Dear queer independent film lovers, today there is is another packed program waiting for you. Additionally there are various film premieres of up-and-coming international hits. Otherwise we as always have a list of reruns of films that already premiered below.
We wish you a lively and queer cinema experience today, tomorrow and for the rest of the Berlinale!
INTERVIEWS:
Fin (Huling Palabas)
In the summer of 2001, 16-year-old Andoy searches for his long-lost father in the most unlikely of places: on VHS tapes. When two movie-like characters appear in his small hometown, his reality begins to falter.
🎥 21.02 / 18:30 Cineplex Titania
🎥 22.02 / 10:00 HKW – Miriam Makeba Auditorium
🎥 23.02 / 15:45 Cubix 8
Find out more about Ryan Machado and the film here!
Young Hearts
Fourteen-year-old Elias increasingly feels like an outsider in his village. When he meets Alexander, his new neighbour of the same age, Elias is confronted with his burgeoning sexuality.
🎥 22.02 / 19:00 HKW 1 – Miriam Makeba Auditorium
🎥 24.02 / 18:45 Cubix 8
Want to know more about Anthony Schatteman and the film “Young Hearts”? Click here!
Cidade; Campo
Two tales of migration, memories and ghosts. After a disaster floods her land, Joana moves to São Paulo and tries to restart her life. Following the death of her father, Flavia moves to his farm in the country with her wife Mara.
🎥 22.02 / 15:30 Zoo Palast 2
🎥 23.02 / 9:45 Cubix 8
You can find more information about the film and Juliana Rojas right here!
I Saw The TV Glow
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show – a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the TV, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
🎥 21.02 / 21:30 Cubix 8
🎥 22.02 / 18:45 Cubix 5
🎥 24.02 / 18:30 Cubix 9
🎥 25.02 / 21:30 Cubix 8
More insights are available right here!
An odd turn
Buenos Aires, 2019. Lucrecia, who works as a museum security guard, foresees a sharp rise in the dollar’s value with her pendulum and falls in love with the employee of a currency exchange office.
🎥21.02/ 21:30 HKW – Safi Faye Saal
🎥22.02/ 18:00 Kino Betonhalle @Silent Green
🎥22.02/ 18:30 Colosseum
🎥22.02/ 19:30 Cubix 7
🎥23.02/ 13:30 Cineplex Titania
🎥24.02/ 21:30 Cubix 9
Want to know more about the film, click here!
Grandmamauntsistercat
Created from archival materials from communist Poland, the film tells the story of a multispecies matriarchal family through the eyes of a child grappling with the reproduction of ideological and representational systems.
🎥 22.02 / 19:30 Arsenal Cinema 2
More information about Grandmamauntsistercat right here!
PREMIERES:
Baldiga – Unlocked Heart (Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz)
Directed by: Markus Stein
2023, Germany, 92′
West Berlin, 1979. Jürgen Baldiga, son of a miner from Essen, has just arrived in the city and decides to become an artist. Working as a
rent boy and cook, he writes poems and a diary. After learning that he has HIV in 1984, he discovers photography. He intends his
images to stop time and capture reality. They reveal his friends and lovers, wild sex, life on the street and the camp queens from the
SchwuZ gay club who become his adopted family. Oscillating between despair and desire, rebellion and the will to survive, Baldiga
becomes a chronicler of the queer West Berlin subculture in the face of his own imminent demise. When he died at the age of 34 in
1993, he left behind thousands of photographs and forty diaries – a unique artistic legacy.
Using poetic diary excerpts, stark images and memories from companions, Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz depicts not only a ground
breaking photographer but also an AIDS activist and committed fighter against the stigmatisation of gay people’s lives.
SCREENING TIMES:
21.02. / 18:45 Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Directed by: Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer
2024, Germany, 102′
Filmed during the “Teaches of Peaches Anniversary Tour” in 2022, this documentary seamlessly weaves together exclusive archival
gems with dynamic tour footage to capture the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed
cultural powerhouse that is Peaches. From the inception of the stage show to the rigorous rehearsals and riveting performances, the film
provides an intimate look at the inner workings of the tour. As a feminist musician, producer, director and performance artist, Peaches
has spent over two decades challenging gender expectations, solidifying her status alongside pop and music industry icons. Her fearless
originality has called social norms into question, dismantled stereotypes and confronted patriarchal power structures. Through biting wit,
she advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights and tackles issues of sexual and gender and identity, leaving an indelible mark on popular culture.
SCREENING TIMES:
21.02. / 21:30 Zoo Palast 1
Directed by: Mariana Gil Ríos
2023, Colombia, 17′
While their parents are away, eight-year-old Rafaela stays at home in the care of her 15-year-old sister, Laura. When Laura decides to
go visit a boy she likes, Rafaela has to tag along. But then Laura and the boy lock themselves in his room. Rafaela waits, gets bored and
finally begins to explore the house. She has a unique encounter with Uli, a queer young woman, and her pet. A film about the feeling of
strangeness and the possibility of finding freedom in an unfamiliar place.
SCREENING TIMES:
21.02. / 09:30 Zoo Palast 1
Directed by: Matías Piñeiro
2024, Arentina, Spain, 64′
Tú me abrasas is an adaptation of “Sea Foam”, a chapter from Cesare Pavese’s “Dialoghi con Leucò” published in 1947. The ancient
Greek poet Sappho and the nymph Britomartis meet beside the sea and have a conversation about love and death. Sappho is said to
have thrown herself into the ocean from lovesickness. Britomartis apparently tumbled off a cliff and into the water while fleeing from a
man. Together, the two discuss the stories and images that have emerged around them to try and understand, at least for a moment, the
bittersweet nature of desire. The film adapts not only the text but also footnotes and gaps in the story. For example, the fact that, in 1950,
a desperate Pavese committed suicide in a hotel room with this book by his side. Or that Sappho’s poems have survived only in
fragments. Or that sea foam is historically and scientifically associated with fertility and bacteria, that is, with life itself. “Everything dies in
the sea and comes back to life”, says Britomartis. Tú me abrasas introduces new readings and translations that go beyond the myths by
Pavese and Sappho.
SCREENING TIMES:
21.02. / 12:00 Akademie der Künste
RERUNS:
All Shall Be Well
21.02. / 10:00 Cubix 5
An Odd Turn (Un movimiento extraño)
21.02. / 21:30 HKW 2 – Safi Faye Saal
Between the Temples
21.02. / 18:30 Cubix 5
Cidade; Campo
21.02. / 12:30 Colosseum 1
Fin (Huling Palabas)
21.02. / 18:30 Cineplex Titania
Goodbye First Love (Jing guo)
21.02. / 15:00 Kino Betonhalle @silent green
I Saw the TV Glow
21.02. / 21:30 Cubix 8
Invincible summer (Un invincible été)
21.02. / 18:45 Cubix 8
Songs of Love and Hate
21.02. / 18:45 Cubix 8
The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad)
21.02. / 09:30 Verti Music Hall
21.02. / 22:00 Verti Music Hall
The Visitor
21.02. / 22:00 Kino International
Towards the Sun, Far From the Center (Al sol, lejos del centro)
21.02. / 15:00 Kino Betonhalle @silent green
Yuck! (Beurk !)
21.02. / 09:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
