One woman’s reflection, paternal anxieties, sisterhood in sport, South Asian queer joy, a complicated conversation, and a glamourous visitor. This programme deconstructs different forms that connection can take. ‘Kinship’ explores the idea of connection, and the different forms it takes.
It is our relationships which make life worth living, but ‘connection’ comes in various forms, this programme is focused on the deconstruction of traditional relationships, exploring queer people and the love we have for each other.
We spoke to some of the filmmakers asking what forms of connection their audience take from their films.
Share This:
Meat Raffle – Stuart Armstrong
Would you say your film subverts traditional presentations of queerness amongst family dynamics?
With Meat Raffle I definitely wanted to dissect a kind of queerness we don’t often see on screen, and offer a fresh perspective on a coming out story - as well as explore the bleak humour to be found when an exasperated character is in dire straits. Here we have a closeted, Cumbrian man in his fifties, desperately trying to cling onto what little masculinity he thinks he has left, because he’s terrified that he’s made his teenage son like him - like a curse he’s passed down.
I hoped to create a rich, textured, working-class world where these characters can come alive, and you’re really there on an emotional level with this bloke who’s convinced that winning a turkey might stop his son from living the same life of shame and silence he’s had to live with.
Meat Raffle _Still
Why is it important to present loving father-son relationships when one of them lives outside of the heteronormativity?
Because those relationships do exist, despite how messy and flawed they often are. Father-son relationships are often awkward, unresolved, and full of emotional short circuits at the best of times - especially in families where people find it hard to talk about how they feel. But even when queerness is in the mix, I think most families manage to find a unique way to show love to each other, and there's some real imperfect beauty in that.
What kind of connection or kinship do you hope your film creates with its audience?
I hope Meat Raffle speaks to people who feel caught between worlds. Especially queer people from small towns who’ve grown up with silence or shame in their lives. It’s also a love letter to northern dads who however misguidedly show affection by cutting you down with a joke or plying you with pints. But it's really important to me that this film acts as a window into what happens to the people who don’t (or can’t) leave their rural communities - and whether love and acceptance are still possible in places that don’t change easily.
There’s something quietly radical, I think, about setting a queer story like this in a Carlisle pub and unapologetically centring Cumbrian dialect, cottaging scenes in grimy gents’ loos and a dug-up 35mm film look. I want people to see their own rough-and-ready local characters and messy family dynamics reflected back at them - and maybe to feel a bit less alone in it all.
At the end of the day, Rich’s world still isn’t built for someone like him. But Meat Raffle is about finding a sliver of hope anyway. That if you can muster up enough guts tell the truth about yourself, that someone might listen.
Find more about the film: Meat Raffle
Solers United – Sara Harrak
How did your own experiences of community shape how you portrayed them within Solers United?
This film was inspired by my own five-a-side team in east London called Bangers FC. I wanted to show the strength of having a queer fun community and of course the potential and sometimes unavoidable love triangles in a football team. I think also being Moroccan brought up in London, are two worlds apart. Moroccan culture is all about sharing and being together, whereas London you are taught to live a more secular life. So, I see we all strive for connection and community and football was always a good place for me to get that and I wanted to share the power of team sports. This is not unique to just football other sports too.
Solers United_still
Why focus on the dynamic of friendships within the short story and why is that important in queer stories?
I think we don’t show the power of friendship enough in film queer/ straight. But even more so in queer stories. Friendships are so important in life. I always wanted this film to be about community first. It's a celebration of queer friendships and our allies too!
What kind of connection or kinship do you hope your film creates with its audience?
I want people to want to be a part of this dysfunctional team! Or even find their own tribe. As that is what it's about. These bunch of misfits coming together and somehow working no-matter what sex/gender/race/religion etc. I want to show people how none of this matters and it can come so naturally and this is the real beauty about grass roots football, is the unity.
Find more about the film: Solers United
Trailblazers – Sobia Bushra
What is the importance of found family especially in the wake of the rejection from blood relatives?
Rejection of this sort is mutual; because queer people choose freedom and an ability to live authentically over being tied to a blood family that suppresses those things. It takes a strong sense of self to choose to remove your birth family and community away from you. Yet this does not diminish the need for a family and community to exist in your life. Queer people, historically and across continents, have formed their own villages whether within the Hijrah in India or in Castro Street in San Fran. You need someone to mentor you through aspects of life, someone to be a sibling you create memories with, a group of people you celebrate your birthdays and milestones with, and people who you grow old with. Everyone needs this for a fulfilling life; and queer people, though sacrificing blood relations for self-liberation, are no different. This is why we see a global phenomenon among queer communities - the existence of ballroom in every corner of the world, including Wales. A culture modelled as a surrogate family for disenfranchised queers which strengthens their identity rather than suppress it. Historically, ballroom helped distribute resources and testing kits for LGBTQ+ people during the AIDS crisis, and it continues to support the community through suicide helplines and mental health resources. The importance of this found family culture cannot be overstated - it's the reason why many LGBTQ+ people are alive and thriving today.
Trailblazers _still
Do you feel that this concept is particularly significant for queer people of colour and Queer Asian people, if so, how is this explored in your documentary?
You're socialised towards filial piety and strong family relations in several global majority nations and cultures. Though these can be deconstructed and interrogated for their faults, they do leave a huge hole in your life should you choose to remove yourself from them. As such, it becomes especially painful for queer people who come from these cultures. You reject family because they reject who you are, yet you suffer from the loss.
'Trailblazers' explores this with my subjects lamenting on the loss of culture and family bonds which they had in their South Asian background. Nonetheless, this loss incentivises the birth of a surrogate family and inspires their unique art. The pain, the memories and the beauty of South Asian culture need not be separate from queer identity, and so Muz, Alia and Aiman reimagine them in their 'Kahani Raat' variety shows.
What kind of connection or kinship do you hope your film creates with its audience?
You watch queers lose their homes and find them again in Trailblazers. Which is why I hope that watching this film instills faith in the audience towards queer kinship, and how it can be built from scratch. Amid a hostile political environment in the UK, it is important for both queer and non-queer audiences to remember that the underdog is still welcomed in a family. That grassroots efforts of LGBTQ+ artists in maintaining community still persist. That a stage will always be built for the unheard, and an audience will find them. I hope Trailblazers becomes a powerful reminder of this.
Find More about the film: Trailblazers
Purebred – Caleb Roberts
How does Purebred deconstruct pre-conceived ideas of gay relationships?
Trans men are often left out of on-screen relationships with cis men, so I wanted to dig into what casual commitment looks like when there is the potential of an unplanned pregnancy. A scenario alien to most men in relationships with other men. It's a film that I've grounded in my own reality and the realities of other trans men who exist in gay relationships with cis men, so there's an intentional deconstruction of these pre-conceived notions from a totally authentic place.
Purebred_Still
How is the idea of kinship represented in your short film?
It's sweaty, gritty, unromantic, tender, exposed, and pleasurable all at once. Something anyone can find a part of themselves in because we all recognise the motions of this kind of relationship, no matter who or what we are. The cyclical nature of returning to something that isn't necessarily good for you, with time becoming less linear.
It's more in what's left unsaid. We see incredibly intimate moments spliced between two men in a living room who can barely utter the right words to each other. We're very much piecing together the connection, their obvious attraction to one another - and that kinship is messy and unpredictable.
What kind of connection or kinship do you hope your film creates with its audience?
Purebred was made in part to try to shift the narrative of transness being 'problematic' in a relationship. Identity labels are left at the door in favour of allowing the audience to slowly figure out what is happening, if they initially don't understand. Ultimately, I hope that people connect with this film for its grounded approach to a vulnerable narrative, led by two powerhouse performances from actors Pete MacHale (Owen) and Diarmuid Noyes (Seán).
Find more about the film: Purebred
