In September 2025, we launched a new monthly event focused on queer screenings, researching lesbian visual culture and mixed-media sapphic cultural content. The original pilot series ran from September to November 2025, taking place on the first Thursday of each month, and was funded by Film Hub Scotland. Our most recent fundraiser event on December 5, 2026, has enabled us to plan an exciting new program of events for 2026. We will be taking a break for writing funding applications in January and February 2026 but will return with more events soon after. If you’d like to support us further, we also have fantastic Sapphic Cinema Club (SCC) merchandise available in our shop, featuring designs by the legendary Sasha Staicu.
This night is led by our guest curator, Nancy Holt, and developed in collaboration with our collective. The Sapphic Cinema Club is not just a space to watch films; it’s a place to gather, chat, read poetry, look at art, and realign with our community values. We celebrate the nuance and richness of lesbian film as a distinct genre. Through these screenings, dykes, sapphics, and queers can see their own sexualities reflected on screen and explore various cultural portrayals of queerness. We will reflect on how lesbian cinema has flourished both within and outside the mainstream film industry, from the DIY queer filmmaking scene of the 1990s to the rise of Hollywood’s blockbuster age of lesbian narratives in the 2020s.
Past Screenings
September: Go Fish (dir. Rose Troche, 1994)
Rose Troche’s Go Fish is a staple of New Queer Cinema from the 1990s, following a friendship group of lesbians who cross paths in attempts for romance and connection.Through familial friendships and recognisable aspects of queer dating, Go Fish is comforting in its presentation of a lesbian world. With a self-referential style of filmmaking, irony and humour tangle amongst poignant portrayals of what the lesbian identity means to those on screen and in turn, us who watch.
October: Pariah (dir. Dee Rees, 2011)
A coming of age drama, Pariah centres on a Black masc-presenting 17-year old, Alike, who’s sexuality and queer friendships are at odds with her church-going parent’s expectations for her life. This is director Dee Ree’s feature debut, and is a reflection of the intersectional lesbian experience. Alongside its moody but vibrant aesthetics, Ree’s film is, at its core, about acceptance, and how a lack of it from those we love can shape who we become.
November: Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too (dir. Su Friedrich, 1993)
Icon of the new queer cinema scene Su Friedrich takes us through a year of direct-action with the Lesbian Avengers, an activist group based in New York in the early 90s. This documentary centres the actionists through interviews and unqiue archive footage, showing their playful yet angry demonstrations that tackle oppressive law changes head on. Watch and learn lesbians.
Rose Bud (dir. Cheryl Farthing, 1991)
A sexy short of archival gold bringing us 90s lesbian fantasy at its peak
December: Scottish Premiere of a film by Lasse Långström & The Homosex Syndicate of Precarious Avant-Garde Artists
The Lesbian Alien Darkroom Fisting Operetta on Venus (2024, 14.5 min)
An outrageous, intergalactic operetta where sapphic desire collides with sci-fi camp.
And more…
