So much of young people's experience of sexual and gender identity in the present day comes via the internet. However, the old pain and awkwardness of 'coming out' to friends and family remains the same. This new documentary from French director Denis Parrot combines the phenomenon of online queer culture with the intimacy of young people's […]
A gay Disabled teenage boy chooses to swap his body for that of a non-disabled cisgender woman, seeing this as the only way he can be loved. A deeply personal film written by and starring queer Disabled filmmaker Daniel Monks, Pulse explores thematic questions such as how much our bodies shape who we are, where […]
Husein is a barber in Istanbul balancing life between his conservative family and his gay identity. Mahmoud is the founder of Syria’s LGBTI movement and a refugee living in Berlin. In this powerful documentary, they both dream of participating in an international beauty contest in order to challenge the invisibility that comes with being gay […]
Filmmaker and vlogger Ross Wilcock presents short films building on his own video for BBC The Social, Online Dating with a Disability. Themes of ableism and anxiety around sex and dating are explored alongside joy in self-expression and claiming Queer and Disabled as an identity. Screening along with Ross’ own work are Sherren Lee’s The […]
A behind-the-scenes look at the vibrant, fierce and ever-so-slightly chaotic world of one of the most dynamic drag scenes in China. Filmed in July 2017, Extravaganza covers the build-up behind a night of twelve drag performances, with running shade provided by organiser Miss Jade. Screening with a selection of new Chinese short films chosen by Extravaganza’s […]
After several years of pushing the queer porn filmmaking agenda in Scotland, SQIFF is delighted to be able to showcase some (sort of) homemade pornographic content. Bruce LaBruce creates a parody Scots porn character in Scotch Egg. Performer Candy Flip plays a straight girl impersonating a gay man and in a festish bar meets the […]
Indulging our obsession with cutesy animals, we present a gay goldfish, genderqueer spotted hyena, an affair between a dorky fox and a hunky wolf, and a somewhat unfortunate cat. This selection of shorts reflects on the non-human as allegories for our own queer lives, mediators of family discord, and source of philosophical contemplation of race, […]
The most urgent issues surrounding identity and oppression revolve around bodies and borders. In Being Okey, a gay Nigerian man is denied asylum in Switzerland and consequently caught between the constant fear of being sent home and hope of a life in safety. ABEO is an animation by Latinx artist Brenda M. Lopez Zepeda depicting […]
An encounter with a strange funeral procession in Bethnal Green, a family losing the plot after meeting their son’s trans girlfriend, a middle-aged gay man seemingly eerily affected by a forest camping trip, and queer feminist gangs doing battle in a violent, dystopian present. Weird and Wild consists of work by filmmakers expert in creating […]
In 1982, soon after the first Gay Games was held in the US, 'West Hollywood Swim Club,' as it was known then, registered as the first openly gay masters swim and water polo club. This documentary follows the club’s battle for acceptance, from humble beginnings to its members becoming a renowned force fighting injustice in […]
