The ninth annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ filmmaking talent will run at CCA and GFT Glasgow from 8 - 12 October with all tickets priced on a pay-what-you-can basis.
Programme highlights include lyrical lesbian documentary Lesvia; the first ever Scottish screening of pioneering vintage Japanese road trip film Bye Bye Love; and an abundance of shorts programmes covering all aspects of queer life, including celebrations of resilience in Drag & Performance Through Censorship and Music as Resistance; and world-bending explorations in Sci-Fi Meets Reality and ★,。·::·゚☆ “The Real Internet Is Inside You” ·゚✧*:·゚✧
SQIFF 2024 also features a queer craft fair, an accessible filmmakers social, a party with a fresh line up of local DJs and performers, and a host of workshops and panel discussions from artists, activists and industry professionals.
The Scottish Queer International Film Festival returns 8 - 12 October with a varied programme of films focused on POC and disabled narratives. Highlights across the packed five day celebration of queer-made cinema include:
15 Curated Shorts Programmes including:
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A celebration of outstanding local talent in SQIFF 2024 Opening Night Scottish Shorts with ambitious films about challenging war and capitalism, imagining feminist utopias, grieving a sense of home, and more. (Tuesday 8 October, 8.20pm, CCA)
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A dive into the delicate and heartbreaking nature of queer love in Blossoming Wilt, featuring an POV journey of a couple journeying through a complex landscape in Ramallah and other poignant films from India, China and Taiwan. (Wednesday 9 October, 3.30pm, CCA)
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Uncanny filmmaking as a tool for gender exploration and historical critique in Sci-Fi Meets Reality, with an inquiry into settler colonialism in the Irish Potato famine and explorations of bodily and psychic transformations through queer awakenings. (Wednesday 9 October, 6pm, CCA)
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An exploration of nearly 20 years of our evolving relationship with the internet in ★,。·::·゚☆ “The Real Internet Is Inside You” ·゚✧*:·゚✧ With a focus on sensory overload and emotional vulnerability, this program includes films on Black knowledge and global connectivity through submarine cables, pacy early internet inspired art, and more. (Wednesday 9 October, 6.30pm, CCA)
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A powerful insight into the struggles and artistry of Arab, Turkish, and displaced drag queens and performers in Drag & Performance Through Censorship showcasing a documentary about the Istanbul Drag scene and complex feelings about home and community. (Friday 11 October, 6.30pm, CCA)
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A delve into the universal language of music across the globe as it gathers and empowers marginalised communities in Music as Resistance, with informative films on the history of newer sub-genres such as Bounce and Guaracha and current insights into underground music by Armenian and Asian-American artists. (Saturday 12 October, 3pm, CCA)
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Oska Bright Film Festival’s famous programme Wild Women, featuring films made by women with learning disability and/or autism, including dark humour and queer horror with a young woman becoming increasingly attached to the taxidermied corpse of her housemate’s cat, and a teenager with Down’s syndrome helping herself, and others, to escape from accusations of witchcraft. (Friday 11 October, 3.30pm, CCA)
And feature films:
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An epic queer pilgrimage to a small Greek island in Lesvia (2024), once home to the ancient Greek poet and ‘First Lesbian’, Sappho, as well as the film’s director. This documentary weaves together the personal coming-of-age story of the director and a chorus of community voices, as well as charting the tensions between local villagers and new sapphic arrivals. It’s a dynamic contribution to an under-represented lesbian archive.
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Rediscovered classic, Bye Bye Love (1974), presented in partnership with Queer East. With the negatives found in 2018 in a warehouse, this is the first Scottish screening of this poetic and surreal film which follows two young people on a doomed summer road trip through Japan, exploring romantic love that transcends gender, sexuality, and even the body.
As well as a packed programme of film, SQIFF 2024 includes an installation celebrating the legacy and community of Glasgow’s beloved, missed, independent queer workers co-operative, Bonjour; a crafts fair with local queer artists; a meeting of SQIFF’s regular filmmakers group; and an inclusive filmmakers’ social.
Also on offer are workshops, panel discussions and performances including a panel with BFI We Crip Film about crafting accessible films from production to festival exhibition, a performance by Glasgow-based musician and audio-visual artist Kyalo Searle-Mbullu, and a letter writing workshop with artist Huss Mitha which uses tools from abolitionist theory and sci-fi to imagine liberated future selves and others.
SQIFF aims to be radically accessible, with this year’s access measures including audio description, live captioning, BSL interpretation, descriptive subtitles and more. For a moment of down time in the busy programme, SQIFF will offer a quiet room as usual, to chill out with sensory toys, zines and comfy seating.
We’ll dance the night away to close SQIFF 2024 with a party at CCA in collaboration with Q’IWA, Mojxmma and Scandal with a full QTIBPOC line-up of artists and performances including a BSL-interpreted cabaret.
Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BF's Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI.
Indigo Korres, Director, SQIFF said: “SQIFF is back and in its 9th festival edition! Reflecting on everything we’ve learnt - and the absolute privilege of working with LGBTQIA+ folks of so many different backgrounds and experiences over the years - we approached the 2024 festival firmly focused on our core values of community building, accessibility and diversity.”
Katharine Simpson from Screen Scotland said: “The team at SQIFF are taking the festival from strength to strength, working in partnership with LGBTQIA+ individuals and organisations in Glasgow and across the country to create this fresh, varied and relevant programme. Audiences can look forward to immersing themselves in the films and discussions, and connect with the talented LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and creatives who bring these stories to life.”
Nicola Kettlewood, Film Hub Scotland Manager, said: “It’s our pleasure to support SQIFF 2024’s exciting, diverse and accessible programme of films and events - from their spotlight on queer Scottish shorts to partnerships with Take One Action, Edinburgh Deaf Festival and Oska Bright Film Festival. Their pay-what-you can ticket model will enable as many people as possible the chance to experience this fantastic film programme.”
Tickets to all screenings are priced on a pay-what-you-can scale from Free- £12 and available to buy from the Scottish Queer International Film Festival website.
More information
Image credits
Header image: Still from Twenty Something, director João Nunes