1987: While the other students wonder if new kid Robin is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in.

Director: Trevor Anderson
Cast: Vaughan Murrae, Dominic Lippa, Lacey Oake

Cast And Crew Will Be In Attendance On April 19th! 

Guest Attendees: 

Trevor Anderson – Director 

Vaughn Murrae – Star 

Alyson Richards – Producer 

Q&A on April 19th will be moderated by Peter Knegt

Get your tickets!

How does a queer cinema club turn two years old? With a two hour film written and directed by two trans sisters, starring two queer icons as two queer women who hatch a scheme to steal $2 million, that’s how!

Yes, on April 17th, it will have been 2 years since we had our fateful first screening at the Paradise Theatre. And to wish ourselves and everyone who has joined us a happy birthday, we will be showing the absolutely iconic 1996 directorial debut of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Bound.

A wildly inventive update on film noir starring Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly as two lovers out to take some of that Mafia money, Bound is an outrageous cinematic pleasure of the highest order. Stylish, sexy, suspenseful and so very satisfying, what more could you ask from a 1990s lesbian caper? Well, how about a jaw-dropping performance from the one and only Gushy before hand? And then drinks upstairs at Bar Biltmore after?

So come one, come all, to a very special birthday party. Get your tickets here, queers.

“Are you ready to redefine the meaning of sacredness in the name of all that is queer and holy?”

In the breathtaking debut novel Dayspring, author Anthony Oliveira blends fiction, memoir, and verse into heart-wrenching stories of passion, grief, destruction, and survival. This a story of a saviour, and the disciple he loved, a story outside of time and place of doomed figures from history and the trials of modern life. You have never read a book like Dayspring.

Join Anthony in conversation with journalist Peter Knegt as they discuss this “deluge of erotic and sensuous love that challenges our expectations of religious devotion."

ACCESS THE EVENT HERE from 10-11:30 EST on April 9th

To join the event you will need a computer, tablet or phone with the Zoom app. Headphones are recommended. This event will be a webinar, so the audience will not be visible, and you do not require a webcam.

It’s finally time for Tom Ripley, one of cinema’s all time great queer villains (Oliver Quick ain’t got nothing).

Just in time for the film’s 25th anniversary (and a few weeks before the Netflix reboot with king Andrew Scott debuts), we are bringing Anthony Minghella’s 1999 masterpiece to Queer Cinema Club.

Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel (yes, Tom Ripley and Carol Aird were born in the same glorious queer mind!), this film has everything you could ever possibly ask for: Italy, Aunt Joan, murder, Jude Law being the sexiest golden man who ever lived, Cate Blanchett and Gwyneth Paltrow BOTH mothering, Philip Seymour Hoffman giving us his very best 🚬 (sorry Truman Capote) and, of course, Matt Damon at the absolute peak of his powers.

What do they say about March again? In like a lion, out like a duplicitous gay sociopathic murderer? (If that’s not what they say then they should change it because that’s certainly been our experience).

Killer poster by the dark lord king Slick Satan. Tickets available here. See you March 27th 🔪

All hail the Prince of the Homosexuals! Our first Local Queeroes trilogy concludes next month with a celebration of the one and only legend that is Bruce LaBruce

On March 18th, we’re going to be showing LaBruce’s feature film debut, the absolute homocore classic No Skin Off My Ass.

Famously declared by Kurt Cobain as his favourite film, No Skin is the sexually explicit tale of a punk hairdresser who becomes obsessed with a mute neo-Nazi. Filmed in Toronto on a budget of just $14,000, it exploded on to the queer festival scene in 1991, and we could not be more excited to be screening it.

We are also so excited that Kurt Cumstain is going to be serving house down with a special performance before the show (Kurt Cobain would be so proud), and that Mitch Duncan has made us this stunner of a poster. GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

We’ll be back with a second trilogy of Local Queeroes come fall, and thanks so much to everyone who has come out to support this first (honestly pretty iconic!) round.

It’s almost that time again! The night of nights, the show of shows, the film lover’s Super Bowl… and once again, we are celebrating them in style at the Paradise. Yes, the Barbenheimer Awards Academy Awards are just around the corner!

On the evening of March 10th, Paradise Theatre is going to be throwing our second annual greatest Oscar viewing party north of Los Angeles – and you are cordially invited to join us. Hosted by the CBC’s Peter Knegt (who also runs the fabulous Queer Cinema Club series at the Paradise), this Oscar party is going to have everything: drinks, food, incredible prizes, a best dressed contest, a good old fashioned Oscar prediction pool, and of course, a live screening of the awards themselves up on the big screen where they belong.

The Oscars start at 7 PM (which please note: is one hour earlier than usual!), but the doors to the Paradise will open at 5 PM. Come early and fill our your predictions ballot, enjoy a themed cocktail, watch the red carpet and show off your own look.

The best dressed contest will be judged at 6:15pm, and the category is: your fashion interpretation of the nominated films. So whether that’s serving us Barbie or Oppenheimer or Poor Things or Maestro or The Color Purple (though let’s avoid offensive cultural appropriation or The Zone of Interest in general, please!), take this as literally or non-literally as you’d like. Just have fun with it!

Events poster designed by the wonderful Paul Twa, who fun fact: won the Oscar predictions contest last year!

Sunday March 10th, 2024

Doors 5 PM | Best Dressed Contest 6:15 PM | Showtime 7 PM

Seating for this event is assigned. For accessible seating please contact info@paradiseonbloor.com

Ground Floor Seating ($15.00 + HST/eventbrite fees): Access to the lobby bar throughout the show!

Balcony High Top Seating ($17.50 + HST/eventbrite fees): For groups of two. Hightop and table seating close access to our balcony bar and washrooms. Grab a drink without missing a moment!

Premium Balcony Seating ($20.00 + HST/eventbrite fees): Premium comfy leather seats on our VIP balcony!

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

Come celebrate the launch of Maurice Vellekoop’s (@mauricevellekoop) highly anticipated memoir “I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together”. Vellekoop will be in conversation with CBC Arts and Culture columnist Peter Knegt (@peterknegt).

Tuesday, February 27th
6-8pm
Lillian H. Smith Library
239 College Street
Toronto, ON

HOMO SAY WHAT? is back in the gaybourhood Thursday February 15th serving some Quality Queer comedy! Al Val headlines a fantastic lineup for a night full of lit laughs! Save $5 on advance tickets!

Proudly serving stellar stand-up in a fully accessible venue! Thank you Glad Day!

You don't want to miss this lightning lineup of comedians seen on JFL, OutTV, SiriusXM, Sketchfest, CBC Comedy, TikTok & more!

With RUSH KAZI, PETER KNEGT, GERALD YEUNG, BONEZ POLEY

Headliner AL VAL

Hosted by Canadian Comedy Award winner ROBERT WATSON

Thursday January 18th. Doors 7:30pm / Show 8pm. Glad Day, 499 Church Street (South of Wellesley). Tickets $15 Advance (+ticketing fee)/ $20 At The Door.

Our special bonus “Local Queeroes” screenings continue in January with Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Wessman’s essential, hilarious and wildly compelling love letter to Canadian lesbian herstory, Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives.

This 1992 documentary delves into the rich history of Canadian queer women’s experiences in the mid-20th century, weaving together contemporary interviews, archival footage, and a stylized fictional narrative based on the pulp novels of the 1950s. The women interviewed in the film recount stories about their search for the places where openly gay women gathered in urban centres, offering us an empowering history of lesbian sexuality in Canada that feels just as imperative 30 years later.

We are very excited that Lynne Fernie will be joining us on January 29th for the screening, and will stick around for a Q&A. You can also purchase this stunner of a poster by Kneekey Pea at the event! Get your tickets.

𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗢 𝗦𝗔𝗬 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧? is back in the gayborhood Thursday January 18th serving some Quality Queer comedy! Al Val headlines a fantastic lineup for a night full of lit laughs! New Years Special: Advance Tickets are only $10!

Proudly serving stellar stand-up in a fully accessible venue! Thank you Glad Day!

Featuring PETER KNEGT, DAPHNEY JOSEPH, GERALD YEUNG, KALI WILLIAMS

Headliner AL VAL

Hosted by Canadian Comedy Award winner ROBERT WATSON

Thursday January 18th. Doors 7:30pm / Show 8pm. Glad Day, 499 Church Street (South of Wellesley). Tickets $10 Advance (+ticketing fee)/ $20 At The Door.

A brazen musical manifesto with naked male chorus lines and literal singing buttholes? Sounds like the perfect reason for us to double down this November and give you a second Queer Cinema Club! 

On November 27th, we are offering up the first of 3 bonus screenings this winter, each feting a “Local Queero.” In this case, that Queero is the audacious, extraordinary John Greyson. We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of his seminal 1993 film, Zero Patience: one of the all-time greatest contributions to Canadian queer cinema.

A musical about AIDS, science, bigotry and sex (among other things), Zero Patience focuses on the imaginary encounter between explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton and “Patient Zero,” the notorious Canadian flight attendant wrongfully accused of bringing HIV to North America. It was Greyson’s second feature film (his first, 1988’s Pissoir, is also an absolute must-see for queer cinema enthusiasts) in what continues to be a remarkable and uncompromising career as a filmmaker, artist and activist (or often, all 3 at once).

Greyson will be in attendance at the screening, as will some other very special guests. Thank you so much to Mohammad Rezaei for creating the event’s wonderful poster, which will be available for sale at the screening. Get your tickets!

Comedy On The D* serves the hottest comedy party on the Danforth! Even in the cold months!

Don't be frosty, fall in love with our fantastic lineup of comedians bringing their best jokes to the newly named venue Epochal Imp! (formerly Mandy's Bistro, it's still at 123 Danforth Ave!)

SAVE $5 by signing up for our sponsor Freddie's Health Hub emails - Just type Discount Code YESFREDDIE at checkout! (limit two discounted tickets per purchase)

Featuring comedians seen on JFL, OutTV, SiriusXM, TikTok & more!

DAPHNEY JOSEPH, PETER KNEGT, JESSIE OLSEN

And headliner EVAN CARTER (CBC, The Comedy Network)

Hosted by Canadian Comedy Award winner ROBERT WATSON

Doors 9pm / Show 9:30pm. 123 Danforth Avenue (near Broadview). Tickets $20 (+ ticketsite fee)

Comedy is always better when you're sitting on the D!

*D stands for Danforth, obviously.

Presented by Freddie. Get PrEP prescribed online and delivered to your door, confidentially and hassle free. gofreddie.com

Accessibility: Epochal Imp has one step at its ground floor entrance with a portable ramp available at the door, making it accessible for mobility devices. Washrooms are located in the downstairs basement.

What better way to warm yourself up on a mid-November Wednesday eve than with Céline Sciamma’s blazing masterwork of intellectual eroticism, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Widely considered one of the great queer films of the 21st century, it was recently voted the 30th best film of all time by Sight and Sound magazine —- this despite just being released in 2019 (it was one of only a handful of films this century to make the top 100).

Set in 1770s France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire follows Marianne (Noémie Merlant), a painter commissioned to create a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) that her mother can use to elicit marriage proposals. Except Héloïse doesn't want to get married, and has so far refused to even sit for any painter. So her mother has requested Marianne pose as a new maid to gain Héloïse's trust — but she gains much more than that. And as the women begin to fall in love, Portrait of a Lady on Fire evolves into a stirring and glorious entry into the all-too-small canon of outstanding filmmaking both by and about queer women.

Formally adventurous and emotionally devastating, do not miss Portrait of a Lady on Fire when we screen it as our 20th (!!) Queer Cinema Club at the Paradise Theatre this November 15th. And speaking of fire, the film will be proceeded by a performance by one of Toronto’s holiest drag performers (and one of our all around favourite people), Gay Jesus themself. You can also buy a printed copy of the screening’s absolutely ravishing poster (by the extraordinary Keight MacLean) before or after the movie. Get your tickets!

It’s spooky season so we are bringing you Ian McKellen playing one of the queer masters of spook, James Whale, in the movie that *should* have made him the first openly gay man to win a lead acting Oscar (he tragically lost to Roberto Benigni), Gods & Monsters.

And that’s not all: the one and only Yovska will be serving monster on stage before the movie, and there will be a costume contest! Come dressed as your queer interpretation of a god or a monster and win some great prizes

See you October 25 at Paradise on Bloor where you can pick up a copy of this stunning poster made by the fantastic artist Sam Omand.

Buy your tickets now!

We are very excited (and a little bit 😈) to be continuing our collabs with MUBI Canada and bringing you one of 2023’s very best films (queer or otherwise) on the big screen: Passages, on October 2nd at 8pm at Paradise on Bloor!

Set in Paris, the film is an intense and intimate (the sex scenes are… truly outstanding) examination of our sexual and emotional impulses that is expertly directed by Ira Sachs, who has already offered us modern queer classics like Love is Strange and Keep The Lights On.

Tickets are available now (and they include a complimentary drink and some merch care of Mubi!). See ya at the movies, queers!

Who better to spend a September evening with than Vida Boheme, Noxeema Jackson and Chi-Chi Rodriguez!? These are the queens of To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, as played to perfection by Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo in this 1995 classic (which holds up way better than you’d expect).

These are the queens of To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, as played to perfection by Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo in this 1995 classic (which holds up way better than you’d expect).

One of the big films from the period in the “gay 1990s” when Hollywood briefly decided it was ready to make gay movies (see also In & Out, our September film from last year), To Wong Foo finds Vida, Noxeema and Chi-Chi on a madcap road trip across America. They’re on their way to the "Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant" in Los Angeles, but as anyone who has seen this film is aware, things don’t quite work out as planned.

We’ll be pulling out all the stops for this screening (as one should!), which will be hosted by drag novice Petra Knegtikova. Petra will be shown how it’s done on stage before the show thanks to a performance from Ms. Diana Sauss, and we might have another special guest up our sleeve too.

Get your tickets here, and also pick up this absolutely gorgeous poster by Toronto artist Doug Rodas, which will be for sale in the lobby before and after the screening.

On August 31st, we are teaming with up with MUBI to host the Canadian premiere of Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun!

Sun stars Silva as a heightened version of himself who spends his days taking copious amounts of ketamine while researching painless ways to kill himself as his maid (Catalina Saavedra) cleans up around him. Things take takes a turn when Silva runs into social media influencer Jordan Firstman — also playing himself — at a queer nude beach in Mexico, and then takes quite another when Silva goes missing (which his maid may or may not have had something to do with), leaving Firstman on a mission to find him.

A biting satire of class, queer culture and filmmaking itself, Rotting in the Sun is the late summer, graphic gay sex-heavy delight we've all been waiting for.  What’s more: Silva and Firstman will be joining after the screening for virtual Q&A! Tickets are now available here (and going fast). And sorry kids, you must be 18 years of age to attend.

RESCHEDULED FROM JUNE: Queer Cinema Club is co-presenting this 25th anniversary outdoor screening of Todd Haynes’ extraordinary film Velvet Goldmine with the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show.

Haynes transports us to London and New York of the early 70s in the film, which focuses on the fictional Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an enigmatic David Bowie-esque figure who fakes his own death to withdraw from public life. To explore Slade’s history, Haynes adopts the plot structure of Citizen Kane, with a pitch-perfect Christian Bale as Arthur Stuart, a gay journalist tasked with uncovering the mystery by interviewing people from Slade’s life, including his friend/rival/former lover Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) and his ex-wife Mandy Slade (Toni Collete), both actors giving career-best performances.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Venue: The Pavilions of Evergreen Brick Works - enter the site at 550 Bayview Ave 

Admission: Free/PWYC (no ticket required to attend)
Donations make our programming possible (click here)

Event details:
Gates @ 6 pm / Showtime @ 8pm
Food & alcoholic beverages for sale (no outside alcohol permitted - picnics are welcome)
Bring-your-own chair - Seating area is on paved ground at this venue
Films are screened with captioning
Please click to read about additional accessibility features
Content advisory: This programme is intended for mature audiences and contains sex & nudity, coarse language, alcohol/drug use, and mild violence.

Holy Trish! Because we love you with all our fart we are serving you Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (which is bisexual cinema canon, sorry) the way it was always intended: in a theatre with a shimmering audience!

What’s more is that we will be having queens Hillary Yaas and Messy Margaret performing something very special before the show *and* will be requesting everyone come dressed in Barb & Star-inspired garb. Whether that’s going full Trish or just wearing Tommy Bahama to head to toe is up to you.

Let’s throw caution to the wind like rock n’ rollers at the Paradise on August 16th, when you can also pick up this perfect poster by Kathleen Gros. GET YOUR TICKETS!

Queer Cinema Club is having its sweet sixteenth edition with a celebration of one of our all-time favourites: Cheryl Dunye’s new queer cinema classic The Watermelon Woman.

The Watermelon Woman stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young Black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a Black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to Black actresses during the period. Historic, hilarious, smart and sexy all at once, The Watermelon Woman testifies to the power of excavating legacies of oppression and in the process creates a progressive legacy of its own. Upon its release, it was the first American feature film ever directed by a Black lesbian.

Get your tickets here, and thank you so much to Amika Cooper for creating this absolute stunner of a poster (which you can purchase at the screening!).

Queer Cinema Club is co-presenting this 25th anniversary outdoor screening of Todd Haynes’ extraordinary film Velvet Goldmine with the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show.

Haynes transports us to London and New York of the early 70s in the film, which focuses on the fictional Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an enigmatic David Bowie-esque figure who fakes his own death to withdraw from public life. To explore Slade’s history, Haynes adopts the plot structure of Citizen Kane, with a pitch-perfect Christian Bale as Arthur Stuart, a gay journalist tasked with uncovering the mystery by interviewing people from Slade’s life, including his friend/rival/former lover Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) and his ex-wife Mandy Slade (Toni Collete), both actors giving career-best performances.

Admission: Free/PWYC (no ticket required to attend)
Donations make our programming possible (click here)

Event details:
Eats & Treats @ 7 pm / Showtime @ sundown (~ 9:00 pm)
Food & alcoholic beverages for sale (no outside alcohol permitted)
BYOBlanket & Chairs
Films are screened with captioning
Please click to read about additional accessibility features
Content advisory: This programme is intended for mature audiences and contains sex & nudity, coarse language, alcohol/drug use, and mild violence.

Jeopardy! icon and host of The Backbench podcast Mattea Roach revisits But I’m a Cheerleader, the wildly entertaining queer camp classic. Starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall, this biting, ever-relevant satire follows high school cheerleader Megan Bloomfield, who is sent to a conversion therapy camp when her straightlaced parents suspect her of being a lesbian. Join us for a special Pride Month Trivia edition of Loved It! and test your knowledge of this cult favourite, with a chance to face off against super-champ Mattea Roach! Hosted by Peter Knegt.

Get your tickets!