Closing Night: Pride Denied
Please join us for the closing night of the initial Toronto Queer Film Festival! Our program features two films by local filmmakers that highlight issues affecting Toronto’s queer and trans communities today, including: the impact of gentrification and policing on sex workers in the downtown eastside, the commodification and corporatization of Toronto’s mainstream LGBT cultural events and organizations, the co-opting of LGBT identity politics through pinkwashing and same-sex marriage campaigns, and more.
The films will be followed by a panel discussion with activists who appear in the films as well as the filmmakers themselves. Please also stay and join us at the close of the discussion for the afterparty!
We are also pleased to announce that the Cinema Politica Network is co-sponsoring this night of programming.
Filmmakers Kami Chisholm and Monica Forrester will be in attendance and will be joined for the Q&A with local activists featured in Pride Denied.
Our Partners:
Films
GENTRIFICATION OF DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
This short doc by local activist Monica Forrester showcases the gentrification of Toronto’s downtown eastside where sex workers and low income people live.
Directed by Monica Forrester, who has spent 20 years advocating for visibilities and awareness of marginalized groups in Toronto.
PRIDE DENIED: HOMONATIONALISM & THE FUTURE OF QUEER POLITICS
Many North American LGBTQ pride events initially emerged out of sites of revolt and resistance — such as the anti-police riots at the Stonewall Inn in NYC in 1969 and the protests that began after police bathhouse raids in Toronto 1981. Today, however, PRIDE™ is big business. Non-profits formed for the purpose of hosting pride events in cities such as Toronto, San Francisco, and New York sport multinational corporations as sponsors alongside multi-million dollar budgets. But where and how is this money spent? And to what ends? In Pride Denied, Toronto activists and artists call for a return to prioritizing political activism and community support that characterized the emergence of the contemporary LGBT rights movement more than 40 years ago. For more information visit www.altcinema.com.
*Presented with closed-captioning.
Directed by Kami Chisholm, a filmmaker, video artist, and media activist based in Toronto, Canada.