SWARM

Overview

While the Mardi Gras Film Festival is returning with 166 LGBTQIA+-focused flicks for its blockbuster 30th edition, there's another film fest coming to Sydney as part of WorldPride. SWARM is a one-day fest showcasing queer filmmakers inspired by radical Black cinema.

Pulling together a lineup of independent films to be shown under the stars, SWARM is taking over the Skyline Drive-In in Blacktown on Thursday, February 23. Head to Cricketers Arms Road from 7pm to catch what the festival describes as "a once-in-a-lifetime-immaculate-corpse-of-throat-grabbing-films".

Among the filmmakers featured at the festival are trailblazing American director Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman), the Karrabing Film Collective, Tracey Moffatt (BeDevil) and local electronic musician e fishpool.

The night at the drive-in will be accompanied by a screening and panel discussion at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW). The free follow-up event will be popping up at the gallery on Sunday, February 26 and will feature three screenings as well as a discussion moderated by Jen and André of FBi Radio's Movies, Movies, Movies. You can book free tickets to the AGNSW event via the gallery's website.

As for SWARM, tickets are $35 per car, $20 per car for anyone part of the queer community, free admission for First Nations attendees and $15 per person if you want to head along without a car and pull up a seat outside.