Films
Alice Junior
Gil Baroni / 2019 / Brazil / 87 min
“So folks, you know me as Alice Júnior. I’m trans, hard to beat, and ready for whatever there is to be.”
Fast-moving cuts set to pop samples and sound effects, a hint of glitz and a bagful of emojis. Alice Júnior is producing her latest YouTube video about the long-awaited first kiss. But when her father walks into her bedroom and announces in front of the camera that they will be leaving the vibrant Brazilian city of Recife and moving to a small, conservative town in the south, Alice has to prepare herself for the prudery and small-mindedness she will confront there. The transgender teenager, played by the blogger Anne Celestino Mota, doesn’t let the initial hostility get her down. With her dazzling personality, the self-confident and charismatic Alice makes her new schoolmates and teachers rethink their conservative Catholic ways.
Screening as opening film on oct 5 18.00 and 21.00
and on the 7th of Oct 18.00 for people under 18
Bloodsisters: Leather, Dykes And Sadomasochism
Michelle Handelman / 1995 / USA / 65 min
From pushy bottoms to macho femmes, BloodSisters is an A-Z documentary guide that takes an in-depth look at the San Francisco leatherdyke scene during the mid-nineties, shattering assumptions about gender and lesbian sexuality. This controversial film was attacked in congress by the conservative American Family Association when it was released in 1995. Today, 25 years later we’re paying tribute to the groundbreaking film and it’s director Michelle Handelman by an intimate installation in one of our hotel rooms.
Screens in room nr 18 and saturday night Oct 10 03.00 in the cinema
Blue
Derek Jarman / 1993 / USA / 65 min
Blue was first released in 1993, four months before Jarman’s death from AIDS-related complications. Such complications had already rendered him partially blind, making him only able to see in shades of blue.
The film was his last testament as a film-maker, and consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour (RGB 0, 47, 167, CMYK 100, 72, 0, 35). This fills the screen, as background to a soundtrack where Jarman’s and some of his long-time collaborators’ narration describes his life and vision.
Screens in room nr 20.
Dry wind
Daniel Nolasco / 2020 / 110 min / Brasilien
In July, the dry wind and low humidity dry the skin of a small city residents. Sandro divides his days between the city club, work, soccer with friends and city parties. He has a relationship with Ricardo, his co-worker. But his routine begins to change with the arrival of Maicon, a boy who pikes up his interest and of which everyone knows very little.
Oct 8 14.00 (senior screening) and 20.45 in the cinema.
Gayracula
Roger Earl / 1983 / USA / 83 min
Count Drac is back – and this time he’s sucking more than just necks! Count Gaylord stalks the streets of L.A. for the hunkiest victims to ever succumb to lust, as well as his enemy, the Marquis de Suede a.k.a. Gayracula.
Screens in room nr 22 as well as a midnight madness screening Oct ) 03.00
The Hunger
Tony Scott / 1983 / USA / 97 min
In this outrageously sleek cult classic directed by Tony Scott, Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie are perfectly cast as Miriam and John, a pair of vampire lovers who have been together since the 18th century, and who now spend their nights stalking New York’s downtown club scene in search of fresh blood. Reeling from the discovery of a terrible betrayal, John seeks the help of a mortal doctor (Susan Sarandon) who soon finds herself drawn into an erotically charged and seductively sinister power struggle with Miriam.
Screens in room nr 22 and as a midnight madness screening on Oct 9 kl 01.00
Keyboard Fantasies
Posy Dixon / 2019 / UK / 63 min
Right from the start of his career, Glenn-Copeland (1944) was an outsider: the only black classical music student at the McGill music academy in Canada, as well as one of few open homosexuals at a time. For a long time, Glenn-Copeland lived as a lesbian woman – until he realised he was transgender.
Sci-fi obsessed and living in near isolation, Glenn-Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies in 1986. Recorded in an Atari-powered home-studio, the cassette featured seven tracks of a curious folk-electronica hybrid, a sound realised far before its time.
Three decades on, the musician – now Glenn Copeland – began to receive emails from people across the world, thanking him for the music they’d recently discovered. Courtesy of a rare-record collector in Japan, a reissue of Keyboard Fantasies and subsequent plays by Four Tet, Caribou and more, the music had finally found its audience two generations down the line.
Oct 7 kl 14.00 (senior screening) and 21.00
Monsoon
Hong Khaou / 2020 / UK / 85 min
When Kit (Crazy Rich Asians heartthrob Henry Golding) returns to his native Saigon for the first time since his family fled during the Vietnam-American War, he unwittingly finds himself embarking on a personal journey to understand his true roots. No longer able to speak his native tongue, Kit searches this unfamiliar land for a proper place to scatter his parents’ ashes, while also reconnecting with estranged family members and striking up a budding romance with handsome ex-pat Lewis.
Oct 11 kl 20.30 in the cinema
Naz & Maalik
Jay Dockendorf / 2015 / USA / 90 min
In this riveting dramatic tale, gay teens Naz and Maalik are friends, classmates, business partners, and lovers. As the two closeted Muslim teens go about their regular daily routine on a Friday afternoon in Brooklyn, they arouse the suspicions of an undercover FBI agent who begins to track them. This complex tale of race, religion, and sexuality features a pair of tremendous performances from Kerwin Johnson Jr. as Naz and Curtiss Cook Jr. as Maalik. Intimate and meditative, Naz & Maalik examines the mysterious forces that animate teenage minds.
Oct 6 18.00 in the cinema. The film is presented in collaboration with Rainbow Muslims
Rafiki
Wanuri Kahiu / 2018 / Kenya / 83 min
Kena and Ziki live very different lives in Nairobi. Kena works in her father’s shop and awaits the start of nursing school, while Ziki passes the days hanging out with her friends and making up dance routines. Their paths cross when their fathers run against each other for seats in the County Assembly, and they find themselves drawn to each other. Soon their interest grows to affection and the girls find ways to love each other despite the ever-watching gaze of the neighborhood.
Oct 10 12.00 in the cinema
Rurangi
Max Currie / 2020 / 96 min / New Zeeland
Burnt-out trans activist Caz Davis returns to Rūrangi, the rural dairy community he fled ten years ago, hoping to reconnect with his father, who hasn’t heard from him since before Caz transitioned. As father and son slowly reconcile, Caz finds himself swept up in the environmental fight which is dividing the town.
Oct 11 18.00 in the cinema
Song Lang
Leon Le / 2019 / Vietnam / 90 min
Set in a richly imagined 1980s Saigon, Song Lang is a gritty underworld noir hiding a tender, romantic heart. At the film’s core is the unlikely bond that develops between hunky, brooding Dung (Lien Binh Phat), a tough debt collector for a ruthless loan shark, and Linh Phung (popular V-pop singer Isaac), a charismatic young opera singer for a struggling company that performs cai luong, a modern form of traditional Vietnamese folk opera.
The two meet when Dung comes to forcefully collect a debt from the opera troupe, but when their paths cross again, a friendship—and then more—develops, awakening surprising, tender feelings in both men. Their story, too, soon scales operatic heights. With his first feature film, director Leon Le has delivered a rich drama: a smoldering relationship between two apparent opposites—equally uncompromising—set against the backdrop of a gorgeous, fading art form. For his breakout performance, Lien Binh Phat has picked up rising star awards at festivals across Asia.
Oct 10 17.45
The Strong Ones
Omar Zuniga / 2019 / Chile / 97 min
Lucas travels to visit his sister to a remote town in southern Chile. In front of the ocean and the fog, he falls for Antonio, a boatswain in a local fishing boat.The Strong Ones is a story of love and courage, at the end of the world, between two men in search of freedom.
Visas 10 okt 20.30
TheTwo of Us (Deux)
Filippo Meneghetti / France, Belgium, Luxemburg / 2019 / 95 min
Two retired women, Nina and Madeleine, have been secretly in love for decades. Everybody, including Madeleine’s family, thinks they are simply neighbors, sharing the top floor of their building. They come and go between their two apartments, enjoying the affection and pleasures of daily life together, until an unforeseen event turns their relationship upside down and leads Madeleine’s daughter to gradually unravel the truth about them.
Oct 6 14.00 (senior screening) and Oct 11 12.00
Film programs
Best of Brazil
Screens Oct 6 – 8 in r00m 7 and Oct 9 at 22.30 in the cinema
Some of the recent years most interesting short films are presented in this program. From cute cowboys to rapping MCs.
BEFORE IT´S TOO LATE
Leandro Goddinho / 2020 / Brazil / 15 min
A country singing duo, on the eve of a new homophobic president taking office, lock themselves in their hotel room and find out what they mean to each other.
MAMBA NEGRA – The Sound and The Fury of São Paulo
Alessio Ortu / 2020 / Brazil / 15 min
Mamba Negra is a collective of artists/activists with a strong LGBT and feminist component, where rave culture and social resistance come together bringing to life vibrant and eclectic anti-establishment parties.
Criolo – Etérea
Watch the music video that shook Brazil and making-of-documentary behind it.
Motta
Nish Gera / 2020 / Brazil / 16 min
A documentary about the ’bondage with flowers’ work of Brazilian artist Fabio da Motta
MC Jess
Julia Araujo / 2020 / Brazil / 17 min
Jessica has to face everyday prejudice. She seeks in art a way of expressing herself and overcoming her insecurities.
CINEMA QUEER MEXICO
Screens Oct 9-11 in room 10 and Oct 11 16.00 in the cinema
Letters to Claudia
Frida Mesa / 2019 / México / 16 min
Claudia is a young woman who spends her days working in a used bookstore. One day, after finding a letter forgotten in a book, she starts a search to deliver it.
Seafoam
Luis Mariano García / 2018 / México / 7 min
Ana’s shyness holds her back from talking to her crush, but with inspiration from
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, this may finally change.
Encounter
2019 / México / 16min
Araceli takes care of her lifetime partner Lulú. Julian, a teenager exploring his identity, lives under the watch of his conservative mother. A sudden event will draw an unexpected meeting between the couple and Julian.
Orgullo de ser
100 LGBT + people tell their coming out experience in a documentary shot remotely, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiences and anecdotes are interwoven to make an X-ray image of the diversity in Latin America.
La felicidad en la que vivo
Carlos Morales / 2020 / México / 11 min
Samantha Flores is an 84-year-old trans woman who fights against loneliness and invisibility in a society that refuses to acknowledge her existence. Her testimony seeks to represent other olderly LGBTQ+ folks, for instance, by building a house for them.
Daniel Nolasco retrospektiv
Screens Oct 9 – 11 in room 9
Neon nude men and nightly nature walks. Prepare to be swept away by Daniel Nolascos sweaty universe. In this retrospective we’ve gathered the shorts from the Brazilian master, but don’t miss his latest feature Dry Wind that screens in the cinema Oct 8 20.45.
Mr Fox (2018, 23 min)
Sr. Raposo is a staged documentary about the daily life of Acácio, who found out he was HIV+ in 1995.
Neptune (2017, 18 min)
The last chapter of a short film trilogy. The growing desire between Sandro and Maicon.
Pluto (2015, 12 min)
A tour guide of the best hook up gay places in Downtown Rio de Janeiro.
Uranus (2013, 7 min)
Venus lies in bed with Uranus in the corner.
Greg Araki – Teen Apocolypse Trilogy
Screens in room 17
Teen Apocolypse Trilogy is Gregg Arakis shameless response to the Aaron Spelling soap operas that dominated youth culture during the 90s. In these talent packed films we find teenage idols such as Ryan Phillippe, Christina Applegate, Heather Graham, Denise Richards and Shannen Doherty which made them popular even to a broader audience.
Totally F***ed Up, 78 min / 1993
Six queer teenagers struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of varying obstacles.
The Doom Generation, 83 min / 1995
Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embark on a sex-and-violence-filled journey through an America of psychos and quickie marts.
Nowhere, 82 min / 1997
Follows a day in the lives of a group of Los Angeles high school students and the strange lives they lead.
Lionel Soukaz
Oct 9 00.00 in the cinema
Lionel Soukaz is the enfant terrible of the French LGBTQ movement. Censored and banned for his films that were often branded as porn, he is today a leading figure in the French queer movement and now we can for the first time present a program with his earliest short films. From the personal debut in 1974 about his dying mother to 1985 when, in the midst of a burning AIDS crisis, he criticized the gay movement for being without class analysis and racist.
Lolo Megalo Wounded in His Honor (1974), 25 min
I took a little Super 8 camera… I was having a hard time, my mom had cancer. I filmed what I was feeling, I disguised myself with my mother’s things, I transformed the apartment while she was in the hospital, I reinvested everything, I went up to jerk off on my mother’s bed in front of the Saint. Finally I was in a state like that of hysteria, of suffering which allowed me to overcome all that, and then to be able to speak about it … to be able to speak about the death of his mother or of a friend, it’s an experience of life, of death. Cinema helps to pass or helps to pierce, or helps to transcend personal experiences. (Lionel Soukaz)
The Sex of Angels (1977), 45 min
A condemnation of the repression and control of youth’s society by the seventies’ society. But also a call for the freedom of men to love other men.
The Gay March (1980), 12 min
Images of the first march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights.
Tino (1985) 26 min
Tino examines the ways in which gay rights can be an imperialist project, ignoring differences of race and class. A contemporary scenario, in which American journalist Doug Ireland visits Europe and meets an oppressed young Arab man, is played against the celebrated story of Emperor Hadrian’s relationship with his favourite Antinous. (Paul Clinton)
Many of the films has never been screened outside France and don´t have subtitles. The films will have text lists but only The Gay March will have subtitles!
Love Beirut
Screens Oct 6-8 in room 11 and Oct 9 18.00 in the cinema
In collaboration with Lebanons first queer film festival Cinema al Fouad we present a collection of shorts.
Rupture Divine
Malak Mroue / 20 min / 2019 / Libanon
Maya goes through electroshock conversion therapy and starts to hallucinate after her mother discovers her relationship with Dana.
Three Centimeters
Zara Zeidan / 9 min / Libanon
Four friends takes a ride in the paris wheel in Beirut’s oldest amusement park. The chat about everything from how to get the best use out of three centimeters to one of the friends brake up. The conversation soon leads to a surprising confession.
Hide and seek
Mark Karam / 201 / 7 min / Libanon
A different kind of toursim. The film follows the lives of 2 guys roaming the streets of Beirut.
MADE IN TAIWAN
Screens Oct 6-8 in room 10 and Oct 10 15.30 in the cinema
Five films about queer desire in Taiwan, offering a unique snapshot of the island’s cultural landscape and shining a spotlight on its rich tradition of LGBTQ+ filmmaking. Presented in partnership with Queer East Film Festival. With support from the Ministry of Culture (Taiwan). Facebook, Ins: @queereast / Twitter: @queereastfest
The Summer of 12
Kuan-Ling Kuo / 2019 / Taiwan / 25 min
Amongst the young members of a swimming team, the onset of early puberty begins to turn innocent camaraderie into something more intimate.
Gentleman Spa
Jhi-Han Yu / 2019 / Taiwan / 18 min
Hao works as a janitor at a gay spa. One day, he chats with Kai, an attractive customer, but things do not go as expected.
Military Dog
Pin-Wen Wang / 2018 / Taiwan / 11 min
New to BDSM, young military officer Lee Jun-zhong must complete a risky task in order to prove his loyalty to his master. But can he overcome his doubts and fear to face his inner desires?
Each Each Other
Pin-Ru Chen / 2017 / Taiwan / 15 min
It’s difficult making the transition from being single to starting a relationship. So how should we cope? Echo Each Other abandons spoken dialogue, instead using sign and body language to silently communicate with the audience.
Tidal
Yan-Xun Li / Origin Sun Studio / 2017 / Taiwan / 15 min
Hai, a boy who was born and raised on a small island, has a taboo relationship with Tai, a sailor whose ship regularly docks at the harbour.
QUEER IN CHINA
Screens Oct 6-8 in room 10
We Are Here
Jing Zhao, Shi Tou / 2015 / 60 min
What happens when 300 lesbians from around the world attend the largest United Nations conference? How did two busloads of lesbians headed to an underground nightclub help spark the birth of a lala (LBT) movement in China? At the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the first-ever lesbian tent at a UN NGO Forum was created. At the tent, ideas were shared, connections were made, identities were assured… with a growing emergence of energy for change.
Extravaganza
Matthew Baren / 2017 / 45 min
A documentary about the Shanghai drag scene. July 2017, Shanghai. Drag queen Miss Jade has brought together 12 of the city’s drag performers for a one-night show. They are the fiercest kings and queens in town. Extravaganza takes you behind the scenes of one of China’s most dynamic drag scenes. Feel the shade, live the fantasy.
Shanghai Queer
Xiangqi Chen / 2019 / 90 min
Shanghai Queer is a first-of-its-kind documentary film about LGBTQ’s pursuit of equality and freedom in Shanghai, China. The documentary tells the collective memories of the development of Shanghai’s LGBTQ community over the past 15 years (2003-2018), presenting and focusing on the mission, growth and thoughts of NGOs, activists, scholars and artists in the gender equality movement under the change of urban spaces. Through oral interviews with activists and tours around local queer spaces, the documentary discusses China’s LGBTQ-related issues and depicts a picture of local activism fighting for the minority’s equality.
Retrospective: Lasse Långström aka Antiffa Vänsterfitta
As part of a bigger retrospective we’ll be screening this short film program by Lasse Långström aka Antiffa Vänsterfitta. Make sure not to miss the exhibition Fantasy forrest in room 9. The films will be screened Oct 9 18.00 in the cinema.
Gråt allians av vårt hat, 2010
The year was 2010 and even the anarchists were desperate enough to make an election song
Allsång mot Sverigebönen, 2011
A traditional protest against a christian far right manifestation during the Swedish national day.
Robert Frank, 2013
The void inside the male art professor is finally filled
Raka mig, Spegla mig, 2015
A transsensual death dance for the inner man
Vreden, 2020
Far up north in the little country Sweden, a unholy alliance is happening between the right wing party, the christian democrats and the racist party. But in the forest the fairytale creatures are waiting, planning to bash back.
Antifa Faggots, 2020
Gentrification is creeping closer to the home of the antifa faggots and the topic for todays house meeting is the threat of eviction. But it all has to wait when it is revealed that somebody has put meat in the fridge. Prepare yourselves for discipline and punishment!
Shu Lea Cheang
Screens Oct 6-8 in room 14 and Oct 7 23.30 in the cinema.
Cheang’s work from the early-to-mid 1990s demonstrated an exciting fusion of identity politics and erotic exploration, making her one of the period’s most prominent queer media artists. This collection presents two of her solo works, along with two collaborations.
Sex Fish (1993, 6 min)
An erotic lesbian video involving swimming upstream, female power, and fish love. Made as a collaboration under the name E.T. (Ela Troyano) Baby (Jane Castle) Maniac (Cheang).
Sex Bowl (1994, 8 min)
All forms of human sport become sites for sexual play and celebratory eroticism. “The tape’s images are quick, suggestive, and sexy: fingers moving into bowling balls, shoe-smelling and toe-sucking, a dog wearing chain jewelry, fish being wrapped at…
Fingers and Kisses (1995, 5 min)
Cheang has taken her camera to the streets for a candid glimpse of lesbian public sexuality. If Asian women and lesbians share a certain amount of invisibility in the culture, Fingers and Kisses offers not only a bold representation of both, but a challenge to the question “What do lesbians do?” Tokyo’s own out-and-loud music by Chu punctuates the narrative as what begins in the streets continues under the sheets.
Coming Home (1995, 5 min)
This humorous video begins with two women—one white, the other Asian—attempting to fit into a Japanese bathtub. The awkward fitting of bodies into a small space is just one of the allegorical scenarios dramatized in a pressing appeal for lesbians to fit in.
Young Love
Screens in r00m 13 and Oct 10 01.00 in the cinema
We all remember our first love. The first insecure eye contact, tentative conversations and sweaty palms. Maybe there was a first kiss? or a brutal dismissal? In this program we have gathered love deklarations from all over the world.
Take Me to Prom
Andrew Moir / 2019 / Canada / 19 min
Featuring intimate, charming interviews with queer Canadians ranging in age from 88 to 17, Take Me To Prom invites audiences to revisit an adolescent milestone while telling a story of social change that spans more than 70 years.
My Brother is a Mermaid
Alfie Dale / 2019 / UK / 20 min
My Brother is a Mermaid is magical realism about the experiences of a non-binary teenager, as seen through the eyes of their 7 year old brother. Set in a desolate seaside town, the film fuses social realism with fairytale, as it examines how a child’s innocence and unconditional love can be a powerful and disruptive force for good.
Leo and Alex
Eva Libertad & Nuria Muñoz / 2020 / Spain / 7 min
Transgender Blake and cisgender Cane hang out, play video games and grapple with their insecurities. This is their love story.
Dungarees
Abel Rubinstein / 2020 / USA / 5 min
Transgender Blake and cisgender Cane hang out, play video games and grapple with their insecurities. This is their love story.
The Distance Between Us and the Sky
Vasilis Kekatos / 2019 / Grekland / 9 min
Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station. One has stopped to gas up his bike, while the other is just stranded. Lacking money to get home, he will try to sell him the distance that separates them from the sky.
Baby Dyke
Tone Ottilie / 2020 / Danmark / 20 min
Frede accompanies her big sister to a queer party in the hope of winning back her ex-girlfriend. Labelled by the older girls as Babydyke, all she can do is take the plunge: Chin up and stay cool. This film describes the broad palette of interpersonal emotions with great sensitivity and dramatic intensity. In a rhythm of light and shadow, the gulf closes between own desires and the expectations of others.
Pompeii
Marco Alessi / 2020 / Storbritannien / 9 min
Tam gets on the first tube home alone feeling conspicuous after an intense night out. He plugs in his headphones and relives the night via insta stories.