Brig sat down with Indigo Korres ahead of the Stirling leg of SQIFF 2023’s Trans-Generational Tour on May 11.
Who is Indigo?
Indigo is a Brazilian multimedia artist and she is currently the Scottish Queer International Film Festival’s Director and Programme Coordinator.
But she’s no stranger to the festival: “I’ve done various roles in the past since 2019 which has been really lovely.
“I remember in 2019, after I moved to Glasgow in 2018 … I heard they were hiring a videographer, so I just applied and I filmed some events for them.
“Then the year after it was during the pandemic, so I did some access work online for them.”
Indigo started her role as Programme Coordinator in 2021 and then also Director last July.
What is SQIFF?
SQIFF was established in 2014. It was, and still is, Scotland’s only queer film festival.
Indigo told Brig: “I think the festival is so important. It’s the main queer festival … there are some queer film clubs around in each city, but I feel like having the festival we bring the whole community together from different places.
“Something that I really enjoy about SQIFF, and it means a lot, is all the access work that we do with deaf and hard of hearing audiences especially, and with asylum seekers and refugees.”
SQIFF also has a ‘pay what you can’ ticketing system in place – meaning that cinemagoers can choose how much they pay for their ticket, ranging from free to £10.
“I feel like loads of other film festivals (not queer) have followed the sliding scale ticketing and some of our access work, which is really good and we want to keep improving the access over the years,” she added.
What films are being shown?
On Thursday, SQIFF is bringing two screenings to Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre: Trans Parenting, a selection of short films, and Framing Agnes, a documentary feature.
Indigo said: “In light of what’s happening in the UK right now [regarding trans rights], I feel like it’s really good to show some trans celebration, some trans joy.
“I feel like queer representation that we see on screen … it’s just created by cis people usually in the mainstream. That’s why I love curating films made by trans people, and also more on a low budget side of things, and more DIY and experimental.
“The programme that we curated is so important because all the films are made by trans people or in collaboration with trans people.”
Indigo’s inspiration for the tour came from trans history, hence the Trans-Generational title.
“I was basically looking through the Digital Transgender Archive and I found this magazine from the 90s called the Tartan Skirt, that was made in I think Inverness, and it was how trans people, trans feminine people, used to communicate.
“Then when I watched Framing Agnes, I thought it made a beautiful connection in terms of archives and different generations of trans people … that’s how the programme grew.”
What can we expect from SQIFF in the future?
Funding for the arts is a serious issue currently, and sadly SQIFF is no exception.
“I really hope that we get funding to be able to have the main festival and then go around on a tour around Scotland to more places than we’re going this time,” said Indigo.
“I also want SQIFF to grow to have a better structure, to be more sustainable and to have year-round staff. Right now we get project to project funding, so we don’t have funding for other administrative things throughout the year.”
Finally, Indigo told Brig: “I’m very excited for the tour! We did Inverness already and I’m excited to meet other trans people around Scotland. I feel like being based in Glasgow I only see one part of the community.”
If you want to get involved, tickets are still on sale for Thursday’s events. You can find more information about SQIFF here.
Indigo also has a GoFundMe to support her transition.
Featured Image Credit: Indigo Korres
Film, media and journalism student. I like writing about my inability to eat gluten.
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