Land Acknowledgement

Queer City Cinema respectfully acknowledges that we live and work on the traditional lands, referred to as Treaty 4 Territory (including the cities of Regina/Moose Jaw/Swift Current/Maple Creek/Yorkton/Melville) and is the original lands of the Cree, Ojibwe, Saulteaux, Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

We further acknowledge that colonization is a present and ongoing process and that there is an urgent need for settlers to recognize relationships with and obligations to Indigenous Peoples and the land. This includes helping to reconcile and implement the true spirit and intent of Treaty based on Indigenous ways of knowing.

We respect and honour the Treaties that were made on all territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we are committed to move forward in partnership with Indigenous Nations in the spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.

History

Queer City Cinema Inc. (based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) was initiated in 1996 as a biennial film and video festival and has, over the years, come to program both film and performance art. The organization now presents one festival annually - a combination of Performatorium: Festival of Queer Performance and Queer City Cinema: Film Festival.

These two festivals comprise the main activities of the organization. Other activities include national tours of film programs and curating annual film programs for Pitos Waskochepayis, a Two Spirit/Queer Film and Media Festival in Prince Albert Saskatchewan.

Programming

Performatorium and QCC explore performance art and film respectively as means to gather insight and appreciation of queer art and artists locally, nationally and internationally. The range and diversity of performance and film presented provide the queer and arts communities of Saskatchewan the rare opportunity to survey the rich and colourful dimension of performance art and film and, in turn, are given important insights into a variety of queer cultures.

Performatorium, for now, utilizes a theme or focus which helps to create a shared space of exploration and underlines connections and considerations created by the curatorial premise or theme. The success of the festival is contingent on live performance, bringing international artists to Regina and celebrating our own home-grown talent. Performatorium is being lauded as one of the best festivals of performance art in Canada, as provided through feedback from audiences and participating artists.

Programming for QCC Film Festival includes dramatic shorts, animation, feature-length and short documentaries, experimental work and dramatic features. The films and videos programmed at QCC Film Festival continue a legacy of breaking down barriers – representing daring and unchartered visual territory, humorous and subversive characters, otherworldly and fantastical places and images, pleasurable provocations, sexual scenarios and different and challenging perspectives on identity in a world all too ready to judge and oppress.

Works in Performatorium and QCC Film Festival act as a means to express and analyze subjects that include – but are not limited to – gender, the body, race, sexuality, identity and the creative process.

Peformatorium and QCC Film Festival help to:

• increase the public profile of the organization locally, nationally and internationally
• increase the public profile of local artists
• reach new audiences and build a vocabulary and appreciation for independent performance art and film
• fulfill the organizations’ desire to curate, present and disseminate performance art and film programs
• represent marginalized identities

NOTE: proactive efforts are made to locate and present the work of Saskatchewan filmmakers and performance artists.

Mandate

Queer City Cinema’s mandate is to:

• program creative, playful, risk-taking, conceptual, experimental, stimulating and innovative film and performance art from Saskatchewan, Canada, and beyond
• contribute to the idea and understanding that identity is not fixed, but fluid, multiple and contradictory
• preserve ‘difference’ as an essential and defining characteristic of queer artistic vision and sensibility
• cover a spectrum of queer concerns, issues and representation including minority languages, First Nations. Métis, 2Spirit, Trans, Persons of Color, and queer youth voices
• provide a rethink of gender, race, sexuality, popular culture, community, individual and collective experience, and queer politics and theory
• represent a variety of formal methods and approaches to creative practice
• examine and discuss diversity and artistic expression within QTIBPOC communities through public engagement activities

Contextualization

Queer City Cinema's programming activities reflect the extent to which the organization recognizes the importance of representing diversity not only through what is being presented but also to whom it may be of interest to. In an attempt to increase its relevance in regards to current regional concerns and issues, to diversify its vision and interpretation, to accurately represent and reflect cultural complexities, and to create opportunities and access through outside involvement, Queer City Cinema continues to make efforts to include representation from First Nations communities, Youth, and local/regional QTIBPOC and arts organizations, artists and groups.

Queer City Cinema gratefully acknowledges funding from: