A MISSION AND A DREAM
THE IMMERSION
Each summer, the Q-Fest cohort (9 students, 3 staff) travels to San Francisco with a mission to collectively screen hundreds of queer films at Frameline, the world’s oldest and largest queer film festival. During this intensive two-week immersion, the Q-Fest cohort lives in San Francisco’s Castro District, itself a storied epicenter of queer life in the United States. What takes place during a 13-day stay is both a global examination of queer lives through film, as well as an exploration of queerness as recorded on the streets of San Francisco and the hearts of its inhabitants. The immersion experience culminates in San Francisco Pride–one of the world’s largest such celebrations of queer resiliency and community.
BRINGING IT ALL BACK
Once back in Eau Claire, the team begins the daunting process of choosing which films to screen at our own queer film festival–a process that demands we celebrate queerness, while engaging in critical self-reflection of the myriad ways queerness intersects with race, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, nationality, and any number of additional identities that–in sum–represent each of us. Against a backdrop of an increasingly anti-queer political landscape, Q-Fest offers an exciting opportunity for attendees to commit themselves to learning about the kaleidoscopic variety of queerness, while embracing aspects of self (and others) that are often hidden, invalidated, or erased.
CELEBRATING QUEERNESS, ALL OF IT
While Q-Fest offers incredible entertainment through film—films you might never see anywhere else—it also demands we challenge ourselves and our community to examine systems that uphold hetero- & cis-sexism, anti-queerness, racism, and colonialism. Our films offer opportunities to both unpack and begin mitigating one’s own implicit and explicit biases. Discomfort will be among the numerous emotions you feel during Q-Fest, but is important to remember that discomfort is more than just a feeling, it is vital for transformative change and justice. Join us in community during the third week of October as we join queer voices from around the world!
