Being a queer person of colour in a place like Norwich can sometimes be challenging, and perhaps even feel quite lonely. Sam Rooke, one of the creators of media company Psychic Visions and the film curator of Queerfest, understood what it was like to be a queer person of colour, and decided to create a space exclusively for people like them.

‘Most of my life I spent actually growing up in the middle east in Bahrain, where I lived until I was 18.’

‘In my teenage years, I always knew I was queer, but didn’t have the words to describe what that was. But as I also grew up in Bahrain, which is an Islamic country, you essentially didn’t see anything like that around. You don’t see queer people around.’

‘Coming to the UK, actually going to university here was just a huge culture shock.’

‘I’d say it was probably the pandemic from 2020 onwards that actually made me want to be more active and involved in the queer community here in Norwich. I think I was craving just to meet more people like me and to spend time in queer spaces after being shut away for so long.’

Sam moved to the UK in 2018 to study Film and English at UEA.

‘That’s when I got to start making and telling queer stories and using film as an outlet for me feelings and stuff I was curious about.’

Filmmaking at UEA is where Sam met a lot of their close friends. They all had a passion for film and media and decided together to form Psychic Visions.

‘It made sense for us to come together under Psychic Visions and grow as a team and advertise the kind of stuff we can do.’

Their favourite project they have done together is a film called Lesbian Vampires from Outer Space, a queer horror which is available to watch on YouTube.

Queerness is a huge part of what Sam does. Aside from Lesbian Vampires, Psychic Visions have created Jam Jar and are in the process of creating a film called Emily, both of which have a big focus on being queer. On their own, Sam created the queer film The Waste.

‘[The Waste] the first film I ever made … and that got screened at Queer Fest, which was really nice. That was the first year Queer Fest ever ran.’

Sam met the team behind Queer Fest, who asked Sam to be part of the Queer Fest team.

‘I’m their film curator. I basically organise everything film side of the fest.’

‘We’ve done loads more than just the film evening. We’ve introduced workshops, we had an extra international film screening, we had a fundraising event for our new film. It’s really been huge.’

‘What I really hope … is that we continue to be really community focussed and involved and involved and diverse and inclusive in the stuff that we do as well because that’s been really important to me being part of the team as a QTPOC [Queer Trans Person of Colour].’

Sam explains how being a queer person of colour often made them feel hurt and isolated. Together with two other queer people of colour on the Queer Fest team, Trish and Zana, they decided to create Simmer.

‘We were really tired of not feeling represented properly in spaces appropriately. We wanted a space to just be ourselves and allow QTPOC to come together and do things together and meet each other and talk and feel their joy and their rage, in a place that they weren’t going to be judged by white peers.’

‘[Simmer] came from a place that was actually so hurtful and dark for a lot of us, but creating something that is light and connective has given us space to love and be together is really beautiful and really inspiring.’

Simmer will be back in Norwich soon. Follow @simmernorwich on Instagram to stay up to date.

Image credit: @psychicvision.s on instagram