CanFilm Day 2026: Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance

Celebrate CanFilmDay 2026 with Vancouver Queer Film Festival!

Join us on April 15 for a special intergenerational, Pay-What-You-Can screening of Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance (2025), an award-winning documentary directed by Noam Gonick and our Troublemakers Film Project Bon Fabian: Bon Spirit (2016). Hopeful, uplifting and deeply rooted in community, this night is not one to miss!

About the Films

Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance

Spanning decades of resistance, Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance weaves together rarely seen archival footage and first-person accounts to trace the movements, communities, and acts of defiance that shaped 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in Canada, from the streets to the House of Commons.

Parade offers an urgent and moving reflection on the struggles that brought us here, and a reminder of what remains at stake. his is a film meant to be experienced together.

Parade: Queer Acts of Love and Resistance will be preceded by short film Bon Fabian: Bon Spirit (2016), to celebrate the upcoming 10 year anniversary of the Troublemakers intergenerational film program.

Panel Discussion

Stay after the screening for a 30-minute panel featuring local organizers and activists whose work bridges generations and movements!

About the Panelists

Bonaventure Fabian
he/they

Two-spirit elder Bonaventure Fabian (he/they) who is Red River Métis (Treaty one territory -born in  Winnipeg), living on Squamish. Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam territories (Vancouver) for 48 years. Involved in ceremony for over 30 years, and a Sundancer for 20 years, they were part of Kunsi Keya Sundance founded by Beverly Little Thunder for 24 years and are now part of the George Family Sundance, for where they have danced alongside the men and also assist in Sundance as needed as the 2 spirit elder. They are a  pipe carrier, and sweat lodge keeper, for over 12 years.They are sought out to support, advise, teach and lead ceremony for two-spirits, youth, adults, and staff through the Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA), Out in Schools, TransCare BC, Salal, Foundry, Right to Food, Rain CIty, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and St. Paul’s Hospital. Bonaventure believes we are all gifts as we are, wherever we fit on the spectrum. Warm, welcoming, creative and playful, they have a gift for connecting with people of all genders and orientations. They completed the Digital Talking Circle Leadership Program offered by the Four Worlds International Institute.

Fatima Jaffer
she/her

Fatima Jaffer is a longtime activist, journalist, academic, and photographer who has lived in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish lands for 30+ years. She has also worked as a community organizer, policy analyst, researcher, frontline advocate, filmmaker, and in media relations within various socio-political movements. She co-authored the online-book Beyond The Queer Alphabet: Conversations of Gender, Sexuality & Intersectionality (2012) with Dr. Malinda Smith, but is possibly most known for her activist photojournalism at various sites, from social justice protests to film festivals. Most recently her focus is on video-documentation of local anti-genocide anti-apartheid activisms.

Norma Lize Rhayem
she/her

Norma Lize Rhayem, a transgender activist and advocate from the SWANA region. Her activism started when she was studying journalism and communication arts, leading to her involvement with LGBTQIA+ organizations in the SWANA region and worldwide. Her lived experience, and work in Media and the Non-profit sector helped her to raise the voice about LGBTQIA+ issues around the world. Since relocating to Vancouver, she continues to fight for the rights of the trans community. She worked as a Sponsorship Coordinator at Rainbow Refugee, a Peer Facilitator at Mosaic, and a co-trainer at QMUNITY. Norma is currently working as a Communications Manager at Rainbow Refugee Society and is working on developing training materials to help raise awareness in workplaces and communities.

Moderator: Clio Lake

(they/she)

Clio Lake  is a public health advocate, community organiser, and poet living on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, & Tsleil-Waututh land. They are a director at Sagah, an organiser for the Vancouver Dyke March, and the Community Co-Chair for the BC Health Coalition. Lake completed a Master of Public Health at SFU, where she specialised in queer and trans health, social change theories, and protecting the dolls. <3 In 2026, they were a BC recipient of the January Award for 2S/LGBTQIA+ leadership.

About CanFilmDay

This screening is presented as part of National Canadian Film Day 2026, an annual coast-to-coast celebration of Canadian cinema featuring thousands of screenings across the country and around the world.