her request to get a haircut, hijab-wearing Farhana searches the streets of Peckham London for a hair salon where her modesty can be protected.
Content note: Depiction of homophobia.
Landline (12m)
Dir. Matt Houghton, Country: UK, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
Landline is a short documentary about the only helpline in the UK for gay farmers set up by a chaplain from Cheshire. Through a series of recorded telephone conversations and reconstructive visuals, the film uses the helpline as a lens through which to view the experiences of LGBTQ people in the British farming community.
Content note: Discussion of homophobia and suicide.
Eden (5m)
Dir. Jędrzej Gorski, Country: Poland, Year: 2018, Language/s: No dialogue
A story of a young Catholic man who is struggling with his homosexuality. He is in love with another man but also does not want to abandon his religion. He has to choose between love and religion on one rainy day in the countryside.
Content note: Sexual content.
21st Century Nuns (10m)
Dir. Tom Stephen, Country: UK, Year: 1994, Language/s: English
Documentary about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters are an order of queer nuns. Their work covers many areas including: safer sex education, protests and demonstrations, outreach to the gay community, and providing ritual to the gay population. Their goal is to “expiate all stigmatic guilt and promulgate universal joy…”
Content note: Sexual content and depiction of homophobia.
The Visible (4m)
Dir. Atikah Zainidi, Country: Brunei, Year: 2019, Language/s: English
A short documentary exploring what it’s like to be a girl in Brunei.
Content note: Discussion of homophobia, transphobia, and sexual violence.
Gai Jatra (20m)
Dir. Gopal Shivakoti, Country: Nepal, Year: 2019, Language/s: Nepali
Traditionally, Gai Jatra is literally translated as procession of cows and is an age-old festival commemorating the death of loved ones. Since 2001, LGBTI people in Nepal have been using Gai Jatra festival as a medium to appear in the public, flaunt their true selves with pride, and pay tribute to the deceased members of their community.
Content note: Discussion of mental health issues, suicide, homophobia, and transphobia.

Lemebel
2019-10-06 14:45 - 17:00 | Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow, G3 6RB, United Kingdom
Pedro Lemebel’s sharp, poetic texts and provocative performances make him one of South America’s most significant artists. Under Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, Lemebel expressed things most wouldn’t dare. For the country’s left-wing opposition, his queerness made him an awkward figure as he exposed their machismo and homophobia. Lemebel embodied an uncomfortable gay identity and fiercely criticised the wish of some queer people to assimilate. Lemebel uses slides and video clips to shape an essay-like memento, enhanced with intimate interviews, to portray a tireless fighter who continued to speak out until the end of his life.
Joanna Reposi Garibaldi will join us for a Q&A after the screening. Kindly sponsored by Scottish Documentary Institute. Part of strand Latinx Legends. Joanna will also be giving a workhop on documentary filmmaking as part of the Festival. Click here for more information.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call GFT box office on +44 (0)141 332 6535.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 15+.
Film has Spanish audio with English language subtitles/captions. If you would like to attend this event and require a BSL interpreter for the Q&A, please contact access@sqiff.org at least 2 weeks in advance. Hearing loop available.
Film is not accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with minimal dialogue mostly in Spanish. Large print versions of handouts available.
GFT has good access for wheelchair users and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for GFT’s Accessibility Guide.
Programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
If you would like to reserve specific seating, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Kat Lindner Tribute: Tomboy
2019-10-06 15:00 - 16:30 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
French queer filmmaker Celine Sciamma’s naturalistic drama about childhood gender identity is touching, painful, and humorous all at once. Ten-year-old Laure has moved with her family to a new neighbourhood. The local kids take her for a boy and instead of correcting them, Laure introduces herself as Mikael and starts living a double life, with her parents unaware of her secret and her young sister persuaded to play along.
Screening in celebration of Festival co-founder Kat Lindner, who passed away earlier this year. We screened Tomboy at the first ever SQIFF event alongside an intro from Kat, who also wrote about the film in her academic work. We’ll read out Kat’s original intro and share our memories of her.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age certification of U.
Film has French audio with English language subtitles/captions. BSL interpretation for the introduction. Hearing loop available.
Film is not accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with all French language and visual storytelling and minimal dialogue. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

No Box for Me. An Intersex Story
2019-10-06 15:15 - 16:30 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
A heartfelt, poetic documentary focusing on four young adults who – like an estimated 0.5 to 1.7 percent of people – were born with variations in their sex characteristics making it difficult for Western medicine to impose classifications on them. The intersex people in No Box for Me seek to reclaim their bodies and explore their identities. They reveal the error in a binary understanding of gender and highlight the physical and psychological harm unnecessary medical treatments impose on children.
Screening with A Normal Girl (14m) about intersex activist and educator, Pidgeon Pagonis.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Films have French and English audio with English language subtitles/captions. Hearing loop available.
Film is not accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences – there is a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue but mostly French language. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

DOCMA screening
2019-10-06 17:00 - 18:00 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Following our DOCMA workshop (click here for the workshop listing) – where participants will take part in creating their own 1-minute documentary as part of a 5-minute documentary film made by 5 filmmakers in 5 different documentary styles – we invite audiences to come and view the resulting films. Come and support the filmmakers, who will have created their masterpieces within 48 hours. Also a chance to learn more about DOCMA and its mission to encourage and support people to have a go and get creative in producing documentary work.
Screening followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Films have English audio with English language subtitles/caption. BSL interpretation for Q&A. Hearing loop available.
We don’t know how accessible the films will be for blind and partially sighted audiences as yet but please ask a member of staff on the day if you need information about this. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

LGBT Health & Wellbeing Community Filmmaking
2019-10-06 17:15 - 18:15 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
LGBT Health & Wellbeing is a charity promoting the health, wellbeing, and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Scotland and providing support, services, and information. Two of the organisation’s groups have recently created collectively-made short films, which we will showcase at this event. Return to the Closet? was created as part of a collaboration between Luminate, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, artist Glenda Rome, and participating community filmmakers. Luminate commissioned the film with support from LGBT Health and Wellbeing. This is a documentary exploring issues around care for older LGBT people. Everything Just Collapsed is an experimental short reflecting on stigma and survival by Tim Knights in collaboration with participants of The LGBT Mental Wellbeing Collective. Come and watch both movies and join in an open discussion on the process and value of community filmmaking.
Click here to find out more about Luminate. Click here for more information about LGBT Health & Wellbeing.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Films have English audio with English language subtitles/captions. BSL interpretation for discussion. Hearing loop available.
Films are relatively accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with some visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue and voiceover and bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Vision Portraits
2019-10-06 17:30 - 19:00 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Vision Portraits is a vivid and hypnotic exploration by filmmaker Rodney Evans illuminating the compelling stories of four visually impaired artists – photographer John Dugdale, dancer Kayla Hamilton, writer Ryan Knighton, and the filmmaker himself. Evans contrasts their journeys with his own personal and professional one as a filmmaker gradually losing his vision and as a gay man. Evans’ self-reflexive approach emphasises how each artist adapted creatively and thrived as their process evolved with their unique perspectives. An important film for anyone interested in disability aesthetics, demonstrating how blindness and visual impairment bring about distinct artistic viewpoints.
Screening with Fashion in the Dark I and II (8m) by Emily Ford-Halliday exploring fashion and identity with people who are visually impaired or blind. Presented in association with Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland. With an introduction by filmmaker and poet, Ross Wilcock, and filmmaker and academic, Emily Ford-Halliday.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Films have English audio with English language subtitles/captions. BSL interpretation for introduction. Hearing loop available.
Audio description available. Films are relatively accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with some visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue and voiceover and bright images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

We Are Parable presents: Dirty Computer: An Emotion Picture by Janelle Monae
2019-10-06 19:45 - 21:00 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
As part of their season “The Art of the Black Visual Album” We Are Parable partner with SQIFF to present a special screening of Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer visual album or, as she calls it, “emotion picture.” Set in a dystopian nightmare, Jane 57821 (played by Monae) is being subjected to having her memories removed or “cleaned,” ones that mainly involve her relationship with Zen (Tessa Thompson). As the removal of her thoughts and feelings takes place, we’re taken on a journey to find out who Jane really is, with her emotions displayed as songs from Dirty Computer.
Preceded by our Closing Night speeches and awards. After the screening, we invite you to a listening party where CC TIME and SQU!SHY will perform a homage to Janelle Monae, playing Dirty Computer in its entirety alongside other tunes. Includes tasty beers sponsored by Drygate Brewing Co.
This screening is part of the BFI Musicals nationwide season.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions. BSL interpretation for introduction. Hearing loop available.
Film is relatively accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences – there is a lot of visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue and lots of song lyrics. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

SQIFF Shorts: Gross Out
2019-10-06 20:00 - 21:00 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
With supposed tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people in western public life comes enforced sanitisation and respectability. Straight society pats itself on the back for allowing (some of) us to get married and feature in shiny corporate advertising but is still repelled by our bodies and sex lives. To counter the continued suppression of fleshly and carnal appetites and practices, we went on a hunt for the grossest, most yucky films we could find. Featuring experimental musing on why we find our bodies disgusting and scary; some gay sex-tinged body horror; literal shit in a variety of forms; and a performance involving an empty stomach and a large jar of honey. Please note this programme requires resilience for what some would consider stomach-churning and gruesome imagery.
Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 depending on what you can afford. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 18+.
Films have English and Spanish audio with English language subtitles/captions. Hearing loop available.
Films are not very accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with a lot of visual storytelling and ideas and dark images. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
A Quiet Space and programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
We have a limited travel fund to assist people to come to the Festival for those who could not otherwise afford to attend. If you would like to apply for this, please contact access@sqiff.org.
Tickets
In order to make SQIFF more accessible to those on a low income, we use a sliding scale ticket price of £0-£8 for our events. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof / ID, we just ask that you are honest! Our ticket sales go towards supporting the vital work of LGBTQ+ filmmakers, artists and organisers. If you have a free ticket and can no longer use it, please contact the relevant venue box office to let them know so it can be used by someone else. For more info on what you should pay, click here.

Ämber (6m)
Dir: Remmi E. Välja, Country: UK, Year: 2019, Language/s: No spoken sound
Ämber is an experimental film about the basic functions of the human body. The film studies affect; it seeks to raise the question of why we sometimes find our own bodies and their natural existence to be unpleasant, disgusting, and scary. The aim of the film is to make the audience uncomfortable in a humorous way.
Content note: Depiction of bleeding.
Estigma (14m)
Dir: David Velduque, Country: Spain, Year: 2018, Language/s: Spanish
It’s Friday night, the bell rings and Alex opens the door to the worst of his fears. “Estigma speaks to us about that inner prison we build because of fear of rejection and not being loved for who we are. This is the starting point of a story that I’ve intended to face as a personal matter, dealing with my complex relationship with illness and rejection.” David Velduque
Content note: Depiction of injury with body horror elements.
Next Level Shit (11m)
Dir: Gary Jaffe, Country: USA, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
Taylor wants to be squeaky clean downstairs before his big third date with dreamboat Chris, but his efforts backfire, sending the relationship spiralling to a whole new level of intimacy.
Content note: None.
Bear (13m)
Dir: Fred Guerrier, Country: USA, Year: 2018, Language/s: English
A bear-suit wearing dancer ignores the news of his estranged father’s death but begins to see his ghost. Meanwhile, an ex-lover’s infatuation quickly devolves into something more sinister (and stinky). The line between reality and fiction get blurred during the terrifying showdown between the Bear, the ghost, and the lover.
Content note: Depiction of death.
Force Feed (15m)
Dir: Alan Vincent, Country: USA, Year: 2018, Language/s: No spoken sound
Performance for video. One empty stomach, one pound of honey.
Content note: Depiction of overeating.

Black History Month: Portrait of Jason
2019-10-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Portrait of Jason shows sex worker and entertainer, Jason Holliday, recounting his life story for filmmaker Shirley Clarke.
Jason is the sole on-screen presence in the film. He narrates his life story to the camera, behind which Clarke and her partner at the time, actor Carl Lee, provoke and berate Jason with increasing hostility as the film progresses. The film alleges to employ avant-garde and cinéma vérité techniques to reach the tragedy underlying Jason’s performative persona. However, Portrait of Jason is one of if not the first documentation of black queer experiences and trauma exploited by white ‘gatekeepers’ for the sake of the artist’s cultural and financial capital gains.
Although Portrait of Jason is a landmark film, there is a need here to discuss the fuzzy problem of ‘visibility’ within the white/capitalist domination of visual culture. Are the lines between exposure and exploitation blurred in Portrait of Jason?
Curated and hosted by Sequoia Barnes, an art/design scholar and doctoral candidate at The School of Design with Edinburgh College of Art. Presented as part of Black History Month in partnership with Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER).
Free. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 15+.
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions. If you would like to attend this event and require BSL interpretation for the introduction/discussion, please email access@sqiff.org at least 2 weeks in advance.
Film is moderately accessible to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences with a lot of visual storytelling but some explanatory dialogue and all English language. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
Programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.

Black History Month: Calalai: In Betweenness + shorts
2019-10-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD, United Kingdom
Calalai: In Betweenness by filmmaker Kiki Febriyanti depicts women in South Sulawesi Bugis culture, which for centuries has accepted gender diversity as implicit, believing humans consist of 5 genders, one of them being calalai. The film takes a closer look at the definition of femininity and masculinity in the Bugis culture. What or who is calalai? What are the dynamics of gender, spirituality, and performance? How do these dynamics define the everyday life of the Bugis people?
Screening with accompanying short films and discussion on queerness in Indonesian cultures outside of white, colonialist impositions.
Curated and hosted by artist and researcher Claricia Parinussa. Presented as part of Black History Month in partnership with Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER).
Free. To book, please use the button below or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 15+.
Film languages tbc with English language subtitles/captions. If you would like to attend this event and require BSL interpretation for the discussion, please email access@sqiff.org at least 2 weeks in advance.
Accessibility of films to English-speaking blind and partially sighted audiences tbc. Large print versions of handouts available.
CCA has good access for wheelchair users, gender neutral toilets, and welcomes assistance animals. Click here for CCA’s Accessibility Guide.
Programme content notes will be available. Click here for a list of content notes for the 2019 Festival.
Comfy seating (bean bags) are available. If you would like to reserve this, please contact access@sqiff.org.

Quiet Heroes with Glasgow Zine Library
2019-12-01 16:00 - 18:00 | Glasgow Zine Library, 636 Cathcart Road, Glasgow, G42 8AA, United Kingdom
Join us for a screening of Quiet Heroes at Glasgow Zine Library’s new space in the Southside of Glasgow.
Quiet Heroes documents one doctor’s fight against stigma, shame, and ignorance through the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the heartland of America’s west. This screening is part of Glasgow Zine Library’s ‘Making History’ film programme, which celebrates film under the theme of social justice.
Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
Tickets are £5 (£3 concessions). To book, please use the button below.

ACCESS
Film has English audio with English language subtitles/captions.
If you would like BSL interpretation for the introduction, please email glasgowzinelibrary[at]gmail.com in advance of the event.
Glasgow Zine Library can accommodate wheelchair users but unfortunately does not have a wheelchair accessible bathroom yet. They are currently applying for funding to make their bathroom accessible to everyone, and will be making the needed adjustments as soon as they have the funds to do so. If you have any questions or requests about access, please contact glasgowzinelibrary[at]gmail.com.

Sqifflix: Fighting for Justice
2020-04-27 17:30 - 2020-05-27 17:30
Click here to access the full programme.
In our very first Sqifflix outing we showcase activist short films in which people fight for their right to exist and against oppressive forces. The movies cover identities including Deaf, Disabled, and Two Spirit, battle against patriarchy, white supremacy, and ableism, and feature hip-hop, a robot, and superhero finger puppets.
All films have English language subtitles or captions. See notes 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.

Regalia: Pride in Two Spirits (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: David Ng, Jen Sungshine, Country: Canada, Year: 2016
The story of Duane and his journey as someone who identifies as Two Spirit – a queer Aboriginal person.
Language/s: English

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover; mostly bright images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of homophobia.

Like a Riot (2m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Krissy Mahan, Country: USA, Year: 2016
“Like anyone who grew up with the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, I have always wanted to have a puppet self. And of course I want my puppet self to hang out with Campbell X’s puppet self. Krissy Mahan has made it happen!” So Mayer
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only song lyrics with lots of onscreen text and visual storytelling; mostly bright images
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None

Trans*march (2m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Simon Schultz von Dratzig, Country: Germany/Canada, Year: 2013, Language/s: English
As the most politicized of the three marches during Pride week in San Francisco, trans*march, which had been running for ten years at the time this film was made, has a tradition of raising visibility of a marginalised group within queer culture. This documentary records queer voices during the 2013 march and reflects political discussions concerning trans* and LGBT movements.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue; bright images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of transphobia and racism.

Amar: Deaf is an Identity (4m) [click here to watch]
Dir: David Ng, Jen Sungshine, Country: Canada, Year: 2016
Amar shares his journey as a queer South Asian activist, and explains how it intersects with his identity and culture as a Deaf person.
Language/s: ASL
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No spoken sound, all in ASL with subtitles; mostly bright images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None

Tax on Me (4m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi, Country: UK, Year: 2017
Local authorities in Scotland charge people for their care costs, obliging people with disabilities to pay more than others to achieve the same basic human rights. Tax on Me is a hip-hop music video by filmmaker Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi and media coop responding to the Care Tax and the effect it has on people who need support.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Quite a lot of voiceover and dialogue; mix of bright and dark images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of ableism.

Until Justice Rolls (4m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Krissy Mahan, Country: USA, Year: 2013
Faggotgirl, a butch dyke superhero action figure, and her friend Robot want to meet for a drink. But the New York City public transportation system is barely accessible for people with different kinds of bodies and their journey is thwarted by stairs, gaps, and poorly maintained curbs.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only song lyrics with lots of onscreen text and visual storytelling; mix of bright and dark images
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of ableism.
Disability Justice for Palestine (1m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Sins Invalid and Micah Bazant, Country: USA, Year: 2014
Disability Justice for Palestine is a Public Service Announcement created by Sins Invalid during the extended attacks on Gaza in the Summer of 2014. “We add our words and faces to a movement for global solidarity with the people of Palestine, articulating the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a disability justice issue.”
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue; mix of bright and dark images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of violence.

Sqifflix: Gender Revealing
2020-05-07 17:00 - 2020-06-07 17:00
Click here to access the full programme.
In our programme Gender Revealing filmmakers and characters play with and question gender norms and expectations. A genderqueer AFAB person experiments with male-pattern baldness, Exa Zim narrates their life growing up trans, ‘faux’ drag queens Sergina and Venus Dimilo strut their stuff, and trans and genderless bodies float and move in unusual ways.
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.

Jean (6m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Anna Stypko, Country: USA, Year: 2013
A delightful eccentric has a haircut that transcends age and gender expectations. Set in the run-down Kensington neighbourhood of Philadelphia, local artist Jean talks about her shoes, hairstyle choices, and why she changed her name.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Limited voiceover/dialogue and mixture of bright and dark images.
Sound design access notes: Some loud and abrasive music.

Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of misogyny, homophobia, ableism, and mild violence.

Phone Me Don’t Write (3m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Elly Clarke, Country: USA/Germany, Year: 2013-15
A short film (and song) about love, sex, loneliness, and relationships in the era of instant communications.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only song lyrics, otherwise all visual, mix of bright and dark images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of sex

Alexa to Exa (17m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Exa Zim, Christian Marsh, Country: USA, Year: 2015
A very personal documentary film about about transcending assigned identity.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover; mostly bright images.
Sound design access notes: Sudden loud music and abrasive sound effects.

Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Discussion of homophobia, illness, mental health issues, and suicide.

I Want to See You from a Different Perspective (3m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Elly Clarke, Country: Canada/UK, Year: 2014
A song about trying and failing to change a person you are in a relationship with.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only song lyrics, otherwise all visual, mix of bright and dark images.

Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None
Venus (6m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Faye Carr-Wilson, Magenta Sharp, Country: UK, Year: 2016
Venus is a short documentary exploring gender roles within the drag community.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Some voiceover/dialogue and some visual ideas and storytelling; mixture of bright and dark images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Discussion of ableism

Instantaneous Culture (3m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Elly Clarke, Country: Germany, Year: 2013-14
A ballad about love in a time of mobile phones, about wanting, longing, desiring but not really getting. Talk versus action, song versus stillness, and some great lingerie to go with it.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only song lyrics, otherwise all visual, mix of bright and dark images.

Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None
Leg, Arm, Head (11m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Scout Stuart, Country: UK, Year: 2016
A highly controlled dancer moves away from the discipline and uniformity of ballet to explore her own identity.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No dialogue – just sound effects and music; bright images.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Depiction of sex.

Float (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Sam Berliner, Country: USA, Year: 2015
Float is a celebratory experiment shot completely underwater and depicting trans and genderqueer folk swimming naked set to music by musician Rae Spoon.
Language/s: No spoken language

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No spoken language, only music and sound effects; quite bright images.
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of nudity

The Race (4m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Soyoon Kim, Country: South Korea, Year: 2015
Tiny, genderless figurines dance to J S Bach as their environment gives way and glitches out.
Language/s: No spoken language

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No spoken language, only music and sound effects; bright images.
Sound design access notes: Some abrasive sound effects.

Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: Depiction of homophobia, misogyny, biphobia, butchphobia, and classism.

Sqifflix: Queer Horror Stories
2020-05-15 17:00 - 2020-06-15 17:00
Click here to access the full programme.
In Queer Horror Stories we showcase provocative, bizarre, sometimes gory, sometimes scary films that delve into the terror of queerness and oppression. In a dystopian 2064, a federation of African States initiate an annual cull of men; a young gay man in Russia has a surprise in store for the ultranationalists who attack him; the unbearable weight of family expectations and difficulty of being stuck in unhealthy relationships are explored through formal film experiments; the movies of horror director Kang-Chien Chui are given a queer reading; and two queer feminist crews tackle violent forces in a surreal present.
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.

2064 (12m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Joseph Adesunloye, Country: Botswana, Year: 2019
Devastating population growth, famine, and mass internal displacement pushes Africa to the brink. Many of the continent’s animals are wiped out due to hunting, ever-warming climate, and a ballooning population. A federation of African States is created and institutes an annual cull of four million men. Soon the policy is successful, and the continent’s wildlife begins to flourish again. In 2064, a nascent freedom movement led by the ‘Ladies in White’ is fighting for the emancipation of the condemned men and to put an end to the human cull.
Language/s: Tswana

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Only Tswana spoken and mostly visual storytelling; relatively bright images.

Sound design access notes: Some abrasive sound effects.

Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Discussion and depiction of death and suicide.

Cheat (2m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Ania Urbanowska, Country: UK, Year: 2015
At what cost to ourselves are we complicit in our families’ expectations for us? This is a film about breaking that unspoken contract; about the moment when cheating them of the person they want us to be stops feeling like a choice.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Small amount of surreal and poetic voiceover; dark images.
Sound design access notes: Loud and abrasive sound effects.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Discussion of suicide.

PYOTR495 (15m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Blake Mawson, Country: Canada, Year: 2016
Set in present-day Moscow, 16-year-old Pyotr is baited by an ultranationalist group known for their violent abductions and attacks bolstered by Russia’s LGBT propaganda law, but Pyotr has a dangerous secret his attackers haven’t accounted for.
Language/s: Russian

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: All Russian language with some dialogue and some image-based filmmaking; quite dark images.
Sound design access notes: Abrasive horror sound effects.

Age recommendation: 18+
Content note: Discussion of sex including BDSM; depiction of homophobia, xenophobia, and graphic, degrading, and gory violence.

Stuck (11m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Ania Urbanowska, Country: UK, Year: 2013
Have you ever been in relationship where you can’t see its problems…?
Language/s: No spoken language

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No dialogue, only music and sound effects; quite dark images.

Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Depiction of drug-taking.

Yi-Ren (the person of whom I think) (14m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Tzuan Wu, Country: Taiwan, Year: 2015
A love letter in collage style, consisting of found footage and a queer reading of the work of Kang-Chien Chui, screenwriter of classic East Asian movies such as The Bells of Death and Twin Blades of Doom.
Language/s: Mandarin

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: All in Mandarin, poetic voiceover; dark images.
Sound design access notes: Abrasive sound effects.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Suggestion of distress and violence.

Swarm of Selenium (23m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Maude Matton & SJ Rahatoka, Country: Germany, Year: 2015
In the surreal dystopian present, two queer feminist crews cohabit the shells of an abandoned malt factory. As a troubling pattern begins to emerge from their mouths in the form of shattered glass, all are shaken, but some are hit harder than others. Through dance, visual work, and anti-work, they merge forces to try to care for one another and combat the insidious violent process which seems to increasingly come from within.
Swarm of Selenium is a queer sci fi short film about collective healing, trauma, and other world-making. It was shot in Berlin in spring 2016 by a crew of more than 40 women, nonbinary, and trans artists.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Sparse and surreal dialogue; relatively dark images.

Sound design access notes: Lots of loud and abrasive sound effects and music.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Depiction of violence.

Sqifflix: Sexual Content Warning
2020-05-26 17:00 - 2020-06-26 17:00
Click here to access the full programme.
For anyone after some slightly xxx-y content to make lockdown more pleasureable, we bring you Sexual Content Warning. A sweet night cleaner has his work cut out in Canada’s busiest gay bathhouse. Disability activist Andrew Gurza reflects on his first sexual encounter and how the event shaped his identity. Scottish filmmaker John Walter addresses cruising and sexual risk, in particular around the ‘cottage,’ a public toilet that is repurposed as a space of sex. Gustavo is a photographer who captures the bodies of naked men in public spaces in Sao Paulo. And writer and poet Aurora Levins Morales, a.k.a. The Gimp Gourmet, prepares a very special recipe!
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.

The Night Cleaner (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Blair Fukumura, Country: Canada, Year: 2016
As the night cleaner in Canada’s busiest gay bathhouse, Travis has his work cut out for him. With good humour he shyly takes us on an amusing and sometimes harrowing tour through his nightly duties.
Language/s: English

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue and bright images.

Sound design access notes: Some abrasive sound effects.

Age recommendation: 18+
Content note: Discussion of sex, bodily fluids, and brief reference to sexual harrassment; depiction of sex and bodily fluids.

Bedding Andrew (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Blair Fukumura, Country: USA, Year: 2014
On the eve of his 30th birthday, Andrew, a man with Cerebral Palsy, reflects on his first sexual encounter and how the event shaped his identity as a gay man.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Lots of voiceover/dialogue and bright images.
Sound design access notes: Loud and abrasive sound effects.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Discussion of sex and ableism.

Courtship Disorder (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: John Walter, Country: UK, Year: 2015
Courtship Disorder addresses cruising and sexual risk, in particular around the ‘cottage,’ a public toilet that is repurposed as a space of sex. Cruising for sex in real space has not disappeared despite the development of online cruising apps. ‘Courtship Disorder’ refers to a controversial term used by sexologists such as John Money to describe a spectrum of human behaviours, especially in men, including exhibitionism, voyeurism, toucherism, rubbing, and sexual assault.
Language/s: English

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Film is mostly visual with surreal monologues; bright images.
Sound design access notes: Some abrasive sound effects.

Age recommendation: 18+
Content note: Discussion of sex; depiction of sex and nudity.

Lightrapping (22m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Marcio Miranda Perez, Country: Brazil, Year: 2016
Gustavo is a photographer who captures the bodies of naked men in public spaces in Sao Paulo. One night, young Pedro follows him, curious and undecided about participating in the project.
Language/s: Portuguese

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: All in Portuguese with sparse dialogue; very dark images.

Age recommendation: 18+
Content note: Discussion of sex; depiction of possible sexual violation.

Pussy Vinaigrette (3m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Patty Berne, Country: USA, Year: 2011
The Gimp Gourmet prepares a very special recipe! Starring, written by and with fruit carving by Puerto Rican Jewish writer and poet Aurora Levins Morales. Does activist filmmaking have room for this much sexiness…?
Language/s: English

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Poetic monologue with some visual ideas. Not very bright images.
Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Depiction of sexual imagery and suggestiveness.

Sqifflix & Chill
2020-06-12 17:00 - 2020-07-12 17:00
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.

Sqifflix: Vision Portraits
2020-06-15 00:00 - 2020-06-21 23:30
Vision Portraits is a vivid and hypnotic exploration by filmmaker Rodney Evans illuminating the compelling stories of four visually impaired artists – photographer John Dugdale, dancer Kayla Hamilton, writer Ryan Knighton, and the filmmaker himself. Evans contrasts their journeys with his own personal and professional one as a filmmaker gradually losing his vision and as a gay man. Evans’ self-reflexive approach emphasises how each artist adapted creatively and thrived as their process evolved with their unique perspectives. An important film for anyone interested in disability aesthetics, demonstrating how blindness and visual impairment bring about distinct artistic viewpoints.
We are pleased to be hosting a live Q&A with director Rodney Evans on Saturday 20 June at 7pm. The Q&A will take place on SQIFF’s Facebook page at facebook.com/sqiff. Hosted by Amelia Cavallo, theatre practioner, academic, and co-founder of Quiplash.
In partnership with LGBT Health & Wellbeing. Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
Vision Portraits will be available online 15 to 21 June. Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 on a pay what you can basis. To book, please use the button below. We will email a link to the film to ticket holders and this will be available to view/experience at any time between 15 to 21 June.

Access
Film has English audio with English language captions.
Audio description available. We will send the version of Vision Portraits that has audio description built into the soundtrack to all ticket holders.
Film is otherwise relatively accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with some visual storytelling but a reasonable amount of explanatory dialogue and voiceover and bright images.
Age recommendation of N/C 12+.
Content note: Discussion of ableism.
Live Q&A with BSL interpretation and live captioning.

Sqifflix: More Love from Neelu
2020-06-22 17:00 - 2020-07-22 17:00
Click here to access the full programme.
Our special shorts programme More Love from Neelu showcases films by award-winning artist and filmmaker Neelu Bhuman, whose feature film TRANSFINITE we are screening online 25 – 28 June. Neelu’s work explores social and political themes as they play out in close relations. Playfully evoking insights into the workings of difference in intimacy, their films blend viewpoints ranging from race, gender, sexuality, culture, class, and romance.
In FU377, the dignity of queer people in India is under attack through Section 377, which the Supreme Court had recently re-introduced, re-criminalising ‘gay sex,’ when the film was made in 2014. Meanwhile, an adorable Indian mother is totally down with gay sex and wheels out some choice lines for her heartbroken queer daughter in an effort to cheer her up.
More Love. Less Prepackaged Bullshit. (2017) is set to the soul beat of Assata Shakur, and features a trio resisting dystopia with a bowl of joy, intimacy, and love.
Neelu’s 2016 short ṣadāqa is a kaleidoscopic view of friendship transcending borders.
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 Neelu Bhuman. Click here to donate to LGBT Unity Scotland to support LGBTQIA+ refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants. Click here to donate to the Wahala Film Fund, a film completion fund for Queer, Transgender and Intersex People of Colour filmmakers based in UK, Europe and the Global South co-founded by Neelu Bhuman.

FU377 (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Neelu Bhuman, Country: UK, Year: 2014
Basic dignity of queer people in India is under attack, yet again. The scorching IPC Section 377 is re-unleashed to police to criminalise “gay sex” in India. While the law and the Supreme Court dated themselves back a few hundred years, an adorable Indian mother has her knowledge of “gay sex” in mint condition, wheeling out a tidbit or two for her heartbroken queer daughter in an effort to cheer her up. The pair are shocked into action by the Supreme Court’s latest rejection.
Language/s: English

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Quite a lot of dialogue with some visual ideas; bright images.

Sound design access notes: None

Age recommendation: 15+
Content note: Reference to sex.

More Love. Less Prepackaged Bullshit. (1m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Neelu Bhuman, Country: USA, Year: 2017
Set to the soul beat of Assata Shakur, a trio resists dystopia with a bowl of joy, intimacy and love.
Language/s: English
Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: No dialogue – only music lyrics and sound effects; quite bright images.
Sound design access notes: None
Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None

ṣadāqa (5m) [click here to watch]
Dir: Neelu Bhuman, Country: UK, Year: 2016
A kaleidoscopic view of friendship transcending borders.
Language/s: English and Arabic

Accessibility for blind and partially sighted people: Small amount of English dialogue and some Arabic but mostly visual ideas; quite bright images.
Sound design access notes: None

Age recommendation: 12+
Content note: None

Sqifflix: TRANSFINITE + shorts
2020-06-25 00:00 - 2020-06-28 23:30
TRANSFINITE is a sci-fi omnibus feature film by Neelu Bhuman composed of seven standalone short stories where supernatural trans and queer people from various cultures use their powers to protect, love, teach, fight, and thrive. Most of us have been in situations where we feel completely powerless and deeply frustrated with the unfairness of it all. Sometimes we have lost control of life and sometimes we find a way to use our rage, resentment, and frustrations to grow a beautiful garden. In TRANSFINITE, the protagonists, like smooth warriors, choose to find that inner power and use it to transform undesirable situations into desirable ones in a snap.
Screening with shorts FETISH and Something In The Closet. In Topher Campbell’s FETISH a multi-dimensional being bestrides the streets of New York in defiance and celebration as he embodies the past, present and future of Blackness. Featuring a mesmerising original score by Mercury Prize Award Winner’s Young fathers. Something In The Closet directed by Nosa Eke is about a queer teenager struggling with her sexuality, as desires manifest their way from the depths of her eerie closet into reality.
We are pleased to be hosting a live discussion with Black queer UK artists’ responses to the films on Saturday 27 June at 7pm. The discussion will take place on SQIFF’s Facebook page at facebook.com/sqiff. Hosted by writer and programmer Harvey Dimond with filmmaker Nosa Eke and other guests tbc.

In partnership with LGBT Health & Wellbeing. Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and Lottery funding from the BFI.
TRANSFINITE + shorts will be available online 25 to 28 June. Tickets are priced on a sliding scale £0-£8 on a pay what you can basis. Films are viewable within UK and Ireland only. To book, please use the button below. We will email a link to the film to ticket holders and this will be available to view at any time between 25 to 28 June.

Access
Films have English, Navajo, Swahili, Spanish, Asura (in Japanese), and Tagalog audio with English language subtitles or captions.
Films are less accessible to blind and partially sighted audiences with lots of visual storytelling and large non-English language sections.
Loud and abrasive sound effects throughout the films.
Age recommendation of N/C 15+.
Content note: Discussion of racism including anti-blackness and violence; depiction of homophobia, transphobia, racism including anti-blackness, mild and/or animated violence, nudity, sex, vomit, and urine.
Live discussion with BSL interpretation and live captioning.

SQIFF Shorts: A is for Asexual
2020-07-15 10:00 - 2020-07-17 10:00
We are taking part in DIVE IN Cinema, a two-week online screening series in collaboration with other film festivals and exhibitors in Scotland.
DIVE IN Cinema will offer a mixture of features and short films across fiction, documentary and experimental work, as well as a few filmmaker conversations. Each screening will be programmed by one of the contributing exhibitors and will be available on demand for 48 hours from its start time, with a new programme released at 10am every day.
SQIFF’s programme is called A is for Asexual and will be available to view online for 48 hours from 10am on Wednesday 15 July.
Highlighting new work around perhaps the most under-represented identity in queer cinema, this programme celebrates films by and about asexual people of colour. Garima Kaul’s documentary Desire? explores the wide range of experiences of asexual individuals and communities in India, whilst multi-award-winning Brazilian film Infinite While It Lasts follows the budding relationship between asexual Danny and allosexual Seiji.
Click here to register to access all the films in DIVE IN Cinema for free. All screenings are FREE to view, however DIVE IN are collecting donations for Scottish charities The Unity Centre and Ubuntu Women Shelter. The Unity Centre provides advice and support to asylum seekers and migrants in Scotland. Ubuntu Women Shelter is a Glasgow-based charity that provides emergency accommodation needs for women with no recourse to public funds. There is a payment link to donate when you enter the hub.
Screenings are captioned for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences. Content notes per film will be listed on the online platform as appropriate.
Desire? (30m)
Dir: Garima Kaul, Country: India, Year: 2019
The everyday realities of some people who identify as asexual, creating small ruptures in the homogenising culture of hyper and heteronormative sexuality.
Language/s: English, Hindi

Content note: Depiction of asexual denial and acephobia; discussion of asexual denial, acephobia, homophobia, sexual/emotional abuse, masturbation, and caste discrimination.

Fixers – Asexuality (3m)
Dir: Fixers, Country: UK, Year: 2013
Fixers are young people using their past to fix the future.
Language/s: English
Content note: Depiction of asexual denial; discussion of asexual denial and suicide.

Infinite While It Lasts (17m)
Dir: Akira Kamiki, Country: Brazil, Year: 2019
After falling in love at a party, Danny and Seiji just want to be together, but their differences might prove stronger than their feelings.
Language/s: Portuguese

Content note: None

All The Feels!: Ultimate Queer Fanvid Playlist
2020-10-05 00:00 - 2020-10-18 23:30
Fanvids are short films using music, edited by fans in an expression of all the feels around their favourite fandoms. Even with today’s films and television bursting with more queer characters than ever, we still fight for true recognition, representation, and stories that go beyond the sometimes disappointing and limiting storylines we are given. Every fanvid is a DIY work of art, combining music and clever edits to celebrate favourite shows, rework plots, commiserate in collective sadness, and whatever feels there are to be had!
Curated by Tara Brown, queer crip Black fat femme and Fringe! Queer film & arts fest and freelance film curator.
Click here for Tara’s YouTube playlist.
ACCESS
This playlist has an age recommendation of N/C 12+.
The fanvids have English audio. Some have English language captions or a transcript. Transcript of the other vids coming soon. With apologies for the lack of captions on all videos thanks to YouTube removing the option for community captions. Click here to sign a petition for YouTube to reverse this decision.
The playlist is 34 minutes long.
Content notes: Discussion of homophobia, biphobia, and racism; depiction of brief nudity, sex, violence, and blood.

The videos in All the Feels!: Ultimate Queer Fanvid Playlist include some loud music and fast editing.

We have a limited access fund to assist people with no or limited internet access to attend the Festival. If you would like to take this up, please contact info@sqiff.org.
If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2020, please contact info@sqiff.org.

SQIFF 2020 Vimeo on Demand Film Programme
2020-10-05 00:00 - 2020-10-18 23:59
Click here to access our full film programme on Vimeo on Demand.
Most of our film programme will be available via Vimeo on Demand for 2 weeks from 5 to 18 October. You can access films in the programme at any time during this period. Films on our Vimeo on Demand will be accessible within the UK only.

To watch films on our Vimeo on Demand channel, you will need to create a Vimeo account, which is free and quick to set up. Click here and then click the option to ‘Join for free.’ You will need access to an email address to be able to join.

You will be asked to choose what you pay for each film or film programme on our Vimeo on Demand channel. You enter the amount you want to pay starting from £1 every time you rent a film. If you need to access films for free, get in touch with us and we will send a code for the films you want to access, no proof of circumstance required. You will have up until 18 October to watch films once you have rented them.

If you need assistance with accessing films or events online, including how to use vimeo or Zoom, you can get in touch with our Access & Support Team between 10am and 5pm every day of the Festival. You can contact them by emailing info[at]sqiff.org or by phone on 07883 737 362.
If you want to contact us to ask any questions before the Festival starts, email info[at]sqiff.org.

Click here to download the SQIFF 2020 brochure for the full list of films on Vimeo on Demand.
Click here to download a text-only version of the brochure.
Click here for an audio version of the brochure.

OR here’s a list of all the films and shorts programme with links!:

Every Utopia is a Dystopia: Science Fiction Worlds
Ashley
45 minutes, Dir: Jamie Crewe, N/C 12+, UK, 2020, English language
“Dragging a wheelie case behind them, Ashley arrives at an isolated, beachside cottage. They hope that this weekend in the countryside might be the change they need: a change f rom depression, f rom heartbreak, f rom the pain of a shifting identity. As the weekend unfolds, however, their hope wavers: things go wrong in their body, or perhaps in their mind — or perhaps there really is something, outside, developing an appetite for them…” Ashley by Jamie Crewe was created for the 2019/20 Margaret Tait Award, Scotland’s most prestigious moving image prize for artists.
Flaming Ears (coming soon!)
84 minutes, Dirs: Ursula Pürrer, Dietmar Schipek, Ashley Hans Scheirl, N/C 18+, Austria, 1991, German and English languages
Flaming Ears is a pop sci-fi lesbian, fantasy feature set in the year 2700 in the fictive, burnt-out city of Asche. It follows the tangled lives of three women: Spy, a comic book artist; Volly, a performance artist and sexed-up pyromaniac; and Nun, an amoral alien with a predilection for reptiles. It’s a story of love and revenge, and an anti-romantic plea for love in its many forms. It’s also a story laced with sex, violence, and a pulsating soundtrack, a cyberdyke movie stimulating both the body and the brain.
Keyboard Fantasies: the Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story
63 minutes, Dir: Posy Dixon, N/C 12+, UK, 2019, English language
As a sci-fi-obsessed queer living in near isolation, Glenn Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies in Huntsville, Ontario in 1986. Recorded in an Atari-powered home studio, the cassette featured seven tracks of a curious folk-electronica hybrid, a sound realised far before its time. Three decades on the musician began to receive emails f rom people across the world, thanking him for the music they’d recently discovered. Courtesy of a rare-record collector in Japan and a reissue of Keyboard Fantasies, the music had finally found its audience two generations down the line. Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story sees the protagonist commit his life and music to screen for the first time – an intimate coming of age story spinning pain and suffering of prejudice into rhythm, hope, and joy.
Click here to access the version of Keyboard Fantasies with audio description.
Many Black Moons Ago, To Go…
Selection of films
A digital exhibition programme of Afrofuturist films and writings in response to the re/imagining of Black alternative future(s). Curated by Scottish-Zimbabwean artist, researcher, and curator Natasha Thembiso Ruwona.
PEOPLE HAVE COME
60 minutes, Dir: Jamie Crewe, N/C 12+, UK, 2020, English language
As part of the Margaret Tait Award, Jamie Crewe produced a recorded artist’s talk in which they discuss a technique that recurs throughout their practice. They named the technique PEOPLE HAVE COME, and it describes courting and avoiding publicness. For certain kinds of people the desire to be seen, recognised, and understood is as powerful as the urge to hide, be illegible, and repel investigation. In reference to Ashley, their Margaret Tait Award 2019/20 commission, as well as to other works and experiences, this talk traces eruptions of this ambivalent seam in Jamie’s life and practice.
Prototypes I & II (coming soon!)
104 minutes, Dir: Doireann O’Malley, N/C 12+, UK, 2018, English language
Doireann O’Malley’s most recent body of work is a trilogy titled Prototypes I, II and III which explore gender and its manifestations in a post-speculative mind/body assemblage of scenes, set within the modernist Interbau housing development in the Hansaviertel area of Berlin. The films explore new perspectives on trans identity through the lens of a post psychoanalytic, schizo-analytic methodology, entangling rhizomatic forms of thought, systems theory, consciousness, machine learning, and quantum transformation.

SQIFF Shorts: Every Utopia is a Dystopia
70 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English and Spanish languages

K and L are cultural conservationists working in a not-so-distant future to preserve the artefacts and histories that are being systematically destroyed by a totalitarian government. When they are in a deadly car accident, time splinters into parallel realities, separating them. Tonia Stanwell arrives at the government agency where she will apply to turn 36, a feat few Black trans women like her have reached. A queer utopia named Stonewall Nation has been founded by a generation of activists and artists in a world where AIDS never happened. Tales using classic sci-fi set ups to transmit queer ideas feature in this shorts compilation.

Queering the Script
93 minutes, Dir: Gabrielle Zilkha, N/C 12+, Canada/USA, 2019, English
language

Queerness on television has moved f rom subtext in series such as Xena: Warrior Princess, to all-out multi season relationships between women, as seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost Girl, and Carmilla. But things still aren’t perfect. In 2016, a record number of queer women died on fictional shows, which broke the hearts of queer fans and launched a successful fight for better, more diverse LGTBQ2S+ representation. Stars such as Ilene Chaiken, Stephanie Beatriz, Lucy Lawless, and Angelica Ross join with the voices of numerous kickass fangirls in this fast-paced history of queer women’s representation in contemporary television.
Cruising the Future: Shu Lea Cheang Retrospective
Fluidø
84 minutes, Dir: Shu Lea Cheang, N/C 18+, Germany, 2017, English, French, and German languages
In a post-AIDS future of 2060, the Government has declared the era AIDS FREE but mutated AIDS viruses have given birth to the ZERO GEN: genetically evolved, genderfluid humans whose white fluid is a hypernarcotic. A new war on drugs sees the ZERO GEN declared illegal. The Government dispatches drug-resistant replicants for round-up arrest missions. When one of these government android’s immunity breaks down and its pleasure centres are activated, the story becomes a tangled multi-thread plot and the ZERO GENs are caught among underground drug lords, glitched super agents, a scheming corporation, and a corrupt government.
I.K.U.
88 minutes, Dir: Shu Lea Cheang, N/C 18+, Japan, 2000, English and Japanese languages
Envisioned as a sequel to Blade Runner, I.K.U. scandalised audiences when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Following the adventures of seven sexy replicants as they attempt to gather data for the I.K.U. system (which enables touchless orgasms), I.K.U. is a cyberpunk fuck film for the internet generation. “I.K.U. is a phenomenon that wants to refuse definition and… crosses all categories – geographic, physical, conceptual – with a demented flourish. As much trans-genre as it is trans-gender, I.K.U. also wants to merge video and film into a fresh digital universe large-scale enough to overwhelm the viewer.” B. Ruby Rich, Rhizome.

Queer Ecologies
Fire and Flood
120 minutes, Dir: Vanessa Raditz, N/C 15+, USA, 2020, English and Spanish languages
Fire & Flood: Queer Resilience in the era of climate change tells the story of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the fires in Santa Rosa, California, two near simultaneous climate-related disasters in the fall of 2017, through the voices of LGBTQ people who lived through them and were part of the community response. The film explores the vulnerability of LGBTQ communities to climate disasters and also lifts up queer and trans strategies for resilience, transition, and survival.
Click here to access the version of Fire and Flood with bilingual Spanish and English subtitles.
SQIFF Shorts: Belonging in Nature / Belonging in Europe
67 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English, Swedish, Portuguese, and German languages
A selection of short films made in Europe that investigate intersections and articulations of queerness and the natural world. A pack of Swedish animals sanitise an abandoned space. Two young soldiers are deployed on an island that is plagued by an uncontrollable growth of hydrangeas. Three young women, living in three separate parallel universes, depend on one another to survive. The inhabitants of a gender-fluid utopian society explore what queer politics can learn f rom environmental matters.
SQIFF Shorts: Indigenous Ecofeminisms
61 minutes, Various directors, N/C 12+, English, Anishinaabe, and Portuguese languages
A series of shorts that follow the stories of queer and trans indigenous people as they navigate life on earth during climate crisis. A non-binary Anishinaabe activist attempts to revive ceremonial harvesting rituals with a 10,000-year-old Sasquatch in suburban Ontario. A queer indigenous writer and performance artist documents the ways in which Canada’s extraction industry destroys indigenous lands and parallels the child apprehension industry. And a group of young people in Brazil enjoy the outdoors over New Years; drawing, playing instruments, laying in the sun, cutting each other’s hair, and chatting shit about men.
The Garden
92 minutes, Dir: Derek Jarman, 12A, UK, 1990, English language
‘Paradise haunts gardens’, writes Derek Jarman, ‘and it haunts mine.’ Jarman was a film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener, and author, whose work, dwelling on themes of sexuality and violence, reflected his reality as an HIV-positive man living in Thatcher’s Britain. His own garden-paradise was situated in the flat, bleak, often desolate expanse of shingle that faces the Dungeness nuclear power station. This intimate insight into Jarman’s inner world was shot on Super8 with the help of friends and collaborators, movingly utilising a cast of iconic, religious figures that include Jesus, Judas, and the Madonna, and a cast of queer icons. Screening with 1993 short film featuring Jarman, The Clearing (7 minutes).
Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure
79 minutes, Dirs: Beth Stephens, Annie Sprinkle, N/C 18+, USA, 2018, English language
With a poetic blend of curiosity, humour, sensuality, and concern, this film chronicles the pleasures and politics of H2O f rom an ecosexual perspective. Travel with Annie, a former sex worker, Beth, a professor, and their dog Butch, in their E.A.R.T.H. Lab mobile unit, as they explore the role of water. Ecosexuality shifts the metaphor “Earth as Mother” to “Earth as Lover” to create a more reciprocal and empathetic relationship with the natural world. Along the way, Annie and Beth interact with a diverse range of folks including performance artists, biologists, water treatment plant workers, scholars, and others, climaxing in a shocking event that reaffirms the power of water, life, and the earth.

Islands and Oceans
Leitis in Waiting
72 minutes, N/C 12+, Dirs: Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, 2018, English and Tongan languages
Tonga, an island group in the South Pacific, has long considered trans women, known as leitis, an integral part of its culture, often carrying significant social status. But recent Western religious influences have seen their identities being increasingly challenged. This documentary traces their proud cultural history and highlights developments in their struggles against discrimination.
Tchindas
94 minutes, N/C 15+, Dirs: Pablo García Pérez de Lara, Marc Serena, Cape Verde, 2015, Cape Verdean Creole language
Tchindas explores queer identity and acceptance in the Cape Verde archipelago, and follows Tchinda, a transgender woman who is a national heroine, as she prepares for Carnival month. The camera closely follows Tchinda and her cohorts – an engaging, closely knit group of trans women and gay men – as they take the lead in preparing their neighbourhood for the festivities.

Daydreams and Testamonials: Queer South America
Cracks in the Patriarchy (coming soon!)
78 minutes, N/C 12+, Dir: Cagdas Celtikli, Kai Münch, Argentina, 2020, Spanish language
Through comprehensive interviews focused on seven individuals f rom different backgrounds, this documentary examines the LGBTQI+ community in Buenos Aires, Argentina. History and biography meld with the fiercely political as we learn of several overlapping struggles in the vast city. From the fight for gender recognition by the trans community to ongoing struggles to fight racism both within the LGBTQI+ scene and beyond; from the experiences of travestis in art and theatre to the massive movement to decriminalise abortion; the history, culture, and politics of the LGBTQI+ community are drawn into sharp focus. Yet in this great variety of perspectives and histories lies a shared goal: a safer, freer society for all.
Fabiana
89 minutes, N/C 12+, Dir: Brunna Laboissière, Brazil, 2018, Portuguese language
For over three decades, Fabiana has lived a nomadic life as a trans woman trucker in Brazil. She has crossed the vast country hundreds of times over, never staying anywhere for too long. Confident and adventurous, she’s at home amongst the mostly-male truckers she encounters, and often hooks up with other women in her travels. But is she ready to finally settle down, when the open road has been her life? This documentary joins her on her last few journeys on the eve of retirement, sharing the connections and intimacies of her life.

Feature films
Blindsided
60 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Lisa Olivieri, USA, 2015, English language
A documentary narrative about Patricia Livingstone, a deafblind, lesbian artist facing a series of losses and gains. The film weaves intimate, real time scenes shot over the course of eight years with home videos and photographs, relaying the story of a woman whose spark did not fade even in the face of hardship and loss. Screening with local short film, Blind Spot (20 minutes), exploring and attempting to simulate the experience of visual impairment.

Click here to access the version of Blindsided and Blind Spot with audio description.

Breaking Fast
92 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Mike Mosallam, USA, 2020, English and Arabic languages
Mo, a practicing Muslim living in West Hollywood, is learning to navigate life post-heartbreak. Enter Kal, an All-American guy who surprises Mo by offering to break fast with him during the holy month of Ramadan. As they learn more about each other, they fall in love over what they have in common and what they don’t. The genesis of the feature film came about from overwhelming positive responses to the short film by the director, which SQIFF screened at our 2019 Festival. The film aims to be the first of its kind to feature a practicing Muslim character who is gay and not dealing with those two things in conflict but rather in harmony.
Click here to access the version of Breaking Fast with audio description.
Game on: queer disruptions in sport
67 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Maria Takacs, Hungary, 2020, English, Hungarian, and German languages
Game on: queer disruptions in sport is a documentary which shines a light on the experiences of those with diverse identities within grassroots sport. The film features the stories of gay runners Csaba and Benjamin f rom Hungary; Natalie, a Scottish lesbian boxer; Pol, an intersex rower f rom Bulgaria; and a German trans woman footballer called Jessi. Their stories are unique but bring up themes that are typical for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) people in sport.
Lingua Franca
95 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Isabel Sandoval, USA, Philippines, 2019, English, Tagalog, and Russian languages
In this beguiling drama, an undocumented Filipina immigrant paranoid about deportation works as a caregiver to a Russian-Jewish grandmother in Brooklyn. When the American man she’s secretly paying for a green card marriage backs out, she becomes involved with a cis male slaughterhouse worker who is unaware she’s transgender.
Pride & Protest
90 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Blaise Singh, UK, 2020, English language
Pride & Protest is a documentary about QTIPOC communities and activists in Britain today and struggles surrounding the politics of desire, self-care, and found family. In the wake of the Birmingham protests against LGBTIQ+ relationship education in primary schools, director Blaise Singh follows various queer people of colour as they challenge homophobia and racism in their communities. They speak out against internalised shame and lack of representation, and we follow them trying to figure out their place in the world in the build up to UK Black Pride.
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street
100 minutes, N/C 15+, Dirs: Roman Chimienti, USA, 2019, English language
At the time of release, The Advocate dubbed 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge the gayest horror film ever made. For the film’s closeted young star, Mark Patton, such a tag was a stark reminder about the homophobia rampant in Hollywood at the time—and the painful experience he had making the high-profile film and living through the polarising critical aftermath. This new documentary highlights Patton’s time in the horror spotlight, and Patton—who co- produced the film with Roman Chimienti, a NYC-based sound engineer—sets the record straight about this controversial sequel, which ended his acting career just as it was about to begin.
The Cancer Journals Revisited
98 minutes, N/C 15+, Dir: Lana Lin, USA, 2018, English, Spanish, and German languages
The Cancer Journals Revisited is prompted by the question of what it means to re-visit and re-vision Black lesbian feminist poet Audre Lorde’s classic 1980 memoir of her breast cancer experience today. At the invitation of filmmaker Lana Lin, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, twenty-seven writers, artists, activists, health care advocates, and current and former patients recite Lorde’s manifesto aloud on camera, collectively dramatising it and producing an oration for the screen. The film is both a critical commentary and a poetic reflection upon the precarious conditions of survival within the intimate and politicised public sphere of illness.
The Wound + South African Shorts
88 minutes, 15, Dir: John Trengrove, South Af rica, 2017, Xhosa language
Despite a rich queer history and long fight to guarantee the rights of queer people under the first democratic government of Nelson Mandela, queer and trans South Africans face many challenges, which intersect with class and cultural identities. This screening attests to those challenges but demonstrates that love and support comes f rom surprising and subversive places. The Wound explores the relationship between traditional Xhosa initiation rituals and queer identity, also alluded to in My Transgender Life (12m) by Yonela Simetu. The Men Who Speak Gayle (11m) celebrates a secret language used during the apartheid era to hide queer identities f rom the authorities.

Short films
A Funny Thing Happened
37 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English language
The mother of a queer daughter moves into a nursing home leading to a shocking – and buzzing – revelation. A date leads to a stand off as two lesbian women try their damnest to out-queer each other. In a campy western town, a lady blacksmith and her naughty paramour get up to no good in a who-rides-who tale with a twist. A drag wardrobe malfunction leads to unexpected consequences. And a satire of lesbian vampire and lesbian nun films comically exposes poor representation in cinema. A wee short shorts screening at 37 minutes for those who need a shot of humour in their lives!
Click here to access a version of A Funny Thing Happened with audio description.
Bridges to the Past
63 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English and French languages
Providing access to queer history, which is often obscured and hidden f rom us, is one of the main rationales for putting on a queer film festival. In this selection of shorts there’s a chance to learn about histories including those of LGBTQ+ individuals living in West Yorkshire f rom the 60s to the present day, and of trans people in the 1950s US, whose case files have only recently been unearthed. A quite different documentary tale about a group of queers and migrants squatting a house in Toulouse haunted by a misogynist murder cements the programme’s overall reflection on historical inheritance as a concept.
Family Ties (coming soon!)
68 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English, Portuguese, and Tagalog languages
Navigating the risk of rejection and trying to forge understanding form a large part of queer people’s relationships with their biological families. A British-Nigerian man conf ronts such a possibility of rejection when his mother finds out about his sexuality. Brandon, a queer Filipino-American grandson, meditates through his anxiety of having to call and wish his grandmother Happy Birthday. And more tales of family bonds versus woe.
Gods and/or Monsters: Queer East Film Festival (coming soon!)
76 minutes, Various directors, N/C 18+, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and English languages
After having to postpone its first full edition (originally scheduled for April/May 2020), the London-based Queer East Film Festival has been undertaking an ambitious series of online screenings over the past few months. Now, QEFF takes its first virtual visit to Scotland, presenting a wild and wonderful programme of short films that give a breathtaking glimpse into just some of what East Asian queer cinema has to offer. Showcasing new and rediscovered works – and some things in between – it features daring touches of the supernatural, the horrific, the surreal, and the downright weird. Curated by Queer East’s director and programmer Yi Wang, this selection is equal parts shocking, touching, and bittersweet – and not for the faint of heart!
Healing
49 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English and Malagasy languages
Chado hones in on the moments when a child navigates the uncomfortable space between themself and their care-givers. In Razana, Solo returns to Madagascar after the death of their lover. Confronting their late partner’s family in line with their final wishes, Solo must reconcile with grief, homophobia, and compassion. Yellow Peril: Queer Destinyexplores themes of racism, gender, self-actualisation, and the ways in which Asian diaspora navigate multicultural living. The impact of community arts and organising and themes of access and fulfilment are explored in Trans Happiness is Real. These films all deal with healing and searching for inner contentment.
Love or Something Like It
71 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, Korean, English, Portuguese, and Hindi languages
The vagaries of romantic love crossed with sexual desire are probed in this collection. A mother assists her Disabled son to masturbate and discovers his sexual preference. Experimental images of toys and animations played on monitors are used to explore the subconscious influences of childhood memories on intimate relationships. A poetry film made entirely with a cell phone conveys the regret and longing of a Brazilian immigrant in London. A middle-aged man makes his weekly visit to the neighbourhood barber shop so he can be touched by his crush. And three queers on a countryside holiday carry out a utopian experiment in the form of a three-way romantic relationship.
Queer Scotland
57 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, Arabic, English, and British Sign languages
We are always proud to present some of the astonishing queer filmmaking made by local talent. This year features meditation on the queer body and its owner’s cultural history, the potential for zine culture to assist in the recovery f rom mental health difficulties, being censored when writing LGBTQ characters, living as a gay man in the era of 1950s McCarthyism, feminist sci-fi baby- making adventures, love on the mind of an admirer, and Deaf identities.
Rhythms (coming soon!)
59 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English language
Poetry, dancing, music, the rhythms of queer clubbing… A series of trans poetry performed by its authors delves deep into gritty issues. A documentary chronicles the life of a man who came out in his late 60s and loves to dance more than anything else. A queer singer-songwriter considers what it means to rethink your gender labels through gender affirming top surgery. On the first tube home, Tam relives his night out clubbing via his phone. A dance teacher and choreographer by day discusses how his drag performances by night have influenced him. And a belly dancer f rom a small Kurdish community in Turkey talks about the meaning of dance in his life.
Transdimensional Voices
32 minutes, Various directors, N/C 15+, English language
This collection of shorts uplifts trans* voices and showcases a wide range of trans* identifying talent based within Glasgow. Jamie Crewe’s “The Ideal Bar” — “Le Narcisse” — “Alec’s” touches on experiences of transphobia and LGBTQIA+ solidarity and conflict. Sorcha Clelland presents Where the Red Fern Grows, interrogating performance, queer club space aesthetics, and the consistent demolition of community spaces which seek to aid queer voices. Powder Snowdrop Catatonic is a performance featuring various camp characters by Sgàire Wood. The films cover a multitude of themes, depending on the viewer’s perception of the work.

Many Black Moons Ago, To Go...
2020-10-05 00:00 - 2020-10-18 23:59
Time as it is Queer.
Blackness as it is Queer.
What comes next after the end of the world?
A digital exhibition programme of Afrofuturist films and writings in response to the re/imagining of Black alternative future(s). Curated by Scottish-Zimbabwean artist, researcher, and curator Natasha Thembiso Ruwona. Sign up to receive a link to access the exhibition website during the festival dates, 5th to 18th October.
Short films available as part of the exhibition across the 2 weeks include NEGRUM3 (2018) by Diego Paulino, Reifying Desire 5 (2012) by Jacolby Satterwhite, and Time Travel Experiments Pt. 2 (2017) by Black Quantum Futurism. Born in Flames (1983), depicting a future where a socialist government gains power and a group of women decides to organize and rebel, will be available to view as part of the exhibition on our Vimeo on Demand channel 12th to 13th October. Please note all films will screen with English language captions. Further access information will be available on the film’s Vimeo on Demand pages.

There will be artists’ responses to the programme by Sequoia Barnes and Naomi Gessesse.
Sequoia Barnes’ work is predominately centered around making processes, rituals, and modes of fashioning. Trained in semiotics, she deploys research through praxis often in her artistic explorations of black diasporic symbolisms, storytelling as performance, and positioning the creative process as a performance/ritual. Her scholarly work currently explores the design techniques and aesthetic semiotics of late fashion designer, Patrick Kelly. Her most recent artistic works include her artist responses to Senga Nengudi (Fruitmarket Gallery) and Nick Cave (Tramway) with performative works entitled Sew Me A Quilt. Tell You A Story. (2019) and The Burden I Bear Is Heavy (2019), respectively.
Naomi Gessesse is a movie watcher and Aries sun from Glasgow. They have written for several publications and wrote an undergraduate thesis on the politics of space at the lgbtqia+ film festival. Naomi now works for Berwick Film And Media Arts Festival while continuing to write.
A reading group led by Martha Williams on Sunday 18 October will conclude the series. Click here to book a free ticket to the reading group event, Call & Reponse. The event will have BSL interpretation, live captioning, and live audio description. The films in the exhibition all have English language captions.
Born in Flames is preserved by Anthology Film Archives with restoration funding from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation. Distributed by Cinenova.

SQIFF 2020 Opening Film: Pride & Protest
2020-10-05 19:00 - 21:15
Pride & Protest is a documentary about QTIPOC communities and activists in Britain today and struggles surrounding the politics of desire, self-care, and found family. In the wake of the Birmingham protests against LGBTIQ+ relationship education in primary schools, director Blaise Singh follows various queer people of colour as they challenge homophobia and racism in their communities. They speak out against internalised shame and lack of representation, and we follow them trying to figure out their place in the world in the build up to UK Black Pride.
We are screening the film as a live watch party on Zoom. We are very happy to be joined by director Blaise Singh for a Q&A after the film. Pride & Protest will also be available on SQIFF’s Vimeo on Demand channel between 5 and 18 October.
Tickets are on a sliding scale of FREE, £2, £4, £6, or £8. To book, click the button below. We will send out a Zoom link for the event to ticket holders a day or two beforehand.

ACCESS
This screening has an age recommendation of N/C 15+.
The film has English audio with English language captions. BSL interpretation and live captioning provided for introduction and Q&A.
This event has live audio description. We will send instructions on how to access the live AD to all ticket holders before the event. Contact us by emailing info@sqiff.org if you would like any more information about live AD during the Festival.
The film has lots of dialogue and voiceover, all English language, and mostly bright images.
The film is 90 minutes long with a 10 minute introduction at the start, a 5 minute comfort break after the film, and a Q&A lasting approximately 30 minutes.
Content notes: Discussion of racism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia; depiction of homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and brief racist violence.
We have a limited access fund to assist people with no or limited internet access to attend the Festival. If you would like to take this up, please contact info@sqiff.org.
If you have any questions about accessibility at SQIFF 2020, please contact info@sqiff.org.
Tickets
Tickets for most live events are on a sliding scale of FREE, £2, £4, £6, or £8. Our sliding scale allows you to choose what to pay based on what you feel you can afford. No evidence or proof of circumstances is required. If you can afford to pay more, we really appreciate it as we rely on this income to pay queer people fairly for their work and keep the festival going.
