28th Annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival to be Held in August

Out On Screen is proud to present the Vancouver Queer Film Festival this summer from Thursday, August 11 to Sunday, August 21 at various theatres, including the Vancouver Playhouse, Cineplex Odeon International Village, SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, The Rio, VIFF Vancity Theatre, and more.

"The biggest event in the queer calendar, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, has now been set," says Executive Director, Stephanie Goodwin. "Through the power of film, Out On Screen expands what we can imagine to be possible for queer, trans* and two-spirit lives, histories, and futures. And it's a ton of fun packed into eleven days."

The 2016 festival will kick off with an outdoor sunset party at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza on Thursday, August 11 at 10:00pm. Exciting new additions to the growing 2016 lineup include groundbreaking, genre-bending films such as North Mountain, by Canadian Métis director Bretten Hannam, and Waiting for B, which follows hardcore Brazilian Beyoncé fans who camp for two months prior to the pop star's 2013 São Paulo concert.

North Mountain

Canada | Director: Bretten Hannam

In the dead of winter a young Mi'kmaq hunter falls in love with a fugitive ex-con and helps him fight off a slew of crooked cops seeking revenge. Referred to as Brokeback meets Rambo and filmed in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Métis filmmaker, Bretten Hannam brings us a complexly nuanced action thriller tinged with threads of romance.

Waiting for B. (A Longa Espera)

Brazil | Directors: Paulo Cesar Toledo & Abigail Spindel

A group of Beyoncé fans camp outside a stadium for two months to be the first in line for her 2013 concert in São Paulo, Brazil. An intimate portrait of these fans and their day-to-day lives in camp and off, Waiting for B. explores the intricate relationship between celebrity culture, the spaces that young queers are intervening in, and the lives they are fighting for.

The 11-day festival, now in its 28th year, is the largest queer arts event in Western Canada and the second-largest film festival in Vancouver. Last year's event drew over 12,000 fans and featured three world premieres, two Canadian premieres, and seven features as well as two shorts programs dedicated to Canadian film, for a total of 33 Canadian films overall, which was the largest number of Canadian features in the history of the festival.

Shana Myara, Artistic Director, comments, "Annually, we curate from an incredible selection of queer cinema - driving our conversations deeper and connecting queer arts and transformative change. This year, we're investigating queer histories and key 'troublemakers' who've endured great hardships while paving the way for change."

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival celebrates the best in independent queer cinema and facilitates a unique community space through a variety of performances, panels and workshops. The 2016 Festival is set to showcase over 80 films from 20 countries, with themes ranging from queer troublemakers, indigenous voices, and queer freedoms.

Full ticketing details for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival will be made available soon at www.queerfilmfestival.ca/tickets

To post a comment, you must register and login.