SCENE Fest - the LGBTQ+ TV and film festival coming to Manchester next month

A new TV and film festival celebrating LGBTQ+ TV and film is coming to Manchester next month, just in time for Pride.

Taking place at venues across the city, SCENE will kick off on 16 August, with six days of films documentaries and TV celebrating queer culture.

The event will be hosted at HOME, with the likes of The People’s History Museum, Aviva Studios, New Century Hall, Fairfield Social and the Gay Village also getting involved with screenings and events.

Opening night on 16 August will commence the festival, with a celebration of the iconic TV series Queer As Folk, celebrating 25 years since it first aired.

Director and creator Russell T. Davies and the show’s producer Nicola Schindler will host a screening of the first ever episode of the pioneering series, followed by a Q&A session, and then a party at New Century, which will be transformed into 90s Canal Street for the evening.

August 17 will be a dedicated John Waters night, in tribute to the legendary filmmaker, with a screening of Pink Flamingos and a cabaret party dubbed The Filthiest Carnival Alive, inspired by Waters’ muse, the drag legend Divine, with both held at HOME.

There will also be a series of ‘Camp Cult Musicals’ screenings, featuring the likes of Little Shop of Horrors, The Wiz and Grease 2, and Sunday family morning movies, including Hairspray and The Wizard of Oz, as well as a host of indie shorts and full-length features.

On the documentary end of things, there will be a screening of the remarkable India’s First Best Trans Model Agency, filmed over seven years among the trans Hijra community in Delhi.

Elsewhere, the life of the late DJ Tony De Vit is explored in Don’t Ever Stop, taking in themes of love, loss, gay identity, hero worship and AIDS, told through the lens of the 90s boom in dance music via his close friend and protege Robert Ferguson, aka DJ Fergie.

And then in Striking With Pride, the story of inspiring solidarity seen between the gay community and striking miners in the 1980s will be told – as dramatised in the 2014 movie Pride.

There will also be all kinds of other activities available, from walking tours to workshops to quiz nights.

For the full programme for the festival, and to buy tickets, click here…