The Queer Kampala International Film Festival, taking place in Uganda’s capital from Dec. 9-11, 2016, will host a satellite film screening in Toronto in partnership with Xtra. The Toronto satellite screening of the festival will show solidarity with and raise money for a courageous group of people organizing the first ever LGBT film festival in Uganda. LGBT people in Uganda face some of the highest levels of homophobia in the world, compounded by the government’s introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014, which criminalized homosexuality.
Following the screening, Xtra will host a conversation on the importance of reflecting queer lives on screen in an era of profound political uncertainty, most directly in Uganda, but increasingly in countries where LGBT rights have been won in past decades. The conversation participants will be Kamoga Hassan, the principal organizer of the Queer Kampala International Film Festival and a representative from Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto based non-profit that assists LGBT people find routes to safety.
Outed, the film which will be screened, is a raw and unflinching dramatization of state violence directed towards LGBT people in Uganda. Hassan will be in attendance to take questions after the film via Skype.
Xtra has partnered with Toronto-based organizations Imagine Cinemas, Inside Out, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Glad Day Bookshop and Rainbow Railroad to host this event.
The Queer Kampala International Film Festival Satellite Screening in Toronto is a partnership of Xtra Spark, a program of Pink Triangle Press created to support organizations and individuals making positive social change in the LGBT community. You can find out more about how to participate in Spark at www.bit.ly/xtraspark.