Film

Eau Queer Gears Up for Fifth Film Festival at UWEC

Eric Christenson |

The documentary Kuma Hina will screen Sept. 25 at UWEC as part of the Eau Queer Film Festival.
The documentary Kuma Hina will screen Sept. 25 at UWEC as part
of the Eau Queer Film Festival.

The Eau Queer Film Festival is an especially unique chance to bring LGBT films to the Chippewa Valley every fall at UW-Eau Claire, and it almost didn’t happen. “It’s just the fifth year,” said Jerrika Christianson, the fesitval’s director. “It’s still a baby. The beginning of things is always hard to get off the ground, but it’ll always get easier and easier.” Funding is almost always a question for the festival, relying on last minute differential tuition this year. But Christianson is optimistic this festival will be a turning point. “We’re working extra hard this year to make sure that it’s gonna be the best and biggest so that next year, there’ll be interest in hopes to draw in funds to add to what we might get,” she said. “Because it’s always like, ‘Is it gonna happen? Is it gonna happen?’” For its fifth spin around the block, Christianson might live up to her expectations, having gone to two West Coast film fests — Frameline (San Francisco’s International LGBT Film Festival) and Outfest in Los Angeles — watching films and diligently noting which ones would fit Eau Queer. She and her team settled on over a dozen films like Derby Crazy Love, a documentary about rival roller derby squads, and Out In The Night, another documentary about four lesbian black women who faced negative media attention and wrongful accusations after standing up for themselves when a man tried to assault them on the streets of New York City. At Eau Queer, the latter’s director Blair Doroshwalther will do a Q&A following the screening.

Check out the full Eau Queer lineup below!