The OUT North Queer Film Festival returns Nov 6-12, 2020.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Festival will be hosted online.
OUT North Queer Film Festival 2020 is supported by Yukon Government
and the following fabulous Whitehorse businesses and organizations! THANK YOU!
Tanya Handley Graphic Design, Wood Street Ramen, Ignite Counselling, Molotov and Bricks Tattoo, Meg's Barber Shop, The Coffee Shop, Road Dogs Music, Blackbird Bakery, Multicultural Centre of the Yukon, and
Lumel Studios Glass Blowing and Atlin Mountain Coffee Roasters.
Lumel Studios Glass Blowing and Atlin Mountain Coffee Roasters.
Tickets
Festival viewing is restricted to Yukon and British Columbia.
All Access Festival Pass: Adult - $60, Students /Seniors - $40
Single evening or matinee ticket: Adult - $15, Seniors/Students - $10
To purchase tickets, click here! Students and Seniors are offered a discount during checkout.
For Yukon residents, if you do not have a credit card to purchase tickets, please contact us at outnorthqff@gmail.com for assistance.
We are a barrier-free event, if the ticket prices are not affordable, please reach out to us for assistance at outnorthqff@gmail.com.
All Access Festival Pass: Adult - $60, Students /Seniors - $40
Single evening or matinee ticket: Adult - $15, Seniors/Students - $10
To purchase tickets, click here! Students and Seniors are offered a discount during checkout.
For Yukon residents, if you do not have a credit card to purchase tickets, please contact us at outnorthqff@gmail.com for assistance.
We are a barrier-free event, if the ticket prices are not affordable, please reach out to us for assistance at outnorthqff@gmail.com.
Subtitles
We are trying our best to acquire subtitles for as many films as possible. We will list those films here. So far, we have subtitles for the foreign language films only: An Almost Ordinary Summer (Nov 11) and Nobody (Nov 12). We have asked all distributors for subtitles. Unfortunately, subtitles may not be available for many of the films, including The Watermelon Woman on opening night.
Streaming Platform
The film festival will be streaming on Xerb TV.
Schedule
ALL FILMS ARE AVAILABLE FOR 24 HOURS, STARTING FROM THE DATES/TIMES INDICATED BELOW.
Fri, Nov 6 Opening Night - 7pm
Take Me to Prom (21 min)
Woman Dress (7 min)
Short Film Contest Winner (5 min)
Watermelon Woman (90 min)
Sponsor: Wood Street Ramen
Sat, Nov 7 - 7pm
Hey, Google plus pre-recorded Q&A with Director (30 min)
Gay Chorus: Deep South (100 min)
Sponsor: Ignite Counselling
Sun, Nov 8 - noon (Matinee #1)
I am Skylar (15 min)
Changing the Game (95 min)
Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop
Sun, Nov 8 - noon (Matinee #2)
First Stories - Two Spirited (6 min)
Second Stories - Deb-we-win Ge-ken-am-aan, Our Place in the Circle (22 min)
Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt) (80 min)
Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop
Mon, Nov 9 - 7pm
Ifé (30 min)
Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America (84 min)
Sponsor: Multicultural Centre of the Yukon
Tues, Nov 10 - 7pm
Witch Therapy (7 min)
Break In (16 min)
Queering the Script (90 min)
Sponsor: The Coffee Shop and Road Dogs Music
Wed, Nov 11 - 7pm
I am Skylar (15 min)
An Almost Ordinary Summer (100 min)
Sponsor: Blackbird Bakery
Thurs, Nov 12 - 7pm
Hands Don't Lie (9 min)
Nobody (83 min)
Sponsor: Atlin Mountain Coffee Roasters
Fri, Nov 6 Opening Night - 7pm
Take Me to Prom (21 min)
Woman Dress (7 min)
Short Film Contest Winner (5 min)
Watermelon Woman (90 min)
Sponsor: Wood Street Ramen
Sat, Nov 7 - 7pm
Hey, Google plus pre-recorded Q&A with Director (30 min)
Gay Chorus: Deep South (100 min)
Sponsor: Ignite Counselling
Sun, Nov 8 - noon (Matinee #1)
I am Skylar (15 min)
Changing the Game (95 min)
Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop
Sun, Nov 8 - noon (Matinee #2)
First Stories - Two Spirited (6 min)
Second Stories - Deb-we-win Ge-ken-am-aan, Our Place in the Circle (22 min)
Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt) (80 min)
Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop
Mon, Nov 9 - 7pm
Ifé (30 min)
Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America (84 min)
Sponsor: Multicultural Centre of the Yukon
Tues, Nov 10 - 7pm
Witch Therapy (7 min)
Break In (16 min)
Queering the Script (90 min)
Sponsor: The Coffee Shop and Road Dogs Music
Wed, Nov 11 - 7pm
I am Skylar (15 min)
An Almost Ordinary Summer (100 min)
Sponsor: Blackbird Bakery
Thurs, Nov 12 - 7pm
Hands Don't Lie (9 min)
Nobody (83 min)
Sponsor: Atlin Mountain Coffee Roasters
Our Program for 2020!
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Take Me To Prom
Featuring intimate, charming interviews with queer Canadians ranging in age 17 to 88, Take Me To Prom invites audiences to revisit this iconic adolescent milestone. Vivid set design, re-enactments and archival footage transport audiences across 70 years of teenage heartbreak and rebellion, all while telling a story of social change over seven decades.
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Woman Dress
Writer & Director: Thirza Cuthand
2019 | Canada | 6 min "Pre-contact, a Two Spirit person named Woman Dress travels the Plains, gathering and sharing stories. Featuring archival images and dramatized re-enactments, this film shares a Cuthand family oral story, honouring and respecting Woman Dress without imposing colonial binaries on them." ~ NFB
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Short Film Contest Winner!
To Be Announced Soon 
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Watermelon Woman
Cheryl Dunye directs and stars in their debut feature that is as controversial as it is sexy and funny. Cheryl is a twenty-something black lesbian working as a clerk in a video store while struggling to make a documentary about Fae Richards, an obscure black actress from the 1930s. Cheryl is surprised to discover that Richards (known popularly as "the Watermelon Woman") had a white lesbian lover. At the same time, Cheryl falls in love with a very cute white customer at the video store (Guinevere Turner ). Such are the complexities of race and sex in this startlingly fresh debut, praised for its charm and courage.
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Hey, Google plus pre-recorded Q&A with Director
"Set entirely in an apartment in Leeds, this film was inspired by real lockdown and isolation stories, and sees young man Nader living out the same routines on his own but we soon find that things were not always this way and discover the devastating effects this virus has had on Nader and those he cares for the very most. Told from a LGBTQ+ perspective, this wonderful film is a universal story of what it is to lose and the hopelessness that follows, but also a consoling voice that suggests why it is vital to stay strong and to stay alive."
~ Jack Bottemley, UK Film Review |
Gay Chorus: Deep South
In response to a wave of discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws in Southern states and the divisive 2016 election, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South. Led by Gay Chorus Conductor Dr. Tim Seelig and joined by The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the tour brings a message of music, love and acceptance, to communities and individuals confronting intolerance. Over 300 singers traveled from Mississippi to Tennessee through the Carolinas and over the bridge in Selma, performing in churches, community centers and concert halls in hopes of uniting us in a time of difference. The journey also challenges Tim and other Chorus members who fled the South to confront their own fears, pain and prejudices, on a journey towards reconciliation. What emerges is a less divided America, where the lines that divide us—faith, politics, sexual identity—are erased through the soaring power of music, humanity and a little drag.
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I am Skylar
"I Am Skylar is the emotionally compelling story of an articulate 14-year-old girl who is thoughtfully defining her future and the woman she is to become. Surrounded by a family and a community who show her unconditional love as she follows her personal path, Skylar faces the complexities of being a transgender girl on the cusp of puberty with refreshing honesty and unshakeable dignity." ~ NFB
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Changing the Game
Writer & Director: Michael Barnett
2019 | USA | 95 min Trailer Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop Michael Barnett’s dynamic documentary takes us into the lives of three high school athletes—all at different stages of their athletic seasons, personal lives, and unique paths as transgender teens. Their stories span across the U.S.—from Sarah, a skier and teen policymaker in New Hampshire, to Andraya, a track star in Connecticut openly transitioning into her authentic self.
Trans athletes have to work harder than their cisgender peers in order to thrive in their field while also having the courage and resilience to face daily harassment and discrimination. The kids in this film have found sports as a way to channel the negativity around them into a positive, to gain a sense of self-worth and validation. This film is their urgent, articulate plea for acceptance. |
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First Stories - Two Spirited 
Writer & Director: Sharon A. Desjarlais
2007 | Canada | 6 min This short documentary presents the empowering story of Rodney "Geeyo" Poucette's struggle against prejudice in the Indigenous community as a two-spirited person (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender). ~ NFB
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Second Stories - Deb-we-win Ge-ken-am-aan, Our Place in the Circle
Writer & Director: Lorne Olson
2008 | Canada | 22 min "Lorne Olson's short documentary presents a vision he had of two-spirited people dancing, laughing, and smiling. His vision spurs him to rediscover the strength of the past to better face the challenges of today. This funny and buoyant film documents his touching journey." ~ NFB
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Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt)
Director: Monica Zanetti
2020 | Australia | 80 min Trailer Sponsor: Molotov & Bricks Tattoo and Meg's Barber Shop "Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) is a refreshing—and hilarious—queer take on that age-old genre, the romcom.
The film follows Ellie as she works up the courage to ask her crush, Abbie, to the formal (not prom, as this distinctly Australian film takes care to point out). Typical adolescent hijinks and awkwardness ensue, especially when the ghost of Ellie’s queer aunt Tara pops up to play fairy godmother. Monica Zanetti’s quirky, heartfelt feature debut is a sweet treat that delivers big emotion along with peals of laughter, made all the sweeter by the fact that the cast and crew are predominantly women, many of them queer themselves." ~ Inside Out Q&A with Director and Actors from the New Zealand International Film Festival |
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Ifé
"ìfé and Adaora fall in love over a 3-day date, but their love is tested when it comes under pressure by the realities of being in a same-sex relationship in Nigeria. How much is each of them willing to sacrifice (or not) to sustain their new love?" ~ Film Freeway
If you have a few minutes, check out The Equality Hub, a Nigerian non-profit advancing the rights of female sexual minorities in Nigeria. The release of the film violates Nigeria's strict laws on homosexuality. - BBC News Sept 14, 2020 |
Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America
Writer & Director: Michael Barnett
2019 | USA | 84 min Trailer Sponsor: Multicultural Centre of the Yukon "UNSETTLED is a feature-length documentary revealing the untold stories of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers who have fled intense persecution from their home countries and who are resettling in the United States. As new leadership in America continues to demonize immigrants and drastically restrict the flow of refugees and asylum seekers into the U.S., UNSETTLED humanizes a group few people know who are desperately trying to create new and safer homes." ~ Film Collaborative
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Witch Therapy
Writer & Director: Heidi J Loos (Yukoner!)
2019 | Yukon | 6 min Desperate to get their magic back, married witches, Zoey and Jordan try couples counselling for the first time.
When married witches, Zoey and Jordan start having problems in their relationship, their magical powers start to disappear. Desperate to retrieve their magic, they try couples counselling and are faced with yet another challenge, a heteronormative therapist. |
Break In
What's worse than writing erotic fiction about your crush? Accidentally texting it to her.
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Queering the Script
"Queerness on television has moved from subtext, in series such as “Xena: Warrior Princess,” to all-out multi season relationships between women, as seen on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Lost Girl,” and “Carmilla.” But things still aren’t perfect.
In 2016, a record number of queer women died on fictional shows, which broke the hearts of queer fans and launched a successful fight for better, more diverse LGBTQ2S+ representation. Stars such as Ilene Chaiken, Stephanie Beatriz, Lucy Lawless and Angelica Ross join with the voices of numerous kickass fangirls in this fast-paced history of queer women’s representation on contemporary television. QUEERING THE SCRIPT not only charts the evolution of queerness, but also demonstrates the extraordinary impact of activism on its many diverse fans, ensuring that they see themselves accurately portrayed on screen." ~ The Film Collaborative |
An Almost Ordinary Summer
"Two very different families spend their holidays in the same house at the seaside: the aristocratic Castelvecchios, open-minded, eccentric, but quite selfish, and the working-class Petagnas, very tight-knit, and united around solid conservative values. What brought such distant worlds together? Only Tony and Carlo, the two middle-aged heads of the families, know! The unexpected announcement of their engagement will disrupt an apparently ordinary summer, and turn the lives of everyone around them upside down." ~ Wolfe
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Hands Don't Lie
Writer & Director: Heidi J Loos
2017 | Yukon | 9 min A woman living with early stages of dementia in a seniors' assisted living home forges an unlikely bond with a new resident.
Dementia has stolen June’s words and is eating away at her sense of self. She has always been a proper lady, reserved and in control, (controlling even, her son Peter would say). She hates not knowing things, not remembering. She has almost given up all hope when the new gal Gretta arrives: a palm-reading hippie who takes the senior’s home by storm! Not only can Gretta read the future, she can also read the past! The old June would have turned up her nose at such nonsense, but June no longer remembers to be disgusted so instead she is genuinely intrigued. |
Nobody
“Weirdo” is the only name given to the lead character of “Nobody”, an elderly person of undefined sex who lives alone in an apartment full of memories. The film focuses on the identify crisis faced by the older generation and follows the relationship between the teenage girl Zhen-zhen and "Weirdo", after meeting by accident. They gradually befriend each other, but then rumors begin to fly. Their "abnormal" relationship turns out to be the most authentic thing in this hypocritical world.
Review by Lin Chun-Hua |
