Inside Out: Queer In Canada, Eh
10 May 2019.  -

photo from the trailer Drag Kids by Megan Wennberg.

What does it mean to be Canadian? Is it our love of hockey, our tolerance for squirrels, or maybe it’s our obsession with doughnuts. It could be all of these things, but in of themselves they are not Canadian, or inherently queer for that matter. 

Being Canadian is as much about the uniqueness of what we put in our films as much as it's about our Canuck filters that shape and interpret what we watch. Toronto's Inside Out LGBT Film Festival is back and with it this year come a few home grown selections that delve into what it means to be LGBT from artists and activists whose queerness is a means for change and social justice. 

Drag Kids
Megan Wennberg, Director
1 h 17 mins
Drag origin stories are overflowing with misfit kids who were bullied at school and at home because of their love of feminine clothes and cosmetics. But what if those kids were free to be themselves from an early age? Drag Kids introduces us to four fabulous youngsters who have been given that very opportunity.
Stephen, Jason, Bracken, and Nemis, ages nine to 11, are already fierce drag queens. They come from different backgrounds but all share a love of fabulous frocks and glittery makeup. When the kids are brought together by their deeply loving, supportive parents, they bond over costumes, makeup and a love of drag. But do they have what it takes to perform and compete with adult queens? Drag Kids takes a joyous look at what can happen when parents support their children’s dreams of fabulousness. MORE 

Shorts: Stories We Tell
This program consists of seven films from coast to coast including Trevor Anderson’s out-of-this-world epic short film Docking and Amanda Strong’s animation about the reclaiming the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes). MORE
Dykes in the Streets
Almerinda Travassos, Director
37 mins

The march that day was a triumph for pride and visibility. But how have things changed for queer women in Toronto since that protest? How has the movement changed? Who does it represent? And where is it going now? Almerinda Travassos’s new documentary, Dykes in the Streets, poses those questions to a variety of queer women in Toronto.
Against a backdrop of remarkable archival footage of Pride from 1981, 1991, 1996 and 2016, the women talk about their experiences with queer activism in Toronto. As our LGBTQ2S+ communities grow and change, Dykes on the Streets raises many timely questions about what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. This screening will be followed by an extended Q&A. MORE

photo from Queer Coolie-tudes by Michelle Mohabeer.

Queer Coolie-tudes
Michelle Mohabeer, Director
1 h 26 mins

In a reclaiming of the slur coolie, filmmaker Michelle Mohabeer’s creative essay documentary explores the experiences of queer Canadians from the Indo-Caribbean diaspora.
Beginning with Mohabeer’s personal experience, the documentary moves through a series of interviews with people from a wide variety of backgrounds. Instead of succumbing to pressure to find a shared narrative or common ground, the documentary embraces the complexities of how factors such as gender, age and mobility inform identity in nuanced ways. A powerful collection of testimonies, the film traces the intergenerational lives, histories, familial relations and sexualities of its interview subjects.
Speaking to the limits of identity and the violence of mainstream categorizations, Queer Coolie-tudes is a documentary that, using intimate testimonies and experimental visual exploration, illustrates the importance of not accepting erasure. MORE

Queering the Script
1 h 30 mins

“I learned about myself through this show. I saw myself in this character,”explains an enthusiastic fan in Queering the Script, a sparkling celebration of queer fangirls and the shows they love.
Queerness on television has moved from subtext, in series such as Xena: Warrior Princess, to all-out multi season relationships between women, as seen on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost Girl, and Carmilla. But things still aren’t perfect. In 2016, a record number of queer women died on fictional shows, which broke the hearts of queer fans and launched a successful fight for better, more diverse LGTBQ2S+ representation. Stars such as Ilene Chaiken, Stephanie Beatriz, Lucy Lawless and Angelica Ross join with the voices of numerous kickass fangirls in this fast-paced history of queer women’s representation of contemporary television.
Queering the Script not only charts the evolution of queerness, but also demonstrates the extraordinary impact of activism on its many diverse fans, ensuring that they see themselves accurately portrayed onscreen. MORE