IMMA is delighted to collaborate with GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival to present four films from their 2026 programme on Living Canvas at IMMA.
Taking place at IMMA from 31 July to 3 August, the programme brings together four films with roots in Ireland, Argentina, Germany, the US, Taiwan and Colombia are a dynamic, kaleidoscopic snapshot of contemporary queer filmmaking. Reflecting a diverse queer community with infinite stories, each film brings a completely unique visual language and narrative drive to the screen, swinging from unspoken histories to dystopian futures, slapstick comedy to martial arts choreography. Yet despite their differences, each film displays a shared passion for untold stories and untapped creative energies, a perfect encapsulation of the wider GAZE 2026 programme.
Equator Song, Melina Florencia Pafundi Miranda, 15 minutes
Drawing inspiration from the imperial 1896 German Colonial Exhibition, where 106 people from Africa and Oceania were displayed as living exhibits, this film transforms the machinery of photographic representation into an act of defiance – a cinematic hymn to those who refused to be captured.
Credits
Director: Melina Florencia Pafundi Miranda
Writer: Melina Florencia Pafundi Miranda
Producer: Melina Florencia Pafundi Miranda
Country: Argentina, Germany
Runtime: 15’
About the Director: Melina is an Argentinean Filmmaker and film restorer living in Berlin. The sense of the intersection between image archeology and film philosophy is at the center of her oeuvre. She works mainly on analog film support. Installations, Film performance, and hybrid cinematic forms are the expressions that her works adopt, addressing the emergence of the image as a constitutive phenomenon of epistemologies.
PHOBOSPLUNKER, Bee Mulvihill, 4 minutes
A hungry inventor must traverse the inside of her own mind in order to defeat the source of sudden, wormy hallucinations.
Credits
Director: Bee Mulvihill
Writer: Bee Mulvihill
Producer: Bee Mulvihill
Country: Ireland
Runtime: 4’
About the Director: Bee Mulvihill is a 25 year old trans Artist and Animator with an adoration for the silly and surreal. She makes mixed media animations and art that utilize motion design, 3D, and Traditional animation.
ROAD RUNNER, Yaz Josiah, 7 minutes
A meditation on moving incognegro through the world as a Black person of Trans experience; a portrait of what it means to honor ourselves now, in motion, before the world catches up.
Credits
Director: Yaz Josiah
Writer: Yaz Josiah
Producer: Yaz Josiah
Country: USA
Runtime: 7’
About the Director: Born to Black American and Caribbean parents in Bedstuy, it was in North London where they were raised that Yaz discovered film as a medium for storytelling in 2010. In 2014 at 19, Yaz’ directorial debut short film Consent won second place in the Malala Yousafzai Youth Voice competition.
This was the catalyst and entry into study, subsequently earning their B.F.A four years later from the Film Conservatory at SUNY Purchase in 2019.
Yaz crafts finding freedom through a chopped and screwed experimental narrative lens with a focus in 8mm, 16mm & 35mm motion picture film.
In 2021 Yaz was commissioned as the DP and editor for We’re Going to Mars, a project funded by the Capital Cultural Fund and Senate Department for Culture and Europe, exploring the history of the first African space program. It was shot on super 8mm and digital cine cameras. Yaz’ super 8mm short film Proof of Existence, debuted at The Brooklyn Museum in 2024 as part of their 200th Anniversary Brooklyn Artist Exhibition.
Yaz currently resides in Brooklyn where they have been working as a filmmaker and editor in the industry for over a decade.
The Martial Forest, J Triangular, 8 minutes
In a dystopian present, exiled kung fu master Big Sister 13 leads a crew of trans and queer fighters to create the Martial Forest – a secret training ground where care is as powerful as combat.
Credits
Director: J Triangular
Writer: J Triangular
Producer: An An Chen, J Triangular
Country: Taiwan, Colombia
Runtime: 8’
About the Director: J Triangular is a Trans Masculine Non-Binary, experimental filmmaker, multimedia poet, spiritual artivist, and community builder. Born in Colombia and currently based in Taiwan and Medellín, their work explores the creation of avant-garde queer collectives, mental health, and activism against the stigma surrounding HIV. They view cinema as a spiritual practice—a sacred space for freedom. Their work has been exhibited across Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America, with recent features in prestigious institutions such as the New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum, Asian Art Museum, and Cinemateca de Bogotá, among others, as well as galleries like State of Concept in Athens, Greece.
Their collaborations with Visual AIDS, including the impactful web series “The Whole World is Watching” and the collaborative documentary project “Hope Drops” for Day With(out) Art, continue to challenge the stigmatization of HIV, bringing visibility and compassion. From organizing with local communities and creating music poems like Lunch Poems with Miss Expanding Universe (Ashley Yang-Thompson), showcased at Documenta 15 in Kassel, they’ve sought to amplify voices from every edge of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. These works document queer love songs, Trans joy, and the resilience of women living with HIV.