Press/Media

Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival Press Release

Calgary's Fairy Tales Festival Opens with Timely Look Back at Landmark 2SLGBTQIA+ Rights Victory Amid Current Political Tensions

Looking for plans after Fairy Tales tonight?

Our friends and incredible supporters of the festival, KNetic, are hosting a Circus-themed party with Queer performers and wild vibes!

Bring your KNetic energy to the door and say you’re from Fairy Tales for $10 off your ticket, and a free one month membership!

#QueerJoy #LetsDance #KNeticRocks
💃✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨💃

🪩 Feel the beat. Witness the beauty. This is Ballroom, and we ARE SO READY. 🪩

​​This Is Ballroom (Salão de Baile) is a powerful documentary that takes you deep into the vibrant ballroom scene of Rio de Janeiro. 

Through dazzling performances, raw personal stories, and behind-the-scenes moments, this award-winning film reveals the fierce artistry, chosen family, and pure joy that define this electrifying movement.💃🏾🌈

This isn’t just about voguing and shade. This Is Ballroom explores identity, community, and resistance with heart and pride. With international acclaim from festivals in Portugal and Norway, this is a MUST SEE! 

🎉 Presented by our fabulous friends at @blackprideyyc —because what’s a celebration without good people and a snack or two? ❤️🍿

🌈Come for the show - stay for the vibes 

 📆SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 9:30 PM
 📍Contemporary Calgary

Link for tickets in the bio

#ThisIsBallroom #SalaoDeBaile #FairyTalesFestival #BlackPrideYYC #Rio #BallroomCulture #QueerFilm #ChosenFamily #LGBTQResistance #DanceIsPower #AwardWinningDoc #DanceYYC #SaturdayMood
🏳️‍🌈✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🏳️‍🌈

They said it was a phase, but what if it was everything? 

Get ready to feel SEEN 🌈 

Not That Kind of Phase is a tender, funny and fearless collection of short films that explore the beautifully honest journey of growing up queer.

From awkward first dates to punk-rock heartbreak, stolen moments, and profound revelations, these stories don’t just revisit the queer coming-of-age experience; they honour it.

🌈The Ick – Two young men meet for a first date. Things are going well until a revelation is made.
🌈I Had Sex But.. – A filmmaker explores intimacy and the emotional aftermath
🌈Su Twice – After being accused of theft at work, Su must decide between truth and self-protection 
🌈Dandelion –  finding love and heartbreak in the queer punk scene
🌈Kotowari – A poignant exploration of cultural identity and personal boundaries
🌈Theo’s Friend – a heartfelt exploration of friendship and growing up queer in a conservative environment.

🔥PLUS  a pre-show intro by the kind and incomparable filmmaker & curator @thekylemarshall —don’t miss it!

 📅SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 9:30 PM
 📍Contemporary Calgary

Link for tickets in bio!
#NotThatKindOfPhase #FairyTalesFestival #QueerComingOfAge #ShortFilmSpotlight #LGBTQCinema #QueerStoriesMatter #TheKyleMarshall #QueerYouth #PunkLove #ComingOutStories #FairyTalesAfterDark
🌈 NIGHT 1 was pure QUEER MAGIC 🌈

From the opening of 🎬Pride VS Prejudice, 🎬Tangled Hearts & Quiet Revolutions and The Astronaut Lovers, powerful panels, FIERCE performances and pre-shows and all of the LOVE in the lobby - Fairy Tales is officially off to a fabulous start ❤️

And we’re just getting STARTED! 

Don’t miss out - grab your tickets at at the door or 🔗 in bio, gather your friends and get ready for an EPIC night and weekend 🔥

Will we see you there? 

#CalgaryQueerArts #YYCArts #CalgaryEvents #QueerFilmFest #QueerFilms #YYCBuzz #WeekendVibes #QueerArt #QueerArtist
🎸✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🎸

❤️‍🔥The FIERCEST love stories are the ones we write for ourselves. 

1-800-On-Her-Own is a raw, electrifying deep dive into the life of punk-folk powerhouse @anidifranco, an artist who didn’t just make music, she made waves. 🌊

From founding Righteous Babe Records to fighting for reproductive rights, queer liberation, and radical independence, this intimate documentary reveals the soul of a woman who never stopped choosing her own path. 🤘

🔥 PLUS – We’ve got a SURPRISE for you—the incredible singer-songwriter, @amy_hef, will open the show with a powerful live mini-set! 

It’s UNFILTERED, It’s UNFORGETTABLE, It’s FIERCE 🔥🤘

This is the Alberta Premiere you don’t want to miss! 🎸

 📅SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 7:00 PM
 📍Contemporary Calgary, Dome Theatre

🔗 in bio for tickets! 

#AniDiFranco #FairyTalesFestival #QueerCinema #PunkFolkIcon #QueerLiberation #ReproductiveRights #RighteousBabeRecords #IndieMusicDoc #LGBTQFilm #AlbertaPremiere #FeministFilm
🌈✨ DJ SPOTLIGHT ✨🌈

We’re absolutely MESMERIZED to welcome Subliminal Rabbit to the festival lineup - a multimedia force that’s keeping Calgary’s underground scene deliciously magical! 🎨🎧✨

Fresh off creating mind-bending visuals for the Vienna Opera House and a feature in Mascular Magazine, Subliminal Rabbit is mixing raw DIY energy with high-art sophistication! This boundary-pushing artist serves pure imagination behind the decks and crafts immersive experiences that blur the lines between visual art, fashion, and sound.

His recent commission by Alphabet Mafia inspired a collection of hand-painted vintage pieces, while his DJ sets at Warm Leatherette and Pansy Club prove the dance floor is just another canvas! 🎨🔥

Currently creating waves in both international galleries and local queer spaces, Subliminal Rabbit continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible when art meets activism! Get ready for an experience that’s equal parts sonic journey and visual feast!

Plus, entrance is FREE while you browse our incredible artist market! 🌈🎨

📅 FRIDAY, JUNE 13 📍 Contemporary Calgary - Atrium

Performance Schedule: 

• First Set: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM 

• Second Set: 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM

#SubliminalRabbit #FairyTales2025 #FridayVibes #DJSpotlight #MultimediaArt #QueerMusic #2SLGBTQIA #CalgaryQueerArts #ContemporaryCalgary #YYCArts #FestivalVibes #FreeEntry #ArtistMarket #UndergroundScene
🚿✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🚿

💘LOVE shows up when we least expect it 💘 

Sauna reminds us what’s possible when we STAY OPEN to it! 

🚿Johan keeps all doors open when it comes to both love and sex. He finds freedom in Copenhagen’s only gay sauna, Adonis, where he not only works but also shares experiences with the other guests. 

For Johan, the city is a boundless paradise of opportunities filled with bars, parties, and one-night stands. But it is only when he meets William, a trans man, that he experiences love up close. 💘

The two must face the true meaning of intimacy as their love is put to a tough test, living in a society governed by rigid ideas about gender, love, and identity. 

Sauna is a bold and intimate exploration of love, desire, and identity in a world still marked by limits. 

 📅SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 7:00 PM
📍Contemporary Calgary, Heather Edwards Theatre

🔗 in bio for tickets

#LoveStory #FilmFestival #QueerFilms #FairyTales2025 #Sauna #QueerLove #LGBTQIA #QueerEvents #CalgaryArt #CalgaryFilm
🎶✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🎶

When everything changes, who do you become? 

Really Happy Someday explores just that in a vulnerable and powerful story of self-discovery and what it truly means to find your VOICE. ✊

🏳️‍⚧️Z, is a trans masculine singer, who bombs a pivital musical theatre audtion, unable to control his own voice after starting testosterone nine months earlier. 

To save his own life and livelihood, Z must rediscover himself and his voice. 

If you’ve ever felt lost or had to rediscover who you once were, this film is for you.

It’s about resilience, starting over, and the radical, beautiful power of finding yourself —the kind of love story we’’ve always needed 🩵
 
📅SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 4:30 PM
📍Contemporary Calgary, Dome Theatre

Link in bio for tickets!

#ReallyHappySomeday #QueerFilm #FairyTales2025 #TransVoices #TransMasculine
#TransStory #TransJoy #TransRepresentation
#Healing #SelfLove #QueerLove #FindingYourVoice #CalgaryTheatre #CalgaryFilm
🥊✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🥊

Get ready to feel INSPIRED, and SHAKEN to your core, Neirud serves up a daring excavation of memory, identity, and rebellion 💥

When Neirud passed, she left behind no answers, just silence, questions, and a shroud of mystery. But as the filmmaker begins to piece together the life of her enigmatic aunt, she uncovers the jaw-dropping truth. 😮

🎪Behind the shadows lies Gorilla Woman, Neirud’s controversial wrestling persona who lit up the ring in an underground all-female circus troupe across Brazil in the ‘60s and ‘80s. 

Neirud is a powerful reckoning with the past, uncovering a taboo-breaking love story and revealing the surpising nature of Neiruds role in her own family. 

💫 Expect to feel wonder, heartbreak, empowerment, and a fierce connection to the stories we inherit and the ones we’re never told.

🫶 JOIN US  for a special pre-show presented by our community partner @coloresyyc! Trust  us you won’t want to miss this!

 📅SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 4:30 PM
📍Contemporary Calgary, Heather Edwards Theatre

Link in bio for tickets!

#FairyTales2025 #FilmFest #YYCFilms #QueerFilms #QueerArtist #2SLGBTQIA #RepresentationMatters #YYCArts #Neirud
🔥✨FILM SPOTLIGHT✨🔥

❤️‍🔥Get ready to feel the sizzle of that SLOW BURN, Before the Break offers a cinematic glimpse into moments of buildup! 

It might just be the moment you’ve been waiting for 😉

If you’ve ever felt the ache of something about to change, the sharp edge of a goodbye, or the breath before the confession, Before the Break offers a collection of powerful shorts  that is going to hold you right there. 👀

Each of these films teeters on the edge of a revelation, a rupture, a reckoning, focused on the buildup: the charged silence before love is named, the weight of longing before it tips into action, the quiet heartbreak before goodbye.

✨Stimulants & Empathogens – A crush that collides with class, family, and identity.
✨Tapage – A night of escape turns into a lesson in letting go.
✨175 – A poignant love story focusing on the months leading up to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the UK.
✨Lost Hearts – A brief connection. A death. In 1992 Paris, memory and grief entwine as Julien looks back
✨The Dinner – There are some issues which cannot be left for later 

Intimate, political, and deeply human, these shorts explore what happens just before everything changes and we’re here for it! 😍

 📅 SATURDAY, JUNE 14 | 2:00 PM
📍Contemporary Calgary, Dome Theatre

Link in bio for tickets!

#BeforeTheBreak #FairyTalesFilmFestival #FairyTalesYYC #QueerCinema #QueerFilmFest  #Emotional #SlowBurn #CinematicFilms #ShortFilmSpotlight #FilmFestFeels  #YYCEvents