Porn to Trans identity: Leeds Queer Film Fest

From Thursday to Sunday in Leeds there was a queer film festival at a squatted location in Leeds organised by Queer Mutiny North.  The festival was held to bring Queers together to a safe space in Leeds and open up issues for discussion.  Five years after Leeds first queer film festival at Hanover Square the event organisers opened up an empty building in Chapeltown for the second queer film festival in Leeds.

 

Click on a thumbnail for a slideshow view

Using an abandoned building for an event was a political statement and it helped keep the cost low so the event could be run on donations only and open to all.  The organisers set to work building cinema seats, putting up decorations and making the space comfortable.  The films were shown in a cinema on the ground floor, with food and kitchen also being on floor level making the space accessible to wheelchair users.  Queer Mutiny groups exist all over the UK and have a strong DIY ethic which fits in with squatting.  Instead of asking people to pay landlords or asking the council to provide space a DIY response is to take a space that is currently abandoned and turn it into something useful, to not simply consume but to challenge and take control themselves.

The films ranged from issues on black gay identity, trash horror, queer porn and issues around transgender people in prisons, see the full program for more.  After the film 'Cruel and Unusual' on trans people currently inside there was a talk by Bent Bars and any money made from the event went to the Bent Bars collective.  It was a large success with over 40 participants from all over the UK coming together and there was talk of a UK queer festival with a future meeting planned for Leeds.  The highlight was generally agreed to be the Queer Musical from Copenhagen where people responded to questions like, "So are you a real woman" in true fashion.

Queer Mutiny is one anarchist take on gender identity and politics.  Queer theory denies that there are any necessary links between sex and gender, it rejects the category of 'women' as one whose members have any more in common than having similar genitals.  

Links:

Queer Mutiny North

What is queer theory?

An introduction to Queer Theory from Queer Mutiny Bristol.