QueerBee is a brand new platform for LGBTQI shorts, established to help queer filmmakers bring authentic queer stories directly to new audiences

At QueerBee we believe short film is a genre, short film makers are not only on a journey to another place. As a minority group - collectively LGBTIQ+ - the representation of ourselves in mainstream viewing is less than representative. In addition to this sorry state of affairs, our characters and storylines - where they exist at all – often perpetuate the mainstream stereotypes at the expense of more authentic voices. Queer shorts provide an excellent means of connecting with one another, validating our lived experiences, helping to change attitudes, improve confidence in individuals and our communities, and break down barriers.

QueerBee launches with a programme exploring ‘identity’. When we know ourselves to be something entirely different from the available models of gender, sexuality and love, our identities often take us into unmapped territories and place us at odds with the world.

QueerBee is an LGBTQI Community Interest Company registered with Social Enterprise UK (9851) and Cinema For All. A share of the profits is directed back into queer filmmaking and for hard-to-reach queer audiences.

The Devil is in the Details

Director: Fabien Gorgeart / France 2016 / 20 mins

Alexina is a trainee school teacher in a young girl’s convent in mid-19th-century France, who suffers unbearable pains. After examination by a doctor who questions Alexina’s gender and subsequently decides that masculinity prevails, Alexina works to find their own path forward.

Pillow Talk

Director: Louise Marie Cooke / UK 2017 / 7 mins

A coming-of-age film set in the early 90s, about the changing friendship between two teenage girls. Lucy suspects that Cara has feelings for girls rather than boys and she is determined to get the truth out of her, even at the risk of damaging their friendship.

Butch Coyolxauhqui

Director: Karleen Pendleton Jiménez / Canada 2016 / 4 mins

A butch lesbian tells the story of her queer body with the help of her mother and the Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui. She learns from her mother’s experiences with fatphobia, and from an artist’s vision of a wounded goddess. Produced as part of an LGBTQ health centre programme.

More Love. Less Prepackaged Bullshit.

Director: Neelu Bhuman / UK 2017 / 1.5 mins

Set to the soul beat of Assata Shakur, a trio of black transwoman, brown genderqueer person and a white queer cis man resist dystopia with a sweet bowl full of joy, intimacy and love.

Dusk

Director: Jake Graf / UK 2017 / 15 mins

Growing up in an intolerant 1950s England, young Chris struggles to fit into the gender roles dictated by wider society. After a more than tough childhood, Chris meets dream woman Julie and life lightens a little, but she is haunted by the growing feeling that theirs is a life half lived.

Change Over Time

Director: Ewan Duarte / USA 2013 / 7 minutes

An animated, experimental, personal documentary about the filmmaker's first year on testosterone from an impressionistic and poetic perspective.

Bear In A Bedroom

Director: Albert Koomen / Australia 2017 / 7 mins

As a bear dresses, he reveals more than just a hairy chest, he talks about the highs and lows of his life and the healing power of love.

Life’s A Drag

Director: Robin Royce Queree / Australia 2015 / 7 mins

Two old drag queens are making up for a final show and pondering on life. As Bettina prepares for her final performance, lifelong friend Alexis prompts memories that swamp the ageing queen, taking her through tears and laughter to the opening moments of her last big number.

My Aunt Mame

Director: Krissy Mahan / USA 2017 / 9 mins

As her elderly mother is admitted to the hospital, a butch dyke remembers her working class, butch dyke great-aunt. This is a funny/sad story about a gender non-conforming woman in the 1960s, who always did things her way, and how that legacy affected generations to follow.

Female Masculinity Appreciation Society

Directors: Jac Nunns & Angie West / UK 2014 / 12 mins

A sort of gentlemen’s club for queer women and those who love them. Follow Cookie and Foxy Ven in their quest to reach the arm-wrestling finals and discover the reason behind Rubyyy’s ginger moustache. Filmed at the iconic Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

QUEERBEE SHORT FILM FEST #1