Queer City Cinema presents Qaleidoscope: Queer Film and Performance Tour 2026
WELCOME TO QALEIDOSCOPE – QUEER FILM AND PERFORMANCE ON TOUR 2026
ST. JOHNS • MONTREAL • WINNIPEG • SASKATOON • VANCOUVER • VICTORIA
QALEIDOSCOPE will present film and performance art by Queer and QTIBPOC artists that explore, question and play with notions of identity and utilize queer artistic expression to propose and investigate diverse ways of looking at sexuality, gender, race and film and performance art itself.
Qaleidoscope Tour – Canada 2026 will be a well-textured assemblage of images, characters, ideas, and realities that collide in fantastical, personal, and playful ways to produce an ever-changing, multi-faceted film and performance art viewing experience.
Some films will focus on image, sound and abstract narratives; others present information, facts, and queer-forward realities; while others share the pleasure and pain of individual and collective identities. Refractive content includes experimental and artistically rigorous films as well as heavy-hitting and thoughtful topics such as feminism, race, racism, fat activism, class, colonization, Crip arts, politics, religion, violence, HIV/AIDS, gender and of course sexuality – all provided for their role in engendering awareness and insight on many levels.
Transgressive and subversive play is also an important characteristic in a number of films and performances, activating Queer City Cinema’s (QCC’s) mandate to reflect hallmarks of queer image making – in this case, film and performance art with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek disposition and sensibility; injecting the programming with moments of intelligent, incisive humour – film and performance art that pleases and appeases.
The Qaleidoscope Tours were conceived to promote the artistic vision of Queer and QTBIPOC filmmakers and performance artists whose work might not otherwise be shown in these parts of Canada.
These works, though falling under the banner of ‘queer’, remain relevant to the broader artistic communities in each of the locations, not only because of the subject matter broached but because many of the artists represented float amongst multiple disciplines within the context of film, visual and performance art. In this sense, artistic rigour and fluidity of experience are paramount in the programming for the tour.
Gary Varro
Executive & Artistic Director
Queer City Cinema and Performatorium
St. John’s Programming
WORKSHOP
Queering the Celluloid – Through Re-photography – With Elian Mikkola (FREE)
DarkNL Community Darkroom
College of the North Atlantic, 1 Prince Phillip Drive
Wednesday, October 7 – 2 to 7pm
Thursday, October 8 – 2 to 7pm
Space is Limited – Register Early. To register, please complete this form.
FEATURED ARTIST
Lou Sheppard Performance and Artist Talk (Free)
Friday, October 9, 2026
Performance @ 6:24pm (please arrive by 6:15pm) followed by informal Artist Talk @ 7:15pm
Theatre & Front Lawn – The Rooms – 9 Bonaventure Ave.
SCREENINGS
Each screening is different (see here for details)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10
SCREENING 1 / 7PM
SCREENING 2 / 8:30PM
Event is by donation – pay what you want/what you can
RESTRICTED – 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER
Eastern Edge Gallery, 72 Harbour Drive