Community Partners
Who Show Up for QWOCFF
Bay Area organizations (and some from further out) who co-host screenings, send crisis counselors, bring their audiences, support venue costs, and have been doing it with us for years.
Community Partners
Our Community Partners are Bay Area organizations (and some from further out) who show up for QWOCFF. They co-host screenings, send crisis counselors, bring their audiences, and have been doing it with us for years. Some of these partnerships are nearly as old as the festival.
African American Art & Culture Complex
Since we celebrated QWOCMAP’s 10th anniversary at Triple A, C, C, in their Buriel Clay Memorial Theater, we have loved that the African American Art and Culture Complex is a space for Black creatives. For the past 6 years, AAACC has been a steadfast partner with us in Black joy and liberation.
Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
For almost 20 years, QWOCMAP has been a part of APICC’s United States of Asian American Festival as they present multi-disciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asian Pacific Islanders living in the United States. We’re excited to partner with them and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center for the Queer Asian World Cinema satellite screening in May.
Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women & Transgender Community
APIQWTC is one of our first Community Partners, that’s more than 22 years! This kind of long-time mutual support has been so meaningful to the Film Festival and QWOCMAP. Their events and scholarship for Asian & Pacific Islander queer women and transgender people are a powerful anchor for community.
Asian Women’s Shelter
We appreciate how Asian Women’s Shelter shows their support as a part of the Safety & Care team for the Film Festival. We also believe that AWS is a clear example of how social, economic, and political self-determination are key to ending violence and oppression. Not only does AWS address cultural and language needs of immigrant, refugee, and U.S. born Asian and Arab women and their children, but their Queer Asian Women’s Shelter is crucial to addressing intimate partner violence in our community.
Atlas of Blackness
When we met the amazing folks from Atlas of Blackness, we immediately wanted to collaborate with them, connecting over their mentorship for foster and formerly incarcerated Black youth. Based in Minneapolis, they have been at the frontlines of protecting Twin Cities communities as a “grassroots multimedia artistic research-based organization.” They are members of Color Congress along with QWOCMAP.
BAVC Media
We appreciate the 5 years of partnership with BAVC. We love having their Multimedia Producers & Apprentices help document QWOCFF! They are crucial to the Bay Area film ecosystem, providing support and resources to media makers to develop their stories.
Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits
We have partnered with Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits for over 15 years, including for 2 Filmmaker Development Program workshops. We never miss the Two Spirit Powwow! BAAITS restores and recovers the roles of Two-Spirit people within American Indian/Indigenous Peoples of the Americas/First Nations communities, and their leadership is key to QWOCMAP’s grounding principle of Native sovereignty.
Bay Area Lesbian Archives
We’re thrilled to have a new partner in the Bay Area Lesbian Archives. Their work to preserve the lesbian history of the Bay Area and QWOCMAP’s archive of LBTQIA+ people of color films is so important during deliberate attempts to erase our history and contributions to the world.
Brown Girls Doc Mafia
We love partnering with another Color Congress member! We love how our mission overlaps with BGDM, as they invest in the success of BIPOC women and nonbinary people working in the documentary industry.
Castro LGBTQ Cultural District
The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District is one of a few that preserve the cultural legacy of San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ community. We appreciate our growing relationship over the past 5 years and joint efforts to support queer and trans history, as well as creative safe, beautiful, and inclusive spaces for our community.
Center for Asian American Media
We love partnering with our Color Congress siblings, the Center for Asian American Media and their annual CAAMFest. We share their passion for presenting Asian American experiences to the world.
Center for LGBTQ & Gender Studies in Religion
CLGS has been so important to QWOCMAP’s work with faith communities, including churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues. They shape public conversation about religion along with sexuality and gender identity, through education, research, advocacy, and more. We’re happy to partner in their work to create more loving and just connections to our human spirituality.
Chicana Latina Foundation
Our love for Chicana Latina Foundation is boundless; so many QWOCMAP Filmmakers have benefited and participated in their work. As one of the only organizations across the country to offer scholarships to undocumented students, their focus on community moves us deeply.
Chinese Culture Center
There are not enough words to speak to our respect for this trusted Community Partner who has collaborated with QWOCMAP to support queer and trans Chinese, and Asian communities. Their dedication to artists and community has uplifted San Francisco’s Chinatown and the entire Bay Area.
Cinemama
Co-hosts for our Presidio Bowl party, Cinemama is another Color Congress member. They are building the cultural hub that Oakland needs, a creative center for Bay Area filmmakers and film professionals. Like QWOCMAP, they know that filmmakers are essential to our culture.
Coast Pride
We’re excited to partner with Coast Pride for the first time, working together to support our LGBTQ communities along the California coast!
Comfrey Films
Comfrey Films is the other out LGBTQIA+ organization in our Color Congress coalition. We’ve been thrilled to partner with them as we both train the next generation of Black Trans storytellers and filmmakers, covering the East and West Coast. They are an important anchor for Black Trans people in the South.
Eastside Arts Alliance
EastSide Arts Alliance uses arts and culture as a way to build community power and self-determination. We have been serving our neighborhood for over 20 years. We are dedicated to building deep connections between and among working class & low-income communities of color, communities whose histories, stories and cultures are actively erased from mainstream narratives.
Educational Video Center
Founded in 1984, Educational Video Center is a non-profit youth media organization dedicated to teaching documentary video as a means to develop the artistic, critical literacy, and career skills of young people, while nurturing their idealism and commitment to social change.
El/La Para TransLatinas
El/La Para TransLatinas works towards a world where TransLatinas are protected, celebrated, and loved, where trans/intersex/gender diverse Latinx people are welcome, safe, represented and valued in all spheres of life.
Family Builders
Family Builders believes that every child has the right to grow up in a permanent, nurturing family regardless of that child’s age, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, or medical, physical or emotional condition. Family Builders is welcoming and affirming of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender families who wish to adopt children from the foster care system.
Firelight Media
Firelight Media’s mission is to support the creation, distribution, and impact of documentary media by and about communities of color in all our vibrance and complexity. By providing filmmakers mentorship, funding, and creative development, we seek to advance the art of nonfiction storytelling to realize a more just and beautiful world.
Fresh Meat Productions
Fresh Meat Productions invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and allied communities. We create and commission new work, present performing arts programs, conduct education and engagement, and advocate for intersectional justice in the Arts.
FWD-Doc
FWD-Doc is a global, intersectional community of disabled creators and allies, rooted in documentary film, that champions and elevates stories by, for, and about disabled people across all types of media.
J-Sei
J-Sei is a community care and cultural organization that brings families and generations together to nurture and pass on Nikkei values and traditions that remain at the core of our services. Our pursuit of the expanded mission will be guided by our community values of dignity, trust, independence, social connection, open communication, and respect for our elders. Our commitment to serving seniors is unwavering, but we are broadening our impact by serving our multi-generational and multi-ethnic community.
James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center of San Francisco Public Library
The James C. Hormel LGBTQIA+ Center is the gateway to the Library’s broader collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and allies’ history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jingletown Films
Jingletown Films is dedicated to amplifying the voices of diverse storytellers and filmmakers whose work has historically been underrepresented in the film industry. Founded by Cheryl, a film and television veteran since 1989, Jingletown Films reflects her longstanding commitment to fostering diversity both in front of and behind the camera. Inspired by the vibrant spirit of Oakland, Cheryl’s home, Jingletown Films embodies the city’s rich cultural, political, and artistic legacy. It is a creative hub rooted in community and bold storytelling.
Lavender Phoenix
Building transgender, non-binary, and queer API power. Through organizing in the Bay Area, we inspire and train grassroots leaders, transform our values from scarcity to abundance, and build vibrant intersectional movements.
littlebigworld
We are the culture-forward marketing & communications agency amplifying queer imagination and care-centered politics. We craft campaigns and experiences that instigate a more liberatory world.
Lyon-Martin Community Health Services
The mission of Lyon-Martin Community Health Services is to provide high quality, compassionate and trauma-informed medical, gynecological, and mental health care services targeting trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) communities and cis-gender women with specific sensitivity to LGBQA+ sexual orientation, disability, size, race, ethnicity, and language regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance
The mission of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is to change perceptions of fat and end size discrimination through advocacy, education, and support.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
OACC builds vibrant communities through Asian and Pacific Islander arts and cultural programs that foster inter-generational and cross-cultural dialogue and understanding, collaboration, and social justice.
Old Lesbians Organizing for Change
OLOC represents Lesbian Elders in a spirit of inclusiveness to promote Lesbian visibility. We come together to preserve our herstory, to confront social injustice, and to give and receive support for our later years.
Openhouse SF
Openhouse enables San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ+ seniors to overcome the unique challenges they face as they age by providing housing, direct services and community programs.
Our Family Coalition
Our Family Coalition advances equity for the full and expanding spectrum of LGBTQ families and children through support, education, and advocacy.
Queer Cultural Center
Queer Cultural Center invests in, produces, and presents queer art that transforms culture across the Bay Area. We build the archives and infrastructure that prove queer people were here and ensure we remain.
Queers for Climate Justice
Queers for Climate Justice started as a contingent at a climate march that turned into an instagram account and then blossomed into a small and scrappy grassroots network. We use cultural strategy to celebrate and mobilize LGBTQ+ communities, with a focus on the needs and narratives of multiply-marginalized and attacked trans, queer, and two spirit communities.
Rada Collaborative
Color Congress organization, Mad spoke with Kendi King in 2025, and they were interested in potentially applying to our Film & Freedom Academy. The Rada Collaborative is an arts organization based between Brooklyn and Baltimore that uses cinema, visual art, and compelling visual stories to build narrative agency and material change for creators of color. We provoke critical thought and disrupt the status quo in nonfiction spaces and our world. We formed Rada Collaborative as a space to nurture and mentor BIPOC artists and provide a platform to spotlight their work and build an expansive sense of belonging for them.
Richmond Rainbow Pride
Richmond Rainbow Pride (RRP) is a group of LGBTIQQ individuals and allies who live, work and/or play in or near Richmond, CA, coming together for the collective benefit of the LGBTIQQ community of Richmond.
Sacramento LGBT Community Center
General outreach worked for them this year! The Center works to create a region where all LGBTQ+ people thrive; we support health and wellness, advocate for equity and justice, and work to uplift our diverse and culturally rich LGBTQ+ community.
San Francisco Women Against Rape
SFWAR provides resources, support, advocacy and education to strengthen the work of all individuals and communities in San Francisco that are responding to, healing from, and struggling to end sexual violence.
SF Black Pride
At San Francisco Black Pride, we believe that everyone deserves a safe and supportive community. Our organization is dedicated to creating a space where LGBTQ individuals can come together, share their experiences, and find support. We offer a variety of programs and events, including social gatherings, support groups, and educational workshops.
SF LGBT Center
The Center connects our diverse community to opportunities, resources and each other to achieve our vision of a stronger, healthier, and more equitable world for LGBTQ people and our allies. We host over 200 programs and welcome more than 9,000 individuals each month, in addition to providing affordable office space.
Sins Invalid
Sins Invalid is a disability justice-based movement building and performance project that celebrates disabled people, centering and led by disabled Black, Indigenous, and people of the global majority, and queer, trans, and nonbinary disabled people. Sins Invalid’s work explores themes of disabled embodiment and the world around us, developing provocative work where paradigms of “normal” and “disabled” are challenged, offering instead a vision of beauty and justice inclusive of all bodies and communities.
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people.
SOMA Pilipinas
To increase the visibility and celebrate the contributions of the Filipino community in SOMA, San Francisco, California and the Diaspora, and to sustain our legacy cultural institutions and events, and develop our cultural arts, assets, and creative place-keeping and place-making.
The Exiles
The Exiles provides educational events for people with all levels of experience to have a safe place to meet, explore and share information about safety, play techniques and resources, and connect with the leather community.
The Transgender District
The vision of The Transgender District is to stabilize the presence of transgender people and economically empower the transgender community, and to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood.
Visual Communications
Visual Communication's mission is to develop and support the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists who empower communities and challenge perspectives.
Women’s Cancer Resource Center
Women’s Cancer Resource Center helps individuals with cancer improve their quality of life through education, supportive services, and practical assistance. We help individuals from various backgrounds and cultures navigate through the often overwhelming health care system to get the appropriate care and treatment they need. All of our programs and services are free.
