We welcome you to this year’s Berlinale and for to the TEDDY Award, your favourite queer Film prize – Welcome to the TEDDY wonderland, in which we will feed you with rainbow coloured sweets from the Berlin International Film Festival.
We start with a sweet from a remote place: the stories of a circus on an island, an artist lost in himself and the blue of the sea. So, come in, come in!
Normally, the people go to sauna to do something good for their healthiness. Mona Iraqi has other reasons, she wants to denounce men there and keep them in jail. She would say to establish order.
So to speak, Mona Iraqi’s personal task is to restore the morality in Egypt. The journalist does everything to accomplish her aim. She scored the big coup in December last year – 26 men* were draged out an hammam and discharged with big police cars.
It should be only a nice concomitant for Iraqi that she boosted up the audience rating with her report. In her mind, she had revealed the largest den of homosexual group perversions in Kairo. However, homosexuality isn’t forbidden in Egypt. Although, there is a useful paragraph from 1961. This paragraph makes sexual excesses a punishable offense. The authorities say that the men have violated this paragraph. Key piece of evidence: All men were naked or wore only a towel at the hammam.
The arrestment of the 26 men is only the peak of an homophobic hunt. Mona Iraqi already caused a stir with her three-episode series ‘Gays and Aids in Egypt’. So it was a act of honor that she called the police by herself.
*The men came free at the beginning of the year. The competent judge declared that all defendants are innocent.
Missed the last TEDDY-news? No time to check our daily updates on our blog and social media? Don’t worry! Here’s everything you shouldn’t have missed.
Berlinale is two days away! This is not a drill! Yesterday, Panorama curator Wieland Speck gave an introduction to the queer films at Berlinale 2015. At Kino International, the queer film fans of Berlin came together.
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For everyone who couldn’t make it we can say this: the queer films at Berlinale this year will be great. For an overview, you can check them out on our website as well as on our blog. The TEDDY Programme Guide is also available for download. And just to give you an idea, here’s the trailer for one of the craziest queer films this year, the Swedish musical Dyke Hard:
Don’t forget that the TEDDY AWARD Opening Party at SchwuZ Club is this Friday! You can check out all the DJs here. We can assure you that it will be a night to remember. Lego & Marsmaedchen will play rock, Chance & Dark, Lucky Pierre and Ena Lind will provide you with electronic music and tons of other great DJs and artists will be there to entertain you!
The TEDDY wouldn’t be the TEDDY if, besides the music and the party, we wouldn’t also support important LGBTI causes. This year, we’ll have information booths concerning trans* issues and especially Chelsea Manning. The Whistle Blower has been sentenced to 35 years in prison. Chelsea has come out as a trans*woman over a year ago and still has to fight for the start of the hormonal treatment that was promised her by the US government. Chelsea Manning needs our support!
For those who want to read more about the TEDDY, we have been introducing the international TEDDY AWARD Jury on our blog all week. We also remembered the LGBTI activist David Kato on his 4th memorial anniversary and reported on Bombastic, the first LGBTI magazine in Uganda.
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As seen above, people were actually camping in front of the Berlinale ticket counters this week, so it’s safe to assume that you guys are just as excited as we are for Berlinale to finally start. This is the last Week in Review. Starting Thursday the TEDDY Todays on this blog will inform you daily about everything that’s happening at Berlinale. We are looking forward to a great festival with you!
The programme guide of the 2015 TEDDY AWARD is now avaialble for download. You will find all important informations about your favorite teddy bear here. Furthermore, you will find detailed background informations and we will tell you the highlights of the 2015 TEDDY cermony on 13th of february 2015.
You will find the download of the 2015 TEDDY programme guide here
Activists published a new magazine as a campaign for more tolerance and enlightenment in Uganda. This is not an easy undertaking in a land, in which hate and prejudices are widely distributed.
To speak for the many voiceless
It just looks like all the other normal magazines which you can buy in every store. But ‘Bombastic’ isn’t a normal magazine. It’s the first LGBTI magazine in sub-Saharan Africa. Since last month, volunteers have been distributing the free magazine to the LGBTI community. At the same time, the radio station ‘Kuchu’ (translated Gay or Queen) went on air.
The magazine features homosexual and transgender people who talk about their experiences, wishes and life in Uganda. It is supposed to enlighten and to reduce prejudices. The aim of the people behind ‘Bombastic’ is to speak for the many voiceless Ugandan LGBTI and to share their stories. They receive financial aid from Ugandans homosexuals and also foreign sympathizers.
Against the stream for more tolerance
The organizers and supporters of ‘Bombastic’ know that the government and the church haven’t been waiting for a gay magazine. Neither public burnings of issues nor the threat of arrests are enough to prevent them to continue with the magazine.
Homophobia is like part of the society in Uganda. Policy and society are not the only one who demonstrate their aversion for the LGBTI minority, the media are also openly hostile towards gay people. ‘Bombastic came about because we wanted to put right many of the falsehoods spread by the Ugandan media, which regularly publish against, humiliates and degrades homosexuals,’ said Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, human rights activist.
‘I rest my case, rest in peace David Kato’
The magazine also remembers one of the most popular gay activists in Uganda – David Kato. He is regarded as the founder of the Ugandan LGBTI movement and was the speaker of the human rights organization ‘ Sexual Minorities Uganda’. His open intercourse with his own homosexuality and his relentless effort for more tolerance made Kato a target of hostilities and police arbitrariness.
Kato was critically injured with a hammer in his own house on January 26, in 2011. He died on the way to the hospital.
