Nightfall – Queer Talks & Screenings #19 – Persisting Through Memory

All that’s left is eroded –
a duo film screening on queer memory

Filmmakers Diego Abbati and Laia Ricart are graduating Master’s students at HDK-Valand. Alongside with SAQMI, they screen their MA final films in a work-in-progress aimed at connecting with queer audiences. 

Ausencias by Laia Ricart (2026, 17 min) traces an inherited absence: a filmmaker returns to the silence surrounding her uncle’s death from AIDS, reflecting on stigma, fear, and what remains unspoken.

Eroded by Diego Abbati (2026, 17 min) moves through the shifting shoreline of Hanlan’s Point Beach, where queer histories are slowly submerging, yet endure through community, archive, and longing.

Together, the films gather fragments of poems, objects, and archive to (re)claim what time, shame, and erosion attempt to erase.  

Two films, two places, one shared act of remembering.

Voluntary entry. Support your local queer community!
Arrive on time. Limited number of seats.
The doors open at 18:30, The film screening starts at 19:00.
Afterwards there is a conversation with Laia Ricard and Diego Abbati. The conversation will be in English.

19:00 Filmprogram:
Ausencias by Laia Ricart (2026, 17 min)
Eroded by Diego Abbati (2026, 17 min)
Short break (ca 15 min)
20:00: Conversation:
Processes and memory talk with Laia Ricart and Diego Abbati and Theo Vasilopoulos (moderator).

More about the films and directors:

Eroded by Diego Abbati (2026, 17 min)

Hanlan’s Point Beach in Toronto is Canada’s oldest surviving queer space.

Today, erosion is slowly washing parts of it away. Eroded moves between paintings, home videos and present-day footage on the beach, tracing what remains as the landscape changes. James revisits his photographs of Hanlan’s in the 1970s, reflecting on cruising, gay visibility, and what has since been lost. Lez Beach, a sapphic collective, (re)claims space and representation through bonfires on the shoreline. Zack opens up about his painting practice, and how drawing becomes his way to remember. Brian shares home movies from his youth in 1980s Toronto, looking back on what it means to leave a legacy through images. Together, these voices reveal how a place persists through the people who return to it, even as the shore itself begins to vanish.

Diego Abbati is a Spanish filmmaker and editor based in Gothenburg, currently pursuing an MFA in Film at HDK-Valand, whose work explores connections between people, space, memory, and identity. His films examine themes such as immigration, exile, and queer experiences within evolving urban and ecological landscapes.

Ausencias by Laia Ricart (2026, 17 min)

Traces of life linger in objects, photographs, and poems, even when the person is gone. Ausencias uncovers the story of Miguel Ricart, who died of AIDS in the 1990s and whose figure was silenced within his family. Moving between interviews, photo albums, poems, tapes, and empty places, mother and daughter navigate Miguel’s absence.

The film meditates on memory, not to fully recover a life, but to understand the beauty in what cannot be fully retrieved. While deeply personal, Ausencias speaks to a collective experience: queer memory is shared, shaped by history, and carries the stories of many whose lives were silenced.

Laia Ricart is a Spanish filmmaker based in Gothenburg, Sweden, currently pursuing an MFA in Film at HDK-Valand. Her work frequently explores the queer experience in conversation with religion, tradition, and culture, defying, challenging, and intertwining them.

Theo Vasilopoulos (he/they) is a Masters student of Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg. Along with their studies they have been active in Gothenburg’s queer activist scene by co-organizing TDOR 2022 and participating in TDOR 2024, co-organizing and being involved in Reclaim Pride Gothenburg, as well as a performer for the drag collective “CULT of Drag” and a host for Trans Hälsoplattformen’s first two conferences on Trans Health. 

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.

Come inside for an uncompromisingly queer time from dusk till dusker. Shutting the doors, drawing the curtains and plunging into the exploration and understanding of queer moving images and the work behind them. 

ACCESSIBILITY – FRIGGA:
The program takes place on the ground floor, but there are some steps and small doorways. The narrowest door is 77cm. There is sound amplification but no ear loop. Feel free to contact us if you want to come and we will help you get a good place: info(at)saqmi.se or call: 070-6430151.

This event is supported by City of Gothenburg