About
ChromaQueer – Film + Arts Festival will hold its inaugural event from November 7 to 9, 2025, at Arts Court in Ottawa.
The weekend festival will bring together local film and video makers from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities to share work with Ottawa audiences and network with creative peers. More than ten events will take over the Arts Court venue, with screenings held in the Arts Court Theatre and the DARC Microcinema. The Arts Court Studio Black Box will host installations, performances, and evening parties.
DEI Statement
ChromaQueer is a for-the-community, by-the-community arts festival taking place on the unceded, unsurrendered land cared for by the Algonquin-Anishinaabe people. The festival works to share intersectional perspectives and to support community health and wellness through artistic expression. We aim to platform underrepresented and marginalized voices within art and performance spaces, providing local artists more opportunities to access compensation and funding for their creative projects. Our goal is to curate a festival that is inclusive to all, and welcomes and supports people regardless of age, race, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, class or any other systemic barriers to artistic engagement as artists and patrons. We are fostering a community of queer people who are committed to hearing and affirming diverse experiences, needs, and stories with the goal of reducing isolation, strengthening connections, and improving our collective wellbeing.
We recognize that we, as organizers, cannot speak to all experiences and perspectives, and we welcome respectful discussion on how we can best meet the needs of all community members before, during, and after this first iteration of the festival.
We also recognize that language is ever-changing and imperfect. The language ChromaQueer uses is flexible and tailored to our audience which includes people with specific lived experiences, ways of self-identifying, and needs. We use a variety of terms and acronyms as convenient, though imperfect shorthand, including the word queer as inclusive of the broad spectrum of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, and as a part of our mission, we love and hold space for you. Language and values change from person to person, and so you may find a range of terms being used in the festival programming.
Who is ChromaQueer?
ChromaQueer is produced by Qu’ART (Ottawa Queer Arts Collective) and DARC (Digital Arts Resource Centre), alongside a number of Ottawa Community Programming Partner organizations including MAX Ottawa.
ChromaQueer gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the City of Ottawa.
Qu’ART is an arts collective of Ottawa-based arts professionals. Our goal is to heighten LGBTQ2S+/ queer artistic activity and broaden intersectional discourse in Ottawa through increased visibility and programming opportunities for under-represented queer-identified artists, within allied arts organizations and festivals.
Digital Arts Resource Centre (formerly SAW Video) is a not-for-profit, artist-run media art centre that fosters the growth and development of artists through access to equipment, training, mentorship, and programming. Our mission is to support a diverse community of media artists empowered by technology, programming and the exchange of ideas.
MAX Ottawa is a peer-led community organization working to support the health and wellbeing of queer men and trans and non-binary people.