When I found out, that I cannot write a big ß in this blog:
Therefore, today’s TEDDY issue will deal with the most beautiful and unique of all letters, the ß: The ß is the only letter, which exists only in the German written language and only since 2008 there is a capital letter version. It developed from the connection of the long s and the z in Blackletters or Gothic Scripts. Those were written as ſ and ʒ and in combination ſʒ, they merged together to form the ß. Its round form reminds of the shape two breasts, combined with a strong backhold, the line, making it a mixture of stereotypical male and female attribute and therefore combining them to the queerest letter of all.
Just saying…
Such a unique fusion of black and white, tradition and modernity, long and short, monstrous and glamorous can also be seen in today’s TEDDY films. I hope you are looking forward to it, just as much as we do!
Sebastian
PRAIA DO FUTURO
(Praia Do Futuro)
Water is lifeguard Donato’s element and 
the sea is his home. When two men are caught by a dangerous current, Donato manages to save Konrad, a German tourist, but his best friend’s life is claimed by the sea. Konrad and his rescuer get to know each other and their initial physical attraction turns into an emotional bond. 
Donato follows Konrad to Berlin, a city that may not be by the sea but which is nonetheless a place where he can reinvent himself. Years later, Donato is confronted with his past when his younger brother Ayrton appears at his door.
Berlin-based Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz follows those in search of love and identity who are prepared to risk everything to discover themselves.
Friedrichstadtpalast, 6.00pm
VETRARMORGUN
(Winter Morning)
Maria hesitates when her best friend Birita offers her some pills, but – what the hell? Her mother’s away and they are both desperate to have some fun tonight. They set off and, once the drug takes effect, start euphorically planning how they might finally escape their dreary island. But they only manage to wind up at a party where they continue celebrating. Maria’s pupils are wide open in her delicate face. She may be high, but she doesn’t feel at all well any more. It now transpires that Birita has plans for her friend: she wants Maria finally to have sex with a boy and put a stop to the stupid gossip about her being a lesbian.
Hau Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 1), 11.00am
IBHOKHWE
(The Goat)
Ukwaluka is an ancient circumcision ritual for young men still widely practiced by the Xhosa in South Africa. It marks the transition from youth to manhood. A boy who has just undergone circumcision sits in semi-darkness in a simple hut on a hill, far away from the village, as prescribed by the initiation ritual. He is covered from head to toe with a paint made from clay which makes him look as white as a goat. This should be a period of healing, but he is cold and in pain. His grandfather, who is supposed to induct him into his new life, has not yet appeared. According to the belief system of the Xhosa, Ukwaluka also purges the boy from homosexual desires, for which there is no place in the world of adults.
HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1), 11.00am
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
(Finding Vivian Maier)
John Maloof loves forced sales where he can acquire items from an individual’s private estate. One day he makes the astonishing discovery of a box of undeveloped films and negatives that were found in an attic. There are a particularly large number of photographs of children, absorbed in play, or staring confidently into the lens. But who was behind the camera? And why were the photographs of Vivian Maier never discovered? John Maloof embarks on his research. He is hunting for clues about the life of this woman who for over forty years travelled the world with her camera. His ensuing portrait is a fascinating depiction of an artist with an open gaze to which even strangers consented.
Cinestar 7, 12.00am
TITS
(Tits)
Sam, 13, hopes to conceal his breasts with a tightly worn leather belt. This slender teenager is going through a particularly tough time at his authoritarian boys’ school on account of a hormonal disorder. Desperate, he tries everything he can to avoid swimming lessons, but his worst fears are confirmed when he discovers a pink bra hanging from his peg. Nonetheless, Sam manages to find the courage to face up to one of the ringleaders and refuses to be blackmailed. The film displays a great deal of empathy for its protagonist’s fears and anxieties but also exudes charm and subtle humour.
Cinemaxx 1, 2.30pm
DER KREIS
(The Circle)
Founded in the early 1940s, the network
around the magazine DER KREIS (’The Circle’) was the only gay organisation to survive the Nazi regime. Legendary masked balls in Zurich provided 800 visitors from all over Europe. It is there that timid teacher Ernst Ostertag falls in love with drag star Röbi Rapp. Ernst searches for a way to fight for his gayness to be accepted as normal outside the boundaries of ‘The Circle’ network without losing his employment as a teacher.
Stefan Haupt’s new film uncovers the fascinating universe of one of the first gay liberation communities. Enriched by impressive conversational records with Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, the film depicts a decades-long love story.
Colosseum 1, 3.00pm
THE DOG
(The Dog)
Over ten years in the making, Allison Berg’s and Frank Keraudren’s powerful documentary THE DOG follows the life of John Wojtowicz, who spectacularly attempted to secure the money for his partner’s sex change by robbing a bank in Brooklyn in 1972. His attempted heist was made famous by Sidney 
Lumet’s 1975 film DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Making use of copious archive footage, photographs and testimonials from contemporaries, the filmmakers follow not only Wojtowicz’s occasionally bizarre life and progression from lower-middle class right-winger 
to militant gay activist, but also provide an unconventional survey of gay culture in New York during the past forty years. The Dog is truly a labour of love with Wojtowicz as its fascinating anti-hero, captured here in all his humaneness.
Cinestar 7, 5.00pm
VETRARMORGUN
(Winter Morning)
Maria hesitates when her best friend Birita offers her some pills, but – what the hell? Her mother’s away and they are both desperate to have some fun tonight. They set off and, once the drug takes effect, start euphorically planning how they might finally escape their dreary island. But they only manage to wind up at a party where they continue celebrating. Maria’s pupils are wide open in her delicate face. She may be high, but she doesn’t feel at all well any more. It now transpires that Birita has plans for her friend: she wants Maria finally to have sex with a boy and put a stop to the stupid gossip about her being a lesbian.
Cinemaxx 1, 5.30pm, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 1), 11.00am
FIEBER
(Fever)
It’s the early 1950s and little Franzi is
growing up in the small Austrian town of Judenburg. Her oppressive family home is dominated by her feverish and mentally ill father, who is rigid and unpredictable. Her father spent several years in the French Foreign Legion – a period which he partly glorifies but which still also haunts him. Franzi immerses herself in this world by looking at an abundance of beguiling yet disturbing photographs taken at the time by her father. Decades later, Franziska, now a successful photographer but still overshadowed by her father’s memory, undertakes a journey back into his youth. She wants to understand his war trauma and shed light on her family’s past.
Cinestar 3, 5.45pm
(Your Sebastian when he’s got the fever…)
MARIO WIRZ
(Mario Wirz)
Six weeks before his death from cancer, poet Mario Wirz takes a walk with his friend Rosa von Praunheim during which he candidly shares his final thoughts on, among other things, the power of love and positive thinking: ‘Let’s live!’
Cinestar 3, 5.45pm
FUCKING DIFFERENT
(Fucking Different)
The sixth part in the compilation film series Fucking Different breaks new ground. FUCKING DIFFERENT XXY intends to dissolve the binarity of classic gender identities. Seven transgender filmmakers from all over the world have made short films about aspects of sexuality which are alien to them. The mixture is colourful and diverse and includes documentary contributions from pornographic filmmakers Buck Angel and experimental approaches by J Jackie Baier who comes from a documentary background. The film series attempts to overturn stereotypes about the ‘other’ and what’s ‘normal’ – stereotypes which also exist in the queer community. – Break stereotypes, create confusion and celebrate diversity!
Cinestar 7, 8.00 pm
QUICK CHANGE
(Quick Change)
’You’ll be beautiful and it won’t even hurt!’ This is what Dorina promises dozens of her clients. She has come to Manila from Japan to help them realise their dream of winning a Miss Gay or Miss Amazing beauty contest. Decked out in the eccentric and colourful costumes of the show there’s no sign of the earlier injections into their cheeks, nose, lips, breasts, hips and behind. Until one day the dark side of this artificially created beauty comes to light.
With documentary precision and breathtaking speed director Eduardo Roj, Jr. follows his heroine as she moves through the harsh world of a community obsessed with beauty and with improving their chances of a career.
Cinestar 3, 8.15pm
HOJE EU QUERO VOLTAR SOZINHO
(The Way He Looks)
Giovana is Leo’s best friend. They spend their afternoons at the pool, awarding points for the level of their boredom and just hanging out. Leo is rather self-contained; even his schoolmates’ barbs can’t dent his sense of his own independence. This blind fifteen-year old 
wants to take control of his own life. The arrival of a new pupil, Leo, at school prompts Leo to reassess his daily routine. As naturally as Leo becomes aware of his feelings for Gabriel, the more he allows himself to feel unsettled by his friend’s tentative advances. The winner of the 
2008 Crystal Bear has the protagonists of his first feature-length drama orbit each other in an emotional universe of fierce attractions.
Cubix 7, 8.15pm, Cubix 8, 8.15pm
YA GAN BI HAENG
(Night Flight)
Yong-ju bumps into his ex-best friend, 
Gi-woong. They are in the same class but have long since gone their separate ways. Gi-woong’s gang is notorious for their cruel bullying of an eccentric classmate named Gi-taek. His attempts to regain their old friendship mean Yong-ju also runs the risk of becoming a target of this terrorising 
clan, but he refuses to give in. Instead, Yong-ju cleverly draws Gi-woong into a power game of mutual humiliation and burgeoning memories which triggers a dangerous emotional duel. The director of last year’s Panorama film WHITE NIGHT has chosen anonymous and abandoned urban spaces in which to depict the emotional turmoil gripping the two schoolboys.
Colosseum 1, 10.30pm
VULVA 3.0
(Vulva 3.0)
Many women are still deeply prudish when
it comes to the relationship with their own body, while in public we see de-individualised anatomies which conform to the standards of attractiveness used by the porn industry. The resultant insecurity many women feel about their own bodies has proven to be a gold-mine for cosmetic genital surgery.
With their comprehensive research into the history of this particular aspect of the female anatomy in the 21st century, the directors shed light on it, from sex education to censorship, from the airbrushing of ‘misshapen’ labia in pornographic images to the work of activists against female genital mutilation – and in doing so celebrate the diversity of the female body.
Cinestar 7, 10.30pm
YE
(The Night)
A young man stands in front of a mirror. Every evening, he appraises his appearance, attired in a new shirt, leaves his apartment and waits in a poorly lit alleyway for his johns. One night he meets a female prostitute of his age who’s new in this part of town. They flirt and wander the streets and name themselves after flowers: he calls himself Tuberose and she, Narcissus. The strangers they follow remain faceless – until Rose, a one-night stand, falls in love with Tuberose. In his visually impressive, sensual debut film in which he also plays the leading role this 21-year-old director demonstrates all the poetic intensity of a Jean Genet in describing these three misfits’ mute search for intimacy.
Cinemaxx 7, 10.30pm
DER SAMURAI
(The Samurai)
People in the Brandenburg countryside are scared of wolves. But once this night is over people will wish it had just been a wolf that had come to haunt them. Instead, a nightmare in the shape of a nameless stranger with a samurai sword appears at the edge of the forest and leaves a trail of destruction in the village. For young local police officer Jakob the encounter with the warrior forces him to confront his own demons and face long-buried aspects of his personality. The more doggedly Jakob tries to maintain his moral armour and uphold his sense of law and order against the onslaught of the irrational, the more irresistible becomes his secret urge to accept his opponent’s gift.
Cinemaxx 1, 11.00pm