Toronto’s Queer Cinema Club offers some scary screenings for Halloween
FilmLifestyleToronto Oct 28, 2024 Adrien Glazer 0
Looking to get in the Halloween spirit here in the city? Look no further than Toronto’s Queer Cinema Club, which is offering spooky screenings this month.
On Thursday, Oct. 30 the Queer Cinema Club will be showing director Luca Guadanigno’s 2018 supernatural horror-thriller Suspiria. Hosted and created by film journalist Peter Knegt in 2022 as a way to build community and revive local theaters after the pandemic, the club offers screening events of cult-classic queer films every month at the Paradise Theatre on Bloor Street.
“I found the sort of shutting down of the movie theaters and the whole element of the pandemic really sad, and it made me really miss it,” says Knegt. “I wanted to do something that utilizes the idea of movies as a way of community building. We don’t think of movies as something that builds community, but there’s something so special about watching a movie with a bunch of people from your community together in an audience. I think there’s something really important about that.”
The Queer Cinema Club celebrated its two-year anniversary this past April, and has done over forty showings. The screening events include special guests, drag performances, and exclusive poster art of the films by local queer artists – which are for sale at the event. Knegts says he makes an effort to include films that showcase and represent all areas of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It was very important to me to represent all the communities that sort of fit in under the queer umbrella,” says Knegt. “There’s just so many elements, you want to make sure that all of the diversity within LGBTQ+ [community] is represented in these screenings so that people can come and see themselves on screen and feel like there’s stories that connect to them.”
Most screenings pack the house, which Knegt says is very “heartwarming” to see.
Tickets for the Queer Cinema Club’s showings can be found on the Paradise Theatre’s website.
No comments so far.
Be first to leave comment below.