Welcome to the third edition of the Queer Spectrum Film Festival (QSFF) – a vibrant celebration of queer stories in motion. As Ireland’s first film festival dedicated to LGBTQIA+ people of colour and migrant voices, QSFF foregrounds powerful narratives shaped by migration, desire, nostalgia, intimacy, community, and transformation. This year’s theme, Tender Migrations: Queer Journeys Through Desire, Transition, and Healing, explores how queer lives are continually reshaped across borders, generations, and identities.
Responding to Ireland’s evolving role as a place of refuge and possibility for LGBTQIA+ migrants from the Global South and East, the festival moves beyond familiar coming-out narratives to centre stories of becoming, resilience, and belonging. Organised by Queer Asian Pride Ireland (QAPI) with the support of Screen Ireland and community partners, QSFF honours those who carry memories of home while courageously imagining new futures. These films breathe with vulnerability, resistance, joy, and the beauty of transformation.
Festival team:
Founder, director and programmer – Pradeep Mahadeshwar (He/They)
Festival management support – Prateek Bhardwaj (He/Him)
QSFF 2026 Juries: Dr Meishan Zhang (She/her), Kay (She/Her), Prateek Bhardwaj (He/Him)
Sponsors:
Screen Ireland
Certified Proud, Gay Health Network (GHN), Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre, Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride, LGBT Ireland, Dublin Bears, Maharani Gin
Collaborators:
Poz Vibe Tribe, TITE film festival, Dublin Lesbian Line
Supporters
GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival, GCN, Asian & Irish Community Connect CLG, The Gr
Special Thanks to
Greg Thorpe, Sam Ahern, Veda Lady and Jaime Nanci-Barron
QSFF 2026
Opening Film | Treat Me Like Your Mother | Friday 12th June - 18.30
Treat Me Like Your Mother
Irish Premiere
Directed by Mohamad Abdouni, Lebanon, 1 hour 15 mins, 2025‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’ uncovers intimate Transfeminine experiences within post-war Beirut. The documentary draws from an archive collected by the filmmaker over the last five years, in what is arguably the first photographic archive of Trans* women in Lebanon.
Amidst diminishing tolerance for otherness and escalated governmental oppression of queer communities around the world, and increasingly more so in Lebanon, the film resurrects the untold stories of four remarkable women, revealing fragments of a history that has since been lost, exploring four decades of the Trans* community’s social integration within the city.
Out Laws | Saturday 13th June - 14.30
Out Laws | Irish Premiere
Directed by James Lewis, Lexi Powner, United Kingdom, 1 hour 25 mins, 2025Friedel Dausab is at the heart of a battle centuries in the making. Challenging Namibia’s criminalisation of same-sex love, Friedel becomes a beacon of hope for countless queer Namibians longing for freedom and safety. Amid death threats, relentless public scrutiny, and the chilling spectre of a serial killer, Friedel takes his country to court.
The demonisation and incarceration of queer people is an ancient and shocking story of injustice - born in Tudor England, globalised through colonialism and amplified by christian evangelism today. Prominent queer historians trace the origins of criminalisation as Friedel joins fellow activists Rosanna (Sri Lanka) and Raven (Barbados) in London, where they prepare to deliver a rousing speech at Pride and await Friedel’s judgment.
TIGER | Saturday 13th June - 20.00
TIGER | Irish Premiere
A 35-year-old gay masseuse, working at a men-only massage shop in Tokyo and hopping between gay porn auditions, heads to his hometown one day after hearing his father is critically ill. His father intends to leave the house to his son and the dental clinic to his daughter. However, his sister denies Tiger his right to inherit, threatening to out him. Through time spent with a married friend he hasn’t seen in years, and while looking after his young niece, Tiger realises that he also wants to be part of a ‘family’ and begins to explore ways to build one in his own way through a ‘friendship marriage.’
Directed by Anshul Chauhan, Japan, 2 hrs 6 mins, 2025
Closing Film | Montréal, ma belle | Sunday 14th June - 19.40
Montréal, ma belle | Irish Premiere
Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother living in Montreal, has spent her life shaped by duty — to her family, her culture, and a loveless marriage. But when she meets Camille, a spirited young Québécoise, a long-buried desire is awakened. In the balmy and joyful Montreal summer, Feng Xia takes the radical step of choosing herself — embarking on a journey of forbidden love and long-overdue self-discovery. Her awakening becomes a profound reckoning with identity, exile, and the steep cost of liberation.
Directed by Xiaodan He, Canada, 1 hour 56 mins, 2025Short Film Programme | Living with HIV | Saturday 13th June - 17.00
Presented in partnership with Poz Vibe Tribe. 155 mins (including panel discussion).
Blending documentary and experimental filmmaking, this programme explores HIV stigma, queer survival, and resistance across different histories and geographies. From Tunisia’s hidden HIV crisis to Britain’s racist and homophobic response to AIDS in the 1980s, these films reclaim memory, visibility, and care as acts of defiance, offering a powerful reflection on resilience, activism, and the ongoing struggle for dignity, justice, and collective healing.
Directed by Yesmine Fersi, Lina Hamouda, and Minyar Mrabti, Tunisia, 45 mins, 2025Exile
In Tunisia, a silent HIV epidemic spreads within the country’s repressed queer community, hidden beneath layers of societal stigma and discrimination. The film tells the stories of two individuals who navigate the harsh realities of living in a country where their identities are illegal, and healthcare is inaccessible due to fear and shame.
Reframing AIDS (1987)
Reframing AIDS (1987) is a radical 35-minute documentary film by activist filmmaker Pratibha Parmar that counters homophobic and racist narratives surrounding the 1980s AIDS crisis in Britain. It challenges the "gay plague" rhetoric, examining state harassment and centring the voices of lesbians and gay men of colour. It is recognised as a crucial form of cultural activism that challenges one-dimensional, discriminatory representations of the pandemic. The film was featured in the "Women in Revolt!" exhibition at Tate Britain (2024-2025).
Directed by Pratibha Parmar, UK, 36 mins
Directed by Pradeep Mahadeshwar, Ireland, 14.30 mins, 2025Out of Shadows
The film highlights the, emotional, and intimate stories of queer migrants living with HIV, focusing on themes of self-love, identity, and overcoming stigma in Ireland.
Spanning documentary, experimental, and narrative cinema, this programme brings together bold queer voices from across the world. These films explore intimacy, identity, performance, migration, race, and belonging through deeply personal and politically resonant stories. From underground drag culture in Hong Kong and Singapore’s trans history to reflections on love, self-image, and queer desire, each work challenges systems of erasure and normativity. Together, they create a vibrant, emotional portrait of LGBTQ+ lives navigating vulnerability, resistance, and the search for connection.
Short Film Programme | Intimate Colours | Sunday 14th June - 15.00
Almost There
A young trans woman struggles with her appearance while getting ready to go out.
Directed by Mina Eusebio, Ireland, 1.57 mins, 2026Handsome Man
Being called handsome is such a weird thing, especially after being left out many times by different men. The handsome promised he would never allow himself to be hurt again, even after the right one just appeared in his life. Can the promise of true love overcome the fear of pain? Is it a risk worth taking?
Directed by Marcelo Núñez, Peru, 7:10 mins, 2025
Directed by Wenhao Shen, China, Ireland, 15 mins, 2026A ( ) Job Interview
A Chinese gay man attends a series of increasingly absurd “job interviews” that mirror the micro-aggression, negotiations, and power dynamics of gay hookup culture in Dublin.
The Art of Cruising
A gay man describes the frustrations and thrills of picking strangers up for sex and the intimate encounters that ensue in uncanny, deserted pockets of Singapore.
Directed by Fadzli Jambari, Singapore, 3:58 mins, 2025
Directed by Osadolor Osawemwenze, United States, 25:54 mins, 2025a_blurred_fluxx_00.avi
As an experimental documentary, a_blurred_fluxx_00.avi delves deep into the nuance of today's Blackqueer youth. This dynamic and non-linear supercut provides a carefully crafted audiovisual space for the multiplicity of Blackqueer self-expressions.
Twilight Ladies
Directed by Alexe Liebert, Alain Soldeville, France, 10:50 mins, 2026In the 1950s Singapore’s transgender community began to settle in the Bugis street area. Attracted by the street reputation as « the Montmartre of Singapore » tourists and sailors from all over the world came to enjoy themselves until dawn, sometimes being seduced by trans women dressed like divas. In the early 1980s, an urban renovation project planned to demolish the area.
We Were No Desert
Directed by Agustina Comedi, Chiachio & Giannone, Argentina, 13:00, 2025This short film was born from an installation by Argentine textile artists Chiachio & Giannone. In it, a group of dancers, wearing dresses crafted and sublimated by the artists, challenge the choreography of the "Pericón," the national folk dance, to question the portrayal of a homeland projected as white, binary, and civilised.
The film rejects the conquest imaginary that narrates a void erasing diversity: we were not a desert.
Where do we go?
Directed by Shabnam Singla, Estonia, India, United States, 5:58, 2026A letter from a queer, BIPOC daughter to her mother, describing her visit to a western dreamland, turns into a journey between this new city and herself.
Hong Kong Heels - 港出我天后
Directed by Elias Fritz, Carlos Laux, and Silió, Germany, Hong Kong, 20 minsPan lives two lives. During the day, he is the son of a traditional Hong Kong family. But at night, he transforms into the unapologetic drag queen Pansze Diva, entertaining the underground of the city. While building their own drag house, they are still figuring out their own identity.
Short Film Programme | Tender Migration | Sunday 14th June - 17.20
Across borders, languages, and generations, this programme explores queer survival, self-expression, and chosen kinship through intimate and inventive storytelling. Blending experimental works with powerful narratives, these films examine migration, gender identity, forbidden love, cultural inheritance, and resilience in the face of social constraints. From a transgender wizard searching for belonging to lovers reunited through memory and rebellion blooming amid political violence, each story reveals the fragility and strength of queer lives. Together, they form a moving tapestry of resistance, care, transformation, and self-acceptance.
My Love Is on the Reduced Shelf is an experimental short film that uses the metaphor of discounted supermarket products to explore power, desire, and intimacy within relationships shaped by migration, language, and colonial gaze
My love is on the reduced shelf
Directed by Leonardo Oliveira, Ireland, 2:30, 2026
Directed by Dasha Levin, Mason Cazalet, Mihika Das, Matthew Wisdom, India,
Ireland, Mexico, United States, 9:00 mins, 2025Handwoven
A lyrical portrait of Nikyle Begay, a non-binary shepherd and weaver; working to preserve their way of life through the traditional art of weaving.
Directed by Tathagata Ghosh, India, 24:39 mins, 2025My Comrade
When a wounded rebel accidentally takes refuge in the home of a tribal villager, both the men's lives spiral into a tense interplay of politics and forbidden love.
Circle
Directed by Ferhat Ertan, Turkey, 9:38 mins, 2025The chador brought to the tailor's shop will confront Arif with his own reality once more.
Merlyn's Beard!
Directed by Almudena Zúñiga, United Kingdom, 2:22 mins, 2025It is a funny, light-hearted story filled with magic and wonder; it’s a story about self-acceptance. It follows Merlyn, a transgender wizard who really wants a beard to fit in and match his idols. He and his trusty companion, a Main coon Merp, are trying new and creative ways to make beards. As they go wrong and he starts to lose hope, Merp breaks him out of his spiral and helps him realise he is awesome just the way he is.
Directed by Ronjay-C Fernandez Mendiola, Philippines, 17:33 mins4 Better or 4 Worse
Trapped in an abusive home and desperate to live as her true self, Jennifer risks everything to transition using unsafe, black-market hormones. When she reaches the verge of her death, her chosen family—Barbara, Tintoy, and Bianca—step in, joining beauty pageants to raise money for her survival.
Blending fashion, music, poetry, and performance, the film reclaims a language often feared and misunderstood, turning it into a celebration of identity, resilience, and artistic freedom.
Directed by Hadi Moussally, Lebanon, 5:00 mins, 2026Abjad Hawaz (أبجد هوز)
The Wandering Trees
Directed by Jianan Li, China, 23:54 min, 2025After watching a play about the wandering trees, a broken-up lesbian couple reunites and revisits their shared memories, exploring their current attitudes towards love to fix this doomed relationship.
A KIN SIN
Directed by Gulzar G, Canada, 5:29 min, 2025A young queer adult seeks to understand their transness amidst their familial and cultural wishes.
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Meet our Jury
At QSFF, we believe art is for everyone.
We look beyond underrepresentation on screen to address who gets to shape decisions behind it.
Our jury reflects this commitment, bringing diverse perspectives into the heart of the festival.
Kay
(She/Her)
Kay (She/Her) is a legal practitioner and human rights advocate whose work focuses on advancing LGBTQI+ rights, with a particular emphasis on Black and people of colour queer communities. She has contributed to research and advocacy on trans and non-binary rights with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. She has been actively involved in community support initiatives with Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre. She has participated in the National LGBTQI+ Activist Academy and a range of rights-based training, and has written on the lived experiences of queer and migrant communities.
Kay brings an intersectional, community-rooted perspective to her work, with a strong interest in storytelling that explores queer identity, migration, intimacy, and the politics of belonging.
Prateek (He/Him)
Prateek Bhardwaj is originally from Baijnath, India, and moved to Ireland in 2021. He has a background in Human Resources and studies in International Business.
Prateek is also an HIV activist and an active member of @pozvibepod, contributing to documentary projects such as Out of Shadows. He is passionate about migrant LGBTQ+ advocacy, inclusive policies, and community impact.
Meishan (She/Her)
Dr Meishan Zhang is an advocate for migrant rights and intercultural understanding. She is co-founder and director of @asianirishcommunityconnect and works as an Information and Advocacy Officer at Crosscare Migrant Project, supporting migrant communities across Ireland.
A Postdoctoral Fellow at Maynooth University (2023–2025), her research explores Chinese immigrants’ experiences of the Irish immigration system. She is the author of Chinese-speaking Immigrants’ Experience Navigating Ireland’s 2022 Regularisation Scheme, the first comprehensive study of its kind.
She holds a PhD in History from Trinity College Dublin and has led projects bridging research, education, and community engagement.