Filmmaker Ella Glendining was born with a disability so rare that she’s not yet met anyone else in the world who shares the experience of living in a body like hers. Through Facebook groups and online searches, she sets out to find if there really is anybody like her out there. Using intimate video diary entries, conversations with similarly bodied people and doctors treating her condition, Ella invites viewers to question their assumptions about normalcy while exploring what it takes to love oneself fiercely despite the pervasiveness of ableism.

To better serve our community, we will be holding a Relaxed Screening of this film. The theatre seating will be reduced to 25% capacity, the lights will be dimmed but still on and film sound will be lowered. Talking, looking at devices, and moving around are allowed and encouraged, as different audience members have different needs.

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers began performing together in high school, well before entering the mainstream as the acclaimed folk-rock duo, Indigo Girls. Against all odds they broke through in the 1980s, maintaining musical careers on their own terms with an unwavering commitment to progressive politics and queer rights. This commitment stands to this day with their continued fight for environmental justice through their work with Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke. Blending over three decades of home movies, archival footage, and intimate present-day verité, It’s Only Life After All is a timely look into the life lessons of two famous queer friends who never expected to make it big.

Gergo and Lenard, a young Romani couple living in a remote village in Hungary, have a very big dream: to make a musical based on their lives. The first step toward realizing this dream is to leave the hostile and homophobic environment in which they were raised and head to Budapest where they can live more openly and find the necessary collaborators to help bring their story to life. However, when Gergo’s mother suddenly dies, they must return to their village for one ?nal reckoning, hoping to finally find the inspiration to write their own happy ending.

Founded in 1980 as the Gay Community Appeal, Community One Foundation has from the start raised funds for an array of community projects and organizations, with the organization and its name evolving along with the community itself. What started as a predominantly white, middle-class collective redefined itself during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and ’90s and continues to adapt today to better meet the needs of our Toronto communities. Supporting Our Selves is a moving exploration of more than four decades of activism, told through the lens of the Toronto-based philanthropic organization.

Leilani’s Fortune takes us on an intimate journey with queer, immigrant Ethiopian-Eritrean artist, Witch Prophet as she navigates newfound momentum in the music industry. After a decade of making music she is now on the heels of critical acclaim and nominations, finally getting the validation and support she needs to embark on the creation of the album of her prophecies. Canada has been known for exporting some of the biggest international names in music from Drake to Kaytranada; with growing public demand for more diverse voices, whose music will shape the next era of artists from Canada?

Note: Leilani’s Fortune was previously titled The Reincarnation of Ayo Leilani.

Filmmakers and activists Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras are coming of age in Laredo, Texas, a stone’s throw away from the Mexico border. Stuck in an immigration process with the ever-present threat of deportation for their families, they boldly refuse to be scared into submission, spending their days planning protest actions for legal abortion and against border control abuses. Amidst the intensity of their lives, they express themselves with music, poetry, and art, creating magic in everyday moments.

Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena stages radical performances that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances—often dark, strange, evocative — are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.

Through conversation and laughter, D.Smith presents the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia. These women offer unapologetic and unfiltered reflections on belonging and identity within the Black community and beyond. Dreams and memories, past lives and new beginnings, battles fought, and crises overcome are openly shared. D.Smith, a Grammy nominated artist, brings her unquestioned talent to create a unique and exhilarating soundtrack that matches the protagonists’ energetic personalities and the film’s striking black and white visuals. Kokomo City is a vibrant portrait of a community tired of stigmatization and ready to take ownership of their stories.

In the early 1980s, a young doctor at UCLA reports a strange immune disorder among gay men — the world’s first warning sign of the epidemic to come. In the decades that followed, Hollywood played a critical role in the battle against HIV/AIDS as doctors, movie stars, studio moguls and activists came together to change the path of the epidemic and how the world saw it. Commitment to Life documents this incredible drama — Rock Hudson and Easy-E, Elizabeth Taylor and David Geffen, the Red Ribbon and Philadelphia, ACT UP and APLA — through the stories of those who lived through it.

Filmmaker Ella Glendining was born with a disability so rare that she’s not yet met anyone else in the world who shares the experience of living in a body like hers. Through Facebook groups and online searches, she sets out to find if there really is anybody like her out there. Using intimate video diary entries, conversations with similarly bodied people and doctors treating her condition, Ella invites viewers to question their assumptions about normalcy while exploring what it takes to love oneself fiercely despite the pervasiveness of ableism.