The Scottish Queer International Film Festival is back for the tenth year running in Glasgow, with a range of live events, performances, and screenings – this is a must-attend festival for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking. SQIFF is a charity that aims to grow and nurture the ever-expanding queer film scene in Scotland. Alongside their annual film festival, they also host year-round events, creating space for networking amongst creatives, as well as running filmmaking workshops for those who would like to step into the scene.
The festival will take place in five venues across Glasgow from October 27th to November 1st this year. The packed schedule features 90 short films and four full-length feature films, alongside accessibility details for every screening, highlighting the value placed on inclusivity by SQIFF. Furthermore, the festival is actively pro-Palestine, with their No Pride in Genocide event on Wednesday, October 29th, providing a space to confront the truth of queer experience for so many. ‘Featuring urgent works from Palestine, the diaspora, and Lebanon, this programme gathers stories of queer love, loss, resistance, and survival. Each film defies erasure, insisting on presence over silence. These works reject the idea that queerness can be separated from the violence, displacement, and repression that shapes the lives of those it affects.’
Other highlights of the schedule include the Halloween Scottish premiere of Alice Maio Mackay’s sixth feature film, The Serpent Skin, a story of trans identity, love, and the supernatural, and a screening of Squad Goals followed by a Q&A session with local trans football team Gender Goals.
Lastly, the week-long celebration of queer excellence finishes on Saturday, November 1st, with a craft fair and the closing screening of Shatara Michelle Ford’s Dreams in Nightmares, followed by a night of dancing at Glasgow’s revered club, ‘The Art School’.
The full programme of events can be found here.
Author: Megan Chalmers (she/her)
qmunicatemagazine.co.uk 