💡 Ever wonder why queer and trans history was never part of your high school curriculum? 
💡 Or why, even today, you’re still discovering famous queer people in history? 
💡 Or the hidden stories of what it was like to be queer or trans before 2020?
💡 Have you found it hard to find queer and trans stories on screen without going out of your way to look for them because they aren’t always making it into the mainstream?

Film can be a gateway to learning about and exploring queer and trans lives, stories, and histories.

But no film can contain centuries of complex history, so the more you know about the context the films are made in (or talking about), the deeper the access you’ll have to those films.

Living Out Loud is a place to start exploring and considering these questions with experts in queer and trans cinema, stories, and history.

Hi, I’m Alex Heeney, Film Critic, Curator, Theatre Nerd, Podcaster, and lover of queer and trans films

At Seventh Row, I help people get really excited about films — the kind that probably skimmed past the mainstream —  not just because of how they use the medium in new and exciting ways, including everything from sound design to structure, but because of what they invite you to understand about yourself, your experiences, and the world around you. 

My favourite way to do this is in unapologetically all-in group experiences (if you want a shallow dive on the latest Netflix dramedy, this is not going to be your cup of tea), because although I bring a huge amount of perspective, context, and expertise to the table, the real magic happens when we unpack films together.

Living Out Loud is a taste of those group experiences.

I’ve invited a group of thoughtful panellists to share their perspectives, and then I’ll be inviting you to join in that conversation — to ask Qs or share comments.

And on Day 3, I’ll screen a queer short film that ties many of the events’ themes together and facilitate a discussion about it with you and other participants.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve become more and more invested in queer and trans cinema (and TV and theatre and literature)  — and the queer and trans histories these films can illuminate. I often find myself identifying with stories about 2SLGBTQ+ characters even when I don’t share their identities (Patrick from HBO’s Looking is ME) because some part of their experience feels so close to my own.

I’ve been seeking out 2SLGBTQ+ films for years at international film festivals like the Berlinale, Cannes, and the Toronto International Film Festival and LGBTQ+ film festivals like Frameline (San Francisco) and InsideOut (Toronto).

The more widely I’ve watched, and the more political my thinking, the more aware I’ve also become of how important it is to understand queer and trans history to fully access queer and trans films — and all the levels they’re working on. At the same time, I’ve used film to help learn about queer and trans history.

Living Out Loud will give you access to people I have learned from who have shaped my thinking, and give you an opportunity to chime in, too.

As featured in…

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My books on LGBTQ+ films and filmmakers

Meet the October 3 panellists: Reclaiming queer and trans history

Join us for a lively conversation about why knowing queer and trans history matters and how film, theatre, and archives help reclaim stories that have been systematically erased. The panel features people actively engaged in reclaiming history — as filmmakers, educators, and historians — and invites you to bring your own questions and perspectives to the discussion. Join us live on Zoom from 2pm-4pm ET.

Elspeth Brown

Professor of History, University of Toronto + Director of the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory

Elspeth Brown is Professor of History at the University of Toronto where her research focuses on modern queer and trans history; oral history; the history and theory of photography; and queer archives. She is the Director of the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, a SSHRC-funded multi-year public humanities collaboration with community and university partners.

Her recently completed oral history project focuses on the history of the Pussy Palace, a Toronto queer women’s and trans bathhouse, including the 2000 police raid. She is in the beginning stages of the Collaboratory’s next oral history project, a history of drag king culture in Canada and the US. Recent articles in include “Trans Oral History as Trans Care” (with Myrl Beam, in Oral History Review) and “Archival Activism, Symbolic Annihilation, and the LGBTQ+ Community Archive” (Archivaria).

From 2014-2021, she served on the Board of The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBQT2+ Archive, including as Co-President. In general, she is interested in research creation in public oral history work; in ethical and energizing collaboration strategies; and the relationship between oral history and photography.

Emily Garside

Queer writer, presenter, DEI consultant, and LGBTQ+ educator

Beginning with a PhD on theatrical responses to the AIDS crisis and the evolution of LGBTQ theatre, Emily has since expanded her work into Queer cultural history, including writing books on TV, Film and Welsh Queer History.

Since leaving academia, she has worked with organisations like Bishopsgate Institute and London Playwrights to share Queer history and culture. She also works to develop diversity and inclusion in my other passions: Ice Hockey and Figure skating.

As an Asexual, non-binary, neurodivergent person, Emily combines lived expertise with research and knowledge to educate— and occasionally entertain.

Anamarija Horvat

Assistant Professor of Visual Communication and Digital Cultures at Northumbria University

Anamarija Horvat’s research expertise lies in queer and feminist studies, and her monograph Screening Queer Memory: LGBTQ Pasts in Contemporary Film and Television (Bloomsbury, 2021) examines how onscreen representation shapes our collective memory of queer memory.

She is currently co-editing the upcoming books Consuming Saltburn: Desire, Disgust and Contemporary Cinema (Palgrave, 2026) and the revised second edition of the Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality (2027). She has also published a number of works in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, Critical Studies in Television, NECSUS and Transnational Screens, and in other venues including edited collections and encyclopaedias. She is chair of the Feminist and Queer Workgroup

Angelo Madsen

Filmmaker

Angelo Madsen (previously known as Madsen Minax or Angelo Madsen Minax 2005-2024) is a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator. His projects consider how human relationships are woven through personal and collective histories, cultures, and kinships, with specific attention to subcultural experience, phenomenology, and the politics of desire.

Angelo’s works have shown at Berlinale, Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Tribeca, De La Warr Pavilion, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, REDCAT, Museum of Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, British Film Institute, and dozens of documentary, LGBT, and experimental film festivals around the world. His film, “North By Current” (2021), aired on season 34 of POV (PBS), was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, and won the Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight award, Best Writing award from the IDA and numerous festival jury prizes. A New York Times Critics Pick, “North By Current” has been called “A beautiful, complex wonder of a film,” by Rolling Stone and “A titanic work” by Criterion.

Angelo is currently releasing A Body To Live In (2025), about the world of body modification as documented through the lens of photographer and performance artist Fakir Musafar. Madsen is a Creative Capital Fellow (2025), a United States Artists Fellow (2023), a Guggenheim Fellow (2022), and is an Associate Professor of Time-Based Media at the University of Vermont.

Meet the October 4 panellists: Queer and trans storytelling

On October 4, we’ll ponder questions like, “How do we define a ‘queer’ or ‘trans’ story?” “Can queer perspectives be adequately represented within the same mainstream spaces that have excluded queer storytellers and storytelling for so long?” and much more! Join us live from 2pm-4pm ET.

C.J. Prince

Film critic and programmer

C.J. Prince is a film critic and programmer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His writing has been published in outlets including Indiewire, The Globe and Mail, and The Film Stage. He has also been on the selection committee for the AGH World Film Festival and is an associate programmer for the Future of Film Showcase. His work specializes in covering international film festivals and short films.

Subscribe to C.J.’s Substack, Acquired Cinema, where he keeps track of North American distribution status for films on the festival circuit.

Kyle Turner

Film and theatre critic

Kyle Turner is a freelance writer and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been featured in Slate, NPR, the Village Voice, GQ.com, and the New York Times. He is also the author of The Queer Film Guide: 100 Films That Tell LGBTIA+ Stories, out from Smith Street Books and Rizzoli. He is relieved to know that he is not a golem.

Subscribe to Kyle’s Substack, The Cinema at the End of the World

View Kyle’s Portfolio here.

Lena Wilson

Film and book critic

Lena Wilson is a Brooklyn-based journalist. Though she cut her teeth on film criticism, she also works as an essayist and culture reporter. Whether writing deep dives on the swans at her local park, interviewing her favourite filmmakers, or waxing poetic about nuns, her voice is incisive, thoughtful, and often humorous. Her work has been published in Slate, Seventh Row, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, and The New York Times.

You can find Lena’s portfolio and contact info here.

Wondering what it’s like to join a film discussion with me?

Here is what some of my members of Reel Ruminators, a monthly film discussion group, had to say about joining the discussions.

“Alex’s curation and ancillary materials have always been enlightening. I really appreciate Alex’s structuring of materials and the discussion session itself — the clips are super helpful (both to jumpstart convo and as a rewatch, which might spur other thoughts in real time).

The folks who join (in my experience) are overwhelmingly present/curious and not just there to sound smart.”
— Michael Borek, Reel Ruminators Member, USA

“We’re all very good at leaping off other people’s points, adding, redirecting, or disagreeing. There’s a nice group dynamic. The close attention to what each other is saying goes along with the close readings of the film. We will get into: “What did somebody mean in this precise moment?” Or “What did that cutaway shot tell us?” We really do have to think about things.

Maybe two of us feel like we’re making the same point, but coming at it from different angles, and that both of those angles need to be articulated. It helps us see where the viewpoints do and don’t meet up. Especially if there’s a third person who’s uncertain about something, two people are able to come in with their explanations that may boil down to something very similar, but the articulation is very different. One articulation might work better for the confused person than another one.

Sometimes, you just realize what you think while you hear someone argue something different. You may not have been sure what you thought about something, and then somebody tries to explain it, you go, ‘No, no, I don’t think it’s that! I think it’s actually something else. It helps clarify your own thought processes.’

“When I’m watching films for Reel Ruminators, I’m paying more attention to how they’re put together and how they’re constructing my perceptions — noticing the shifts in my feelings, what changes my view of a character, when the camera holds back or moves in. I’m doing that more on a first watch now, not just on my 15th watch of a favourite.”
– Hazel Shaw, Reel Ruminators Member

“Alex knows a tremendous amount about film and isn’t just focused on one aspect, for example, the characters or the story, but looks at its entirety. This has allowed me to have a deeper experience of each film than I would usually have.

I don’t want to take a course, and I’m not trying to become a director, but I want to heighten my appreciation of films. Reel Ruminators has helped me do that. I think about what the score is doing and what it’s saying. I think about frame composition in a way I never did before. I just pay more attention now!”
– Nancy Mills, Reel Ruminators Member, USA

FAQs

How do I attend?

Living Out Loud is a completely online event, held on Zoom, and is free to attend.

When you sign up, you’ll get a Zoom link for each session, as well as reminders before we go live.

Will there be a replay?

All sessions will be recorded and available to everyone who signs up to attend the event for 14 days after the event.

Why should I show up live if there’s a replay?

The sessions are designed to be as much about hearing expert insights as they are about interacting with the experts and one another. More than half of each session is dedicated to a Q&A with the audience, allowing participants to share their insights and ask questions of the panellists. 

Each session will be shaped by who is in the room and what everyone is curious about. Attending live is the only way to be part of shaping that conversation.

Do I have to be queer or trans to join?

This space centres queer and trans voices and experiences from our panellists — but allies are welcome, too! 

Just come with respect, curiosity, and a willingness to listen.

If you’ve ever been moved by a queer or trans story or loved someone who identifies as queer or trans, you’ll feel at home here.

Can I come for just one session?

Totally. Whether you show up for one thing or everything, you’re welcome here. 

That said, I’ve designed this event so that each session builds on the last. So you’ll get even more out of the event if you can attend more than one session, as it will help fit all the pieces together. 

You won’t be behind or confused if you miss one, but attending multiple sessions will almost certainly make for an even more rewarding experience.

The recordings for each session will also be posted at the end of each day, so that you can catch up on anything you missed before the next session happens.

Is it totally free?

Yep! 100%. No upsells, no hidden fees. Just brilliant people, big ideas, and some excellent chats about queer and trans cinema and history.

Will this be super academic or more casual?

Somewhere in between. Several of our panellists are academics (or recovering academics), but many are not. This is geared toward a general audience of culture lovers curious about queer and trans stories and histories. 

So there will be no expectation of any academic background or fluency with academic or film terminology.

Think: thoughtful roundtable with friends who really know their stuff, not a dusty lecture hall.

Is this a safe space?

We’re doing our best to make it one. There are clear participation guidelines, active facilitation, and a shared commitment to respect, inclusion, and care.

One thing is certain: this is not a trans-exclusionary space! 

Who’s hosting this again?

The summit is curated by Alex Heeney, who runs Seventh Row, where she also curates films and facilitates conversations around film, including on the Seventh Row Podcast.

What if I sign up and don’t get any emails?

Tech can be tricky — check your spam folder or promo tab. The emails will come from contact@seventh-row.com. Still nothing? Email contact@seventh-row.com, and I’ll sort it.