SQIFF announces queer horror, web video showcases
A queer horror retrospective and a showcase of the best online media created for and by the LGBTQ community are among the first highlights announced for this year's Scottish Queer International Film Festival
SQIFF is back. After its hugely successful first edition, Scotland’s largest celebration of queer cinema returns to Glasgow in September and has announced two strands from its upcoming edition.
One of the most pleasing aspects of SQIFF’s programming is its eccentric approach to curation, stretching the queer cinema label to films that at first glance might seem an odd fit within an LGBTQ festival context. This is most evident in its queer horror strand.
Take, for example, superior horror road movie Jeepers Creepers, which follows a bickering brother and sister as they’re terrorised by a creature that comes out of hibernation every 23 years to eat its way across America’s heartland. You don’t have to squint too hard, though, to see the gay subtext: Mr Creeper seems much more interested in the male sibling. He even steals his dirty boxers in one scene.
SQIFF pairs Jeepers Creepers with 1963 haunted house spine-tingler The Haunting, which follows a group investigating a reported haunted mansion. Among the party is all-but-openly gay Theodora, one of the few examples of a positive depiction of a lesbian character from that era of film.
The other double bill features 80s vampire flick Fright Night -– the plot of which, according to SQIFF's queer reading, features “teenage horror addict Charley, who’s convinced that the posh gay couple that just moved in to the neighbourhood are blood-sucking vampires” – and Up With Dead People, transgressive filmmaker Bruce LaBruce's take on the zombie movie. Like all great zombie films it uses the undead to full allegorical effect, creating “a savagely irreverent critique of consumer culture and a moving parable for being different.” Plus there’s plenty of flesh-eating and hardcore zombie-on-zombie sex.
Reflecting the recent huge growth in web series created by LGBTQ artists, SQIFF will also host its first web series showcase. The lineup includes the premiere of mint-fresh show They, a new BBC web series filmed in Glasgow; episodes of the Emmy-nominated Her Story, and Hannah Hart’s Words with Girls. Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, director and producer of London-set series Boxx, will also be on hand for a Q&A and to lead a web series workshop.
“Scottish Queer International Film Festival is fast becoming one of the most significant queer film festivals in the UK,” said Rosie Crerar, Screen Officer at Creative Scotland, which supports the festival through its Open Project Funding. “Since launching in 2015, the festival has developed a unique programme offering that celebrates the rich diversity of Scottish audiences. SQIFF is an innovative, forward thinking festival that positions accessibility and inclusivity at the centre of all that they do.”
SQIFF takes place 29 Sep-2 Oct