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Saturday 3rd to Sunday 4th November 2018
The UK’s only queer digital arts festival returns for its fifth year in Manchester, UK. Organisers of the Queer Media Festival have announced details of their fifth festival to be held for the first time over two days with interactive workshops, performances, and films in Manchester.
Attendees will discover how to become innovative storytellers, creating and curating LGBT stories using virtual reality, mobile filmmaking and podcasting at The Sharp Project.
There will also be a celebration of the life of Freddie Mercury, the week the Queen biopic is released, at a drag-inspired event cinema screening at HOME arts centre.
The festival also boasts the UK premiere of work-in-progress documentary Deep in Vogue, about the Northern vogue dance scene during the two day festival.
The festival aims to empower people to challenge the lack of diverse representation with a DIY spirit to creating and curating our own stories.
Jamie Starboisky, Queer Media’s Festival Director, commented, ‘Learn hands on, from industry experts how to utilise digital to tell your story. Enjoy a creative mix of inspiring talks and engaging workshops aiming to encourage and inspire you with the skills to refresh representation and the way that LGBTQ narratives are told.’
Events at The Sharp Project
Why Don’t You…
Saturday 3 November, 9.30am-5pm
The Sharp Project, Thorp Road, Manchester, M40 5BJ
Price: £15, £12/£10 concessions
Bookings
There will be three workshops as part of Why Don’t You…? at The Sharp Project, including a podcasting workshop facilitated by Emma Goswell (Gaydio Radio) and Chrystal Genesis (Stance podcast).
Hear how Chrystal launched Stance on Trump’s inauguration day with the aim of giving a larger array of people the same amount of space, creativity and intellectual weight as others; and how Emma, Gaydio’s Drive Time presenter, is set to launch her own podcast series this autumn: Coming Out Stories.
Queer Media’s MobDoc Mobile Filmmaking Workshop, which has been held earlier this year in Dublin and Cardiff, returns home to Manchester with a session facilitated by Deirdre Mulcahy (BBC Academy) and Amy Ashenden (Pink News).
MobDoc involves practical exercises focused on learning how to tell LGBT stories utilising mobile film-making technologies. The aim is to teach people how to begin to challenge the narrative in LGBT films by developing skills to create a film during the workshop. With two workshops aimed at beginner and advanced film-makers, ultimately they hope to empower participants to tell their own stories using their smartphone.
Future Artists deliver the third workshop at Why Don’t You…? focusing on virtual reality. Participants will meet Rosie and Clay, two pioneers in virtual reality production and creation. It is an exciting chance to ask them anything about creating in VR and have a go on a variety of demos that they have set up. By the end of the demo, participants will have created something in virtual reality!
Presented by Queer Media UK in partnership with The Sharp Project.
Registration is from 9.30am and participants are free to pop down to any of the drop-in workshops throughout the day.
This project is supported by a grant from Superbia. Superbia Grants provide financial support for LGBT events as part of Manchester Pride’s commitment to the quality and diversity of cultural events taking place throughout the year in Greater Manchester.
Events at HOME
Deep in Vogue/Battle of the Freddies
Saturday 3 November, 6.30 til late
HOME Mcr, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN
Price: Varies
Bookings
6.30pm – Work in Progress: Deep in Vogue
Work in progress: Deep In Vogue – Directed by Amy Watson & Dennis Keighron-Foster, a Spaniels in Heels production. Introduced by Darren Pritchard, Mother of the House of Ghetto. Includes short film Femme (Director: Alden Peters).
Deep in Vogue celebrates the colourful, queer, emotional and political stories of Northern vogue and its people. Synonymous with the black, gay ballrooms of 1980s New York, this documentary asks why we need vogue in Manchester now more than ever.
8.40-11pm – Battle of the Freddies: Black & White Ball
This epic evening’s entertainment includes drag performances from Jack the Lad and Vin Dicktiv as Freddie Mercury, and short film Missed Conceptions (Director: Ruby Parker-Harbord). This will be followed by Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender Director’s Cut (Director: Rhys Thomas, 2012).
Freddie Mercury was one of the most charismatic, complex and fascinating characters in British rock music. Using extensive unseen archive footage, this film celebrates the man who was very different to his flamboyant onstage public persona, the week the Queen biopic is released. Dress to impress in black and white!
Events at Tribeca
Shakedown
Sunday 4 November, 5-8.30p
Tribeca, Manchester, 50 Sackville Street, Manchester, M1 3WF
Price: £6
5pm – Shakedown Documentary (Director: Leilah Weinraub)
In collaboration with Black Gold Arts Festival, the festival closes with a screening of the Teddy Award-nominated documentary Shakedown (2017). Shakedown chronicles explicit performances in an underground black lesbian club in Los Angeles. Filmed from 2002-2015 the story functions as a legend where money is both myth and material.
The hostess for the evening, hip hop artist extraordinaire Onye OneDa Ezeh, joins House of Ghetto, Manchester’s premier Vogue house, to bring a special live performance experience complimenting the documentary.
More information
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facebook.com/qmfuk
Tickets for the festival are available at queermedia.org.uk.
