The queer community in the Yukon is full of creative and innovative people doing interesting projects in the areas of the arts and business.

One of our local lesbians is a filmmaker named Heidy Enka, who has written and directed a film called Trauma Queens. Her film has been chosen to be screened at Entzaubert, a queer film festival in Berlin, Germany.

This film found its genesis through a scholarship Enka received in 2004 from Out On Screen. This program was put on by a film co-op called Video In in Vancouver. She wrote a full-length screenplay for Trauma Queens but chose the most cinematic portion to shoot this short film.

The film encompasses Haida culture and shows a girl coming out to her grandmother. The film explores this girl coming to terms with her sexuality and her spirituality.

Intersected in the theme is that of oppression and the church, not only oppression through residential schools but sexual oppression as well. The film is controversial in its themes around the Catholic Church.

Enka wrote, directed, edited and even wrote the theme music for the film. She calls it a film from the heart.

The actors all volunteered their time, and the woman who plays the grandmother had interesting real-life parallels to the film. At the time of filming, she also had a granddaughter who had just come out, and she had also attended residential school as a child, although she never experienced any sort of abuse.

Enka began her creative life as a student of creative writing and then theatre. She said there were no film studies at that time in her school, so the closest thing she could find was theatre.

She also studied music for many years, so her training in writing and music has served her well in her life as a filmmaker.

Her latest project has her leaving Berlin for Croatia, which is her home country. She is going to Croatia to research a film that explores many themes, including the war and its aftermath.

Enka’s film is being screened during Pride Week which is running until July 10. It will be part of other queer films being shown on July 7 at The Old Fire Hall.

Stay tuned for more details on this and other Pride events.

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