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Queer Emergencies
This program focuses on queer and trans people navigating emergencies from the past year, many in small, private ways. These glimpses into other people’s homes, minds and bodies remind us of what we have in common - allowing us to connect through isolation, illness, protests and lockdowns. Throughout 2020, TQFF commissioned filmmakers to make short works on the subject of Queer Emergencies. Five of these films are included in this program: Foreign Ages, breaking up is hard to do, Love-Grief, What Kind of Help and Time is Running Out.
Long Time Comin’
TQFF is honoured to present this classic Canadian documentary directed by Dionne Brand and produced by the National Film Board. We felt it was important to revisit Long Time Comin’ as part of our Queer Emergency programming for the ways that the film treats race and social justice. The continued prevalence of anti-Black violence and racism seen this past year is a grim reminder of how much work still must be done to dismantle systems of oppression.
Mundane Crises
Not every crisis happens on a global scale. Sometimes the sharpest wounds are inflicted by seemingly small setbacks or deceptively everyday indignities. The most keenly felt agony can come from the routine. This program focuses on the quotidian: stories of queer people in all too familiar circumstances.
Ruptures
While some emergencies are limited, personal, and every day, others split our lives open in ways that might not be easily fixed and leave no ‘before’ to return to. These films are stories of such emergencies or ‘ruptures’ and how they shape our ‘afters.’ But don’t be deceived, sometimes this world must come to an end for another one to be possible.
Hostile Territory
When we find ourselves in a crisis, our ability to cope can be very directly linked to our environment and our ability to exercise control. When we are held, supported and have options, even a destructive rupture can be managed in time. But what happens when this is not the case? This program focuses on stories of queer and trans people dealing with danger and emergencies from within hostile territories.
Still, Here
The six films in this program address what it is like to exist as trans and/or Two-Spirit (2S) outside of large cities. Shifting between experimental autobiographical narratives and documentary works, STILL (,) HERE intimately explores the fluctuating relationships we have as humans trying to navigate our lives with external forces constantly reminding us of our otherness.
Porn is So Boring
What role do pleasure, sensuality, and desire play in times of crisis? How does our relationship to our sexuality change when our contact with others is limited by a global pandemic? This program seeks to explore these questions while also (hopefully) allowing you to let off some steam.
This is where we find ourselves
What exists between a crisis and everything after? This program aims to be a soft landing space, a sort of non-specific present where we can take a breath and assess before moving forward. These films tell stories about queer, trans, and Two-Spirit people existing post change or emergency. There may still be work ahead of them to heal and move on, but for now, this is where we find ourselves.
What We Do After
Even the most protracted crises come to an end eventually. Our concern then shifts to how to rebuild and regroup. While healing can be its own arduous journey, we cannot lose sight of the fact it is possible to heal. The films in this program remind us that tragedy need not rob us of the capacity for joy, and that we will be whole again.
Decentralized Experiences
Following the screening of STILL (,) HERE – a film programme curated by B.G-Osborne to highlight rural trans and/or Two-Spirit experiences – join B.G-Osborne along with filmmaker Kennlin Barlow (Above a Grey/Green Sea, 2020) and multidisciplinary artist Gil Goletski (HOLE, 2018) for a zoom discussion.
Canada Media Fund 101
The Canada Media Fund delivers over $350 million in funding annually to support the Canadian television and digital media industries through two streams of funding. Do you qualify?
In conversation with Val Bah
When Dionne Brand’s Long Time Comin’ premiered in 1993, it was a fresh, compellingly lyrical portrait of two Black lesbian artists, posed on the crest of a wave of a cultural revolution. It was – and still is – a very singular film.
