The 28th edition of this international film and arts festival is not to be missed
BY DIVA STAFF
Now in its 28th year, Sheffield DocFest is an international film and arts festival and marketplace, with a mission to spark imaginations and empower our capacity for change by celebrating, championing and debating documentary film and art as a collective form of engagement.
This year, organisers say they are super proud of the number of queer artists, directors and filmmakers that are taking part, and here are a few upcoming highlights for you. All sessions are available online until Sunday 14 June at midnight.
Fri 11 June
Destroy / Disturb / Disrupt – Decolonizing Queer Desire – curated by Campbell X, as part of our retrospective on Black British Cinema.
A shorts programme showing Black queer filmmakers creating their own language to disrupt our colonised historical framing by the white straight cisgender lens.
Black queer filmmakers craft an intervention into desire for the Black queer body on film: a space denied to Black queer people as agents of our own longing and storytelling. These films show Black queer filmmakers creating our own language to disrupt our colonised historical framing by the white straight cisgender lens.
These films are all part of one screening at 20:15 on Friday 11 June in Showroom Cinema 2, and can also be watched online.
Sat 12 June
Reframing Our Desires
Campbell X – writer, director and guest curator – joins filmmakers from his programme, Destroy | Disturb | Disrupt – Decolonizing Queer Desire, to explore how they create their own filmic language to disrupt our colonised historical framing by the white, straight cisgender lens. This discussion forms part of our Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
Chair: Campbell X
Speakers: Natasha Ruwona, Topher Campbell, Diego Paulino
Available to live stream at 13:00 (BST) Sat 12 June 2021
All live-streamed talks will be captioned, provided by AI Media.
Sun 13 June
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics by Vivian Kleiman
A really lively tale of the artists/activists behind queer the queer comic/zine/graphic novel scene, including Mary Wings, creator of the first lesbian comic, through to Jennifer Kamper and Alison Bechdel.
“Lesbians and Gay Men Put It On Paper!” read the tagline of Gay Comix, first published in 1980. The story of the queer comic begins in a period of censorship in the US, and marginalisation even among underground cartoonists. From Come Out Comix, which made history as the first lesbian comic in 1973, to Fun Home, via Dykes To Watch Out For and Brown Bomber & The Diva, zines come to life on screen through this celebration of LGBTQI+ cartoons and graphic novels.
No Straight Lines profiles five pioneers of this fascinating art scene – Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Rupert Kinnard, and Mary Wings – producing commentary on everything from the Aids crisis and workplace discrimination to the search for love and a good haircut. By following the artists’ personal journeys, No Straight Lines shows how they tackled issues of identity with pen and paper, winning worldwide recognition for their work.
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics will be followed by a live online Q&A with Vivian Kleiman and Alison Bechdel which will be live-streamed from the cinema to Selects.
To see the complete programme CLICK HERE.
This year the festival will be a hybrid event bringing people together in Sheffield and online from around the world. So you can join from the comfort of your own home, you can experience the festival in the way that suits you. To book tickets CLICK HERE.
