UNCLE ROY
Directed by Keri Pickett | 2026 | USA | 87 min
Built on nine decades of professional and personal archives, UNCLE ROY follows the extraordinary life of globe-travelling-skater-turned-photographer Roy Blakey through the lens of his niece, award-winning documentary filmmaker Keri Pickett.
Born in Oklahoma in 1930, Roy dreamed of performing on ice. He began collecting figure skating programs and photographs, a collection that expanded over his lifetime to 44,000 items, including posters, costumes, and so much more. This love of figure skating also led Roy to a career in theatrical skating, performing globally with Holiday on Ice before becoming a photographer in New York.
Roy's photography captured iconic figures, including queer icons, while his work in male nudes pushed boundaries in art and publishing.
Growing up, Keri didn't know her mysterious uncle Roy until she followed him to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer. As their lives converged, a friendship began. After learning that her uncle was considered a "forefather of gay photography", she helped him reintroduce his portraits of a generation largely lost to AIDS.
FESTIVALS:
Thessaloniki International Documentary (World Premiere)
Content Advisory: Nudity, mature themes. Recommended for audiences 16+.
🔹 Followed by a 2:30 pm panel discussion: Lights, Camera, Cinema! in conversation with Thomas Waugh, Ruth DyckFehderau, & Matthew Hays
PANELISTS:
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Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Concordia University
Queer pedagogue, programmer, writer, critic, and activist, Thomas retired in 2017, after 41 years of teaching film/sexuality/queer studies. Author and compiler/editor of 15 books, his most recent is a personal collection of "self-writing" titled Writing in the Flesh: Essays on My Lives, My Bodies, My Families, My Places, My Movies (McGill-Queen's, 2026).
His works include five volumes on queer porn (1996–2007), I Confess: Constructing the Sexual Self in the Internet Age (co-ed. Brandon Arroyo, McGill Queen's UP, 2019), co-editing Queer Film Classics (19 books, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008-2019; 34 books, MQUP, 2021-2030), and the award-winning The Conscience of Cinema: The Work of Joris Ivens, 1912-1989 (Amsterdam UP). Thomas is also the founder of the Concordia AIDS Project/Community Lecture Series on HIV/AIDS (1993-2018), & Queer Media Database Canada Quebec (2006+).
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Adjunct Professor, Department of English and Film Studies
Ruth authored three books: a novel, I (Athena), (NeWest, 2023), and two nonfiction books, E nâtamukw miyeyimuwin: Residential School Recovery Stories of the James Bay Cree, Vol. One, (2023) and The Sweet Bloods of Eeyou Istchee: Stories of Diabetes and the James Bay Cree (2017), both with James Bay Cree storytellers. She has received multiple awards for her teaching, activism, and writing, including, most recently, the ASAIL Electa Quinney Award for Published Indigenous Stories. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and is hearing-impaired.
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Matthew Hays is a Montreal-based author and journalist. His work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and Cineaste. He teaches media studies at Marianopolis College and Concordia University, and is the co-editor (with Tom Waugh) of the Queer Film Classics book series (McGill-Queen's University Press).
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Kyler Chittick is a Graduate Principal Instructor in the Department of Women's & Gender Studies at the University of Alberta, where he recently completed his Ph.D. in political science. With Ron Byers and Rob Browatzke, he is also co-director of the Rainbow Story Hub Foundation, which seeks to uplift Edmonton's queer history through digital storytelling and public programming. His research interests land at the intersections of queer theory, sexuality studies, law, film, cultural studies, and contemporary political theory.
