QUEER CITY CINEMA
Festival takes aim at racism
The theme of this year’s Queer City Cinema brings the festival full circle.
Gary Varro started the festival in 1996 after finding inspiration in a film series by Debra Piapot.
“She showed feature films from Hollywood that depicted Indigenous (people) in Hollywood films in a negative way. So I think obviously to underline how misrepresentations of First Nations culture has been perpetuated over the years in Hollywood film,” said Varro.
“That in turn inspired an idea to do the same thing in a queer context.”
The theme 22 years later — for the 15th Queer City Cinema film festival and sixth Performatorium performance festival, which runs through Saturday — is Visual Q: Resistance, Defiance, Protest, Action. It focuses on artists who identify as queer, transgender, black, Indigenous or a person of colour, with a goal of pushing back against a society that seems increasingly racist.
“(It’s) sort of a springboard to do something to push back and counter what seems to be a time of where people are feeling free to express their racism in ways that I don’t think we’ve seen before, or at least we’re more aware of it because of social media,” said Varro.
Specifically, he was disturbed by racist social-media comments after Gerald Stanley was found not guilty in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man.
“It’s shocking and it’s disturbing and it just reminds you just how strongly people feel …” said Varro.
“The festival is there to counter that and make sure that the discussion around injustices continues, to keep it alive, to keep it going, to not let it just disappear and die, as difficult as that discussion might be and as unresolved as that discussion might be.”
Even though the featured artists and filmmakers are minoritized, “Not all the films are necessarily front and centre about being a minority or marginalized … It’s there; it’s just not always necessarily pronounced.
“Really what the festival is about is being human and human nature,” added Varro. “It’s performance art that anyone would find some relevance with, and that’s why I say it’s about being human and human nature and all the things we experience as humans. So there is something for everyone.”
That said, spectators should come with an open mind: Queer City Cinema is “a way for the public to see work that is unusual and different and just something you’re not going to see in Regina and, in some instances, even larger centres.”
From Sept. 19 to 22 at the Regina Public Library film theatre, Queer City Cinema will screen dozens of international short films — “experimental, sometimes difficult, but often very funny.”
Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Raven Davis, Adrian Stimson, Thirza Cuthand, Nabil Vega and Harold Offeh are the featured performers, appearing at the University of Regina, the Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Branch) and Neutral Ground Gallery.
Vega also performs Saturday morning in Victoria Park.
For more information, visit queercitycinema.ca.
A festival pass is $50; some programming is free.
… It’s about being human and human nature and all the things we experience as humans. Sothereis something for everyone.