2020 16th Annual San Francisco International Queer Women of Color Film Festival

2020 16th Annual San Francisco International Queer Women of Color Film Festival

A group of 5 Black women with dark brown skin and medium brown skin sit on a concrete wall, smiling and laughing while looking at each other and straight ahead. From left to right, a woman with glasses and dark brown hair in short twists smiles and rests their forearms on their knees, wearing a navy windbreaker, black pants, and a silver ring. Next to them, a tall woman with dark brown hair styled into a large natural afro smiles and wraps her arm around the woman to her left, wearing light colored stud earrings, light colored watch, a black shirt with white text on red blocks of color that reads “life is good,” and blue jeans. In the middle, a woman with long black brown braids smiles at the camera with her head titled slightly back and arms resting on her knees, wearing multiple light colored necklaces, white shirt, tan jacket, and beige pants. Next to her, a tall woman with shoulder length black twists with gold beads smiles and leans into the woman next to her, wearing large reddish orange sunglasses, small light colored stud earrings, a black shirt, a yellow jacket with large silver snap buttons, and blue jeans. Furthest to the right, a woman with hair hidden under a beige baseball cap smiles at the camera and rests her hands on one knee, wearing small gold earrings, long gold necklace, black shirt with white graphics, dark colored jacket and pants. In the background, there is grass and green bushes with pink flowers on the left, and concrete stairs with green poles and railings on the right.

Welcome Letter

Greetings from Yelamu, the traditional unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone people, which is known as San Francisco.

This naming is crucial. The hemisphere that QWOCMAP inhabits, the entire Americas, from Canada to Chile, was founded on anti-Native and anti-Black racist violence, from dispossession and enslavement to policing and incarceration, that affects our safety to this very day.

QWOCMAP works to end oppression and advance abolition. We use film as protest, as respite, as imagination for a just future. This embodiment of art and culture is grounded in the spiritual and ethical aspects of Black and Indigenous resistance, and that of all people of color.

We welcome you to our 16th annual San Francisco International Queer Women of Color Film Festival. Our Festival Focus SafeSpace/NoPlace digs up the roots of injustice, showing how it seeds discourse and proliferates violence against our oppressed communities. From gentrification and displacement to the global pandemic, from the street to our homes, the safety of our communities is crucial to the new world we all need.

We want the films and discussions to connect us, even as we are physically distant from each other. We want to spark joy for you and galvanize your courage to act. When we act, we learn and change. And action, making the road as we walk it, creates hope.

We cherish working in solidarity with you to create justice.

With light, love, and liberation,
Alisha, Astrid, Cassandra, Christina, Kebo, Leis, Lynn, Mad, Raquel, Yara