The Queer Feminist Film Festival (QFFF) will be taking place on 19 and 20 January in Khayelitsha. In addition to the film screenings that will be ongoing throughout the two days, there will be panel discussions involving activists and creatives. Attendees can also experience the performances and artworks produced by queer artists. The idea for the festival came from the need for a conversational and reflective space for queer people. The festival is a space which allows for the acknowledgement of work done by activists. It also becomes a safe space for young people to contribute towards building the movement for queer rights. This points to the fact that celebration and awareness are the pillars on which the festival stands. I had an email interview with the QFFF team to find out more about the festival and what attendees can expect.
The Queer Feminist Film Festival is a collaborative event organised by Bertha Movie House, African Gender Institute, Triangle Project and OXFAM South Africa. Could you please share more about these partners and how they came to form part of putting the festival together?
Triangle Project is a non-profit human rights organisation offering professional services to ensure the full realisation of constitutional and human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons, their partners and families.
At the advent of OXFAM the focus was on relief initiatives in rural South Africa by advancing a structural understanding of South Africa’s “political poverty”. Currently OXFAM supports liberation movements in Southern Africa and globally. OXFAM works with partners across the country, contributing to deepening transformation towards the just South Africa envisaged by the country’s Constitution.
The African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town is a feminist research unit, committed to political work on the African continent. We focus on writing, publications, research processes and partnerships, network-building and participative learning.
The concept of the film festival started with a conversation about gathering queer people in a space to screen films and evolved into The Queer Feminist Film Festival. The decision to house the festival at Bertha Movie House was made as the movie house speaks to the decision by the organisers to make the event accessible or divorced from the communities we organize within.
Share with me the importance of having activists and cultural practitioners speak and showcase their work in addition to films being screened? Who are some of the activists who will be speaking and why these specific people?
We are lucky to have activists such as Bev Ditsie, one the organisers of the first Pride March in South Africa, and Funeka Soldaat, who is the founder of Khayelitsha-based lesbian advocacy group Free Gender.
We have invited these activists because they are the embodiment of a queer historiography that is often bypassed.
Other panelists include young filmmakers Ncumisa Mdlokolo and Siv Greyson who speak to what queer organising and realities embody now.
There are additional panelists as well. Our panelists were asked to participate as they provide a varied and specific narrative to what it means to be a queer feminist.
Could you please share some the key films and documentaries that will be screened, and how you think they contribute to conversations around queer feminist politics/engagements? (eg: Bev Ditsie’s Simon and I).
Winnie, Simon & I as well as Stike a Rock speak to organising as womxn. These narratives are often marginalized and are often not reflected on within the political space, though the womxn in the films have proved to actively change the course of history in the communities they stem from.
Can you share more about the relationship between the festival and the space and community in which it will be held?
Film is an artistic expression, and is an easy way to ingest historical and current narratives. At the same time the choice of films speaks to the progression of movement building and our hope is that the conversations honour the people who have fought and continue to fight for space, justice and equality.
Is there anything else about the festival that you would like to share?
The festival is free and we hope the community will attend.
We will also be exhibiting work by queer artists and performers.
We hope that the festival is a steppingstone to greater measures of queer organising in the future.
