A Festival Like
No Other
The International Queer Women of Color Film Festival is the largest LBTQIA+ BIPOC film festival in the world, and one of the top three most accessible film festivals anywhere. Free to attend. Free to submit. Twenty-two years and counting.
A Quarter Century of Film As Movement
The Festival
QWOCMAP presents the International Queer Women of Color Film Festival (QWOCFF) every June at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco, two weekends before Pride Sunday. The Festival showcases films by queer women, nonbinary, and trans filmmakers of color from around the world, alongside films created through QWOCMAP’s own free Filmmaker Development Program.
Always FREE. Always has been.
Every screening is free. Every film is open-captioned. Every film is audio-described. And the in-person Festival also includes ASL interpretation, free childcare, fragrance-free spaces, respiratory safety protocols, free food and transportation, wrapped in community-led approaches to safety that prioritize the most vulnerable.
Why We Do It
We do this because filmmaking is the most expensive art form, and because access to it has never been distributed equally. The Festival is one part of QWOCMAP’s answer to that: a place where the films we make get seen, where the filmmakers we train meet audiences, and where our communities gather in emancipatory fun, mischief, and resistance.
Your Festival
This is a community event. The films are made by us, for us, and shown in spaces we build together.
How the Festival Got Here
First Public Screening
Three years of free workshops produce enough films to show. The first Queer Women of Color Film Night fills the SF LGBT Community Center: standing-room-only, line down the stairs and around the block. The Center is still a Community Partner today.
The Film Festival Begins
The one-night screening expands into the International Queer Women of Color Film Festival, a multi-day event built around films from QWOCMAP’s own training program and LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers worldwide. Always free.
Brava Theater Era Begins
The Festival moves to Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District. Seating doubles. Hundreds are turned away. The Festival’s first Featured Panel brings together Cheryl Dunye, Shari Frilot, Tina Mabry, and Jewelle Gomez. Mayor Newsom declares QWOCFF weekend in the City of San Francisco.
Community Partner Program Formalized
Kebo Drew, QWOCMAP’s first staff hire, formalizes the Community Partner program with a focus on queer Black women’s films and Black lesbian organizations. Each Festival screening is matched with community organizations whose work connects to the films, turning every screening into an organizing moment.
First Triple-Language Screening
In partnership with Mujeres al Borde, a LesBiTrans organization from Bogotá, Colombia, QWOCMAP presents its first triple-language screening: English, Spanish, and ASL. The same year, QWOCMAP releases its community safety process developed alongside SF Women Against Rape, CUAV, and Allgo.
Open Captions on Every Film
QWOCMAP requires open captions on every film submitted to the Festival, becoming one of the first festivals in the country to do so. The decision sets a standard the rest of the industry takes years to follow.
First Virtual Festival
COVID shuts down in-person gathering. QWOCFF pivots to fully virtual in weeks, livestreams internationally, and reaches 3,000+ households worldwide. The virtual infrastructure built in crisis becomes the foundation for the annual online Encore, a permanent free way to access the Festival from anywhere.
Festival Moves to the Presidio Theatre
The Festival moves to our new home, the Presidio Theatre in the Presidio National Park, a larger and fully accessible venue. The first year offers audio description on every film. The venue installs braille signage and braille site maps. Respiratory safety protocols are instituted to keep the Festival accessible to disabled folks. Online Encore screenings launch as an annual program. Still in San Francisco. Still free.
