2018 Festival Theme: Decolonizing Sexualities
Queer and Trans sexualities and genders existed in the Americas long before Europeans arrived and fucked everything up. 2 Spirit/Indigiqueer people have been persecuted ever since, not only by colonizers, but also by their/our own colonized communities.
Upending mere reconciliation into decolonization in the Queer community means re-centering 2 Spirit/Indigiqueer people. TQFF’s theme this year is Decolonizing Sexualities. What does a decolonized sexuality look and feel like? What are alternative futures for Queer and Indigiqueer people freed from Christian-influenced censorship and shame? If a Queer festival doesn’t have power to give the land back, how can we give our spaces to Indigenous people?
Exploring these questions and more, the 2018 Toronto Queer Film Festival features twelve screenings plus workshops and panels from November 1-4 at OCAD University. In recognition of our festival theme Decolonizing Sexualities, over 45% of the films selected were made by Indigenous directors, with another 40% produced by directors of colour.
In addition to the extensive programming of queer and trans Indigenous directors and directors of colour, we also launched the first ever Indigiqueer filmmaking intensive in Spring 2018, and the five films completed in this workshop will open the festival on November 1st at Innis Town Hall.
Other highlights of the festival include The Legend of Sing Hey (2018), an Ontario-produced feature documentary by Becca Redden and Janice Jo Lee; the second annual installment of our Porn Is So Boring program, featuring new work by Jiz Lee; and dozens of vital new queer and trans shorts including Happy Birthday Marsha (2016) by Reina Gossett & Sasha Wortzel, Maude Matton’s collaboratively made Swarm of Selenium (2017), Jan Pieter Tuinstra and Keren Levi’s Otherland (2018), a dazzling depiction ball culture in the Netherlands, and new films by directors Howard Adler, Jaene Castrillon, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Mike Hoolboom, Michelle Latimer, Jorge Lozano, Evan Tapper, and Chandra Melting Tallow & Elle-Maija Tailfeathers.
Check out the full 2018 festival program and get a full-access festival pass by becoming a member today: