Tag Archives: LGBTIQ

Blog

THE 36th TEDDY AWARD CEREMONY: THE LINE-UP

with BRIX SCHAUMBURG, GEORGETTE DEE, RASHA NAHAS, ZSOMBOR BOBÁK, MICHAEL STÜTZ and the TEDDY JURY 2022

We’re incredibly happy to be able to present this year’s TEDDY AWARDS – once again – at Berlin’s Volksbühne. On the big stage of this great theatre, which has become a dear home for the TEDDY AWARD ceremony and the biggest and hottest after show party of the Berlinale. We want to send a signal that even a virus cannot stop us from celebrating queer life and queer creativity and solidarity. With the 36th TEDDY AWARDS we want to do our part and share a rainbow of queer joy, visibility and community with you. Be there and celebrate with us when the TEDDY AWARDS are awarded live from the Volksbühne Berlin on TEDDYAWARD TV on 18 February from 9pm. Get the Livestream here.

THE 36th TEDDY AWARDS WILL BE HOSTED BY:

BRIX SCHAUMBURG
“The world needs more glitter and less pidgeonholing.”

© Sven Serkis

Brix Schaumburg is Germany’s first officially outed trans actor. Also a singer and speaker, he has won several awards and is actively striving towards more visibility and acceptance. It’s the year 2022 and we’re more progressive than ever. Nothing’s impossible and yet our constitution’s article 3 doesn’t even mention queer people. Brix is fighting for more justice, openness, and love. He hosts diversity coachings for corporations to achieve more awareness between all people and to attain more consciousness regarding our language.


WE WILL BE ENCHANTED BY:

GEORGETTE DEE
“Germany’s greatest living diseuse“ – Die Zeit

©Georgette Dee

With her songs, Georgette Dee rummages through life and love, flutters with a touch of melancholy to all facets of feelings, sometimes trailing, sometimes leading, skilfully weaving her way through each relationship jungle and weaving stories in which everyone can wander around at their own whim. You don’t want to miss a word, a gesture or one of the songs – and on the grand piano, the fabulous Terry Truck makes the thoughts and songs appear in musically magnificent images, as if casually.

Grand gestures, hushed tones, pointed nastiness, casual provocations, poignant chansons – true divas can do it.
And Georgette Dee certainly does.

AND:

RASHA NAHAS
“Nahas has the theatricality of Weimar cabaret with added violins and rockabilly.” – The Guardian

©Sama Haddad

Berlin-based Palestinian singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Rasha Nahas was born and raised in Haifa. Rasha has long been crafting a sound that moves seamlessly between the resonances of early rock ‘n’ roll and the reckless echoes of free jazz, complemented by her distinctive approach to songwriting, storytelling and performance.
While Rasha’s musical projects are always an exploration into new territories, one staple in her works is a dedication to the narrative. Reaching critical acclaim with her debut album, ‘Desert’ , she chronicled a personal and political journey from Palestine to Germany and back, landing reputable features such as BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, Spotify produced podcast Spotify:Mic Check and 3sat Kulturzeit, among many other radio and television features in Europe and the Arab world. Rasha has performed in many festivals and venues around the world, including Glastonbury Festival, Palestine Music Expo and Sim Sao Paulo. In her upcoming album ‘Amrat’ (due June 2022), Rasha explores themes of home, belonging, spirituality, freedom and her relationship with her mother-tongue.


INTRODUCING US TO THE QUEER MOVIES OF THE 72nd BERLINALE:

Zsombor Bobák in conversation with the TEDDY Jury and Michael Stütz

© Frameline Film Festival, Vitek Orski, van_schwarzdorn

Zsombor Bobák

joined the TEDDY team in 2018 and has since then seen almost all queer films at the Berlinale. With his insightful and competent interviews and conversations with the directors, he gives us a deep insight into the world of queer cinema and the makers every year on TEDDYAWARD TV. He holds an M.A. in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image from the University of Amsterdam and is a PhD student at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His field of research is queer archiving methods that bring the LGBTQ+ history of Central and Eastern Europe to life. He is passionate about queer moving images and recently
started to explore the productive engagement of academic research and found footage filmmaking.

Michael Stütz is head of the Panorama section of the Berlinale. He was born in Linz, Austria, in 1977 and studied theatre, film and media studies at the University of Vienna and the Free University of Berlin. At the same time he worked for film productions at Studio Babelsberg. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 2005. After an internship at TEDDY, he became assistant to the then Panorama director Wieland Speck in 2006. He subsequently took on tasks in the section ranging from office management to programme coordination, coordination of the TEDDY AWARD and as programme advisor to Wieland Speck. From July 2017, he served as curator and programme manager of the Panorama until he took over as head of the section in 2020. He has also been active as a guest speaker, curator or jury member at numerous other festivals, including the Guadalajara International Film Festival, Crossing Europe, Mix Brazil or the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.

THE JURY OF THE 36th TEDDY AWARD

Faridah Gbadamosi is a pop culture-obsessed lover of film working towards making the space more inclusive. In particular, her interests are in changing the space of tastemakers, rethinking the models for curation and exhibition. She has worked in a variety of roles at different film festivals and other film organizations including the California Film Institute, Athena Film Festival, Tribeca, SIFF, and many more. In addition to her programming roles, she is also Director of Distribution at Open Your Eyes and Think MF, the distribution wing of David Magdael & Associates, a consultant on different film projects, and a freelance culture critic. She recently was appointed the Artistic Director of Outfest and is very excited to help shepherd the future of the organization as it enters its 40th year. 

Pepe Ruiloba is a film programmer and critic helming from Mexico City. He worked in production of films and commercials before joining the Guadalajara International Film Festival for six years as programmer & operational coordinator of Premio Maguey, a competitive section that showcases LGBTQ+ cinema. He currently programs the Queer strand of the Raindance Film Festival in London and the Árbol Rojo Film Exhibition in Southeast Mexico. He also works as a script editor & supervisor in local production company Studio Palíndromo, and is a film critic for newspaper Reforma, one of the largest printed media company in Mexico and Latin America.

Joanna Ostrowska holds a PhD in Humanities and is a lecturer in the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagielloński University (Krakow), in Gender Studies at the University of Warsaw and in Polish-Jewish Studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She researches on the topic of the forgotten victims of the Holocaust and the queer history of the Second World War. She is a film critic, a member of the selection committee for the Krakow Film Festival and a programmer for the LGBT Film Festival in Warsaw. 

Robert Moussa is the founder and director of Soura Film Festival, a berlin-based queer film festival that sheds light on cinematic talents from the South-West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, and was established in 2019. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor in Mass Communications, then moved to Prague to pursue his passion for film at FAMU. He was selected to be a jury member for the 15th edition of Xposed Film Festival. 

Blog

TEDDY TODAY, Wednesday, June 09

The Berlinale Summer Special has finally arrived and what better time to celebrate our wonderful LGBTQ+ films and artists than during pride month! Starting today and running until the 20th of June 2021, all films nominated for a TEDDY 2021 will be screened in open-air cinemas around Berlin!

“GLÜCK”, Regie: Henrika Kull, Deutschland, 2021
PREMIERE, 21:30h, Freiluftkino Kreuzberg

Breaking the ice on the first day of festival is the feature BLISS (original title: GLÜCK) directed by the wonderful Henrika Kull! Shot in a real brothel, the film breaks down the negative stereotypes and stigma associated with sex work through the passionate relationship of two female sex workers. More details about the film and other screening dates can be found on our BLOG. Watch the full interview with Henrika Kull here:

LUZ DE PRESENCA“, Regie: Diogo Costa Amarante, Portugal, 2021,
PREMIERE, 21:45h, Freiluftkino Hasenheide

We just can’t get enough of this buzzing festival atmosphere that was so dearly missed! Screening today is a delightful short film directed by Diogo Costa Amarante: A PRESENT LIGHT (original title: “Luz de Presença”). Save the dates: 09.06. / 21:45 / Freiluftkino Hasenheide 10.06. / 21:45 / Freiluftkino im Filmrauschpalast Don’t miss out on the other screenings taking place today on our BLOG .Catch Amarante discussing his idea for the film on Vimeo:

Diogo Costa Amarante in conversation with Jan-Felix Wuttig

“DAS MÄDCHEN UND DIE SPINNE“, Director: Ramon Zürcher,
Switzerland 2021
PREMIERE, 22.15h, Sommerkino Kulturforum

Over the course of two days and one night, as Lisa moves out of the apartment she has shared with Mara and into the one where she will live alone, many things will break and some will be repaired.
Like the titular spider’s web, the film has a perfect, fragile geometry. Set almost entirely in interiors, it is also an involuntary summary of the paradoxical age of the pandemic. The transition from one abode to another, and the energy that is released between one story ending and another beginning, puts the entire ensemble into an altered state of grace.
…read more

© Beauvoir Films

“STOP ZEMLIA“, Director: Kateryna Gornostai, Ukraine 2021
PREMIERE, 21:30h, Freiluftkino Rehberge

“They say when you get goosebumps, your soul touches your body.”

It‘s Masha, Iana and Senia‘s last but one year of high school. Among the thriving pot plants in the classroom and to the sound effects of a Biology lesson about physical signs of stress, the young protagonists grapple with themselves and with one another. 16-year-old Masha is the quiet center of Kateryna Gornostai’s feature debut. …read more

Maria Fedorchenko © Oleksandr Roshchyn
Blog

Special TEDDY AWARD goes to Jenni Olson

In addition to the awards for current films, the TEDDY Foundation also presents the Special TEDDY AWARD for outstanding achievement and long-term service to a figure from the creative industries whose work has made an exceptional contribution to a wide-scale public perception and reception of queer perspectives in art, culture and the media. Previous winners of the Special TEDDY AWARD include Tilda Swinton, Werner Schroeter, Ulrike Ottinger, Monika Treut, John Hurt, Udo Kier, Christine Vachon, Joe Dallesandro, Evita Bezuidenhout, Rosa von Praunheim and Elfi Mikesch.

This year’s Special TEDDY AWARD goes to the film curator, archivist, filmmaker, writer and LGBT film historian Jenni Olson for her decades of bridge-building work with which she has made queer film history visible and tangible.

Jenni Olson’s enthusiasm for the medium of film manifests itself in innumerable ways. She always finds the right instrument with which to put her curiosity and fascination into practice. She fights for the preservation and distribution of cinematic legacies and orphaned film copies, promotes emerging talents and has created her own cinematic oeuvre. She draws on a queer film network she herself has strengthened and expanded over the decades with her collaborations and influence. Jenni Olson embodies, lives and creates queer film culture.

Blog, TEDDY TODAY

CSD 2018 – A Moment of Remembering

Christopher Street Day has arrived in Berlin for the 40. time and promises to be bigger and more colorful than ever. The annual celebration of the LGBTQI* community is certainly one of the most fabulous events of the year, however (and this is important) it is also a demonstration. While the Western world can rightfully be proud (no pun intended) of its achievements regarding tolerance and acceptance, it is also crucial to remember that LGBTQI* lives are under constant threat in many parts of the world; that different members of the community are treated differently by the hegemonic domain and by the community itself as well; that CSD should not be taken for granted; and that looking at the history of this joyous event is a must.

The sun shines, the summer heatwave still strikes hard, and with the magic of last night’s lunar eclipse in the air everything is given for a wonderful parade in the center of Berlin. Music, dancing, pride, and a vibrating feeling of freedom will fill the streets today. This in itself is very powerful. But the underlying political drive is what makes CSD (and any other pride event) special. Granting visibility to an oppressed community (very much present tense here), reclaiming public spaces, and protesting oppression, exploitation, ignorance, and discrimination with loud music, loud colors, glitter, and the most exuberant dance moves makes CSD striking. Politics mixed with happiness and proud self-expression. The flamboyance, playfulness, and excess of expressions is beyond mere merriment and gaiety: it all is something of the core of queer politics. It is subversive, it is liberating, and it is empowering.

While the party vibes are certainly appealing, it is also important to remember what we celebrate and what are we marching for. We should honor the astonishing achievements of the community and the queer social movements across the globe because these are hard-fought achievements. But let me focus on the hard-fought element today, as I believe this is something that sometimes fades away under the pulsing beats. On this day, I would like to dance, yes. But I would also like to take my time to remember.

I would like to remember today all those who fought unstoppably for a world in which I don’t have to hide my desire and love.
I would like to remember those who passed away in the fight.
I would like to remember the first stones thrown.
I would like to remember the tears, the laughter, the sweat, and the love that characterized the journey to this day.
I would like to remember the very first march.
I would like to remember how other social movements helped our cause and how we helped others.
I would like to remember the bravery, the creativity, and the immense will-power of those who fought for LGBTQI* lives and causes.

I would like to remember so I would not forget how we got here. Looking into the past is crucial. It fights forgetting, and for the LGBTQI* community this is especially important. Our his/herstory_ies are not detailed in history books and the materiality of these is not safeguarded in publicly funded institutions. We need to remember. We must. Otherwise what are we building our future on?

But today I would also like to think of others who need our thoughts and support.

I would like to think of those whom are still fighting really hard.
I would like to think of those whose fight is characterized by fear for their lives and physical well-being.
I would like to think of those whom are running away from their homelands out of fear for their lives and with the hopes for a freer and happier future only to find themselves being detained and interrogated in their chosen land of “tolerance”.
I would like to think of the trans* people who have been murdered for being trans*.
I would like to think of all those kids and young people who have been and whom are being bullied in their local communities for being different.
I would like to think of those who still hate themselves for being different.

And as the parade begins and I start to walk and dance with the crowd on the heat-vomiting asphalt sea of Berlin I would like to keep remembering and thinking of others with whom I cannot share this joyful parade. Perhaps this is where some of the power of CSD lies.

The TEDDY AWARD wishes everybody a happy, liberating, and empowering CSD.