Q! Film Festival August 6, 2008

Q! Film Festival was founded in 2002 by some freelance journalists. Taking up films with queer and HIV/AIDS theme, it is the only film festival of its kind in the predominantly moslem country.

Over the years, the film festival has grown rapidly. Adding to the film screenings, there are also arts exhibitions, literature events, parties and film workshops. With the support of local cultural institutes as well as foreign ones and embassies, Q! Film Festival is able to showcase films from all over the world.

The expansion is not only in terms of size but also spreading to other cities. The regular festival is now touring to Jogjakarta in Central Java and Bali. While other cities like Purwokerto, Makassar and Surabaya has organized it once.

The launch of the festival in 2002 and 2003 was marked with some protests from some Islamic fundamentalist group, however, no harm was caused by the incident.

The festival's mission is to introduce alternative films apart from the main stream ones inthe cinema as well as to raise awareness on queer issues. The significant outcome is that The Human Righst Comission has added the protection towards queer people for the last 2 years. Furthermore, a non-profit organization for advocacy for queer people has been founded last year to accomodate the increasing needs.

Over 500 films and the total of 75,000 spectators have attended the festival for the last 5 years. International guests such as filmmakers, distributors, and festival organizers have attended the festival since 2003.

Q! Film Festival now is the biggest queer film festival in Asia in terms of number of film screenings and the total numbe of days. It has been officially acknowledged as a part of Teddy Award Section of Berlin Film Festival called 'Teddy on Tour" program since 2006.

Official Website: http://www.qfilmfestival.org/