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TEDDY TODAY: 14.02.2022

February 14, 2022 ruxi

It might be Monday again but that shouldn’t stop you from going for a cheeky cinema evening today 😉

We’ve got 8 exquisite premieres lined up so there’s plenty to choose from. Have a browse below and enjoy!

PREMIERES:

LAY ME BY THE SHORE

Directed by: David Findlay
Canada 2022
19′

Synopsis: Summer days in the quiet suburb are warm and shimmering. Still, between images of parties and intimate moments with his girlfriend, trans-teenager Noah is repeatedly plagued by flashbacks that arrive out of the blue. Though all is calm around him, the sound of the river is overwhelming inside his head. Noah’s best friend died in a sporting accident. The departed’s presence is still palpable, haunting what were supposed to be care-free days.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 21:00 HKW

BLAUES RAUSCHEN (Blue Noise)

Directed by: Simon Maria Kubiena
Germany, Austria 2022
17′

Synopsis: His T-shirt caked with mortar, Alex takes a thoughtful drag on his cigarette. The other apprentices are laughing, throwing punches and showing off their fighting moves. They try to draw him into their game, but his thoughts seem elsewhere – not even his girlfriend can get through to him. Alex is searching for answers and he withdraws from the expectations of those around him. He eventually finds himself, at ease among a group of complete strangers.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 17:30 HKW

TERMINAL NORTE (North Terminal)

Directed by: Lucrecia Martel
Argentina 2021
37′

Synopsis: During the 2020 lockdown, Lucrecia Martel returns to her home in Salta, Argentina’s most conservative region. Here she follows Julieta Laso who, like a muse, introduces her to a group of female artists and defiant people who exchange glances and opinions around a fire. Perfectly attuned to a body of work that constructs stories from an amalgam of people and places and, four years after the beautiful Zama, Terminal Norte marks the return to the screen of Argentina’s greatest filmmaker. The result is a gripping tribute to a community that, temporary though it may be, serves as a magnificent antidote to the pandemic.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 14:00 Akademie der Künste

WEST BY GOD

Directed by: Scott Lazer
USA, 2022
13′

Synopsis: Dale is used to everybody wanting something from him. As a drug dealer in small-town West Virginia, it kind of goes with the territory. Nelly remains unimpressed, even when he does a little business on the side during their first date. The high school student exerts fascination on Dale. He can talk to her – about dreams, regrets and the fact that maybe it’s not so cool after all when your own life has become a rap anthem.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 17:30 HKW

AOS DEZASSEIS (At Sixteen)

Directed by: Carlos Lobo
Portugal 2022
14′

Synopsis: Transfixed, she follows the movements of a group of dancers rehearsing a routine. Watching two girls kiss, she longingly bites her lower lip – yet in the mirror, she studies her own reflection with disapproval. As feelings of desire vie with insecurity and dejection, the film reveals its 16-year-old protagonist’s emotions mainly through glances and facial expressions – her most explicit utterance being the one written on her forearm: TAKE ME DEMONS.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 17:30 HKW

SAB CHANGA SI (All Was Good)

Directed by: Teresa A Braggs
India, 2022
77′

Synopsis: Set in the backdrop of the nationwide 2019–2020 student protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India—filmed in the city of Bangalore—Sab changa si is an intimate documentary on friendships, language, love, youth, resistance, and identity of class, caste, religion, and gender. In this film, the political is personal.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 17:00 Kino Arsenal 1

TRÊS TIGRES TRISTES (Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter)

Directed by: Gustavo Vinagre
Brazil, 2022
86′

Film still Três tigres tristes, © Cris Lyra

Synopsis: São Paulo, in a dystopian future not so very far from the present. A virus is circulating, one that mainly attacks the brain and the ability to remember. A state that has forgotten a past marked by colonialism and dictatorship desperately awaits some indeterminate “Golden Phase.” Three young queer people drift through a city bled dry by the pandemic and rampant capitalism, remembering each another’s late lovers, sharing their experiences with HIV, getting makeup tips for masked faces and ultimately coming together with others forgotten by society for an antique revue in the salon of a singer named Mirta. In Gustavo Vinagre’s affable, surrealist survey of a politically imposed amnesia, a queer era has dawned in which memories can only survive because they are shared collectively and passed on through affective relationships. Those who spread out in all directions do not collide. And those entirely unconcerned with dying rich and privileged are experiencing the Golden Phase right now. In Três tigres tristes, the margins of society glitter, forgotten by the pandemic.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 21:30 Delphi Filmpalast

TYTÖT TYTÖT TYTÖT (Girl Picture)

Directed by: Alli Haapasalo
Finland, 2022
101′

Film still Girl Picture, © Ilkka Saastamoinen / Citizen Jane Productions

Synopsis: It’s Friday night and just like every other week, best friends Rönkkö and Mimmi are busy beating back the darkness of the Finnish winter with an irrepressible lust for life and love. With her quirky wit, Rönkkö stands out at every party and has no trouble getting the boys’ attention – yet how do you turn desire into fulfilment? When Mimmi loses her temper, you might find yourself on the wrong end of her hockey stick. But when she falls in love with the graceful figure skater Emma, everything suddenly seems bright and easy. With its episodic narrative, Alli Haapasalo’s film tells a story of friendship, and of three exhilaratingly headstrong individuals trying to wrest dreams from reality and redefining relationships and sexuality along the way.

SCREENING TIMES:

14.02. / 20:00 Urania

RERUNS:

Bashtaalak sa’at (Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?)
14.02. / 14:35 Cubix 3 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

Calcinculo (Swing Ride)
14.02. / 21:00 Zoo Palast 2

Nel mio nome (Into My Name)
14.02. / 09:00 Cubix 1 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

One Big Bag
14.02. / 20:00 Werkstattkino@silent green

Viens je t’emmène (Nobody’s Hero)
14.02. / 21:00 Intimes 1
14.02. / 21:00 Intimes 2

Blog

TEDDY TODAY: 13.02.2022

February 13, 2022 ruxi

“Hectic” barely begins to cover the start of the 36^th TEDDY AWARD, but nothing makes us happier than running back and forth and preparing all the upcoming events and screenings for you!

Without further ado, here are today’s wonderful TEDDY premieres:

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the list of reruns. 🐻

PREMIERES:

CALCINCULO (Swing Ride)

Directed by: Chiara Bellosi
Italy, Switzerland 2022
90′

Film still, © Simona Pampallona / tempesta

Synopsis: Benedetta, 15, lives in rural Italy with her parents and her two little sisters. After work, her father enjoys tinkering with cars while her mother takes out her frustration on Benedetta. When a funfair sets up on the family’s doorstep, she meets a fairground worker named Amanda who lives a self-determined life and defies gender norms. Benedetta is immediately fascinated by the older Amanda’s self- confidence and independence, and school quickly fades into the background. The two barely talk; their cautious friendship is not one fuelled by grand emotions but rather by genial affection, curiosity and unspoken acknowledgement.

SCREENING TIMES:

13.02. / 16:00 Zoo Palast 1

13.02. / 18:25 Cubix 3 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

ONE BIG BAG

Directed by: Every Ocean Hughes
USA, United Kingdom 2021
40′

Synopsis: A millennial death doula introduces us to the world of end-of-life care. With a matter-of-fact demeanor and intense physicality, she guides us into the largely uncharted waters of corpse care—practical, political, and spiritual. She performs her knowledge within a field of props that are the tools of her trade, kept in a “mobile corpse kit”—everyday items that she manipulates to profound use. The film, drawn from workshops, research, and interviews conducted with several end-of-life doulas from different cultural backgrounds, is a skill share, threaded with humor, grief, unknowing, and a desire for justice. The doula’s work encourages us to turn towards that which we strive so hard to avoid.

SCREENING TIMES:

13.02. / 14:00 Kino Arsenal 1

WHITE SANDS CRYSTAL FOXES

Directed by: Liz Rosenfeld
Germany 2021
34′

Synopsis: White Sands Crystal Foxes is an experimental film journey through the point of view of a young queer person who daydreams about the erotics of a world where humans are willfully in submission to nature, and foxes are the only mammals still able to procreate. In this speculative world, in heightened states of emotion, crystals form from human secretions, such as tears, cum, and piss, and are considered to be valuable sources of energy. Foxes are polyamorous creatures slowly becoming the dominant mammals populating the world. Holes are infinite portals, social architectures, thresholds, and energy conductors. Drawing connections between chemical warfare, climate change, sustainable energy, and queering time and space, Liz Rosenfeld transforms a 360° immersive environment (a planetarium) into a speculative future lexicon of flesh, holes, crystals, and foxes.

SCREENING TIMES:

13.02. / 21:30 Zeiss-Großplanetarium

RERUNS:

Bashtaalak sa’at (Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?)
13.02. / 18:00 Cubix 6

Dreaming Walls
13.02. / 12:00 Zoo Palast 2
13.02. / 13:35 Cubix 4 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

A Love Song
13.02. / 13:00 International
13.02. / 16:00 Cubix 1 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

Mars Exalté (Exalted Mars)
13.02. / 12:00 Cubix 6

Nel mio nome (Into My Name)
13.02. / 15:00 Zoo Palast 2

Sublime
13.02. / 11:15 Cubix 3 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)
13.02. / 15:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain

Le variabili dipendenti (The Dependent Variables)
13.02. / 17:30 Cubix 8

Blog

TEDDY TODAY: 12.02.2022

February 12, 2022 ruxi

The third festival day is buzzing with lively events and especially with our delightful premieres – 9 taking place only today! We’ve comprised a list of all the premieres and reruns scheduled for today to make your life easier. Check them out below👇

As if that wasn’t eventful enough, keep an eye out for our TEDDY Talk: The TEDDY Winners Path through a Pandemic. The event will be broadcasted live at 4 PM (CET) at teddyaward.tv/live.

PREMIERES:

DREAMING WALLS

Directed by: Amélie van Elmbt & Maya Duverdier
Belgium, France, USA, Netherlands, Sweden, 2022
80′

Synopsis: The camera hovers, lost in reverie as voices and sounds waft through the gutted rooms of a building. Archive footage is sometimes projected onto unplastered walls and at others used as a soundtrack as we continue our tour. This is the legendary Chelsea Hotel, famous as the preferred abode of New York’s bohemia from the 1950s to the 1980s. Here, bourgeois society’s misfits – sex workers, poets, queers and artists – were able to find cheap accommodation and form alliances. In this documentary, the remaining tenants from that era grant access to their flats and give us an insight into their lives. They are the focus of a film that interweaves the present with the ghosts of the past. The completion of eight years of luxury refurbishment ahead of the building’s reopening as a hotel is eagerly awaited by some residents and dreaded by others.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 15:30 International

JAIL BIRD IN A PEACOCK CHAIR

Directed by: James Gregory Atkinson
Germany, USA, 2021
4′

Synopsis: James Gregory Atkinson’s performative short film centers the history of the iconic Peacock Chair to interrogate contemporary social contexts and historical concepts of identities. The film engages the chair’s origins in forced prison labor in the Philippines, its status as an internationally traded “exotic” commodity, its use in portrait photography, and its associations with Black radical activists such as Huey P. Newton—to explore ideas of Black masculinities and resistance.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 20:00 Werkstattkino@silent green

A LOVE SONG

Directed by: Max Walker-Silverman
USA, 2022
81′

Synopsis: A remote lake in the North American landscape. The sand is yellow, the sky is blue and the mountains distant; there is nary a tree far and wide to provide shade. Faye is spending her days here in a trailer, with two books and a radio, leisurely birdwatching and stargazing. With her wiry build, wild blonde hair and hands that speak of a life of labour, she fits in perfectly here. Anything that breaks, she simply fixes; the only time she sits up and takes notice is when there is a knock at the door. Because Faye is waiting for Lito. Their connection goes way back to their youthful love for each other, but for some years now they have also shared the pain of loss – both are widowed. Max Walker-Silverman’s gentle, laconic film is about contemplative introspection, the power of love and the depths of melancholy. Dale Dickey’s portrayal of Faye is a touching mixture of inner strength and fragility, which is also reflected in the impressive natural scenery and a delicate soundtrack.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 19:00 Zoo Palast 1

NEL MIO NOME (Into My Name)

Directed by: Nicolò Bassetti
Italy, 2022
93′

Film still Into My Name, © Nuovi Paesaggi Urbani Art Of Panic

Synopsis: Four friends – Nic, Leo, Andrea and Raff – tell the stories of their gender transitions. Looking back on their childhood and youth, they share their personal memories and experiences. Even if they did not always conform to the social norms of femininity – all four were socialised as girls. Each of their gender biographies may be different, yet there are parallels. This helps them to understand each other and feel less alone. The discussions with partners, the choice of pronouns, the hormone therapy, decisions about surgery and dealing with the authorities – the processes are diverse, and lengthy. In the strictly binary world we live in, the decision to determine one’s own gender identity is a subversive act.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 12:30 Zoo Palast 1

SUBLIME

Directed by: Mariano Biasin
Argentina, 2022
100′

Synopsis: In his dreams, bathed in a brilliant glow, Manu and his best friend Felipe are inching closer and closer together, yet they never kiss. A confusing desire, as Manu is dating Azul, and the two are about to have sex for the first time. In Mariano Biasin’s Sublime, a niggling desire simmers beneath the surface of 16-year-old Manu’s everyday life, his emotional turmoil bubbling up and revealing itself in indirect ways – during his attempt to find the right chords for his latest lyrics and in his flights of melancholic introspection, at band practices with the rest of the guys or during supper with his parents. Cautiously, with increasing resignation, Manu keeps trying to solve the conundrum: how do you avoid losing something precious, when it’s the very thing tearing you up inside?

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 20:00 Urania

LE VARIABILI DIPENDENTI (The Dependent Variables)

Directed by: Lorenzo Tardella
Italy, 2022
16′

Film still The Dependent Variables,© Sperimentale di Cinematografia

Synopsis: While their classmates endure the visit to the concert with pranks, Pietro and Tommaso secretly get closer to each other in the box. During the playing of Vivaldi’s composition, their lips touch. When Tommaso invites Pietro to his home shortly afterwards, the tension is still in the air. The desire, however, soon gives way to an ambiguity that particularly irritates the otherwise cautious Pietro. What did the kiss mean?

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 14:00 HKW

MARS EXALTÉ (Exalted Mars)

Directed by: Jean-Sébastien Chauvin
France, 2022
18′

Synopsis: A city at dawn. Traffic is flowing like red and white blood cells. A man sleeps, enveloped in the darkness – he is beautiful, he is naked, it is hot. We will never know what he is dreaming. The sun rises and the façades of the skyscrapers begin to sparkle

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9

SOUM

Directed by: Alice Brygo
France, 2021
31′

Synopsis: In the shadow of a colonial past and a neo-capitalist present, Inti, Jai and Pauline are searching for their place in a world that was not made for them. As they roam the neighbourhood looking for somewhere to settle, they question their parents about faith, spirituality, roots and their experiences of migration. They decide to occupy an empty bank building in order to fill it with their memories, dreams and role play. A portrait of our time that oscillates between documentary, performance art and surrealism.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 12:00 Cubix 6

12.02. / 18:30 Cubix 9

STARFUCKERS

Directed by: Antonio Marziale
USA, 2022
14′

Synopsis: A Hollywood villa on a sultry summer night. The escort does what he was hired to do and gives his client the illusion he has paid for. “I’ll make you a star”, the customer says, before the tide turns abruptly and the power dynamics are unsettled. A revenge movie of the queer kind.

SCREENING TIMES:

12.02. / 12:00 Cubix 6

12.02. / 18:30 Cubix 9

RERUNS:

Berdreymi (Beautiful Beings)
12.02. / 21:00 Zoo Palast 2

Jet Lag
12.02. / 18:00 Cubix 6

Nelly & Nadine
12.02. / 12:00 Zoo Palast 2
12.02. / 18:00 Eva Lichtspiele

Peter von Kant
12.02. / 12:00 Friedrichstadt-Palast

Blog

TEDDY TODAY: 11.02.2022

February 11, 2022 ruxi

Every year we count the days until the next Berlinale and each year it’s worth the wait! To mark the second festival day, we’ve listed below today’s most fabulous film premieres that you definitely don’t want to miss.

For all the other screenings available today, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and enjoy them enough for us as well!

PREMIERES:

JET LAG

Directed by: Zheng Lu Xinyuan
Switzerland, Austria, 2022
111′

Synopsis: One journey begins in Graz, in April 2020, the director’s trip back to China in the midst of the lockdown: flight connections on a cracked phone screen, hazmat suits on the aeroplane, tape sealing the hotel room door. But it also intermingles with another earlier journey: the family trip from China to Myanmar to find out what happened to great-grandfather, who left in the 1940s and never came back. The director films both trips and everything around them too, that’s why it’s so hard to keep things apart, always the same fascination for patterns and textures, the same grainy video in black and white, the same eye for unlikely beauty, the same unflinching gaze.

SCREENING TIMES:

11.02. / 13:30 Kino Arsenal 1

11.02. / 16:10 Cubix 4 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

NELLY & NADINE

Directed by: Magnus Gertten
Sweden, Belgium, Norway, 2022
92′

Synopsis: The voice of opera singer Nelly resonates in the middle of Ravensbrück concentration camp. Nelly and Nadine met for the first time at Christmas in 1944. They found each other again after liberation and were to stay together for the rest of their lives. Today, Nelly’s granddaughter Sylvie is about to be confronted with her grandmother’s legacy, locked in a box. The photographs, Super 8 footage and audio recordings as well as the poetic and harrowing diary entries that she comes across describe not only her grandmother’s memories of the camp, but also tell the story of her life with Nadine – a relationship that was never referred to as such by the family.

SCREENING TIMES:

11.02. / 16:00 International

11.02. / 16:50 Cubix 2 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)

BASHTAALAK SA’AT (Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day?)

Directed by: Mohammad Shawky Hassan
Egypt, Lebanon, Germany, 2022
66′

Synopsis: A glance leads to a smile, a smile to a rendezvous: every love story begins the same way. These narratives are stored in songs and poems and live on beyond their inevitable endings, as Shakespeare’s titular sonnet 18 also suggests. In Mohammad Shawky Hassan’s metafictional essay, a female narrator who wishes to tell the story of a love between two men encounters a polyamorous chorus of lovers, and this oft-told tale is multiplied. In Club Scheherazade, there is no protagonist, and every song has various versions. Heteronormative dramaturgy is challenged polyphonically and across a range of media: lovers ask each other about threesomes, Grindr contacts and past dates. Pop clichés are twisted, heartache permeates the men’s singing, and poems by Wadih Saadeh are read out while a lover’s dirty laundry is aired. The narrator mischievously tries for a happy ending as her characters exit the story. “If pain could be forgotten through words,” we hear at one point, “no lover would ever have to walk away wounded.”

SCREENING TIMES:

11.02. / 20:00 Kino Arsenal 1

BERDREYMI (Beautiful Beings)

Directed by: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Czech Republic, 2022
123′

Film still © Sturla Brandth Grøvlen / Join Motion Pictures

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Balli is something of a misfit. He lives with his drug-addicted mother in a squalid house and is bullied by his classmates. A stepfather who “thought the gun wasn’t loaded” has left him with a glass eye. But then Balli meets three boys of his own age – Addi, Konni and Siggi – and a friendship gently develops. For the first time in his life, Balli finds that he is able to connect, especially with Addi, whose mother believes in “the subconscious”. Addi is fighting his own demons and, when his visions appear to indicate that Balli’s brutal stepfather can no longer be tolerated, the boys decide to act.

SCREENING TIMES:

11.02. / 15:30 Zoo Palast 1

11.02. / 16:10 Cubix 1 [Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only]

RERUNS:

Peter von Kant
11.02. / 11:00 CinemaxX 9

Viens je t’emmène (Nobody’s Hero)
11.02. / 11:45 Cubix 2 (Screening for industry professionals | With accreditation only)
11.02. / 13:30 International

Blog

TEDDY TALKS & PANELS

February 11, 2022 cilly

All events will be streamed live on
teddyaward.tv/live

Friday 11 Feb 2022 – 6pm cet
a TEDDY Jury Reception:
The traditional introduction to our TEDDY AWARD Jury as Online talk
Zsombor Bobák in conversation with this year’s TEDDY jury members Robert Moussa, Joanna Ostrowska, Faridah Gbadamosi & Pepe Ruiloba about their festivals, the TEDDY jury’s work and what a Queer Film Prize means to them.


Saturday 12 Feb 2022 – 4pm cet
TEDDY Talk: The TEDDY Winners Path through a Pandemic
Samuel Girma in conversation with Eliane Raheb & John Greyson
A conversation between the winners of the past TEDDY AWARDS and how winning the TEDDY AWARD during the pandemic influenced their films path, plus what that path looked like during the second year of this ongoing pandemic. After the first online edition of the TEDDY, film programmer Samuel Girma will talk through what challenges and surprises confronted these filmmakers and their award winning films over the course of their festival tour.

Sunday 13 Feb.2022 – 4pm cet
TEDDY Talk: Evolving Experimentation
Toby Ashraf in conversation with Liz Rosenfeld, Mohammad Shawky Hassan & Gustavo Vinagre
For filmmakers who challenge the norm, not just in story, but also in form; we speak with three filmmakers whose works will be presented within Forum and Forum Expanded on the importance of experimentation within Queer Cinema. From the development process to story dictating the form or vice versa. Moreover, the struggles involved in evolving this art form in storytelling.

Sunday 13 Feb 2022 – 6pm cet
DIRECTORS EXCHANGE: Motivations
Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani in conversation with Idan Haguel, Alli Haapasalo & Antonio Marziale
Three directors whose works screen within the 72^nd Edition of the Berlinale meet and discuss the different motivations behind their respective films. From development through to post production, what role can hot topic issues play in a storyline and a characters motivation? How difficult is it to create complex characters within a socially critical work?

Monday 14 Feb 2022 – 6pm cet
Queer Your Program: Online Speedy Film Pitches –
(on pre-registration only)
Moderator: Bartholomew Sammut
Around 25 Filmmakers whose films are ready for distribution will present their projects within two-minute pitches to programmers, distributors and sales agents. Join in to find potentially your next opening night film.

Monday 14 Feb 2022 – 8pm cet
Queer Industry Reception goes Online
(on pre-registration only)
Moderator: Bartholomew Sammut
Introduction: Michael Stütz
The annual gathering of industry professionals from the Queer Film Industry, from filmmakers to programmers, to distributors and sales agents. What normally happens in person with a wine in hand and scribbled nametags on shirts, will happen once more online. We shall continue to come together as a community, connect and network, chat about the year we had, the films we look forward to and also to have a little drink and some much needed time together.

All events will be streamed live on
teddyaward.tv/live