PROGRAMMING COMING SOON
ALL FILMS AND SHORT FILM PROGRAMS LISTED IN THE “VIRTUAL” TAG ARE STILL AVAILABLE UNTIL MIDNIGHT SUN DEC 3.
BON CINÉMA!
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SILVER HAZE
SACHA POLAK
NETHERLANDS + UNITED KINGDOM | 2023
“What’s more important, justice or answers?” For fifteen years, this slippery question has plagued Franky in the wake of a fire that burned her body, impacting her relationships and self-image. When a suicidal patient finds beauty in her scars, she burns with passion, as darker impulses also gain kindling.
WHO I AM NOT
TUNDE SKOVRAN
ROMANIA + GERMANY + SOUTH AFRICA + USA | 2023
Two of the approximately 150 million people with intersex traits in the world, the extraordinary central subjects—a beauty queen who embraces femininity and an activist employing gender-neutral pronouns—reveal divergent experiences of their bodies while their economic circumstances reveal two distinct sides of contemporary South Africa.
1946 THE MISTRANSLATION THAT SHIFTED CULTURE
SHARON ROGGIO
USA | 2022
1946 is the pivotal year when the word “homosexual” first appeared in the Bible. It is also a flash point that divides religious thinkers and sends straight ally Kathy Baldock, queer filmmaker Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, and gay Christian Ed Oxford on entwined quests to combat misreadings of key scriptural passages.
A BIG GAY HAIRY HIT! WHERE THE BEARS ARE: THE DOCUMENTARY
EDUARDO AQUINO
USA | 2022
The hilarious and touching documentary, A Big Gay Hairy Hit! Where The Bears Are tells the story of how three older, gay, "bears" working in Hollywood, tired of having their gay-themed ideas rejected by the mainstream, decided to self-produce their own web series.
ALL THE COLOURS OF THE WORLD ARE BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE
BABATUNDE APALOWO
NIGERIA | 2023
An ambitious delivery driver and the manager of a betting shop with artistic aspirations get to know one another during excursions in deeply homophobic Lagos, Nigeria. The choreography of courtship and separation manifested in this thoughtfully composed drama, the winner of the Berlinale’s Teddy Award.
ANALOGUE REVOLUTION: HOW FEMINIST MEDIA CHANGED THE WORLD
MARUSYA BOCIURKIW
CANADA | 2023
Before there was #MeToo, there was Diva: A Quarterly Journal of South Asian Women, Montreal’s G.I.V. and Dykes on Mykes Radio Show and the women-led Studio D of the NFB. The list extends into the hundreds. All Canadian, all feminist, and all trailblazing media of the late 60s to mid-90s.
ARRÊTE AVEC TES MENSONGES (LIE WITH ME)
OLIVIER PEYON
FRANCE | 2023
Stéphane Belcourt is a “great writer of…the end of love,” stuck circling an attachment 35 years prior with virile yet reticent Thomas Andrieu. When he meets Thomas’ inquisitive son in his former region of Cognac, France, he is forced to unmask the truths behind the lies his stories tell.
BIG BOYS
COREY SHERMAN
ÉTATS-UNIS / USA | 2023
So often sidelined for washboard abs, the “big boys” finally get their sweet, funny coming-of-age tale, spiced with just the right amount of age-appropriate eroticism. When a “cousin’s-only camping trip” to California is infiltrated by a new ‘bear’ of a boyfriend, a 14-year-old contends with dangers both savage and hormonal.
CLOSE TO YOU
DOMINIC SAVAGE
CANADA + UNITED KINGDOM | 2023
BAFTA-winning writer-director Dominic Savage and co-writer Elliot Page offer a raw, romantic portrayal of the lived experience of transness that is a testament to what Canadian film can achieve. Approached naturalistically, fraught family dynamics are juxtaposed with the fragile beauty of maybe-not-lost love.
DAY DREAM
MAEL CABARET
CANADA + FRANCE | 2023
Whether channeling a yodeler or Celine Dion, consummate clown Julien Cliche (a.k.a. Dream) did it with humour and passion. That is, until the relentless pace of Montreal’s nightlife became a grind and Quebec City’s quotidian pleasures beckoned, leaving a colourful past to sift through as the glitter-dust settled.
DRIFTER
HANNES HIRSCH
GERMANY | 2023
Devastated by a quickly collapsing relationship, newcomer Moritz is taken in by the manifold delights of Berlin, a city which equally threatens to spit him back out. This nomadic journey from innocence to experience has Moritz hooking up, getting inked, and constantly evolving, his heart yearning for softer landings.
ÉVICTION
MATHILDE CAPONE
CANADA | 2023
Casting a critical eye on Montreal’s shifting social landscape, Éviction is a love letter to and reflection on a way of life menaced by modern interests. Its fly-on-the-wall filmmaking letting us peek into gatherings and intimate moments coloured by a collaborative queer community and spaces eventually left haunted by memory.
FANCY DANCE
ERICA TREMBLAY
USA | 2023
Acting as caretaker for her missing sister’s daughter, Jax seeks solace—and intel—from a local stripper. Soon, Jax is on the run with her niece and in hot pursuit of her sister’s killer in this absorbing mash-up of mystery, family drama, and tribute to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
FEMME
SAM H. FREEMAN + NG CHOON PING
UNITED KINGDOM | 2023
A traumatic assault while Jules is in drag leaves him hardened. Unbeknownst to his attacker, Jules insinuates himself into his affections. And the line between the game of revenge and genuine devotion grows blurrier with every escalating tryst and personal revelation in this critically acclaimed psychosexual thriller.
FIREWORKS
GIUSEPPE FIORELLO
ITALY | 2023
Awards-magnet Fireworks, a nod to the real life Giarre scandal, takes us to the scorched, wind-swept landscape of 1982 Sicily. There, two gay teens begin to live their love out in the open in a machismo culture, despite the explosive consequences.
HAILEY ROSE
SANDI SOMERS
CANADA | 2023
Hailey has made an unharried life in Calgary with her non-binary partner, but is summoned home to Nova Scotia after ten years away. There, she sets off on a wild goose chase for her drowned father’s boat, dodging the wacky “blood relatives” she thought she had shaken off for good.
IN BED
NITZAN GILADY
ISRAEL | 2022
Flirting his way through the aftermath of a deadly shooting, Guy buries his trauma in party drugs and chemsex while his best friend Joy, a dealer and former addict, is shaken by what transpires, worried she’ll regress. Worried, also, that the shooter at-large may be closer than they think.
LE PARADIS (THE LOST BOYS)
ZENO GRATON
FRANCE | 2023
Joe has a life framed by fences. But despite ethnic barriers and a closely monitored environment where stealing glances feels criminal, not even thick concrete can sever the connection he makes with tattooed newcomer, William. Nothing, perhaps, except freedom itself.
LESBIENNES, QUELLE HISTOIRE ?
MARIE LABORY
FRANCE | 2023
In this light-hearted documentary devoted exclusively to the history of lesbianism, French director Marie Labory shines the spotlight on the greatest lesbian personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries in Europe and looks back in pictures at the major events of these periods, interweaving the stages of her personal trajectory in a relevant way, from the missed boy of the playground to her first pride parade in Paris.
LIUBEN
VENCI KOSTOV
BULGARIA + SPAIN | 2023
In Bulgaria’s first LGBT2SQ+ film, Victor returns to the Balkans after a 12-year absence, giving voice to his by turns paradisiacal and painful past as we watch a young Roma man burn down his present. When the two meet, passion kindles, and two disparate worlds become enmeshed.
MARINETTE
VIRGINIE VERRIER
FRANCE | 2023
Marinette Pichon was the first French women's and men's footballer to sign a professional contract in the U.S., and is considered to be the first star of women's football in France. This energetic biopic traces the life of one of the best French soccer players of all time, and her lifelong struggle to be treated equally in a country to which she has given so much.
MY ANIMAL
JACQUELINE CASTEL
CANADA | 2023
There are chains on Heather’s bed and locks on her door. And when the moon and her heart swells, the most frightful thing is her feelings. Shot in Timmins, Ontario, this hot-blooded tale of love and lycanthropy imagines what a young woman is capable of once she’s gotten a taste.
NORWEGIAN DREAM
LEIV IGOR DEVOLD
NORWAY | 2023
The promise of a steady paycheque lures 19-year-old Robert from Poland to a fish factory on the harsh Scandinavian coast. There, an intimate friendship with his boss’ savvy, creative son has him questioning his allegiances as the dual straitjackets of the closet and company exploitation continue to bind him.
OPPONENT (MOTSTÅNDAREN)
MILAD ALAMI
SWEDEN | 2023
Sweden’s 2023 Oscar entry from Swedish-Iranian filmmaker Milad Alami is a bracing critique of refugee policies and their unintended effects, complicated by a family man’s entanglements with the men he wrestles with, both literally and figuratively.
OUR SON
BILL OLIVER
USA | 2023
An all-star cast led by masterly sparring partners Luke Evans and Billy Porter electrify this perspective-shifting tearjerker about parenting through pain. When an affair fizzles 13 years into an estranged pair’s marriage, revelations tear asunder an already fractured relationship and leave the fate of their son hanging in the balance.
OUT OF UGANDA
ROLANDO COLLA + JOSEF BURRI
SWITZERLAND | 2023
Under a storm cloud of prejudice sanctioned by law and custom, we accompany queer refugees tormented by asylum waits, those who risk their lives and livelihoods to protect them, and the antagonists themselves, who explain their hateful ideologies—all in the hopes of finding a path forward from Uganda’s hate-choked present.
POLARIZED
SHAMIM SARIF
CANADA | 2022
Reeling from her father’s cancer diagnosis and the collapse of her family’s farm after three generations, Lisa lashes out in racist anger at her new Palestinian boss, Dalia. The confrontation mirrors conflicts that rive Stonewall, Manitoba, which come to a head when prejudice softens to passion between Lisa and Dalia.
QUEERYING NATURE
ALINE MAGREZ
BELGIUM | 2023
Poets and performers, ethologists and biologists: the variety of perspectives that give voice to scientific inquiry in this curious-minded documentary mirror nature’s endless inventiveness and experimentation. Empowering through information, the film revels in all the ways biodiversity is driven by evolution’s queer spirit.
RIVIÈRE
HUGUES HARICHE
SWITZERLAND | 2023
Manon is scrappy. She borrows, she steals. She hitchhikes through the Swiss Alps to remote Belfort, France in search of her father. And she’s a “killer” on the ice, where she uses her hockey skills to try and one day make it to Canada to play for a professional team.
SINCE THE LAST TIME WE MET (DESDE LA ULTIMA VEZ QUE NOS VIMOS)
MATIAS DE LEIS CORREA
ARGENTINA | 2023
Victor, a restless loner on the cusp of 40, is snapped out of his workaholic stupor when he runs into David outside his Buenos Aires apartment. They push ‘refresh’ on their steamy affair, trying to outrun hurt feelings and pursue the high of the moment.
STUDIO ONE FOREVER
MARC S. SALTARELLI
USA | 2023
From the lips of former bartenders and patrons, Wayland Flowers’ riotous Madame puppet, Motown legends, and Chita Rivera herself, we get the inside scoop on the sweaty sanctuary that was Studio One as the landmark building teeters on the precipice between preservation and demolition.
SUMMER QAMP
JENNIFER MARKOWITZ
CANADA | 2023
A heart-expanding documentary about the youngest generation of LGBT2SQ+ youth on a much-needed escape to Camp fYrefly, a bastion of safety within the conservative communities of southern Alberta. Some have never been in a space with all queer people. Together, they forge essential friendships and unfurl in a judgement-free environment.
THE AGGRESSIVES
DANNIEL PEDDLE
USA | 2005
Filmed in NYC between 1997-2003 and delving into its underground lesbian ball scene, The Aggressives went on to become a film festival fave, offering the spotlight to queer people of colour individually and collectively figuring out and asserting the language around their masculine-presenting identity while revelling in their “superstar” confidence.
THE FLOATING MAN
MICHAEL V. SMITH
CANADA | 2023
As anti-trans and drag queen rhetoric rages in gender wars across the globe, The Floating Man, Canadian filmmaker and artist, Michael V. Smith's intimate documentary unpacks his journey as a radical drag performer and genderqueer.
THE VENUS EFFECT
ANNA EMMA HAUDAL
DENMARK | 2021
Nature connects Andrea, a goofy free spirit, and Liv, a literal flower child who works on her family’s horticultural farm in rural Denmark. But nature is also where spiderwebs cling and snails ooze. And as summer turns to fall, fecundity to fallowness, nature has its ways of laying things bare.
VENUS ENVY: THE HOUSE OF VENUS STORY
MICHAEL VENUS
CANADA | 2023
Mix music, outrageous fashion and performances, and cutting-edge video techniques in a queer, subversive blender and what do you get? The House of Venus: Canada’s own internationally renowned fellowship of multidisciplinary artists who spread joy and opened up gender long before the current discourse.
I+N X FMC/CMF SERIES
Now in its second edition, we are thrilled to present this year’s I+N x FMC/CMF SERIES: conversations with Canadian queer cinema, TV, web series and game creators that challenge, engage and entertain us while offering up diverse representations of queerness across the media landscape. This ongoing initiative continues our mission, helping to create environments to discover Canadian queer art and artists; the myriad of perspectives, identities and voices they share with us through their work and the new queer stories they tell.
DOCUMENTS
88 minutes
When we talk to each other, we talk to ourselves. An exploration of queer lives and living; sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, always complicated and ALWAYS real.
QUEERMENT QUÉBEC 1
78 minutes
Our annual celebration of Québécois queer content; unique perspectives proving Quebec is truly a hotbed of queer storytelling talent.
QUEERMENT QUÉBEC 2
80 minutes
Our annual celebration of Québécois queer content; unique perspectives proving Quebec is truly a hotbed of queer storytelling talent.
MADE AU CANADA_1
70 minutes
Canadian queer stories from coast to coast to coast. These rich, humour-filled narratives and affecting documentary reflections tease out a myriad of Canadian queer identi(ties).
MADE AU CANADA_2
74 minutes
Canadian queer stories from coast to coast to coast. These rich, humour-filled narratives and affecting documentary reflections tease out a myriad of Canadian queer identi(ties).
ENCOUNTERS
109 minutes
Encounters can be fraught with apprehension, with anticipation, with that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. Or a combination of all three! These provocative, yet heart-affirming tales offer up all the feels.
A QUESTION OF GENDER
87 minutes
Fresh, bold trans, non-binary and intersex identities thriving in their truths; challenging gender norms along the way.
DECLARATIONS
97 minutes
Queer in your face with NO apologies. These are declarations: bold gestures, attestations and political actions in very powerful forms.
FRANCE EN COURTS
80 minutes
In partnership with the Consulat général de France à Québec, a selection of the best and brightest queer French shorts of the year.
BECOMINGS
92 minutes
A perpetually single gay man in Cardiff, an unlikely trans “couple” and realizing you're in love with your best friend, these are explorations and evolutions all striving towards a similar goal: becoming one's full, TRUE self.
INDIGIQUEER
69 minutes
2Spirit and Indigiqueer perspectives and experiences. These proud and loud voices use both narrative and documentary strategies to share their stories, their spaces and their realities.
HOW TO FAIL AS A POP STAR
VIVEK SHRAYA
CANADA | 2023
Vivek, a queer brown boy from Edmonton, tries, and fails, to achieve pop stardom, told from the perspective of the now 40-something trans femme artist that boy became.