Superbia Cinema presents four short LGBTQ+ 'coming of age' films at Ducie Street Mini Cini!
Following another sold out screening in February, Superbia Cinema returns to Ducie Street Warehouse Mini Cini this month!
Join us on Wednesday 30th March for our next showcase of incredible work by LGBTQ+ creatives from Manchester. This month’s Mini Cini theme is ‘Coming Of Age’, and we’re thrilled to be screening four short pieces of queer filmmaking curated by Joshua Hubbard. The screening will be followed by a special Filmmaker Q&A, where our host will be chatting to the films' creators.
Baba
Written and Directed by Sam Arbor and Adam Ali
Starring Adam Ali
Rejected by his family for his queerness and oppressed by his country for the same, reckless Libyan teenager “Britannia” gets an interview at the British Embassy, gateway to his childhood dream of stepping into the pulsing queer world that is Manchester’s Canal Street. But he needs his passport. Plagued by memories of his oppressive Baba but supported by his found family of queers, he sneaks back to the family house to retrieve it. There, an unexpected discovery strikes deep and forces him to question where his dreams truly lie...
Adam Ali is a British Libyan actor and director striving to celebrate queer Muslim visibility. He recently received a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance as ‘Zain’ in the season finale of Apple TV’s ‘Little America’. Directed by NBC’s Queer As Folk reboot director Stephen Dunn, Adam starred alongside Haaz Sleiman as they told the story of a gay Syrian refugee who dreams of being openly gay.
Sam Arbor won the BFI's annual "most promising talent" award at aged 16, with a prize of funding to make a short. Recently, Sam has created a short for the BFI / British Council's prestigious More Films for Freedom fund, and is assistant to BAFTA winning director Euros Lyn (Broadchurch, Black Mirror, Doctor Who, Happy Valley) on new major Netflix queer series 'Heartstopper'.
Ladies Day
By Abena Taylor-Smith
For Amma, a day in the hair salon has everything: fun, gossip, sheen spray and casual homophobia…
Abena Taylor-Smith is an award winning director and writer. Her strengths are directing nuanced performances; creating sensuous, colour pop aesthetics and telling hopeful but emotional stories about outsiders and misfits. She enjoys working in the spaces between comedy and drama.
Her award winning short films, Ladies Day for Sky Arts (2018) and The Best is Yet to Come (2019) both went to BAFTA and Oscar- qualifying festivals internationally including Palm Springs, Outfest, Encounters, Black Star and over 40 more. She is a BFI Flare Mentee and an alumnus of the NFTS Directors Workshop. Abena was a director trainee on S2 of Hulu's The Great (2021), a co-writer on an upcoming episode of a comedy-drama series for Channel 4 (2022) and is currently writing on a forthcoming YA TV project.
Come
By David McShane
Finn takes a regular route into a hookup. But a story shifts the landscape, making his usual pathway out difficult to find...
David has worked as a director and animator on award-winning shorts, TV shows, music videos and documentaries. His own work has premiered at Cannes in the Cinéfondation (2019, Solar Plexus) and the BFI London Film Festival (2021, Come).
Dragged Up
By Laura Jayne Tunbridge
In the Smarden family, the annual Queen of Sheppey Pageant is the highlight of the year... and the focus of every day in between. The family eat, sleep and breathe it. But Sarah? She can't stand it. In secret, Sarah explores male drag. While awkward and shy on the pageant stage, in drag Sarah is confident in a way she’s never felt in real life. Nonetheless, she knows it’s a side of herself her family would never accept. When Sarah gets caught in drag by her neighbour Scout, she shares her bold and brilliant drag world for the first time. As the pair grow closer, Sarah finds herself coming into her own but when her secrets are discovered everything is lost. Ultimately, Sarah must find a way to navigate her family’s desire for her to be crowned Pageant Queen, when really all she wants to be is a king...
Laura Jayne Tunbridge is a BAFTA and BIFA nominated screenwriter and director from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. As a queer woman from a small town, Laura is inspired by stories of women living at the edges of their communities. Laura has worked extensively in both the US and UK film and television industries for productions such as The Late Late Show with James Corden and for organisations such as the BBC and BFI. Laura wrote the fiction short Requiem (featured at our first Superbia Cinema event!) starring Bella Ramsey and directed by Emma Jane Gilbertson. In 2021 Laura completed work on Dragged Up, which she wrote and directed. The film was screened on Channel 4 and was nominated for Best British Short at the Iris Prize.