Month: April 2018

Hilary Harp + Suzie Silver present the inaugural Fairy Fantastic! screenings of Out in the Woods: Queer Folk and Fairy Tales and Over the Rainbow: Queer and Experimental Shorts for Kids of All Ages at Pittsburgh Filmmakers as part of their Luna Park Experimental Film and Media Series.

Out in the Woods includes eleven queer interpretations of world folk and fairy tales including Filipino and Chinese mythologies exploring queer diasporic identities; same-sex love in a prehispanic Mexican ritual; a Samoan Cinderella; and a queer retelling of a Swedish folk-tale about two sisters, three wishes and a calamitous obsession with a sausage. The films in Out in the Woods are both a reinterpretation of traditional folklore or mythology and the invention of a new queer folk culture.

Over the Rainbow: Queer and Experimental Shorts for Kids of All Ages presents eight short films on difference-affirming, gender-variance, and anti-bullying themes. A shy boy’s heart jumps out of his chest to follow a bookish boy right into school – will the shy boy ever get his heart back?  Why are all of Alexa’s favorite things, like car-shaped beds, super balls, and soccer called “boy things?” If your Mom is an airplane, what is your Dad? Can a merman ensnare a beautiful landsman by playing a song from Disney’s Little Mermaid on the violin? Can a bat who sleeps all day find a night-time friend?  The answers to these and many more questions can be found in Over the Rainbow a screening of queer and experimental videos for kids of all ages. The short films in Over the Rainbow are moving, hilarious, beautiful and inventive visions of a genderfluid world.  As finely wrought as they are entertaining, the films in Over the Rainbow will delight kids and parents alike.

Over the Rainbow was preceded by Drag Queen Story Hour presided over by the delightful Akasha L. Van-Cartier.

Press: WESA, Pittsburgh City Paper

April 6, 2018, Harp & Silver presented an overview of Fairy Fantastic! as well as a preview of our curated film program, Over the Rainbow: Queer and Experimental Shorts for Kids of All Ages. This two day conference hosted by University of Pittsburgh explored "how to conceptualize, theorize, and approach research on children and childhood in the rapidly changing context of the twenty-first century."

We learned so much and were inspired by every panel and presentation we were able to attend. Thanks so much to Julian Gill-Peterson and everyone else who helped to put together such an amazing event.
https://www.playingwithchildhood.com/

We are thrilled that The Sausage was selected for inclusion in the second edition of the QUEER KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (QUEERKIFF) to be held from December 8^th – 10^th  2017.  The first queer film festival to be held in Uganda, QUEERKIFF celebrates the diversity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersex and Queer communities by providing spaces where Queer films are screened, discussed and celebrated.

The inaugural Queer Kampala International Film Festival was held 9th – 11th, December 2016 at different venues in the country’s capital, Kampala, marking the  first time in Uganda that a festival celebrating and reinforcing the right to be LGBTQI was held.

From the Queer KIFF website:

“History: The inaugural Queer Kampala International Film Festival was held 9th – 11th, December 2016 at different venues in the country’s capital Kampala. Security measures included screening of attendees, keeping the venues secret and mobile daily. The attendants had to go to a different venue in the morning and afternoon. Venues were announced within hours to the event. Encouragingly, the LGBTIQ community, supporters and sympathizers hung in there and religiously followed us to the different venues attracting a turn up of more than 836 visitors with in a space of three days.”

On 8th December 2017, the first day of the 2nd edition of the QKIFF opened in Kampala and was a huge success, the festival sold out. It was however raided by the Uganda police on the second day 9th December 2017 . The Festival was later completed on 28th and 29th December 2017 but held in private spaces and with only trusted persons invited.

News story about the raid from Human Rights Watch.

Learn more about this important festival and their determination to persevere in a hostile here: http://www.queerkiff.com/home/