internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin | #teddyaward

The new year is still young and there is already the perfect reason to throw overboard all the good resolutions. It’s Berlinale and so finally it’s TEDDY time. Beside the films and the stars, there are the parties which provide topics of conversations at these days. The best party traditionally takes place at the SchwuZ. And today is the day. The TEDDY celebrate grand opening party. This is the perfect opportunity to fall down in old habits and revive old vices. Of course, we will introduce the this year’s international jury tonight.

For all those who are currently panicking because they don’t know what should they wear tonight here are some tips to come down – our today’s TEDDY films.

Je suis Annemarie Schwarzenbach
My name is Annemarie Schwarzenbach

France 2015
85′
Director: Véronique Aubouy
Cast: Julia Perazzini, Nina Langensand, Megane Ferrat, Pauline Leprince

Annemarie Schwarzenbach was a shimmering figure of bohemian society of the 1920s. A talented writer, she was lesbian, addicted to drugs, a globetrotter, bewitchingly androgynous and – much to her domineering Nazi-loving mother’s chagrin – also anti-fascist. Berlin photographer Marianne Breslauer described her as the most beautiful creature she had ever encountered. Schwarzenbach died young at the age of 34. She remained forgotten until the 1980s when her books began to be republished and her biography reconstructed. Director Véronique Aubouy does more than merely save Annemarie Schwarzenbach from obscurity, she brings her into the present. Sixteen young actors of both genders slip into different roles in order to play Schwarzenbach, her friends and lovers. Increasingly fascinated by the pull of this figure, their oscillations between genders becomes a joint project. Something that begins as an audition in which the young actors are asked to attach their biographies to that of the writer, ends in a dance of relationships in which the borders between reality and dramatization are blurred.

14.30 pm, CineStar 7

Härte
Tough Love

Germany 2015
89′
Director: Rosa von Praunheim
Cast: Hanno Koffler, Andreas Marquardt, Luise Heyer, Marion Erdmann

When karate champ Andreas Marquardt thinks about himself he feels nothing but bitterness: ‘I refused to feel anything. I was cold, like a block of ice, I couldn’t give a shit about anything.’ When he was two years old, his father poured water over him and put him outside on the balcony in subzero temperatures. Another time he crushed his hand. When he was six, his mother began to seduce him: ‘Your prick belongs to me, my little friend.’ Later, Andreas became a pimp and earned millions – until he wound up behind bars. Lovely Marion was the only one who stood by him, who went on the game for him, and gave him the courage to go on … Interspersing interviews with dramatized scenes from Andreas Marquardt’s biography, Rosa von Praunheim describes a life that veers from fear and humiliation to contempt, hatred and brutality. Filmed in stylised sets replete with photographic wallpaper that recall West Berlin décor at the time, the film provides a shocking insight into the deep wounds caused by domestic violence and one man’s desperate attempts at resistance. Is it possible to break out of such a vicious circle? And how does Andreas Marquardt cope with these experiences today?

21.30 pm, Zoo Palast 1

Beira-Mar
Seashore

Brazil 2015
83′
Director: Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon
Cast: Mateus Almada, Maurício José Barcellos, Elisa Brites, Francisco Gick

Having been good friends for years, Martin and Tomaz now find themselves on the cusp of adulthood. Martin’s father sends his son to southern Brazil, where the family is from, to sort out an inheritance matter. Tomaz accompanies him there. For both of them, the brief excursion to the coastal town becomes a journey into themselves. It’s not just the sea that nearly reaches the doors of the country house which exerts a slow, yet relentless pull on them – the two friends have the same effect on one other. Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon’s richly atmospheric, autobiographically inspired feature debut follows its two main characters on a weekend that will change their relationship forever. Beira-Mar is a wander through the borderlands between love and friendship, exploring sexual orientation and personal identity. The outstanding camerawork picks up on the protagonists’ complex emotional states in the same way as the soundtrack captures the roaring of the sea: gentle and powerful in equal measure. Always on an equal footing with the subject and the characters, the film creates a moment of magic and tenderness. Looking for love and finding it are sometimes one and the same thing.

21.45 pm, CineStar 8

Haftanlage 4614
Prison System 4614

Germany 2015
60′
Director: Jan Soldat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMg9po7DP2Q

In the world of fetishes there’s a niche for every type of proclivity. Arwed caters to a special type of customer: he runs a private prison where he is happy to find all sorts of ways to bully and victimise his paying guests on the other side of the bars. As prison director he is master of ceremonies; during the course of one week, he and his partner Dennis help fulfil their prisoners’ wildest fantasies. The inmates treat the days and nights they spend in handcuffs and leg irons as a real holiday – here at last is a place they can finally switch off and relax. The role play looks a bit like improvised theatre, especially when director Arwed and his assistant Dennis plan the next day’s performance in the bare cells and corridors of their institution. But even when using the whip these ‘torturers’ never forget to be humane and, in spite of their tough prison warder guise, they are fully aware, in way that is almost caring, of their responsibility for those in ‘detention’. Director Jan Soldat poses his questions offscreen, in the same interview style that he adopted in his short films.

22.30 pm , CineStar 7

Sangue azul
Blue Blood

Brazil 2014
119′
Director: Lirio Ferreira
Cast: Daniel de Oliveira, Caroline Abras, Sandra Coverloni, Rômulo Braga

A ship with a circus on board approaches an island in the South Atlantic. During the evening performance the ringmaster and illusionist Kaleb presents an artiste named Zolah who immediately wins over the hearts of everyone in the audience. Zolah is Pedro, who left the island twenty years previously at the age of nine. His reunion with his mother Rosa and his introverted sister Raquel brings the well-travelled acrobat face to face with old wounds and buried dreams. Raquel’s world is the sea, and she always retreats to its depths. She wishes that Pedro could be a part of it. Questions begin to present themselves to Pedro. Why did his mother send him away all those years ago? Whilst islanders and circus artistes enjoy a lively exchange, Pedro and Raquel seek out a place of their own. Feelings of guilt, rivalry and burgeoning pride soon become a challenge for the whole family. Lirio Ferreira explores these siblings’ willingness to take risks in images of impressively virtuoso circus acts, combining these with elements of classical tragedy and magical images of the sea to create a brilliant cinematic experience.

22.45 pm, CineStar 3

How intolerant is Hollywood towards gay and transsexual people? A survey* among thousands of Hollywood actors followed this question. The result shows a doleful picture of the dream factory.

Discrimination and homophobic comments are almost on the agenda in Hollywood. A survey from the University of Los Angeles shows that more than half of the LG actors already have heard anti-gay comments. 53% of LGBT respondents believe that directors and producers are biased against
LGBT performers. The big challenge with the role search, the fear of a career crease and a prejudiced role picture turn many actor’s coming out into a difficult undertaking in Hollywood.

However, the survey shows a positive development too.

53 percent of lesbian and gay actors come out to their fellow actors. The majority generally supports LGBT people playing heterosexual and non-transgender roles. For example, 80% of respondents agreed that transgender women should be considered for roles written for women and that transgender men should be considered for roles written for men. Although the most actors are open-minded towards their LGBT fellow actors, especially the dream factory’s persons in response are those who aren’t always tolerant towards gay and transsexual people.