Friday September 5
Doors 6:30pm / Screening 7pm
ODD Box, 2 Daly Ave. (2nd floor)
Pay-what-you-can
Suggested admission $10
Co-presented by Ottawa Trans Library
A QUEER’S GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL LIVING
A.C. Birch & Michal Heuston, Canada, 2023, 77 min.
Ottawa festival premiere
Blending zine-inspired animation, spoken word, and poetry with insightful interview footage, this lo-fi documentary collage follows four queer people from different religious backgrounds as they explore the intersections of faith and queerness.
We meet Summeiya, the genderfluid founder of Queer Muslim Network Toronto; Juliana, a bisexual teacher and former Baptist Christian; Vaibhav, a gay Hindu dancer; and Ari, a trans Christian Orthodox drag artist. Each person talks openly about their own spiritual journey, and their testimonies collectively open up possibilities for faith and queerness to connect rather than exist in opposition.
Recognizing the complexity of individual queer faith journeys, directors A.C. Birch and Michal Heuston have crafted an intimate work that prioritizes beauty over conflict and demonstrates that the process of reconciliation does not have to be tackled alone.
A.C. Birch & Michal Heuston
As self-described chosen siblings, and hopeful forever collaborators, we first and foremost made this film for each other. In the 2020 lockdowns, when there was little else to do besides sit on a couch with a friend and try to find new things to talk about, we began to explore our unique and complicated relationships with religion. Both of us were raised evangelical Christian and neither of us practice those faiths today. Sharing our experiences of coming into our queerness within religious communities was healing for us, and we began to dream up ways we might be able to have similar conversations with other folks.