Category Archives: News 2015

In Memory of Suzy Capó

suzy_capo (18)On the 9th of January this year Suzy Capó decided to end her life. She was among the epicenters of Queer Cinema: a strong, passionate, flamboyant, generous, spirited, resourceful, creative ball of energy, circling many universes, connecting worlds, people, films, lives and everything else, that always just barely fit into her gigantic suitcase that she took wherever she went. Suzy was a co-founder and for many years the artistic director of MIX Brazil, the largest LGBT film festival in Latin America, she programmed and curated for PopPorn Festival, the Asian Film Festival in São Paulo, Rio Int’l Film Festival, the São Paulo Int’l Short Film Festival, and the Latin American Film Festival in São Paulo. In 2009, Suzy Capó founded Festival Filmes, the first LGBT suzy_capo (26)film distribution company in Brazil and most recently took in a key position in creating the Brazilian version of the Teddy: the Felix, which was presented for the first time at the Festival do Rio in 2014. She was a member of numerous film juries, including of course the TEDDY Jury in 2004. She was also a journalist, an actress, and a cultural producer in the truest sense of the word. She seemed to possess an endless capacity to create, to host, to facilitate: festivals, films, artists, filmmakers, transnational exchange. Continue reading In Memory of Suzy Capó

Last Week in Review

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.

The Berlinale is getting closer and closer. The films for Panorama and the competition are selected and we can expect many stars and starlets on the red carpet. And many great films and filmmakers as well, obviously. Here at the TEDDY office, we are also working hard to make the next Berlinale a great one. Right now we’re working on the TEDDY program magazine.

This year, we’ll have lots of great numbers with the dancers and the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin featured in the TEDDY Gala. The opening number is a piece from Jacques Offenbachs crazy opéra bouffe La Belle Hélène. We are looking forward to two great soloists.

Agnes Zwierko is a world-renowned mezzo-soprano, who has sung in Milan, London and Buenos Aires. She performs the Tangolita in piece from the iconic operetta Ball at the Savoy.

a_zwierko

The second soloist is Katharine Mehrling, who sang the lead in countless musicals. Berliners should especially know her name from the production of Cabaret at the Bar jeder Vernunft, where she performed the part of Sally Bowles more than 250 times. At the Gala she will perform the piece “Kangaroo-Fox” from Ball at the Savoy.

Foto @ Jim Rakete
Foto @ Jim Rakete

There are news from SchwuZ club as well: POP:SCH will perform live at the Closing Party! Many of the great SchwuZ DJs are there as well: Gloria Viagra & Pa$cha, Black Cracker & Friends and Disco Gessner & hintergrundrauschen will play many genres of music. We can hardly wait.

Picture © Marie Gutbub
Picture © Marie Gutbub

For everyone who wants to read more, Audrey has written a piece about the perfect work of art that is Udo Kier and Sebastian about his love for Tocotronic and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. More information about the artists performing at the TEDDY AWARD Gala can be found here.

Our website and blog will be updated with news about the program, the lazy ones can read the next Last Week in Review with all the important news.

See you next week!

ARTISTS KOMISCHE OPER

JOCHEN SCHROPP – HOST

schropp
picture @ VOX / Stephan Pick

Jochen Schropp is the host of numerous German TV-Shows.  In 2011 he was awarded the Bavarian TV Prize for his presentation. In 2010, 2011 and 2014 he was nominated for the German TV Prize in the category Best Entertainer. He is also a successful actor: His breakout role was in the series Sternenfänger alongside Nora Tschirner. Among many other appearances on television, he played the pathologist in the crime series Polizeiruf 110. For his role in Zwei Engel für Amor he was nominated for the Grimme Prize. Jochen Schropp hosts many charity-events like the Kölner Aids-Gala and the Rosenball in Vienna. He is hosting the TEDDY AWARD Gala since 2012.


UDO KIER

Kopie_von_Udo_Kier_RET
© Greg Gorman, courtesy of Hohmann Fine Art

The SPECIAL TEDDY AWARD for Artistic Life Achievement 2015 will be given to the actor Udo Kier. With Rainer Werner Fassbinder, he got to know the cinema and became the international energy which emerged from the Fassbinder-Clan. For five decades he has been oscillating between trash, pop, art house and two continents. He worked together with Warhol, von Trier, Schlingensief and Madonna. He participated in Blockbusters and high-grade trash and set standards for non-stereotypical male characters.

INGRID CAVEN

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Ingrid Caven embodies many roles: She is a singer, the hero of a novel, an actress. And she was one of the closest confidents of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, whom she was married to for two years. Fassbinder called their relationship a “Wahlverwandtschaft”. As a student Ingrid Caven met the director in Munich and joined his antiteater-group. She acted in more than 40 Fassbinder-productions. In the late Seventies, she came to fame as a chanson singer in Paris, with compositions by Peer Raben. Sophisticated changes of voice, a black Yves Saint Laurent velvet robe and her passionate performance made her an icon of chanson. In 2000 the novel Ingrid Caven by Cavens life-partner Jean-Jacques Schuhl was published. The novel, which describes the life of Caven, was awarded with the Prix Goncourt and turned Ingrid Caven into a true cult figure.


KATHARINE MEHRLING

Mehrling_207_credit_Jim_Rakete
Fotot @ Jim Rakete

Whether as Evita Peron, Edith Piaf or Fanny Brice, Katharine Mehrling shines in every role. Before she gave her stage debut at the Londoner West End in a production of Hair, she studied acting and musical theatre in London and New York. She played the leads in Some Like It Hot, Die Dreigroschenoper and Les Miserables. Mehrling performed Sally Bowles more than 250-times in the Cabaret production at the Bar jeder Vernunft in Berlin. French chanson is her great love and for her first solo-show she followed the tracks of Edith Piaf in Paris. Katharine Mehrling is internationally known for her great voice and her touching acting. She won the Prize of the Deutsche Bühnenverein, the Lale-Andersen-Prize and was awarded the theater prize Goldener Vorhang twice.


AGNES ZWIERKO

a_zwierkoThe mezzo-soprano Agnes Zwierko was born in Warsaw and initially studied computer engineering and electronics before she dedicated herself to opera singing at the Chopin University of Music. She sang in all the big opera houses of Poland as well as in international houses such as the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, La Scala in Milan or the Royal Opera House in London. The repertoire of Agnes Zwierko is big and versatile, the Amneris in Aida, Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff and the Eboli in Don Carlo are just a small selection of her roles. This season Agnes Zwierko is a guest soloist at the Komische Oper Berlin, where she plays the Tangolita in the iconic operetta Ball im Savoy.


THE ORCHESTER OF THE KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN

© Gunnar Geller
© Gunnar Geller

The two soloists Katharine Mehrling and Agnes Zwierko will be accompanied by the house orchestra at the Komische Oper. In a segment from Barrie Kosky’s rendition of Jacques Offenbach’s La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen), ensemble dancers will demonstrate what overwhelming star power is gathered in the Komische Oper’s ensemble, aside from great voices. Peter Christian Feigel conducts, Otto Pichler choreographed.


POP:SCH

Whether it’s a hair fetish, the romance between two police officers or the general obsession with beauty, POP:SCH are singing about it. The foursome from Vienna produces Electro-Pop with queer-feminist contents. They mix electronic music of the 80s with hymnic sing-along-pop  and intelligent lyrics. Their music is catchy without being simple, their lyrics aggressive without being offensive. POP:SCH describe themselves as a mixture of Kim Wilde and Peaches. Their first album TOP OF THE POP:SCH came out in 2011. Their new single shut up haters is an anthem against homophobia, directed to all the “small-minded hypocrites” out there.


FELIX AND FLOW

FelixUndFlow

Straight from the menagerie of the Cirque de Demain in Paris, the figure cycling duo Felix and Flow hits the stage at the Komische Oper Berlin with fine cycling artistry of the superior sort, featuring distinctive elements unparalleled in the international Varieté scene. The brothers Felix and Florian were also successful as competitive sportsmen: they are double vice world champions and former world record holders in the discipline of artistic cycling. This unique act was forged in collaboration with the BASE Berlin talent works, which has been responsible for a number of artistic highlights seen onstage at the TEDDY AWARDS in recent years.


L’ENSEMBLE TRANSES CONTINENTALES

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

The TEDDY AFTER SHOW LOUNGE showcases the newly founded L’ensemble transes continentales, who will take us through an evening of our dreams to the tune of music from five continents. Trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, vibraphone and piano are just some of the instruments the ensemble will play in order to make us yearn, dance and laugh.


DAS BLAUE WUNDER FEAT MAGNUS UND NORBERT

The DJ Duo Das blaue Wunder feat. Magnus und Norbert will play at the TEDDY AFTER SHOW LOUNGE. They will spin decades of collected vinyl delicacies in a musical selection one could almost call eclecticist. Magnus and Norbert are resident DJs at the Kreuzberg institutions Südblock and Möbel Olfe.


WERNER WITTPOTH

WernerWittpothThe barrel organs of this passionate organ grinder hold up to 160 pipes and 48 pitches. With his ambitious and varied repertoire Wittpoth can be found since more than 30 years defying the weather between the domes of Cologne and Aachen. Occasionally he also plays at the Berliner Ensemble, the Ballad of Mack the Knife or Brecht’s Canon Song, accompanied by Nina Hagen.

Last Week in Review

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 around the corner and the TEDDY team is assembling to plan the 29th edition of the TEDDY AWARD. Last week we moved into our office and supplied ourselves with large amounts of chocolate, fruits and coffee. Ready to go!

büroblog2

This year, as every year, there will be tons of great artists at the TEDDY AWARD. We are really proud to announce that Ingrid Caven will join us this year. Since the late seventies, she’s one of the biggest stars of chanson, often compared to Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf. Fans of the German band Tocotronic should also know her name, as the band has been closing their shows with her chanson „Die großen weißen Vögel“ for years.

CAVEN_13x18_3

Before Caven became a singer, she acted in many Rainer Werner Fassbinder  movies. She was life-long friends with the director, they were even married for two years. She will perform a couple of her classics in a homage to the late Fassbinder. Fassbinder is also the face of our poster this year, which was painted by  Rinaldo Hopf and designed by cabine.

Poster-OK-purple-stripes-23

Besides Ingrid Caven, we’re looking forward to the Vienna-based band POP:SCH, who will perform their anti-homophobia-anthem “shut up haters”. And, of course, the great Udo Kier will join us to accept his Special TEDDY AWARD.

A familiar face will join us again this year: Jochen Schropp will host the TEDDY AWARD for the fourth time. Yay!

Jochen_Schropp2000

Opening and closing party will take place at  SchwuZ again. And it will be wild :)

 Who, like us, can hardly wait for the TEDDY to begin and wants to read more can check out Sebastian waking up from a food coma and Audrey reporting on homophobia in Hollywood.

All the events are now online. Our website and blog will be updated with news about the program, the lazy ones can read the next Last Week in Review with all the important news.

See you next week!

 

TEDDY Events 2015

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd, 2015, 10 pm
Wieland Speck and the TEDDY foundation present MonGay Special
INTRODUCTION TO THE QUEER FILMS OF THE 65th BERLINALE  @ Kino International
Karl-Marx-Allee 33, 10178 Berlin
Head of the Panorama Section Wieland Speck presents the 2015 TEDDY programm.
Entrance fee: full price : 7 euro, concessions: 6,50 euro.
Ticket proceeds go to the TEDDY foundation.
>>>Facebook-event


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6th, 2 pm
BERLINALE TALK @ Berlinale Lounge
with UDO KIER and Deutschlandradio Kultur
Broadcast on February 9th, 9 am
Audi Berlinale Lounge at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz
Free entry
>>>Facebook-event


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6th, 2015, 10 pm
Reception for the TEDDY Jury 2015
TEDDY GRAND OPENING NIGHT  @ SchwuZ “London Calling”
Rollbergstraße 26, 12053 Berlin
Entrance fee: 6 euro until midnight, afterwards 8 euro
Rock: Lego & marsmaedchen
Elektronische Tanzmusik: Chance&Dark, Lucky Pierre & Ena Lind
Janus-floor: dpd & M.E.S.H
Info booth concerning trans* issues and Chelsea Manning with Free Chelsea Manning Berlin  and Queer Amnesty Berlin
>>>Facebook-event


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12th, 8 to 9 pm
BERLINALE TALK @ Berlinale Lounge
“The years with Fassbinder”
UDO KIER and INGRID CAVEN
Audi Berlinale Lounge at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz
Free entry
>>> Facebook-event


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13th, 2015, 9 pm

9 pm: 29th TEDDY AWARD GALA @ Komische Oper Berlin
Behrenstraße 55-57, 10117 Berlin
Host: JOCHEN SCHROPP
with :
INGRID CARVEN
KATHERINE MEHRLING
AGNES ZWIERKO
POP:SCH
FELIX AND FLOW
with the ORCHESTER DER KOMISCHEN OPER BERLIN
with a tribute to Rainer Werner Fassbinder
and many more tba
Special TEDDY AWARD: UDO KIER

11 pm: TEDDY AFTER SHOW LOUNGE, CHILL & DANCE
with “L’ensemble transes continentales” and  “Das blaue Wunder” feat. Magnus and Norbert

And for those who want to party all night, we organized a party shuttle bus who will bring you to the TEDDY AWARD Closing Party at the SchwuZ. Entrance is included in the Gala ticket fee.

>>>Facebook-event


FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13th, 2015, 11 pm

TEDDY 2015 CLOSING PARTY @ SchwuZ “Partysane”
Rollbergstraße 26, 12053 Berlin
Entrance fee: 8 euro until midnight, afterwards 10 euro
Entrance fee includes support for the TEDDY foundation
Rotz’n’pop: Gloria Viagra & Pa$cha
Urban Sounds: Black Cracker & Friends
Discoelectro: Disco Gessner & hintergrundrauschen
Live: POP:SCH
Info booth concerning trans* issues and Chelsea Manning with Free Chelsea Manning Berlin  and Queer Amnesty Berlin
>>> Facebook-event


SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15th 2015, 8 pm
TEDDY SHORTS 
Filmscreening in cooperation with Mobile Kino
Entrance fee: 5 Euro
SchwuZ, Rollbergstraße 26, 12053 Berlin
>>> Facebook-event


SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015
TEDDY AWARD on TV, ARTE Television
29th TEDDY AWARD GALA
in German and in French
time tba

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16th, 2015, 10 pm

Wieland Speck and the TEDDY foundation present MonGay Special
TEDDY AWARD WINNER FILM(S) FROM THE 65th BERLINALE @
Kino International
Kino International, Karl-Marx-Allee 33, 10178 Berlin
Entrance fee: full price : 7 euro, concessions: 6,50 euro.
Ticket proceeds go to the TEDDY foundation.
>>> Facebook-event

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