33rd Annual Festival to be Presented Digitally with a Few Small In-Person Events

Early Bird Passes on Sale Now at queerfilmfestival.ca

(Vancouver, B.C.) – Out On Screen is proud to present a virtual Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) this summer from Thursday, August 12 to Sunday, August 22, 2021. Early Bird Passes are on sale now at www.queerfilmfestival.ca. Tickets range in price from $5 to $21 (+ membership fee). Festival Youth Memberships are $2 and Adult Memberships are $5.

Celebrating 33 years of illuminating and advancing queer lives through film, education and dialogue, VQFF will be presented online in a video-on-demand (VOD) format, with a few small in-person events. The Festival will continue to follow the guidance of Public Health in order to offer audiences a COVID-safe viewing experience of the best independent queer cinema, along with workshops, artist Q&As, panels, and a few fun surprises.

Curated by Artistic Director Anoushka Ratnarajah and Festival Programmer Nya Lewis, the theme of this year’s Festival is ‘Longing’.

“We have all been experiencing a collective longing in a very new and intense way for the past year, but many of our communities, currently and historically, are deeply familiar with longing,” says Ratnarajah. “Whether we are yearning for love, recognition, respect, dignity, representation or justice, there might not be a more “queer” feeling than longing. Our programming this year beautifully and inventively explores the ways in which we are driven by collective and individual desires to know and be known, to fight and to heal, and to break down and rebuild.”

VQFF is Vancouver's second largest film festival and the largest queer arts event in Western Canada. With the support of our presenting sponsor RBC once again, this year’s Festival will open on August 12 with most films available for the eleven day duration, and all content available to stream across British Columbia.

"RBC in British Columbia is so proud to present the 33rd annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival,” says Martin Thibodeau, Regional President, British Columbia – RBC Royal Bank. “This year's theme, ‘Longing,’ feels especially relevant and moving during a year that has kept so many of us isolated from our loved ones and communities. The power of film and storytelling proved all the more important during the pandemic, and we are delighted to join VQFF for another year of celebrating, advancing, and illuminating queer lives as we witness them on screen.”

Though the full program will be announced in July, VQFF will once again screen films from B.C.-based emerging and established filmmakers in the annual Coast is Queer short film program. Local filmmakers also shine in an additional short film program, It’s Only The End of the World, featuring cinematic explorations of apocalypse, survival, and hope.

Stories of movement building, art as activism, and the fight for justice for queer communities will also fill your screens this August. The rabble-rousing documentary Rebel Dykes, set in 1980s post-punk London, follows a tight-knit group of friends who met at Greenham Common Peace Camp and went on to become artists, performers, musicians, and activists. In Caer (Caught), an innovative blend of documentary and fiction, two trans Latina sex workers in Queens, New York, fight transphobic violence and persecution from the police.

And of course we will see plenty of love stories, including two beautiful Chilean dramas: Nicol Ruiz Benavides’ La Nave Del Olvido (Forgotten Roads) and Omar Zúñiga’s Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones).

“It’s vital we continue to support queer arts, artists, and filmmakers,” adds Out On Screen Executive Director Brandon Yan. “Our storytellers are vital to a just recovery, and I hope you can join us to witness their works online and safely in-person.”

The 2021 VQFF program will be available online at www.queerfilmfestival.ca on July 14, 2021.

For more information, please visit the following platforms:

Website: www.queerfilmfestival.ca

Instagram: www.instagram.com/queerfilmfest

Facebook: www.facebook.com/VancouverQFF

Twitter: www.twitter.com/queerfilmfest (#VQFF2021)

About Out On Screen:

Out On Screen is a charitable organization that illuminates, celebrates, and advances queer lives through film, education, and dialogue. The Vancouver Queer Film Festival creates a dynamic platform for queer cinema that reflects a diversity of experiences while connecting and strengthening our communities. The award-winning Out In Schools anti-bullying program brings queer cinema into school classrooms to combat homophobia, transphobia and bullying, and to provide the language and tools for inclusion. Out On Screen is proud to be among the leaders in Canada working to create an equitable society where sexual and gender diversity are embraced. www.outonscreen.com

About RBC:

Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 86,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada’s biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.

We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at www.rbc.com/collectivite-impact-social/index.html.

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