The Common Press Presents: A Queer Film Screening Evening to SAVE THE COMMON PRESS

Join us on 4th December, 6 PM – 8:30 PM at Rio Cinema for Unfiltered Queer Voices, a powerful evening of short films that delve into intersectional identities and queer history from across the world through the lens of trans+ and queer archives. Watch films from talented filmmakers such as Mars Verrone (Cambodia /USA) , Tram Anh (Andy) Nguyen (Canada ),  Campbell X (United Kingdom) ,  Frances Arpaia (United States),  Cande Lázaro ( Spain) and Rye Frankie Larsen (United Kingdom).

In collaboration with Otherness Archive, a trans and community-led collective.  They have curated an inspiring collection of films to showcase the depth and diversity of queer storytelling. These films offer an unfiltered exploration of identity, resilience, and history that celebrate queer experiences.

Following the screening, there will be an insightful panel discussion with the filmmakers and Otherness Archive, hosted by Backronym Films (@backronymfilms). This London-based film community is dedicated to producing films, events, and zines that uplift POC, women, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers.

Come for an evening of creativity, conversation, and community, and help us raise money to help SAVE THE COMMON PRESS!

Duration: 63 mins 

Doors open at 6 pm |  screening from 6:15 pm | Q&A from 7:45 pm – 8:30 pm

Films curated by Otherness Archive for the evening  include:

• Golden Voice by Mars Verrone, Cambodia, USA 2022 – 18 mins 

  Forty years after the Cambodian genocide, a transgender man returns to the village where he not only survived but miraculously found queer and transgender community, including the love of his life.

• Heroes by Tram Anh (Andy) Nguyen, Canada 2020 – 2 mins

  Displaying the faces and voices of transgender youth, the documentary short shows the authenticity of queer and trans people living in Toronto, while simultaneously discussing the struggles for self-acceptance that people who do not conform to cisgender and heteronormative ideals of gender face. 

• FLORESCENCE by Rye Frankie Larsen, United Kingdom 2021 – 3 mins 

  FLORESCENCE is a short animated music video celebrating trans joy, trans love, and trans existence. It’s made using a combination of analogue and digital animation techniques, including 35mm film photography, rotoscoping, and traditional frame-by-frame animation.

• A Trans with a Movie Camera by Frances Arpaia 2018 United States – 14 mins

  Cinematic trans representation is something that’s been limited mainly to narrative fiction and documentary. What’s been lacking is a push to explore how cinema as a tool can be used to depict and examine trans identities. A Trans with a Movie Camera is a non-narrative essay film built from super 8 footage, collaboratively created by interviewing trans women about how they would like to be represented non-narratively on film.

• mar(i)cona by Cande Lázaro 2022 spain – 12 mins 

  The Serranía Baja de Cuenca (Spain) is a land where two species of almonds are grown: larguetas and marconas. When the artist went to shake the almond trees with they family, Cienfuegos understood “mariconas” (faggot, in Spanish) instead of “marconas”.

• DES!RE by Campbell X United Kingdom 2016 – 9.5 mins

  Jazz meditation exploring the desire for transmasculine, trans men, butch, stud, masculine of center (MOC) people assigned female at birth. Stunning black and white images drift across the screen while transmen, femme women and butch and MOC people speak about the complexity of their desire. The soundtrack is by Cambpell L Sangster.

Otherness Archive 

Otherness Archive is an accessible online archive: providing an open-access library and freely available resource, featuring their first iteration – focusing on *trans moving-image, both contemporary and pre-existing work. This is a resource for our trans and queer community. After one year of cultivating research and an international call out, Otherness Archive launched in January 2023. 

Otherness Archive uses the term ‘trans masculine’, we are referring to all the nuances of the trans masc experience in moving image work, and to the various expressions of masculinity found across the trans community including, but not limited to, trans men, non-binary people, dykes, butches, bull daggers, crowdaggers, studs, t-fags and gender non-conforming people. We really want to deconstruct heteropatriarchal barriers to access, such as age restrictions and mislabelling that further obscures trans works of art.

@otherness_archive

Ticket link