QFN creates touring programmes to enrich and expand queer cinema viewing opportunities. Developed together and by individual members, tours are offered to QFN member organsations and occasionally to other film exhibitors in the UK to book.
BFI Comedy Genius: Gay as in Hysterically Funny
QFN took part in BFI Comedy Genius with our Gay as in Hysterically Funny tour.
Gay as in Hysterically Funny asked what it means to make fun of yourself and your community as an LGBTQIA+ person. The tour included a shorts programme with films by Raymond Yeung, Jordan Firstman, and Alli Logout, and episodes from Ingrid Jungermann’s classic webseries, F to 7th. Feature films screened by QFN members for the tour included Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Dyke Hard, and White Rabbit. Screenings were followed by panel discussions with special guest, comedian Rosie Jones, and others tackling questions of queerness and onscreen comedy.
QFN members taking part in Gay as in Hysterically Funny included Liverpool Pride, Queer Vision in Bristol, Exeter Phoenix, SQIFF, Leeds Queer Film Festival, and Make a Scene Film Club in Manchester. All films in the tour were shown with English language subtitles/captions for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing access with BSL interpreters for panel discussions.
An Unashamed Claim to Visibility: Short films at the intersection of queerness and dis/ability
Across April 2018, An Unashamed Claim to Visibility was curated by Theresa Heath at Wotever DIY Film Festival. QFN members taking part across 3 events included Eyes Wide Open Cinema in Brighton, SQIFF in Glasgow, and Wotever DIY Film Festival & Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest in London.
This programme presented an exciting selection of performative work by functionally diverse filmmakers exploring the intersections of queerness and disability. From beautifully-rendered tales of forbidden love to how to get jiggy in (accessible) bathrooms, this collection of hilarious, agonising, erotic, tender, and sexy shorts represents an unashamed claim to beauty, desire, autonomy and, above all, visibility. Screenings aimed to address the fact that disabled and/or chronically ill queers are often excluded from queer spaces and queer screens, and to bring previously invisible stories to the forefront of the conversation.
Signature Move with Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato Q&As
Signature Move is a 2017 film directed by Jennifer Reeder with co-writers Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato and star Fawzia Mirza. This brilliant queer comedy follows a a Muslim lesbian woman from Chicago who cares for her TV-obsessed mother and falls in love with a wrestler. Screenings took place with QFN members SQIFF, Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival, and Iris Prize Festival in October 2017. Co-writers Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato joined the events for Q&As.
Looking Awry: Representing Bisexual* Desires on Screen by Jacob Engelberg
Jacob Engelberg, founder of Eyes Wide Open Cinema and academic, presented his illustrated talk on bisexuality in cinema at 5 QFN member events. Looking Awry dissected cinema’s invocations of bisexuality – from well-known Hollywood neo-noir thrillers, to underground queer filmmaking, to the extremities of European art cinema. The talk was presented by GAZE, SQIFF, Rainbow Film Festival, Iris Prize Festival, and Queer Media UK in Manchester, in August-November 2017, alongside a selection of films, including Uisenma Borchu’s Don’t Look at Me That Way, Gregg Araki’s Nowhere, and Sheila McLaughlin’s She Must Be Seeing Things. Films from the selection were also screened at SQIFF events in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.
Real Boy with Shaleece Haas and Joe Stevens Q&As
Real Boy is an incredible documentary about a trans teenager searching for his voice as a musician, friend, son, and a man. We toured the film with drirector Shaleece Haas and one of the film’s subjects, Joe Stevens, taking part in Q&As. Musician Joe Stevens also performed his music at several events. QFN members taking part in this tour included SQIFF, Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival, Iris Prize Festival, and Queer Vision in Bristol in September and October 2016.