2026 International
Queer Women of Color Film Festival

This is QWOCMAP’s annual screening to celebrate Pride & Juneteenth, and always, it focuses on liberation. Especially at a time when queer & trans Black folx remind terror and empire on the daily that by the light of our fire we can clearly see what they are, and we are NOT impressed. When we need joy to keep our memories burning, to make sure we are fueled, to keep us warm, and ready ourselves for what we will see in flames.

These films remind us that creation is always paired with breaking things down. That includes systems and whatever holds us back, including the stories we tell to ourselves about ourselves. We can’t be afraid of a little breakage before we start to remix, remold, and restore what was lost with our new dreams.

Colonialism has always sought to displace us from deep ecologies. To define human beings as if we were not intimately connected to the environment that now needs “saving” and not its original stewards. These films remind us that queer and trans Indigenous people and African diasporic peoples are spiritually interwoven with the land that forms the basis of our resistance. We wanted this screening to remind us that we are sacred and the creators of new worlds.

Who are we, if not absolute, daily defiance as we live and breathe? Our fiercest history has been about desire, including the love we have for our chosen families. This is a reminder about our history and present as outlaws.

The family is the one place where most of us are taught that we ought to belong. We love that queer and trans folx choose and ferociously protect family configurations where we can all belong. QWOCMAP regularly programs screenings where we can explore, imagine, and create what kin, community, and family means to each of us.

We are delighted to be able to screen this newly restored film. After 30 years, it carries the twins of memory and inspiration. Audre implores us:

“So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.”

And yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the time for us to speak, and shout, and sing, and scream.

With our second annual Queer Asian World Cinema satellite screenings, we wanted to program a companion that grounds Queer Asian America (and the West/Global North). In our histories, in our traditions, and in our ability to create something new from the old.

These films remind us that creation is always paired with breaking things down. That includes systems and whatever holds us back, including the stories we tell to ourselves about ourselves. We can’t be afraid of a little breakage before we start to remix, remold, and restore what was lost with our new dreams.

This is QWOCMAP’s annual screening to celebrate Pride & Juneteenth, and always, it focuses on liberation. Especially at a time when queer & trans Black folx remind terror and empire on the daily that by the light of our fire we can clearly see what they are, and we are NOT impressed. When we need joy to keep our memories burning, to make sure we are fueled, to keep us warm, and ready ourselves for what we will see in flames.

Colonialism has always sought to displace us from deep ecologies. To define human beings as if we were not intimately connected to the environment that now needs “saving” and not its original stewards. These films remind us that queer and trans Indigenous people and African diasporic peoples are spiritually interwoven with the land that forms the basis of our resistance. We wanted this screening to remind us that we are sacred and the creators of new worlds.

Who are we, if not absolute, daily defiance as we live and breathe? Our fiercest history has been about desire, including the love we have for our chosen families. This is a reminder about our history and present as outlaws.

The family is the one place where most of us are taught that we ought to belong. We love that queer and trans folx choose and ferociously protect family configurations where we can all belong. QWOCMAP regularly programs screenings where we can explore, imagine, and create what kin, community, and family means to each of us.

We are delighted to be able to screen this newly restored film. After 30 years, it carries the twins of memory and inspiration. Audre implores us:

“So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.”

And yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the time for us to speak, and shout, and sing, and scream.

With our second annual Queer Asian World Cinema satellite screenings, we wanted to program a companion that grounds Queer Asian America (and the West/Global North). In our histories, in our traditions, and in our ability to create something new from the old.

After screenings in Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, we can’t wait to bring Queer Asian World Cinema to you online! These queer and trans films combine local and transnational (translocal) stories from the Asian diaspora.

We’re excited to bring our Queer Black August films online after screenings in Oakland, San Francisco, and Atlanta! These are films that move through grief, lineage, and becoming, which is central to Black liberation, and joy.

We are excited to turn the Queer Asian World Cinema screening into an annual event. This year, we partnered with the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Visual Communications. We combined films from our 2026 QWOCFF along with queer and trans API films from our Film & Freedom Academy catalog into a powerful combination of local and transnational (translocal) stories from the Asian diaspora.

In May 2026, we are headed to Oakland’s Chinatown with a DOUBLE FEATURE! This delightful mix includes films submitted to QWOCFF and Visual Communications’ Armed With A Camera Fellowship. It’s amazing to present in partnership with the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, and San Francisco’s Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC), QWOCMAP has always been a part of their United States of Asian America Festival for years.

We are thrilled to collaborate with Eastside Arts Alliance, the site of some of our first-ever QWOCMAP film screenings. As Eastside commemorates Black political prisoners through their event, this QWOCFF screening focuses on connection, survival, creation, magic, and futurity of queer and transgender Black people. We’re excited to feature films that show that resistance and transformation are both profoundly interpersonal and deeply political. It is how love is the foundation of Black liberation.

For the 2nd year, QWOCFF is back for San Francisco Black Pride! These are films that move through grief, lineage, and becoming, which is central to Black liberation, and joy. We can’t wait for the Black Pride community conversations, panels, wellness sessions, and are nestled around this screening as part of their week of events.

For the 2nd year, QWOCFF is back at the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the site of the first American flag when California joined the U.S. as a state. This screening is a way to understand the 250th anniversary of the country. It is crucial to understand Asian diasporas as a part of this country’s history. LBTQIA+ Asian people are important to what this collection of states could be in the future, especially with Native sovereignty that redresses the theft of Indigenous lands and Black liberation that repairs the legacy of kidnapping indigenous Africans from their lands.

We are really excited to support IndigiQueer filmmakers and their films this year as QWOCMAP has done since it was founded in 2000. Our Filmmaker Development Program tailored 3 different workshops, in San Francisco with Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS) in 2009, in Gallup/Navajo Nation in 2013, and back in San Francisco with the Native American Health Center in 2017. These workshops were followed with a QWOCFF Festival Focus in 2010 with the historic “Reclaiming Remembrance: Queer Native American, Indigenous & First Nations Women,” and again in 2018 with Indigenous Futures.” QWOCMAP’s catalog features the largest collection of or LBTQIA+ and Two Spirit Native American, Indígena, and First Nations people. These stories are crucial to Indigenous Sovereignty and land back.