Casey Mecija shows award winning-film and performs at Queering the Waterfront

Casey Mecija screened her film My Father Francis and performed at the Queering the Waterfront event in November. Photo: Aneesa Mustapha/The Dialog

On Nov. 27, Casey Mecija visited George Brown College’s (GBC) Waterfront campus as a feature at the monthly Queering the Waterfront event.

Mecija is an accomplished artist, community organizer, queer woman and advocate for LGBTQ rights. She is also the former lead singer and songwriter for the group Ohbijou, who are now pursuing individual careers.

At Queering the Waterfront she showed a short film called “My Father, Francis,” which was her first solo venture into visual arts and short films, receiving the WIFT-T award (Women in Film and Television in Toronto) at the Reel Asian International Film Festival in 2013. The film was also chosen to screen at the 2014 Inside Out LGBT Film Festival in Toronto.

Mecija also displayed her singing abilities by performing her song “Balikbayan,” which in English refers to a box containing items sent overseas by Filipinos. Describing the song as being personal to her as a Filipino woman, she also said that “this song is about the struggles Filipinos go through to create a safe life for their families.”

She says that it was important for her to come to GBC because of the work being done for the LGBTQ community.

“I wanted to come to George Brown because I think this institution has a lot of great programming and organizing happening for the LGBTQ community and I have to support the efforts of the positive space program, it’s really important to me,” said Mecija.

Queering the Waterfront is a monthly meet-up for LGBTQ students at George Brown taking place on the last Thursday of every month.

For more from Mecija students can follow her on twitter at @CaseyMecija.