SAQMI Play

Trans Excellence first screening took place during West Pride June 12, 2026. The screening and the talk after was recorded and this is the edited version made specially for you to enjoy! It was a magic evening with a lot of queer trans joy and shared collective feelings. All of us together in a swetty room with and for trans people.

Welcome to enjoy a talk about moving images by and for trans people!

SAQMI creates an artistic space for and by trans people. With a fantastic film program as a starting point, we talk about what we have seen together after the screening. This year’s program is filled with visual experiences, existences beyond the ordinary, snails, mermaids and lots of music. See them in a room where trans is the norm and where w(å)ld is banned.

Below is the full film program that screened during the evening.

TRANS EXELLENCE PROGRAM:

Chevron Moustache
by Kolbrún Inga Söring, 2025, 18:15 min.
We Owe You Nothing
by REMBODY, 2023, 5:32 min.
Slugs, Snails and Slurs
by Zafira Vrba Woodski, 2025, 5 min.
Roads to Relief by Still Sam, 2024, 8:34 min.
Shapeshifter X by Raymonde Gaunoux, 2026, 36:48 min.
Total Length: 75 min

More about the films, artists and their work:

Chevron Moustache by
Kolbrún Inga Söring, 2025, 18:15 min

Chevron Moustache is a film born through my performative processes and creative writing. The film uses a script which was first a performance both in different installment editions but also in its entirety. The film takes on camp and theatrical essay film characteristics. Through processes of rethinking and expanding upon the story of The Little Mermaid a narrative emerges around body modification, desire and self representation – focusing on the euphoric experience of gaining a mascara moustache.

Kolbrún Inga Söring (they/them) is a gender queer artist based in Gothenburg whose work spans several areas of artistic expression from performance, video work and site-specific installation to community cultivation and cultural production. Their personal artistic research explores possibilities of using the body as an autonomous site of provocation; problematising cis-heteronormative ideals while questioning the deeply rooted myth of masculine desire. Söring uses a process of performative writing: rethinking popular narratives by unpacking their own troubled relationship with said ideals and desires within a framework of self-representational body politics, body modification and politics of desire. Söring is best known in Gothenburg for their work with their artist duo Status Queer, and their collective CULT of Drag, their free Drag school Initiations, their extensive engagement in engagi ng with, building and providing culture to and by LGBTQIA+ individuals. Söring has also worked extensively with SAQMI taking on various roles like: curator, producer, technician and social media manager.

We Owe You Nothing by REMBODY, 2023, 5:32 min.

The music video for Rembody’s debut song
We Owe You Nothing.

Video recording and production in collaboration with artists Kai Merke and Mo Moesgaard. Paper Mache Beings made by Anne Louise Fink and Mo Moesgaard. Recorded in the North Forest in Kulhuse, Denmark. Edited by Silas Lilo Jensen aka Rembody.

Silas Lilo Jensen works at SAQMI as a technician and podcast producer. They are a musician, artist and culture producer with many years of experience in organizing queer meeting places and events.

Silas Lilo Jensen jobbar på SAQMI som tekniker och podcastproducent. Den är musiker, konstnär och kulturproducent med många års erfarenhet av att arrangera queera mötesplatser och evenemang.

Slugs, Snails and Slurs
by Zafira Vrba Woodski, 2025, 5 min

Slugs, Snails and Slurs is based on questions and statements that trans people are expected to answer. Unlike in real life, where a clever answer could make the situation even more unsafe, the slugs in the film have an endless supply of flirtatious, witty and sarcastic comebacks.

Zafira Vrba Woodski is a Swedish-Czech artist, poet, death doula, and interfaith minister working in Sweden and internationally. Zafira’s artistic practice explores chosen kinship, queer historiography, grief work, contemporary archaeology, mental health, and trans perspectives. Alongside their artistic practice, Zafira runs High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies, offering support, ceremonies, and rites of passage for LGBTQIA+ communities. @revzafira

Slugs, Snails and Slurs är baserat på frågor och påståenden som transpersoner förväntas svara på. Till skillnad från verkligheten, där ett smart svar ibland kan riskera att situationen blir ännu mer otrygg, så har sniglarna i filmen ett evigt lager av flörtiga, roliga och spydiga svar.

Zafira Vrba Woodski är svensk-tjeckist konstnär, poet, dödsdoula och interfaith minister verksam i Sverige och internationellt. Zafiras konst utforskar valda släktskap, queer historieskrivning, sorgearbete, nutidsarkeologi, psykisk hälsa och transperspektiv. Bredvid konstnärskapet driver Zafira High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies som erbjuder stöd och ceremonier till hbtqia+communities @revzafira.

Roads to Relief – a queer roadmovie
by Still Sam 2024, 8:34 min

Roads to Relief is a journey with the ambition to find the feeling relief. Through confusion and pain, but also care, rest and euphoria. The film is made out of around 5000 still images from the bigger project Stories of relief, collaborative portraits communicating gender euphoria.

Roads to Relief – a queer roadmovie är en resa med målet att landa i känslan lättnad. Genom förvirring och smärta, men också omsorg, vila och eufori. Filmen är gjord av ca 5000 stillbilder ur projektet Stories of Relief, som genom kollaborativa porträtt vill uttrycka känslan av könseufori.

Photography, editing and text: Still Sam
Soundtrack: Sebastian Kant
Collaborators/participants: Andra af Querfurt, Sian Hedberg, Alex Seth Sandahl, Jon Alm, Storm Dunder, Sebastian Kant, Still Sam

Still Sam works experimental with the collaboration as a central concept, looking for what emerges from connections and in-between positions. The collaborations stretches from experiments where the material agency is allowed to direct the way by embracing chance, to concrete collaborations between artists and to the meeting with the viewer in interactive installations. Their practice uses photography as a starting point, but does not stick to the medium. They work with stop-motion film, games, puzzles and interactive performances, among else. Currently studying a bachelor in fine art photography at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg after 25 years as a tattooer.

Still Sam arbetar experimentellt med samarbetet och det som uppstår i kopplingar och mellanrum som centralt koncept. Samarbetet sträcker sig från materiella experiment där materialets egen agens får styra genom anammandet av slump, till konkreta kollaborationer mellan konstnärer och till mötet med betraktaren i interaktiva installationer. Dens praktik tar utgångspunkt i fotografi, men håller sig inte till mediet. Den arbetar med bland annat stop-motion film, spel, pussel och interaktivt performance. Den studerar för närvarande en konstnärlig kandidat i fotografi på HDK-Valand i Göteborg, efter att ha arbetat i 25 år som tatuerare.

Shapeshifter X
by Raymonde Gaunoux, 2026, 36:48 min.

SHAPESHIFTER X is a hybrid music video documentary exploring transgender embodiment, narrative and voice through sound and image. Structured around nine musical chapters interwoven with interviews with transgender artists and advocates, the film aims to amplify transness and nuture transgender community within within artistic fields. Using archival footage from different stages of the filmmaker’s life alongside newly created material, the work connects past and present selves through sonic, poetic and visual collage, depicting emotional states of struggle, healing, and becoming through a transgender gaze.

Inspired by Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto and transgender interpretations of mermaid and seahorse analogy, the film aims to highlight the empowering nature of shapeshifting transgender bodies. The material for the music and film was created in collaboration with 28 artists and transgender advocates. 21 of these collaborators identify as transgender or non-binary.

Raymonde Gaunoux is a transgender danish-north american composer, singer and multimedia artist with an MFA in Experimental Composition & Creation from The Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. As a performing and composing artist, Raymonde has for many years been engaged with representing queer and transgender narratives in music and popular culture. He is currently working within the field of mixed media, that centers transgender visibility.

Credits SAQMI Play:
Producer: Anna Linder
Design and code: Vincent Orback
Composer: Amanda Lindgren
Recorded by Siri Landgren
Edited by Silas Lilo Jensen
Hosts: Juno Frisk and Theo Vasilopoulos
Original: West Pride 2026: Trans Excellence – short film program with SAQMI, Transammans and Reclaim Pride at SAQMI space Frigga, Gothenburg.
Publisher: Anna Linder

This episode is in English.
Please croll down for tips and links.

Welcome to SAQMI Play, the podcast that features queer artists, filmmakers and their work. For more information look in to SAQMIs homepage where you can see films and read more about the artists.

In this episode we feature a conversation with The Uneven production. A company co-founded by filmmaker Naures Sager and creative producer Michael Detlef, where their creative collaboration is shaped by their partnership in life and shared values. Their work centres queer SWANA perspectives, and builds a cinematic language grounded in relationality, emotional depth, and a refusal to reduce identity to stereotype. Their films carry a sense of dynamism, intimacy, humour, and vulnerability.

This fifteenth edition, curated by Anna Linder, took place at SAQMI’s headquarters Frigga in Gothenburg on May 29, 2024, and featured a screening of films followed by a live conversation with Naures and Michael, moderated by Careen Koleilat. Read more about the event here: Nightfall - Queer Talks and Screenings #15 - Naures Sager.

The films screened at the event was:

1-1 (2020, 7 min) by Naures Sager
Ayman’s sex date with Jonas gets crashed by his friends Amirah and Samir which takes a positive turn.

Habib & The Thief (2021, 15 min) by Naures Sager
Habib and The Thief is a sexy police and thief game between two Arab men and the thing they fear the most – a threat from the Arab world​​​​​​​.

A Queer Bird in the Middle East (2024, 17 min) by Naures Sager & Michael Detlef
The Iraqi-Swedish director Naures Sager travels around the Middle East to explore his roots, accompanied by his boyfriend Michael. Back in Sweden, he receives warnings from his concerned family about the potential consequences of being gay in an Arab country.​​​​​​​

+ Work in progress - a talk about upcoming productions from The Uneven production company.

The uneven stands for everything that is unbalanced in society. WE SEE THE UNEVEN - IT'S TIME TO GET EVEN! Read more about the productions company The Uneven + see a lot of films, clips and documentations.

Naures Sager is an Iraqi-Swedish screenwriter, director, and producer. He earned a BA in Film Production from University West in 2008.

Together with his partner Michael Detlef, Naures co-founded The Uneven, a production company that creates films focusing on LGBTQIA+ issues and MENA characters. Naures has directed the short films 1–1 and Habib & The Thief, as well as the short documentary A Queer Bird in the Middle East. These films have toured international film festivals and have been broadcast on SVT.

Naures has received the Best Project Award at the Haugesund Film Festival. He has participated in the Talent Project Market at Berlinale and the Producers Network at the Festival de Cannes. He serves on the nomination committee for Best Short Film at Guldbaggen (2023–2025). He also worked as an assistant director to Daniel Sawka on the feature film Love and Other Diagnoses (2026). Naures has released his debut single, Mako Mithli, an iraqi queer anthem.

Michael Detlef is a Danish-German producer and production designer. He co-founded the production company
The Uneven in 2019 and has produced the short films 1–1 and Habib & The Thief, as well as the short documentary A Queer Bird in the Middle East. These films have toured international film festivals and have been broadcast on SVT.

Michael has participated in the Producer’s Network at the Cannes Film Festival, the Talent Project Market at Berlinale, and the Feature Film Program led by Film i Skåne.

He co-produced the documentary Born to Fight (2026) with Tambo Film in Denmark and worked as a junior producer on the feature film Love and Other Diagnoses (2026) at Anagram Sweden.

Careen Koleilat is a Lebanese-Palestinian trans filmmaker and artistic researcher exploring diaspora, sensory storytelling and new relations between audience and filmmaker. With 17 years of international practice and as co-founder of Blue Fox Studios, they merge film, sound, and decolonial approaches to create immersive, dialogic, and boundary-crossing film informed spaces.

Credits SAQMI Play:
Producer: Anna Linder
Design and code: Vincent Orback
Composer: Amanda Lindgren
Recorded by Silas Lilo Jensen
Edited by Jessica Klingsell
Host: Careen Koleilat
Original: Nightfall #15, at SAQMI space Frigga, Gothenburg.
Publisher: Anna Linder

This episode is in English.
Please croll down for tips and links.

Welcome to SAQMI Play, the podcast that features queer artists, filmmakers and their work. This episode is a talk between the Swedish based artist, curator and educator Zafira Vrba Woodski and SAQMIs excellent moderator Sam Message.

The generous and funny conversation touched on several personal stories, thoughts and ideas such as Queer Love, Death, Sorrow, and Grief in the community of Trans people. What radical love can be and of course an insight into Zafira's artistic work with moving images and reflections on the films that were shown during the event. Saqmi’s queer audience is really the best ever. So many brilliant questions were asked, and so much heartwarming love was shared. Even a lot of tears were shed during the evening both on the screen and among the guests. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to a fantastic evening.

The conversation took place in the very packed headquarters of SAQMI in Majorna, Göteborg, 3 March 2025, and followed after the screening of Zafira’s films. The Nightfall event was curated by Anna Linder in collaboration with Zafira and included a selection of five videos between the years 2017-2021.

The conversation with Zafira Vrba Woodski and Sam Message followed Saqmi’s 17th edition of Nightfall – Queer Talks & Screenings – Zafira Vrba Woodski. You can read more about the event and the films on the site above.

Below is the program with all the titles that are mentioned in the podcast.

Filmprogram – Zafira Vbra Woodski

Himlen är fejk (2017, 16:45 min)
On Animals and Cleaning (2019, 7 min)
Trans People Applauding (2021, 1:45 min)
I’m continuously crying tears of estrogen and tears of testosterone (2020, 5:30 min)
Death is My Pronoun (2020, 14 min)

Nightfall is a night of queer talks and screenings. Inviting artists to share and talk about their work and their process. Nightfall is both a showcase for finished work and a queer peer review for work in progress.

Zafira Vrba Woodski is a Czech-Swedish artist, curator, writer, Interfaith Minister and Death Doula based in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Zafira works with video, performance, sound, photography, text and pedagogy. Their work explores queer kinship, contemporary archeology and trans magic. Alongside their art, Zafira is an advocate for trans rights and accessible/non-ableist sex education and runs High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies, offering spiritual support and celebrations to the lgbtqia+ communities.
Zafira is also a member of Punk Letters – a larger-than-life band that takes part in SAQMI series Queer Moving History.

Sam Message (they) is an artist and a community organiser based in Gothenburg. In their work, they explores how art and culture can be used to weave new connections between peoples in order to build a more inclusive society and a more sustainable LGBTQI community.

Tips and Links:

Web Page for Zafira Vrba Woodski + @revzafira

High Heel Funerals & Ceremonies

Familjepodden - En podcast om queert föräldraskap.

OTTAR - Utan oss ingen framtid Text by Zafira Vrba Woodski.

Queerstory - Podcast from 2018 with .

Creativity is spirituality - Podcast from 2021, season 2, episode 7: Navigating the Intersections of Intersectionality with Zafira Vrba, Artist, Educator, Interfaith Minister-in-Training

Radio RFSL - Podcast från 2024 med Zafira som gäst.

Recension av utställningen Transtillstånd i Tidningen Ångermanland. Skriven av Katarina Östholm den 27 november 2021.

Recension av utställningen Transtillstånd i Smålandsposten. Skriven av Janna Li Holmberg den 23 april 2025.

Credits SAQMI Play:
Producer: Anna Linder
Design and code: Vincent Orback
Composer: Amanda Lindgren
Recorded by Kolbrún Inga Söring
Edited by Matilda Friman
Host: Sam Message
Original: Nightfall #17, at SAQMI space Frigga, Gothenburg.
Publisher: Anna Linder

SAQMI Play is produced with support from City of Gothenburg.

This episode is in english. Scroll down for tips and links.

In this recorded talk, filmmaker Careen Koleilat reflects on over a sixteen years of their creative practice spanning from 2008 to present. Moderated by Amra Heco, the conversation navigates the layered intersections of Careen’s identity as a trans, Arab diasporic artist and how this informs their filmmaking, research, and experience within institutional structures.

The dialogue moves through themes of family, diasporic memory, displacement, and narrative form, centering a filmmaking approach that resists linearity and embraces fragmentation, embodiment, and sound. The screening program was curated by Anna Linder and included a selection of Careen’s works from the past ten years, offering a wide lens into the evolution of their artistic language.

The event was held in solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine, with donations collected throughout the evening to support grassroots relief efforts. Below you will find more about how you can help!

The conversation with Careen Koleilat and Amra Heco followed our 16th edition of Nightfall - Queer Talks & Screenings - Careen Koleilat.
You can read more about Careens films on the event site above.

Film Program for the Nightfall event November 21th 2024:

In Search – البحث
(2023, 3:22 min)
An essay film exploring archives, colonial erasure, and Careen’s search for personal history.

Carpet Session (2023, 3:56 min)
A fictional therapy session unfolding through a Persian carpet—about displacement, belonging, and memory.

The East Rises (2024, 2:50 min)
A visual poem exploring decolonial thought, language, and ancestral movement.

Deduction 2.0 (Work in Progress, 2:23 min)
A speculative essay film examining the use of AI and surveillance at Palestinian checkpoints.

Water Earth Wind Fire (2014, 7:20 min)
A dance and fashion film exploring the element of life through a versatile jacket.

From Where to Where – من وین لوین
(2023, 19:23 min)
A narrative short examining border control and bureaucratic power through a fabulatory lens.

Lost Arab (2022, 4:49 min)
A visual poetry film adapted from a collection of poetry by Omar Saker “The Lost Arabs” on queer Arab identity, migration, and gender.

Total Length ca 45 min

(Short Break)

20:00 - conversation between Careen Koleilat and Amra Heco.

Nightfall is a night of queer talks and screenings. Inviting artists to share and talk about their work and their process. Nightfall is both a showcase for finished work and a queer peer review for work in progress.

Careen Koleilat (@careenkoleilat) is a Lebanese-Palestinian trans/non-binary filmmaker, academic, and creative entrepreneur. With 17 years of global experience, their work challenges narrative structures and explores diasporic storytelling, often bridging the gap between filmmaker and audience through conversation labs, sensory and sound-driven approaches. Educated in Beirut, London, and Gothenburg, Careen co-founded Blue Fox Studios, a queer-led post-production company with roots in London and Dubai. Their practice transforms the screen into a site of dialogue, inviting audiences into immersive, layered experiences that echo with both distance and closeness.

Amra Heco is a filmmaker, radio producer, and human rights activist currently teaching film at HDK-Valand. Her artistic practice explores personal memory and its connections to sites of trauma marked by the erasure of people, cultures, and natural landscapes. Oscillating between storytelling and story-making, she employs diverse technologies to create a process that becomes an act of reconciliation, recollection, and reconnection with fragmented geographic or mental memories. Through intuitive engagement with these spaces and different forms of listening to what calls to be uncovered and addressed, each process gives birth to its own methodology of practice. Each piece thus emerges as a gesture of offering, envisioning new pathways toward a collective imaginary

You can still help and support:

SUPPORT NIGHT FOR PALESTINE AND LEBANON!!!

The situation in Gaza and Lebanon is urgent, and many people need immediate help. You can support by swishing the Palestinian groups emergency fundraiser for Gaza on 1239011578 or swishing (via Careen) a local grassroots movement in Beirut on 0703115969. SAQMI will during the evening donate all income directly to the fundraisers. IF you cannot attend, you can still help by swishing these numbers. Feel free to write SAQMI Koleilat. Thanks in advance!

Credits SAQMI Play:
Producer: Anna Linder
Design and code: Vincent Orback
Composer: Amanda Lindgren
Recorded and edited by Matilda Friman
Mixed by Matilda Friman and Careen Koleilat
Host: Amra Heco
Original: Nightfall #16, at SAQMI space Frigga, Gothenburg.
Publisher: Anna Linder

SAQMI Play is produced with support from City of Gothenburg.

This episode is in english. Scroll down for tips and links.

In this episode of SAQMI Play we’re diving into the world of animation, satire and world building that bridges between the animated and physical realms. Together we’re going to explore animation and its power to bring new worlds that lie long beyond our horizons to life.

The following conversation with Jeuno JE Kim and Sam Message followed our 14th edition of Nightfall - Queer Talks & Screenings - Animating Beyond the Horizon.

Here we asked: What does it mean when we reach into the utopian, the dystopian, beyond the real and the actual?

The screening took place in Saqmis headquarter Frigga in Gothenburg March 20, 2024 and featured an assortment of enticing films which tickled our animation fantasies.

First out was Twosome by Mette Hansen, followed by 902 by Ville Hulling, LAMINA by Kría Rán “Bibi” Söring, Who is Gunnar? En könslig historia by Tilda Lovell, Benjamin’s flowers by Malin Erixon and last but not least Whaled Women by Jeuno JE Kim and Ewa Einhorn.

Like i said, this conversation was part of our series Nightfall. Nightfall is a night of queer talks and screenings. Inviting artists to share and talk about their work and their process. Nightfall is both a showcase for finished work and a queer peer review for work in progress.

This edition of Nightfall was curated by Kolbrún Inga Söring and Sam Message in collaboration with Anna Linder.

So lets get stuck in with Jeuno and dig into their project Krabstadt and the processes behind it. Krabstadt is a fictional arctic borderland where nordic countries send unwanted people created by Jeuno JE Kim and Ewa Einhorn.

Visit Krabstadt here.
On this page you can see trailers, meet the characters, play a game, make a city tour and more...

Jeuno Kim is a visual artist with a background in religion and feminist theology. She holds a MA from Harvard University and MFA from University of Illinois at Chicago. From 2007-2009 she worked in the Critical Studies Program at the Malmö Art Academy while exhibiting in the US, Europe,and Asia, as for example solo shows at Overgaden Center for Contemporary ArtCopenhagen and Art Sonje Center in Seoul. She has been working together with Ewa Einhorn, developing a feminist animation project Krabstadt.

Kim is currently a BFA study leader and prorector at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and previously been a professor at the Funen Art Academy, and Senior Lecturer at the Fine Art and Craft department at HDK-Valand

Filmography Jeuno JE KIM
2015 - Sex & Taxes, 8 min
2013 - Whaled Women, 8 min
2010 - NSA/UNN, video installation, director
(with Ewa Einhorn)
2009 - The Collectors, short fiction, director, composer
2007 - The Janitor, short fiction, director , composer

Filmography, Ewa EINHORN
2017 - Tribunal-Spots, 2:50 min
2015 - Sex & Taxes, 8 min
2013 - Whaled Women, 8 min, director (with Jeuno JE Kim)
2010 - NSA/UNN, video installation, director
(with Jeuno JE Kim)
2008 - Atlas, short animation, director, animator
2007 - Milkbar, feature documentary, director
(with Terese Mörnvik)
2006 - Towards, short animation, director, animator
(with Misha Stroj)
2003 - Warszaw.Street.02, short documentary, director
(with Terese Mörnvik)
2000 - Microsort, short animation, director, animatior
(with Misha Stroj)

Ewa Einhorn is a visual artist and filmmaker working with animation, satirical drawing and documentary film. Einhorn received her BA from Vienna Art Academy, MA from Malmö Art Academy and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in NY. She is currently based in Malmö and Berlin. Einhorn has worked with animation since 2000, and her works have been screened at a.o Berlinale Shorts, Nordic Panorama, Busan Biennale, Torino Film Lab among others She has taught as visiting lecturer in universities in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, and is currently teaching in the Fine Art and Crafts department at HDK-Valand.

Credits SAQMI Play:
Producer: Anna Linder
Design and code: Vincent Orback
Composer: Amanda Lindgren
Recorded, edited and mixed by Matilda Friman
Host: Sam Message
Original: Nightfall #14, at SAQMI space Frigga, Gothenburg.
Publisher: Anna Linder

SAQMI Play is produced with support from City of Gothenburg.