SQIFF & Document: FREE CeCe!
The Scottish Queer International Film Festival returns to Glasgow on 27/09 and runs until 01/10/17. We’re very excited to be teaming up with our friends at SQIFF to present a film during their festival weekend. FREE CeCe! (Jacqueline Gares, 2016) tells the story of trans woman Chrishaun Reed “CeCe” McDonald. On her way to the store with a group of friends, CeCe was brutally attacked and in defending her life, a man was killed. After a coercive interrogation, CeCe was incarcerated in a men’s prison in Minnesota.
An international campaign to free CeCe garnered significant support from media and activists, including actress Laverne Cox. Cox signed on as executive producer of FREE CeCe!, committed to exploring the role race, class, and gender played in the case. In the end, CeCe emerged not only as a survivor but also as a leader. The harassment CeCe faced is unfortunately all too familiar for trans women of colour. As Cox told the LA Times, “I might not be here if one day some decided to take it too far or I felt the need to defend myself and ended up in prison. But for the grace of God, I haven’t had to fight for my life in the same way CeCe had to that day.”
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Chryssy Hunter from Bent Bars Project, a letter-writing scheme for LGBTQ+ people in prison in the UK.
FREE CeCe! screens at SQIFF at 1pm, 01/10 at CCA. More details can be found here.
Buy tickets here or call CCA box office on +44 (0)141 352 4900.
Full details of SQIFF’s 2017 programme can found at their website, www.sqiff.org.
SQIFF will also present a film during Document’s festival weekend 19-22/10. All will be revealed at our programme launch on 18/09 and full details will be online shortly afterwards.