Queer Intersections Association to host film festival in Pullman
Movies will feature black queer artists; shows start at noon
BONNIE JAMES | THE DAILY EVERGREEN
Sanaya Nordine, Queer Intersection Association public relations officer, says the film festival will hopefully reach out to Latina and African American queer community.
February 22, 2019
The Queer Intersections Association (QIA) is hosting a film festival Saturday.
Sanaya Nordine, QIA public relations officer, said Reel Shady is a film festival featuring black and brown queer artists.
“We are interested in focusing on queer stories, stories that are queering the narrative,” Nordine said. “That means stories that aren’t [necessarily] heard or talked about in the general audience.”
Reel Shady has been a two-year project, she said. Reel Shady was a concept that came into reality by working with QIA’s annual budget.
Nordine said featured films include Wanuri Kahiu’s “Rafiki,” and Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel’s “Happy Birthday, Marsha!”
“ ‘Happy Birthday, Marsha!’ is about Marsha P. Johnson,” she said. “[The film is] by other trans women who are humanizing her story by talking less about her politics and more about her as a person.”
Nordine said the festival will present films created by indigenous people and films discussing the experience of undocumented people.
Members of WSU and the Pullman community were encouraged to submit work for the festival, she said. Some students will be performing poetry, plays and displaying zines.
“[The event] gives them a platform to display their art and talk about it in a safe space,” Nordine said.
QIA is expecting an audience of at least 40 people, she said.
“We’re interested in reaching out to people we are affecting,” Nordine said, “the community we are serving, which is queer and trans people of color.”
She said the festival allows queer and trans people of color to organize an event while having full autonomy over it.
“We’re not interested in big publicity. We’re not interested in reaching out to the whole campus,” Nordine said. “It doesn’t really matter if there’s a lot of people that come or if there’s a few people that come. It’s important that it happens and that it happens on this campus where not a lot of things like this happen.”
Reel Shady is a free event on Saturday at Todd Hall, Room 230 from noon to 10 p.m. There will be food and drinks provided, and donations will be accepted.
