Out On Screen stands in solidarity with Black communities

Out On Screen and its programs, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Out In Schools stand in solidarity with Black communities fighting against injustice, institutionalized racism, and police violence. 

As we enter Pride month, we are reminded that before there were film festivals and parades there were protests and riots, often led by Black and Brown trans queer people. None of the rights and freedoms queer and trans people have gained, or have yet to gain, would exist without the work of Black queer and trans leaders, artists and thinkers like Miss Major, Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Dionne Brand, Faith Nolan, Kim Katrin Milan, Angela Robertson, and many other Black queer activists whose names may be unknown to us, but to whom we owe a great debt.   

We are a queer arts organization that values intersectionality, anti-oppression, social justice, respect, and equitable inclusion. We are nourished by the audacity of LGBT2Q+ storytellers and artists who join us to celebrate and illuminate the richness of queer communities on screen and in schools. 

We are committed to using our platforms to centre the artistry and stories of Black LGBT2Q+ people. Over the coming weeks we will be sharing films and educational resources that centre and highlight Black thought and stories. We believe in the transformative empathetic power of storytelling to change the world, and hope our communities will join us in this learning.

It is our responsibility specifically as an arts organization to remain committed to unlearning the ways in which we enact anti-Blackness. Black labour, skill and artistry has informed, benefitted and been appropriated by the arts community for decades, and it is unfair for the most marginalized members of our community to carry the majority of the burden to dismantle the systems that oppress them.

Our liberation is bound together. Black Lives Matter.