Queer Animations
Presented by Toronto Queer Film Festival & Toronto Animated Image Society
This screening will stream live on November 19th at 7 p.m. EST, and it will also be available through November 20th, here on TQFF’s website home page!
Queer Animations features eight short films created by animators of different mediums, from digital to claymation.
Note that your ticket purchase acts as a donation towards TQFF initiatives. Purchase is not necessary, but it is appreciated!
Partners
Films
Kaleidoscope
Wei Zhang
This experimental, one channel, 2D flat animation Kaleidoscope is built by Wei Zhang, which features the possibility of a future world defined by transhumanism. Kaleidoscope supplies an alternative mind of thinking about our community towards current social issues.
Born in China and currently living in Glasgow, Wei Zhang has been honing their skills in video art, experimental animation, photography, and installation. I have been utilising varieties of digital-based post-production technologies for my art projects and the topics range from the concept of sex, gender, sexuality, body, and Chinese culture.
Flyhole
Malic Amalya
In this dual projection slide show of collaged imagery, FlyHole tells the story of a housefly who transitions into a man in order to cruise gay bars. Text and images are photocopied from the March 1985 issue of the adult, gay digest magazine, Manscape, including illustrations by experimental filmmaker Mike Kuchar.
Malic Amalya’s films attend to the emotional impact of attachment and estrangement, and the corresponding political repercussions of alliances and enmities. His work considers how the intimate—including the body, emotions, identity, and relationships—reflects, is informed by, and has the potential to shift cultural perceptions and institutional structures.
2x+xy=1,
Wei Zhang
An experimental film created by multi post-production technologies, including the 3D animation skills. Wei challenges the binary ideology in China, which is shaped by the Chinese mythology of the mother goddess of Nüwa who creates humans in a binary system.
Flash Flood
Al MacKay
Deep within a dream, a cataclysmic flood washes over the planet, and reveals three unique perspectives on gender and identity. The film is animated by volunteer transgender artists and animators from across the globe.
Based in Vancouver Island, Al MacKay has been an independent animator and filmmaker since age 10.
My Crazy Boxers
Krissy Mahan
Suicidal – or just a working class butch dyke caught in the wrong underpants? Seems that the boxers were the bigger problem, according to my treatment team. This video is based on actual meetings with hospital staff while in a psychiatric hospital system.
Krissy Mahan creates and shares movies that use humor to address social issues such as accessibility, gender identity, mental health, immigration, and working class post-industrial cities.
Pink and Blue
Charlotte Firmin
Pink and blue is a short animated documentary. The film explores the life of a transgender man, his experiences of growing up, feeling different, as well as his coming out story. Through irony, this film challenges the gender binary, while pushing us to sympathise with a person who does not conform to gender norms.
Charlotte is a 2nd year animation student at the University of Westminster in London, her films aim to shine light on the LGBTQ+ community by bringing awareness to those who don’t always have a voice. She uses a combination of 2d animation and experimental narrative to shine more light on the LGBTQ+ community, and hopes to one day become a documentary filmmaker.
Hole
Gil Goletski
Mo is an adult with Autism Spectrum Disorder. They spends a lot of time in their brain. Today, a hole started following them.
G. Goletski is a multi-media doer originally from north Vancouver Island who gets images to move by any means necessary. They have had enough trips around the sun to finally understand that their skin has a green undertone. They are always hydrated.
ABEO
Brenda Lopez
ABEO is a hard hitting mixed media animated short that depicts the journey of Nadia and Lupe, two immigrants who risked their lives to cross the Arizona desert in search for a better life. The combination of stop-motion, traditional 2D digital animation, and direct animation techniques brings the reality of the characters to life.
Brenda Lopez is a Mexican-Canadian filmmaker and animator based in Montreal. She has worked on two animated productions at the National Film Board of Canada and two independent animated features at Unité Centrale under the direction of Félix Dufour-Laperrière. Her recent projects include a hand-painted animated short for TED-ed (2020) and a 2D animated short for the Canadian Association of Midwives (currently in production).She is most interested in art that challenges our worldviews through honesty, vulnerability and imperfection.