SQIFF’s new Programme Coordinator, Indigo Korres, talks to us about the importance of varied representation in Queer film, highlights of this year’s programme, and excitement for returning to in-person events.
This video includes captions and audio description. A text version can be found below.
Can you describe yourself and your role at SQIFF?
My name is Indigo, I use she/her pronouns, and I’m the new programme coordinator for SQIFF this year.
This is your first year programming for the festival! How has it been?
It’s been really exciting, I’ve learned so much in this role. It’s been really good to program the festival alongside two amazing curators as well! It’s just been an incredible experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
What are you most excited for in this year’s festival?
Because we’ve basically made the festival a lot smaller than what it usually is, we can approach specific communities within our LGBTQIA+ community.
So it’s been good to have lots of screenings around BSL and deaf and hard of hearing people within our community, and also other events like Queer Asia and Queer Brazil, which focus on intersectional approaches to different identities that we have in our community, who are under represented.
Do you have any special recommendations from the programme?
So one of my favourite films in the program is a Queer classic, D.E.B.S. which is about Queer Lesbian spies, and it’s it’s just such a nice and chill screening. I’m so excited for the the Classics night!
What are you most looking forward to in the programme?
I’m really looking forward to Changing the Game, which is the film we are showcasing with LEAP Sport Scotland, and we’re going to have a group of trans people talking about their experiences in Scotland. The film is about four trans, teen athletes in the in the US, so it will be good to have a comparison between the US and the UK in the Q&A. It’s just such a good film to have at the festival!
Your screening Queer Brazil brings various Brazilian Queer Cultures to SQIFF. Why does this feel important for you to spotlight?
For me, when I came to the UK, I didn’t see myself in many of the films that I watched, so it was kind of coming back to my own culture, and seeing my own people within the films that I was watching for this year’s festival.
I curated this event in a way to show different intersectional communities within Brazil as well, because Brazil is a huge country, so we have lots of LGBTQ communities within that. It’s been good to select films that showcase a little bit of each community, and showcase Queer love instead of showing the challenges and how hard is to live as a trans person in Brazil.
How does it feel to programme in person events again?
It feels really good because we can get a sense of community more than we could get online, in my opinion. It’s just good to feel the warmth of the community together in one place. I know we still have Covid regulations etc., but it’s just good to see everyone in person and feel that community love.
Featured image: From The Uninhabitable Ones by Anderson Bardot, screening as part of Indigo’s curated programme Queer Brazil.
SQIFF 2021 takes place 6th-10th October 2021, with selected online screenings from 2nd-10th October. Click here to see all the events in the programme.