This November, the sixth Queer Media Festival returns to HOME for two days of events celebrating the evolution of queer narratives. Taking place from Fri 1 to Sat 2 Nov right in the heart of Manchester, the festival features several screenings of queer stories told through various forms. We’ve picked our top three events in the festival to keep you busy at the start of November.
This groundbreaking documentary series initially aired in 1979, with a follow-up final episode in 1999, and follows Manchester’s own Julia Grant through her transition. This was the first instance of a transgender person having their transition portrayed in a mainstream UK documentary and this screening is introduced, and its importance at the time contextualised, by Christine Burns, author of three volumes on trans history. The first episode follows Julia living socially as a woman in order to qualify for gender confirmation surgery, and the second returns to Julia 20 years later in Manchester, where she owns a gay bar and drag venue. This series is highly compelling both in the context of its time and from a contemporary perspective. The opportunity to see it on the big screen shouldn’t be missed.
This screening is sure to be a lot of fun – two vintage episodes from two iconic British 90s series featuring queer characters will be shown on the big screen in celebration of their 20th anniversaries – and it’s hosted by drag artists performing as two of the biggest female characters from the shows. The Russell T. Davies-directed Queer as Folk, set in Manchester itself, follows three young gay men, one of whom happens to have a slightly eccentric and free-spirited mother, Hazel. In Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Kathy Burke plays London loudmouth Linda, flatmate to James Dreyfus’ Tom Farrell, a gay actor. Both shows are queer classics, and a drag hosted screening and celebration of the shows should be a genuinely joyful event both for existing fans and for those who’ve never even seen an episode.
- Words:
- Amy Callaghan
- Published on:
- Mon 14 Oct 2019
Kicking off the festival is this selection of short films, all animated in an array of different styles by animators from around the world. This screening is a great one to go to for a little bit of variety – there are so many different stories told through a visual style often underused and dismissed in ‘grown-up’ cinema, and there’s sure to be something in this one for everyone.