Including year-round heritage month screenings: Black History Month, Transgender Day of Visibility, Bi The Way at SF LGBT Center.
25 Years of Film As Movement
An Unshakeable Legacy — Looking Back at QWOCMAP’s Anniversary Year
Our Story
An Unshakeable Legacy
At the beginning of 2025, there was a very real possibility that QWOCMAP would have to close by December. Half of our budget was rescinded by the city in an unprecedented decision that impacted thirty-eight other BIPOC organizations.
We got to work right away with a sense of fierce determination. QWOCMAP has survived 25 years of underfunding, change, and economic crisis after political crisis after climate crisis after health crisis. We survived by holding on to joy and humor.
And then there was you, our Beloved Community. QWOCMAP needed help. And in the summer of 2025, you showed up and showed out for the Producers Circle campaign. Your support bought QWOCMAP time to actually think and plan instead of scramble. Time to make real decisions about our future instead of just reacting out of fear. Time to push forward because we were reminded of just how precious your lives are now and to the future of this world.
But we want to be clear: the Producers Circle campaign didn’t fix everything. QWOCMAP is still dealing with the impact of losing so much funding — the campaign made up ¼ of what was lost. We still need sustained support to keep QWOCMAP going.
Twenty-five years ago, we asked “Who will tell our stories if we don’t?”
From a 2.5-year waitlist for our first free filmmaking workshops to building the world’s largest collection of films by queer and trans filmmakers of color, QWOCMAP’s journey embodies what becomes possible when we democratize filmmaking.
And look, after 25 years of this work, we know emancipatory fun matters. Joy in community isn’t extra, it’s not frivolous — it’s how we keep going. It’s how we sustained ourselves in the past, and it is what we need for the long fight ahead.
So we celebrate the fact that we are still in the fight, our Unshakeable Legacy. We’re honoring 25 years of this work and you, our Beloved Community. And we look forward to continuing the work.
— T. Kebo Drew“It is really about holding on to hope as a discipline, holding on to love as a discipline. …We can resist and have fun.”
February 17, 2025
Launch Celebration Highlights
On February 17, 2025, our community gathered for the launch of QWOCMAP’s 25th Anniversary year. The conversation began with our origin story — when founder Madeleine Lim completed her documentary in 1997 and discovered she was among just a handful of queer women of color filmmakers at every festival. This realization sparked the question “Who will tell our stories if we don’t?” leading to QWOCMAP’s first free filmmaking workshops, which quickly generated a two-and-a-half year waitlist.
Dr. Silvia Rodriguez Vega and Board Chair Cassandra Falby shared insights about the creation of the first QWOCMAP zine, which was inspired by our values and how they’ll carry forward into the future. Drawing additional inspiration from Octavia Butler, the zine imagines a future where queer and trans people of color thrive, moving beyond survival to limitless creativity.
Managing Director Kebo Drew connected QWOCMAP’s work to current political challenges, emphasizing how community organizing and collective care help us persist. The panel explored how disability justice has fundamentally shaped our creative practice, transforming not just who tells stories, but how stories can be told.
— T. Kebo Drew“It is really about holding on to hope as a discipline, holding on to love as a discipline. …We can resist and have fun.”
Interactive Experience
Ready, Set, Time Travel!
Welcome to a time traveling journey, where we blast off into the future — to 2075 to be exact! From the future, we look back at QWOCMAP’s first 25 years of story, journey, and culture building.
As queer and trans people of color continue to be targets of hateful policies, rhetoric, and practices, we explore what hope and lessons we can draw from our radical ancestors and community.
Audio storytelling from QWOCMAP community. Audio descriptions available. Values rainbow as your guide and compass.
- Audio storytelling from QWOCMAP community
- Audio descriptions available
- Values rainbow as your guide and compass
Film as Movement
Strategic Framework
In our 25th year, QWOCMAP released its first strategic framework — a document that names the principles, values, and practices that have guided 25 years of work. Grounded in Native Sovereignty, Black Liberation, Abolition Feminism, Disability Justice, and Solidarity Economies, the framework articulates what QWOCMAP has built and where we’re headed.
The framework was shared with QWOCMAP’s Board of Directors in March 2025 and has since informed partnerships with the Wallace Foundation’s Thriving Cultures cohort, funder briefings, and program development.
Discover QWOCFF
Unshakeable Legacy Panel Series
Unshakeable Legacy Panel Series 
In partnership with Lesbian Visibility Week & The Curve Foundation
Decades of Canon
In partnership with Lesbian Visibility Week & The Curve FoundationOur DECADES OF CANON panel celebrates veteran filmmakers who’ve been creating queer cinema for 30+ years. Cheryl Dunye (Watermelon Woman), Pratibha Parmar (Nina’s Heavenly Delights), and Madeleine Lim sit down to reflect on decades of groundbreaking work, the films that shaped our movement, and what it means to build an enduring legacy in queer storytelling.
PANELIST
Cheryl Dunye
A world-renowned Director, Writer, Producer, and Founder of Jingletown Films. Cheryl first emerged as part of the "Queer New Wave" of young filmmakers in the early 1990s with her first feature film, "The Watermelon Woman," winning the Teddy Award at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival. She is currently best known for directing Netflix's "Dear White People," HBO's "Lovecraft Country," and Netflix's "Bridgerton."
Pratibha Parmar
A globally recognized, award-winning British filmmaker and human rights activist. She is a writer, director, and producer who has worked across feature documentaries, short dramas, music videos, and episodic television including "Law & Order SVU" and Ava DuVernay's "Queen Sugar."
Madeleine Lim
QWOCMAP's Founding Executive/Artistic Director and an award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience. Her documentaries include Jewelle: A Just Vision (2022); The Worlds of Bernice Bing (2013); and Sambal Belacan in San Francisco (1997).
Unshakeable Legacy Panel Series 2025 International Queer Women of Color Film Festival
Nurturing the Next Gen
2025 International Queer Women of Color Film FestivalThe NURTURING THE NEXT GEN panel focuses on how we support emerging filmmakers. T. Kebo Drew moderates as Madeleine Lim and Rose Troche share strategies for mentoring, funding, and creating pathways for the next generation of QTBIPOC storytellers.
PANELIST
Madeleine Lim
QWOCMAP's Founding Executive/Artistic Director and an award-winning filmmaker with 30 years of experience. Her films have screened at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, featured at universities, museums, and broadcast to millions on PBS. Her documentaries include Jewelle: A Just Vision (2022); The Worlds of Bernice Bing (2013); and Sambal Belacan in San Francisco (1997), which continues to be banned in Singapore.
Rose Troche
An award-winning writer, director, and producer of film, television, and new media. Her debut feature, Go Fish (1994) became a cornerstone of queer cinema. Her television work includes The L Word (Showtime), Ugly Betty (ABC), Shameless (Showtime), and The Walking Dead (AMC). Troche is an adviser for The Sundance Institute International Screenwriting Labs.
T. Kebo Drew (Moderator)
Directs strategy, resource mobilization, communications, and impact for QWOCMAP, and spearheaded the Critical Juncture program. She wrote and directed Ain't I A Woman? (2011), and co-produced The Worlds of Bernice Bing (2013) and JEWELLE: A Just Vision (2022).
Timeline
2025: A Year of Milestones
February
Zine launch and 25th Anniversary Celebration
March
First bicoastal QWOCMAP meetup in New York City. Strategic framework released. Funder briefing.
April
Lesbian Visibility Week screening and panel
May
Queer Asian World Cinema — first-ever satellite screening
June
22nd QWOCFF — first Industry Day, the most screenings ever. Producers Circle campaign raises $100K.
August
QWOCMAP x SF Black Pride satellite screening
October
Mad in Milan at Moleskine Foundation’s Creativity Revival conference. Wallace Convening in Charlotte. JEWELLE: A Just Vision screens at SFPL.
November
25th Anniversary Silver Cabaret & Ball at the Asian Art Museum. Film & Freedom Academy for Youth. Kebo at Race Forward’s Just Narratives for a Multiracial Society.
December
QWOCMAP Family Reunion — filmmakers, mentors, donors, board, and staff come together to shape the organization’s future.
November 1, 2025
Silver Cabaret & Ball
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Now some folks told us to think about them next year. We don't plan to host another anniversary cabaret and ball until at least 2030. So start planning your outfits, and in the meantime...
The Work Continues
Our 25th anniversary year reminded us what’s possible when community shows up. In 2026, we’re carrying that momentum forward with the 22nd International Queer Women of Color Film Festival, new programs, and a continued commitment to free, accessible filmmaking as movement.
Our Partners & Sponsors
