About
About the Festival
Rainbow Reels Queer and Trans Film and Arts Festival celebrates, showcases, and honours authentic 2SLGBTQ+ stories and art.
Founded in 2000, Rainbow Reels is the longest running 2SLGBTQ+ arts collective in Waterloo Region. We have screened over 230 feature films and shorts and organized talk-backs, film workshops, cabarets, comedy nights, poetry slams, photo and visual art exhibits, zine fairs, markets, and dances. We showcase and feature 2SLGBTQ+ artists and makers to celebrate our authentic stories, multi-faceted and intersectional lives, and our diverse works of art. We emphasize issues of multicultural and gender diversity, encourage local and emerging 2SLGBTQ+ artists, and invite the broader community to see and discuss the thematic, aesthetic, and political concerns raised by the work of 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers and artists.
As a festival with anti-oppressive politics, we reflect on who we partner with and who we bring to the stage. We are committed to showcasing and highlighting artists and makers who have been marginalized in contemporary queer spaces, including Indigenous, Black, and racialized artists, and trans/non-binary artists, and artists with disabilities.
We are an independent arts collective run by volunteers, local artists, and organizers. We believe in the power of storytelling to help build a rainbow community in Waterloo Region that fights against systemic oppression by showcasing the struggle and beauty of 2SLGBTQ+ peoples.
As a festival, we recognize that queerness on this land is not new and strive to celebrate and highlight the stories of Two Spirit and Indigiqueer artists and makers. We organize and host events on the traditional territory of the Haudenosauenee, Anishnaabe, and Neutral Peoples. We are located in block 2 of the Haldimand Tract (Kitchener-Waterloo ON), land that is promised to the Six Nations of the Grand River. There has been ongoing colonialism and the theft of land on the Haldimand tract since the signing of the treaty in 1784. Rainbow Reels is funded in part by Kitchener and Waterloo, municipalities that profit directly from the displacement of Indigenous peoples. Our struggle for liberation as queer bodies is not outside of this current context of settler colonialism. We are committed to uplighting the voices of local Two Spirit and Indigiqueer organizers and collectives, such as O:se Kenhionhata:tie, or Land Back Camp. We encourage everyone to support them and the work that they do in connecting Two Spirit and Indigequeer youth to the land and demanding Land Back.
As a festival, we recognize that our struggles for liberation are also rooted in the work and activism of Black trans women. Pride began as a riot, and we are committed to honouring this legacy. As such, we do not support the presence of police at Pride and will never invite the Waterloo Region Police Services to our events or festival. We support ReallocateWR, a project of ACB Network WR, who are calling on the reallocation of funds from WRPS to reinvest in social services for community safety. Additional information can be found through the local chapter of BLM WR.
As a festival, we endorse BDS (boycott, divestments, and sanctions) in support of Palestine and condemn the use of pinkwashing by Israel. Our queerness will not be used as an excuse for violence. From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free. This means that we will never partner with Zionist Organizations as we stand against apartheid and settler colonialism. We actively endorse BDS as a festival through boycotting goods from businesses on the BDS list, boycotting the TLVFest in Israel, and never screening zionist films during our festivals. We encourage people to support Palestinian Queer organizations like Aswat. We encourage you to check out Queer Cinema for Palestine.
History
Rainbow Reels Queer and Trans Film Festival began in 2000 as a project of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG) on the University of Waterloo Campus. WPIRG was funded through a student levy fee and operated as an independent environmental and social justice organization on campus. WPIRG’s strong dedication to anti-oppressive work and yearly training in anti-O and anti-racism gave Rainbow Reels it’s foundational anti-oppressive mandate.
Shortly after it’s creation, Rainbow Reels partnered with Princess Cinemas in Waterloo to deliver it’s programming both on the University of Waterloo campus and in the city of Waterloo at a local cinema. While based on campus as an annual film festival, Rainbow Reels also began to partner with other campus groups such as the Women’s Centre, GLOW (the LGBTQ+ group on campus), and the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre.
Until 2016, Rainbow Reels was entirely funded by WPIRG and had an average yearly budget of ~$30,000. WPIRG would hire one Festival Coordinator, provide the festival with the support of one of their full-time staff, and supply the festival with volunteers from the university and city community. In 2016, Rainbow Reel’s funder and umbrella organization, WPIRG, lost their funding in a student referendum.
2016 was a year of rampant bigotry and hate on Waterloo campus. The far-right had begun to take hold in 2015 as a response to a stronger Palestinian rights organizing, endorsed and supported by WPIRG. The far-right students who opposed the work of WPIRG’s social justice mandate organized a referendum to get rid of WPIRG’s levy fee. After 40 years, WPIRG lost their funding and therefore had to cut their financial support of Rainbow Reels.
Rainbow Reels past organizers and volunteers did not want to see Rainbow Reels end. Therefore, they transitioned from a university based festival to a community arts collective. Turning to municipal and provincial funding in 2016, Rainbow Reels has continued to provide queer/trans arts programming as their own independent collective. As a community based collective, Rainbow Reels began to partner with local queer/trans groups and other collectives that were operating already outside of the university context (Apollo Cinema, LOL, Project Uprooted, Plan B, Spectrum, and the Gender Variant Working Group). Despite scaling back festival programming in 2016, Rainbow Reels has added three annual yearly events in recent years (Super Gay Cabaret, Holigay Market, Slow Dance) that help to embed the festival in the community, fundraise for and increase anticipation for the fall Film Festival. Due to securing grant funding and sponsorships, Rainbow Reels has only grown and continues to grow since 2016. With increased programming and more dedicated volunteers and core organizing members, Rainbow Reels is now a thriving, popular Festival that continues to hold strong to it’s foundational roots of anti-oppressive programming.
Join the Festival
Want to get involved? Send as an email. We are always looking for artists and other organizers to join our curation, event planning, and grant writing teams.