Wilmer Aburto Curation: Sacred+Amor+Divinity

Join us for a presentation of films honouring QTBIPOC, curated for the Festival by Nicaraguan-born, Mohkinstsis-based photographer Wilmer Aburto. This collection of films from around the world are stories that center the queer and trans POC experience.  

These stories take us on a journey of birth, destruction, transformation, diasporic, gender identity, societal rejection, and healing - all through the POC lens. We begin with TIERRA, wherein a third gender Muxe emerges from the earth from an ancestral lineage. The journey of emotions takes the audience through longing, fear, transformation, desire, connection - and brings us back full circle to Many Bloodlines in which a queer Indigenous parent welcomes their newborn child with a Cree message of love. 

Films: 

TIERRA (Mexico, 14:44, G, Experimental, Directed by Fana Adjani)

TIERRA is an experimental film piece, directed by Fana Adjani. The story speaks about the recognition of the destruction, the transformation, the loss of territory, TIERRA is a story about the defense of territory, ecofeminisms, the feminist struggle and the seed, the muxe identity within the maps and geographies of Latin America. Only through the vindication of femininities can Latin America ever be free.

Seguimos Aqui (We're Still Here) (United States, 35 minutes, Documentary, 14A, Directed by Emmanuel Garcia; David A. Moran)

Four LGBTQ+ identifying Latinx Chicagoans navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, interpersonal struggles, and community triumphs throughout a turbulent yet powerful 2020.

Of Hearts and Castles  (United States, Drama, 15 minutes, PG, Directed by Ruben Navarro)

A man who's deep in the throes of a break-up meets another man for a night in Los Angeles that will forever keep them connected.

ALIA (France, Drama, G, 26 minutes, Directed by Zahra Berrada)

Ali, a young Moroccan emigrant, is torn between the conservative environment of his family and his passion for the cabaret where he cross-dresses at night to become Alia.

I'm a fag 4 u (Canada, 5 minutes, Directed by Vivek Shraya and Owen Pallet)

Inspired by the cinematography of "Truth or Dare" and "Paris is Burning," this video is an homage to late 80s/early 90s gay culture and aesthetic. Shot in 16mm, it features co-director Vivek Shraya and two other queer dancers (Rodney Diverlus and Phil Villeneuve) reclaiming streets and sidewalks, common sites of homophobic violence, and the word "fag." Also a creative response to the loss of queer spaces during the pandemic, we hope that this video will remind queer viewers that they aren't alone, even when we can only connect virtually, and that our queerness-and faggotry-is beautiful and alive.

Sinverguenzilla in "First Kiss" (Canada, 8:45, Sci-Fi, PG, Directed by Anita Abbasi)

Sinvergüenzilla, a music-loving blue alien deity visits Earth to experience her first human kiss. However, her search gets complicated after landing in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Victor's Body (Brazil, Experimental, 14:44, PG, Directed by Victor Di Marco and Marcio Picoli)

A baby is born but does not cry. A body screams and is not heard. Paints that run in a promised future do not reach a person with a disability. Victor makes himself the canvas in a universe of absent painters.

emecitoset - Many Bloodlines (Canada, 10:31, G, Directed by Theola Ross)

In êmîcêtôcêt: Many Bloodlines, a Cree filmmaker and her white partner document their pregnancy and journey to parenthood. From the search for an Indigenous donor and midwife to their concerns about raising a child as an interracial queer couple, the joy of having a child together gives them the courage to overcome any obstacle.