Tuesday 8th of July Megan and I were on a post screening panel for Figuring it out: Queer Crip* Perspectives Onscreen, a series of 8 short films that highlight queer and Disabled lived experiences, and the ways those two identities interact. The event was hosted at the Watershed Cinema and we were led on the panel by Florence Grieve, head of Sense and Accessibility and joined by Lorine Plagnol- the producer of the film Dope Fiend.
I had not seen the films before and didn’t know what to expect. What unfolded before us was a beautiful tapestry of the queer crip experience. I was struck by the immense joy and hope these films portrayed, films like Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil David Ely’s S.A.M and Debbie Hannan’s Mo <3 Kyra depicted beautiful teenage romances between queer Disabled young people, ones where unlike much mainstream media these parts of their identity were celebrated and fully realised rather than being something to overcome or a broad stereotype.
This is not to say the event shied away from the nuances and difficulties of queer crip experiences though. Gabrielle Demers’s Blond Night showed us a very complex portrayal of a Disabled young person accessing sex work, and Dorothy Cheung’s Heart Murmurs told the story of a man living through the Covid-19 pandemic while being HIV positive and Disabled.
The panel afterwards was wonderful. We spoke about how important queer crip representation is, and how events like these need to reach beyond the Disabled audience and into the mainstream. Lorine told us how Dope Fiend’s frantic and honest depiction of ADHD came to be and the way the film was made with and for neurodiverse creatives, using improvisational writing to capture the chaos of being Disabled in a Disablist world.
I really enjoyed seeing these films and being part of the panel, it reminded that for all the difficulties facing Disabled people right now, there is still so much joy and hope to see, and it reminded me how powerful it can be when we see ourselves on screen and are able to imagine brighter futures.
*Crip is a term from Disability [studies] and justice movements. It denotes a desire “to jolt people out of their everyday understandings of bodies and minds, normalcy & deviance” A. Kafer, Queer, Feminist, Crip.
By Jesse Cooper (BDEF Trustee)
Watch the films mentioned and shown here…
S.A.M, Dir. Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil David Ely, 2020, United Kingdom, 16 mins. Watch here.
Two young men form a connection on the swings of their local park.
Blond Night (Nuit Blonde), Dir. Gabrielle Demers, Canada, 2022, 17 mins. Find out more here.
Victor is unhappy in his housing for autistic adults. To avoid the Friday disco, he goes out for a walk in the neighborhood and then he meets a young sex worker.
I’m fine mum, Dir. Josema Palenzuela, 2023, Spain, 5 min. Find out more here.
Told through phone messages and photos exchanges, Blanca hides sides of her life from her mother by creating a false, idealised version of reality on her walls.
Dope Fiend, Dir. Rosanagh Griffiths, UK, 2023, 14 mins. Watch here.
Surrealist comedy set in a medical waiting room. A woman discovers what life is really like for her neurodiverse partner.
Content notes: Explicit imagery and some strong language.
Coming Out Autistic, Dir. Steven Fraser, 2022, United Kingdom, 4 mins. Watch here.
An animated documentary exploring the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+.
Content notes: Explicit imagery and some strong language.
Mo <3 Kyra, Dir. Debbie Hannan, 2023, United Kingdom, 13 mins. Watch here.
This riotous comedy, set during a high-school prom, sees one girl faced with a final chance to let the girl of her dreams know how she feels about her.
I Would Like to Live on the Moon, Dir. Emily Burke, 2023, United Kingdom, 2 min. Find out more here.
A young non-binary person feels overwhelmed and wants to escape – literally, to the moon.
Content notes: Discussion of mental health.
Heart Murmurs, Dir. Dorothy Cheung, 2023, Hong Kong, 9 min. Watch here.
A poetic dialogue between the filmmaker and Dean, a young man living in Hong Kong who reflects on his experience living with a congenital condition and HIV during the first years of the Covid pandemic.