Tag Archives: queer academy

Blog

The TEDDY Talks 2021

Finally, the program for the TEDDY Talks 2021 is all set! You can find all the information about all TEDDY TALKS and our daily livestreams from the 1st until the 5th of March below.

TEDDY TALKS LIVE from the TEDDY TV Studio
TEDDY TALKS LIVE from the TEDDY TV Studio

TIMETABLE

MONDAY March 1, 2021

14.00 THE SITUATION ROOM
Zsombor Bobák in conversation with Michael Stütz, Head of Panorama
-> watch it ON DEMAND

16.00 A DIRECTORS EXCHANGE: our role in writing queer history
Milica Tomović, director of Kelti, Monika Treut, director of Genderation and Eliane Raheb, director of Miguel’s War each take a unique approach to moments of queer history in their films, that not only look back but also forward to what that documentation in time means for our future. Each filmmaker deals with either social, personal or political aspects of (queer) history and sheds a light on- and changes/creates a queer narrative. How specific/individual and self-reflexive are those different approaches and do they, besides portraying of queer protagonists, offer universal options of life in opposition to heteronormativity?
Host: Kristian Petersen
-> watch it ON DEMAND

Panelists: Milica Tomović, Monika Treut, Eliane Raheb

 

TUESDAY March 2, 2021

14.00 THE SITUATION ROOM
Zsombor Bobák in conversation with filmmakers, festival organizers and producers 
-> watch it ON DEMAND

16.00 TEDDY Talk – From Live to Dial Up Content: Queer Films Festival Trajectories after moving online
With global lockdowns forcing many queer film festivals to adapt a community event that is made to bring people together, to one without a physical community. How has the path changed for Queer Film Festivals? In order to reflect on how this affected our audiences, our filmmakers and our organizations, an evaluation is required. Did having a wider online presence bring in more viewers and how does the introduction of online screening platforms influence the future of Queer Festival Programming? With the large network of Queer Film Festivals being often the sole distribution for many films, does the element of an online screening modify this network and will this platform be an integral part of our future?
Host: Bartholomew Sammut
-> watch it ON DEMAND

Panelists: Skadi Loist, Nick McCarthy, Sridhar Rangayan, Sylva Häutle, Muffin Hix, Jay Lin

 

WEDNESDAY March 3, 2021

14.00 THE SITUATION ROOM
Zsombor Bobák in conversation with filmmakers, festival organizers and producers 
-> watch talk ON DEMAND

16.00 TEDDY Talk – A look back to the future: Distribution Strategies in the wake of a Pandemic.
Looking back at a number of films that celebrated their premiers at the 70th Berlinale and how their distribution path changed in the wake of covid, global lockdowns and online festivals. From short films to features and documentaries, we speak with Producer Paulina Lorenz, Director Ray Yeung plus industry professionals María Vera from Kino Rebelde, Björn Koll from Salzgeber and Martin Gondre from Best Friend Forever to see how their initial plans changed after the Berlinale. What were the challenges and how did these film teams come together to navigate a strategy when making any sort of plans seemed impossible.
Host: Merle Groneweg
-> watch Panel ON DEMAND

Panelists: Paulina Lorenz, Ray Yeung, María Vera, Björn Koll, Martin Gondre

 

THURSDAY March 4, 2021

14.00 TEDDY SPECIAL – #ACTOUT AND BEYOND
Panel discussion of the Queer Media Society on visibility of queer actors in the media and in the public.
Host: Johannes Kram
-> watch Talk ON DEMAND

Panelists: Maren Kroymann, Mehmet Sözer, Nicola-Rabea Langrzik, Peter Schulze, Karimah El-Giamal

16.00 TEDDY Talk – Building A Nurturing Work Environment for Queer BIPOC Industry Executives
The film industry can be a minefield for those embodying intersectional identities. 2020 saw a myriad of public commitments to equity and inclusion, but what work has been done internally to ensure that these organizations are equipped to be safe spaces for their LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous and POC staff and artists? Taking a queer lens to Iyabo Boyd’s provocation to Build A BIPOC Power Pipeline, this Teddy Talk invites industry stakeholders to share their insights on the barriers we face when it comes to succeeding in our roles and advancing our careers.
Host: Lucy Mukerjee
-> watch Talk ON DEMAND

Panelists: Bianca Quesada, Masashi Niwano, Campbell X, Andrea Coloma, Sekiya Dorsett

18.00 Queer Your Program: Online Speedy Film Pitches
The annual two minute pitching sessions will be moving online and offered to filmmakers whose films are ready for distribution. Open to programmers, distributors and sales agents; join in to find potentially your next opening night film. 
Host: Bartholomew Sammut

20.00 Queer Industry Reception goes Online
An 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 nametags plastered on your shirt, this friendly networking event will now happen online. We shall once again 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 a touch of gaiety.
Host: Bartholomew Sammut

 

FRIDAY March 5, 2021

14.00 TEDDY SPECIAL – Invisible Threat – Similarities and Disparities of the COVID-19 pandemic and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Two global public health crises, two invisible threats to human life. But in what ways compare the COVID-19 pandemic and the HIV/AIDS epidemic? What are the most striking differences? Is it ethical at all to compare the two? And what role can cinema and filmmakers play in tackling the harshest of realities brought by these viruses? Where do their responsibilities and political power lie? A conversation about visibility, power, trauma, memory, and film activism.
Host: Zsombor Bobák
-> watch Talk ON DEMAND

Participants: Wieland Speck, John Greyson, Dr. Alexandra Juhasz

16.00 TEDDY Talk – Queering Common Space
A Debate on Visibility, (Un-)Safe Urban Spaces and the Everyday Archive with POLIGONAL Office for Urban Communication and guests In what ways are queerness and queer practices represented in urban everyday life? Is visibility the key to a more inclusive urban future? In the discourse on what kind of city we want to live in queer narratives tend to be underrepresented – with crucial voices remaining unheard. To discuss the power of archiving this talk brings together protagonists from the project QUEERING COMMON SPACE – a digital living archive collecting visual and acoustic representations and documentations of queer memories, encounters and stories from common (un-)safe spaces in the cities of Tbilisi and Berlin.
Host: Christian Haid, Lukas Staudinger
-> watch Panel ON DEMAND

Panelists: Liz Rosenfeld, David Apakidze, Nini Goderidze, Nancy Naser Al Deen, Tzeshi Lei

 Don´t forget to watch the videos

TEDDY TALKS LIVE from the TEDDY TV Studio

Wir freuen uns auf den Sommer!
Stay tuned & bleibt gesund bis dahin!

THANKS TO THIS YEARS PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS OF
THE TEDDY TALKS

brought to you by maxwell.smart

 

Blog

THE TEDDY AWARD UNDER COVID-19

Even as the world seems to be paused until further notice, the Teddy Award keeps on thriving! No stubborn pandemic can stop the 35th edition of the Teddy Award from spreading the same joyful energy with our LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
 
Like most events during the pandemic, the 35th TEDDY AWARD will have to take place in a different form this year. Following the successful first stage – the Industry Event from March 1-5, 2021 – which saw daily live studio talks, discussions, panels and interviews on current films and developments in the queer media industry, the TEDDY AWARD is also part of the 71st Berlinale’s Summer Special from June 9-20, 2021 with reports and interviews on the queer films at the festival.
Download Press Release May 28,2021
All the films nominated for the 35th TEDDY AWARD are being shown in the city’s open-air cinemas as part of the Berlinale’s open-air film screenings. The highlight of the TEDDY summer events is the celebration of queer cinema on June 18, 2021 at 7 pm with the 35th TEDDY AWARD ceremony. Due to the ongoing pandemic-related restrictions, the award ceremony will take place entirely online and will be streamed LIVE FROM THE TEDDY TV STUDIO at teddyaward.tv/live.

 

No matter what the world may look like: With the 35th TEDDY AWARD, we want to share a ray of queer joy, visibility and community with you in these chaotic times.

>> As always, all information updates can be found here in the TEDDY blog.

Blog

Queer Academy – A Directors Exchange 2020

Tuesday, February 25 @ TEDDYBAR, Bellevuestr. 1, 10785 Berlin

Curated by Panorama and organised with the Queer Academy, A Directors Exchange analyses the work of filmmakers whose films are being presented at the festival and are in contention for the TEDDY AWARD.

TIMETABLE

11.30am – 12.30pm: A Directors Exchange on Queering the Framework – In conversation with Patric Chiha and Matthew Rankin

Patric Chiha, director of Si c’était de l’amour, and Matthew Rankin, director of The Twentieth Century, use various styles and artistry in their films to queer the framework where stories told through dance and theatrical staging become celebrations of transformation.  

Patric Chiha & Matthew Rankin

Patric Chiha:
Born in Vienna, Austria in 1975, he studied fashion design in Paris and then film editing at the INSAS film school in Brussels. His short and documentary films have screened at several festivals. His feature film debut Domaine, starring Béatrice Dalle, premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. His documentary Brothers of the Night screened in the 2016 Panorama.

Matthew Rankin:
Born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1980. He studied at the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University in Montreal, as well as Université Laval in Quebec. In 2011, Rankin participated at Berlinale Talents. Following numerous short films, The Twentieth Century is his first feature film.

Moderation: Ana David

1pm – 2pm: A Directors Exchange on New Queer German Cinema – In conversation with Faraz Shariat and Leonie Krippendorff

Two films with a fresh take on coming of age and coming to terms with ideas of home and belonging in a post-migrant society. Faraz Shariat, director of Futur Drei and Leonie Krippendorff, director of Kokon, talk about their motivations, inspirations and desires for creating their own stories. 

Faraz Shariat & Leonie Krippendorff

Faraz Shariat:
Born in Cologne, Germany in 1994, he worked first as a director and actor at Schauspiel Köln and on video installations for the Staatstheater Hannover before studying dramatic arts at the University of Hildesheim. His work focuses on post-migrant experiences and stories about immigrant families. His debut feature film, Futur Drei, evolved from his autobiographical documentaries exploring his family history and from his work as a translator for refugees. The film was developed in collaboration with Paulina Lorenz and Raquel Molt in the Jünglinge film collective, where the three have been working together ever since they met at university.

Leonie Krippendorff:
Born in Berlin, Germany in 1985, she studied directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf from 2009 to 2016. Her graduation film, Looping, was nominated for numerous national and international prizes and won several. The screenplay for her debut feature film, Kokon, was selected for the 2018 Berlinale Talents Script Station. She is currently working on the screenplays for two new feature film projects. Variety chose her as one of “10 Europeans to Watch 2020.”

Moderation: Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani 

DOWNLOAD: QUEER ACADEMY SUMMIT GUIDE 2020

Free admission / The events are held in English.

Blog

Queer Academy Summit 2020

Wednesday, February 26 @ CUBIX 1, Alexanderplatz, Rathausstraße 1, 10178 Berlin

The Queer Academy is an annual convention of international filmmakers and festival organizers in the gay-lesbian-transgender context at the Berlinale. The QUEER ACADEMY aims to establish itself as an institute of queer cultural memory. The ACADEMY will become an archive of queer culture and history that binds together queer cultural productions and cooperates with other organizations. Since memories are essential for the identity construction, the QUEER ACADEMY will offer an opportunity for queer people to form and find their identity in queer memory.

TIMETABLE

1pm – 1.30pm: 
KEYNOTE – Darick Qin, Director of Operations, ShanghaiPRIDE

Established in 2009, ShanghaiPRIDE has faced extraordinary challenges in its fight to show queer films. Battling censorship and legal issues, every year it is more than a film festival, becoming a central cultural community event sharing screen stories about the love, hardships, growth and triumphs of LGBTQI* in China.

1.30pm – 3.30pm: 
PANEL: From Shorts to Series – Interdisciplinary Storytelling in Queer Narratives

In conversation with:
Athina Rachel Tsangari,
Director of Trigonometry, Berlinale Series

Lia Hietala & Hannah Reinikainen,
Directors of Always Amber, Berlinale Panorama

Ray Yeung,
Director of Suk Suk, Berlinale Panorama

Omer Sterenberg,
Director of HaMa’azin (Listening In), Berlinale Shorts

Gil Baroni,
Director of Alice Júnior, Berlinale Generation

Athina Rachel Tsangari, Lia Hietala & Hannah Reinikainen,
Ray Yeung, Omer Sterenberg and Gil Baroni

Moderation: Kristian Petersen

The queer narratives on display are strong examples of the different approaches taken by filmmakers to share their stories. Series delve into the complex layers of a character; fiction features experiment with different forms of storytelling to communicate our desires; documentaries present the courage of people taking authorship of their stories; shorts compress a complex story conveying more with images than words. With the diverse guests from this year’s festival the potentials of cinematic approaches will be analysed and discussed.

DOWNLOAD: QUEER ACADEMY SUMMIT GUIDE 2020

Free Admission / The event is held in English.

Blog

QUEER ACADEMY Summit 2019

Wednesday Feb. 13, 2019
Location: Berliner Freiheit, Berliner Freiheit 2 , 10785 Berlin

The Queer Academy is an annual convention of international filmmakers and festival organizers in the gay-lesbian-transgender context (2018 figures: 205 persons/institutions) at the Berlinale. The QUEER ACADEMY aims to establish itself as an institute of queer cultural memory. The ACADEMY will become an archive of queer culture and history that binds together queer cultural productions and cooperates with other organizations. Since memories are essential for the identity construction, the QUEER ACADEMY will offer an opportunity for queer people to form and find their identity in queer memory.

More than 1000 films with queer context from all continents have been presented at the Berlinale since the foundation of the TEDDY AWARD. The TEDDY AWARD has built an archive where all the movies ever shown in its programme are collected together with supplementary information. It is necessary to save this archive – the world’s largest of its kind. And for this reason, it is essential to digitalize it, to arrange a database and make this archive available for sharing, as well as to expand the bank of supplementary materials with the support of the members of the ACADEMY and the common users. The QUEER ACADEMY acts as a center of queer cultural memory, where artifacts and representations should be stored and become open to the public. The concentration of this queer film historical memory goes far beyond the cinematographic context and reflects the global memory of queer liberation movements of all the participating countries.

The digitalisation of these materials does not only mean that they are available for research and for work on (film)history. By digitalisation we can save these materials from disappearance, as they are permanently marginalized by their endangered existence in most of the countries. For the first time, the writing history of the queer population becomes possible and Berlin is now a centre of this national and international process. It is important to utilize the memories stored in the QUEER ACADEMY and therefore keep them alive. Only through active work with the memories we do not let them freeze, be forgotten or be limited to specific aspects.

TIMETABLE Wednesday Feb. 13, 2019
Location: Berliner Freiheit, Berliner Freiheit 2 , 10785 Berlin (FREE ENTRANCE)

11.00 am Opening: Wieland Speck
11.30 am Panel 1: Programmers of Colour in Focus:
Then, Now and the Future
1.00 pm Lunch break
1.30 pm Toby Ashraf in Conversation with Isaac Julien
2.30 pm Break
3.00 pm Panel 2: 40 Years of Queer Programming
4.30 pm Break
5.30 pm Invitation Only: Queer Connection Meeting/
International Queer Film Project Exchange
Location: Martin Gropius Bau, Kino
6.30 pm Invitation Only: Queer Industry Reception / Get Together
Location: Martin Gropius Bau, Lichthof

PANEL 1:
PROGRAMMERS OF COLOUR IN FOCUS: THEN, NOW AND THE FUTURE

Host: Hebe Tabachnik, Palm Springs Film Festival/Seattle International Film Festival/Dance Camera West/Guadalajara International Film Festival in Los Angeles
Hussain Currimbhoy, Sundance Film Festival
F. Clementine Dramani-Issifou, Semaine de la Critique/Festival of New Documentary Cinemas/BeninDocs
Dr. Farzada Farkhooi, Trans*Formation Film Fest Berlin
Pecha Lo, Women Make Waves International Film Festival
Kevin Mwachiro, Out Film Festival
Paul Struthers, San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival

CHRISTIAN “KIKI” PETERSEN
IN CONVERSATION WITH ISAAC JULIEN

PANEL 2:
40 YEARS OF QUEER PROGRAMMING

Host: Wieland Speck, TEDDY steering committee/Berlinale Panorama Curator 1992-2017
John Greyson, director/TEDDY AWARD winner 1989 and 1991
Sandra Hezinová, Mezipatra Queer Film Festival/Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Isaac Julien, director/TEDDY AWARD winner 1989/Special TEDDY AWARD winner 2008
Andrea Kuhn, Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival
Kevin Mwachiro, Out Film Festival
Greta Schiller, director/TEDDY AWARD winner 1989 and 1999