We are proud to announce that Queercore in the Second City, our documentary exploring Birmingham’s thriving Queer Hardcore (queercore) scene, will be shown at Minor Attractions 2025 in London. This marks a significant moment for the film, extending its reach beyond the Midlands and situating it within a cutting-edge international art context.
Minor Attractions is a week-long art fair hosted at The Mandrake Hotel in London inviting global commercial galleries and not-for-profit art spaces, founded in 2023. Unlike traditional art fairs, Minor Attractions merges the formats of commercial exhibitions, non-profit projects, and nightlife culture. By bringing together artists, performers, curators, and audiences in one space, the fair creates a dynamic platform for experimental, adventurous work that challenges and expands the boundaries of contemporary art.
Taking place in October 2025, Minor Attractions will host a diverse programme of exhibitions, screenings, performances, and installations, showcasing voices and perspectives often marginalised in mainstream art contexts. The fair’s emphasis on risk-taking and hybridity makes it an ideal home for Queercore in the Second City, a film born from DIY ethos, underground culture, and radical community expression.
Produced and directed by Centrala and commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society, Queercore in the Second City documents the rise of Birmingham’s queercore scene, a community where queer expression, hardcore music, and political resistance intersect. The film captures the urgency and vitality of a movement that creates space for people to be loud, visible, and unapologetically themselves.
Through interviews, live footage, and reflections on the city’s history, the documentary situates Birmingham’s queercore within a broader cultural context. It explores how working-class identity, the legacy of heavy metal, and the city’s DIY spirit have shaped the emergence of a uniquely local queer hardcore scene, while also connecting it to national and international movements.
Screening at Minor Attractions allows Queercore in the Second City to be experienced not just as a documentary about music, but as a cultural text in its own right, a work that speaks to questions of identity, place, and belonging. By presenting the film in an art-world setting alongside visual artists, performers, and collectives from around the globe, the screening highlights the creative, political, and aesthetic importance of grassroots queer cultures.
This opportunity also brings Birmingham’s queercore movement into conversation with London’s cultural audiences, ensuring that the voices, energy, and defiance of this community are seen and heard in new contexts.
Queercore in the Second City will be screened at the Misha Hari Theatre as part of Minor Attractions’ Moving Image programme throughout the week. Please visit minorattractions.com for specific screening times.
The film was directed and produced by Centrala, with executive production and editing by Lexi Bushell, cinematography by Ryley Morton, Kimberly Barber, and Spence Hackett, and photography by Ryley Morton. Commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society, the project reflects the collective effort of Birmingham’s queercore community, without whom this story could not have been told.
We’re incredibly proud to take this next step in sharing the film and shining a light on the power of the Queercore scene.