LGBT

On the Gaydar: Qmunity breakfast against queerphobias, Vancouver Queer Film fest 2017

by Craig Takeuchi on May 16th, 2017 at 1:11 PM
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      Here's are two upcoming queer community events to get on your queerdars if they're not there already.

      Breakfast stories

      As gay men are being rounded up into concentration camps in Chechnya and LGBT rights are being eroded or reversed in the U.S. and other countries, Qmunity's 13th annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia breakfast couldn’t come sooner.

       It'll be held from 7 to 9 a.m. this Friday (May 19) at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street).

      Appropriate for this era when LGBT voices are being silenced, this year's theme is "Stories of Us".

      Who better to talk about this theme than storytellers and artists, whose work help audiences understand, think about, and empathize with different points of view?

      Presenters will include local author Hiromi Goto (Darkest Light), writer and musician Aaron Chan, and indigenous spoken-word poet Molly Billows.

      The event will be hosted by Roundhouse Radio's Cory Ashworth and Janice Ungaro.

      Roundhouse Radio's Janice Ungaro and Cory Ashworth

      Online ticket sales end mid-day on Wednesday (May 17) so click here fast if you plan to attend, but donations will continue to be accepted.

      For more on the importance of telling LGBT stories, read this column by Qmunity executive director CJ Rowe.

      Getting queer on screen

      Out on Screen has announced that this year's Vancouver Queer Film Festival will run from August 10 to 20.

      This year's venues will include the Vancouver Playhouse, Cineplex Odeon International Village, SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, VIFF’s Vancity Theatre, and a new addition, the York Theatre on Commercial Drive.

      The opening gala film will be Mexico's with I Dream in Another Language (Sueño en Otro Idioma). Directed by Ernesto Contreras, the film tells the story of a young linguist who travels to a remote Mexican village to record a dying indigenous language spoken by only two remaining speakers, who have refused to speak to each other for the past 50 years.

      I Dream in Another Language

      This year's lineup will also include two documentaries about people transgender people of colour: FREE CeCe, about CeCe McDonald who survived an attack but was imprisoned for defending herself, and The Death and Life of Martha P. Johnson, about the famed activist and veteran of the Stonewall riots.

      Also in the mix is the Thai drama Fathers, about two men raising their adopted son, and Signature Moves, a romcom that chronicles the dating misadventures of a Pakistani lesbian wrestler.

      After VQFF artistic director Shana Myara stepped down in December, Anoushka Ratnarajah and Amber Dawn were announced as co-artistic directors in 2017.

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