Over 90 films to check out at Vancouver Queer Film Festival this summer
Western Canada’s largest queer arts event is returning for its 34th edition next month with a huge number of films that contextualize and celebrate queer lives and experiences.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival has announced its full VQFF lineup happening from August 11 to 21 along with its creative theme of “Make It Yours.”
This year’s festival will showcase 97 films from 20 countries through in-person and on-demand screenings. There will also be post-screening Q&As with filmmakers, industry and community workshops, and more to experience.
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“In the early days of Out On Screen, the act of 2SLGBTQIA+ people unapologetically taking up physical space and putting our films on the big screen was revolutionary,” said Brandon Yan, VQFF executive director in a release. “This year’s theme ‘Make It Yours’ is not just an echo of the DIY spirit this festival was founded upon, but also a roar for our collective future.
“Our shared experiences and collective dreams are returning to our screens, big and small, again in this year’s wonderful program. I hope you find something you need in these beautiful films.”
The Empress of Vancouver (VQFF/Submitted)
Highlights of VQFF 2022 include the opening gala premiere screening of The Empress of Vancouver by Dave Rodden-Shortt. The feature documentary is a tribute to local drag icon Oliv Howe, whose punk rock energy, gender-bending performances, and DIY glam aesthetic spoke to a political and artistic shift in the city’s drag community in the 80s.
The festival will feature the Canadian premiere of the French film Besties (Les Meilleures), a coming-of-age tale of two young Parisian women from opposing groups learning how to navigate womanhood and queer identity.
Besties (VQFF/Submitted)
Filmgoers will also want to check out the local documentary Emergence: Out of the Shadows which explores queer identity in South Asian families, the innovative Filipinx drama Metamorphosis on intersex identity, queer body-swap comedy Homebody, the Youth Gala film Being Thunder about a Two-Spirit teen of the Narragansett tribe, Afrofuturist sci-fi musical Neptune Frost, and Lebanese doc Sirens spotlighting the first and only all-women Middle Eastern thrash metal band.
Neptune Frost (VQFF/Submitted)
VQFF’s local shorts program The Coast Is Queer is back for its 25th anniversary with screenings in person and online. The 11-day fest will also feature the returning shorts programs Obsidian: Black Queer Cinema and Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Cinema.
The closing night film on Sunday, August 21 is Dramarama, a critically-acclaimed comedy about a group of graduating theatre kids in 1994 and their last slumber party together where tensions and true identities are revealed.
Dramarama (VQFF/Submitted)
Festival attendees are also invited to attend VQFF’s first in-person celebrations since 2019, including the queer royalty-themed Opening Night Party and The Coast is Queer 25th Anniversary Celebration, and three workshops on queer art practice and community-building.
Check out the festival’s full schedule online.
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
When: August 11 to 21, 2022
Time: Various times
Where: Venues across Vancouver and online screenings
Tickets and Passes: In-person and video-on-demand are available online
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