The was slated to be held last month in Uganda.
However, the LGBTQI+ film festival ran into difficulties. Homosexuality is still a crime in Uganda, so the event was originally intended to go ahead with attendees being heavily vetted in order to make sure the festival's existence was not leaked to law enforcement.
However, word of the festival did eventually get to the police, and according to , a raid of the venue was conducted on the second day.
This caused the remainder of the festival to cancelled - or, so local authorities thought.
Founder Kamagoa Hassan managed to find a way to keep the festival going in secret. He told that he felt obligation to the filmmakers to make sure their movies were shown to Ugandan audiences:
"People trusted us with their films," he explained. "We had to keep our word and make these films accessible to the people."
Despite not knowing what the police's next move might be, Hassan found a private residence to show the queer films that had not yet been screened.
Security was even stricter, with only a small number of trusted patrons being given information about the screenings via Whatsapp. Attendees were banned from taking photos, for fear of 'outing' fellow patrons to police or accidentally leaking identifying features of the building where the screening was being held.
Hassan that after the raid, the group did suspect particular people of tipping off the police: "There were people that we suspected who actually called the police last time, so this time around we didn’t tell them about the festival."
"It was a bit sad, because not all people got the opportunity to get to the rescheduled screenings," he added.
Hassan and his QueerKIFF colleagues are attempting to gain extended rights to more LGBTQI+ films, in order to make queer cinema more accessible in Uganda.
The group is also attempting to seek aid from a Ugandan organisation called Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF). In November, the group started working with Ugandan police forces to educate officers on how to engage empathetically with the LGBTQI+ community.
Hassan says he hopes to work with, rather than against, police for the next festival at the end of 2018.
"We want to work with HRAPF to make these films accessible to the Uganda Police," Hassan added. "Maybe we could show them one film and the discussion could start from there and by the time we have the annual Queer Kampala International Film Festival and we’ve had those opportunities of engaging with police… there’s no way they can say they’re bad for audiences."
