Queer Cinema for Palestine: First Ever Global Queer Film Festival in Solidarity With Palestinian Rights

Queer Cinema for Palestine (QCP) will open its virtual and physical doors this November for a collectively-curated 10-day film festival celebrating global queer realities and standing in solidarity with Palestinians.

QCP will run from 11-20 November and host more than a dozen events across five continents, both online and in person. QCP is a first-time global queer solidarity initiative that offers a vibrant space using art and culture to oppose the ongoing violence of Israeli apartheid.

QCP will feature films and documentaries including Palestinian and South West Asian and North African regional films and artists, masterclasses with filmmakers, panel discussions, drag performances, queer indigenous solidarity, and more.

QCP coincides with TLVFest, the Israeli government-sponsored LGBT film festival. Palestinian queers have called for a boycott of TLVFest over its role in pinkwashing Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid oppressing all Palestinians.

QCP will feature some of the more than 50 filmmakers who have pulled their films from TLVFest in response to the call from Palestinian queers and the nearly 200 who have pledged not to screen at TLVFest. A special program of Brazilian short films will honor the eight Brazilian filmmakers who withdrew from TLVFest in 2020.

QCP recognizes that fighting apartheid via principled acts of refusal and withdrawal is just part of the equation. QCP offers a space for artists to do what they do best: creating art for audiences and using art for social change.

QCP will also feature a program of Jewish queer cinema in solidarity with Palestinians and a panel discussion on challenging repression of solidarity with Palestinians.

An “Apartheid then and now” program will feature South African, Palestinian and international films and speakers on using cinema and new media to oppose apartheid and boycott as an activist tactic.

Ghadir al Shafie, co-founder of Aswat – Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms, commented:

“As Palestinian queers we invite you to join us for Queer Cinema for Palestine, a feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial festival that shouts YES to queer cinema and NO to Israeli Apartheid.”

QCP will host events in cities around the world, including Seoul, Bilbao, Tunis, Beirut, Belfast, Prishtina, Paris, Montreal, Turin, Sofia, and London, Ontario.

The online program will be hosted on the Toronto Queer Film Festival’s state-of-the-art platform designed with accessibility in mind. Films will be available on demand for the duration of the festival.

QCP encourages local queer, Palestine solidarity and anti-racist groups around the world to organize watch parties during the festival.

The full QCP program will be announced in early November.

QCP came together in May 2021, as the world protested and unprecedented numbers of artists, sports celebrities and academics called for accountability following Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza, forced expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem, and violent repression and arrests of Palestinians demonstrating for their rights.

QCP is organized by a global coalition that includes Aswat – Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms; Kooz Queer Film Festival in Palestine; Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI); Palestine Festival of Literature; Toronto Queer Film Festival; Seoul Human Rights Film Festival; Rainbow Action Against Sexual-Minority Discrimination, the largest queer coalition in Korea; Mawjoudin in Tunisia; Outburst Queer Arts Festival in Belfast; Dylberizm in Prishtina; Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris; Sursock Museum in Beirut; Toronto Palestine Film Festival; Cinema Politica in Montreal; Sare Lesbianista in Bilbao; Maurice GLBTQ in Turin; Violetki in Sofia; Embassy Cultural House in London, Ontario; and Independent Jewish Voices Canada.

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For more information: [email protected]