13th DIALOGUES - Calcutta LGBTQIA+ Film & Video Festival: 28th November - 1st December 2019 SCHEDULE Sl No
Film
Genre
Director
Year
Country/Region
Language
Duration
Synopsis
INAUGURATION 1
2
Hawaii
Faustrecht der Freiheit
F
DR
Marco Berger
2013 Argentina
Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1975 Germany
Spanish
German
102
123
Martin seeks for a temporary job at Eugenio's house. When they recognize to be childhood friends, Eugenio offers him work for the summer. A power and desire game starts and their relationship grows beyond their friendship. The plot follows the misadventures of a working-class gay man who wins the lottery, then falls in love with the elegant son of an industrialist. His lover tries to mold him into a gilt-edged mirror of upperclass values, and ultimately swindles the easily flattered "Fox" out of his fortune.
Screening Date
Screening Time
28.11.2019 (Thursday)
6:30 PM
28.11.2019 (Thursday)
07:00-08:42 PM
29.11.2019 (Friday)
09:00-11:03 AM
3
NjanSanJo/Am SanJo
SD
Jijo Kuriakose
2019 India, Kerala
Malayalam 15
‘NjánSánjo’(I’m Sánjo) documents the life of a dynamic young man named Sánjo in a transphobic suburban locality. Sánjo's insights spill over the struggles with his Gender Idenity, lack of inclusive spaces and minimal awareness of transmasculine identities in Kerala. Sánjo, who was gender assigned female at birth also shares his passion for mathematics, hockey etc. and how they were key to his survival and realising his gender identity. This short documentary attempts to delve into questions of autonomy of a transman, from Kerala, and the scope of inclusion for trans persons in contemporary Indian society.
4
Mind Matter of Tea Vendor
SD
Sanu Kummil
2018 India
Malayalam 27
5
Blue Boy
D
Manuel Abramovich
2019 Germany
German
19
The film looks at a layman citizen who has to face the grim realities of his own life, while trying to make the two ends of his life meet with his small teashop. But all of a sudden, his dream is turned upside down overnight as the demonetisation drive of the Government of India hits. The narrative sees him protesting in his own way. Seven Romanian male-to-male sex workers in Berlin have their portraits taken as they listen and react 29.11.2019 (Friday) 11:15 AM-12:55 PM to recordings of their own experiences. By turning the process of exploitation into a spectacle, the camera becomes a client highlighting the inevitable performativity of such power relations.
6
Riot not Diet
D
Julia Fuhr Mann
2018 Germany
German
17
RIOT NOT DIET creates a queer feminist utopia far away from BMI norms and male* gaze. The fat women* and queers in this movie are not ashamed of their expansive body dimensions, but confidently claim space for themselves. They use their bodies to blow up patriarchal structures and enjoy their corporeality beyond the neoliberal logic of exploitation.
7
The Distance Between Us and S the Sky
Vasilis Kekatos
2019 Greece, France
Greek
9
8
Anne+
Se
Valerie Bisscheroux
2018 Netherlands
Dutch
12
9
Blurring Lines
D
Ramsha Alam
2015 India
Hindi
40
Night, national road. Two strangers meet for the first time at an old gas station. One has stopped to gas up his bike, while the other is just stranded. Lacking the 22.50EUR he needs to get home, he will try to sell him the distance that separates them from the sky. The series centres on Anne (24) reflecting on her relationships. In each episode she tells the story off her being with a different partner i.e. Anne+Lily etc. As the series unfolds we follow Anne in her young adult life in Amsterdam happily indulging in various relationships. This is an unusual story about Asha, a female wrestler enrolled in the Uttar Pradesh police, who has set out to carve a niche for herself in her immediate social milieu. 29.11.2019 (Friday) The film interweaves Asha’s personal and professional life and acts as a social enquiry into gender identity and female masculinity.
01:30-02:10 PM
10
11
12
13
14
Coral Woman
Naach (The Dance)
Do not fear
Romeos
Free Fall
D
D
D
DT
Dr
Priya Thuvassery
Saba Dewan
Manuel Rees
Sabine Bernardi
Stephan Lacant
2019 India
2008 India
2018 Germany
2011 Germany
2013 Germany
Malayalam 52
Hindi
German
German
German
84
67
97
101
This will be a filmmaker's journey with Uma, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater world & the threat to coral reefs. Born in a traditional family in Tamil Nadu 53 years old Uma, a homemaker, has 29.11.2019 (Friday) been trying to bring attention to this alarming environmental issue through her paintings. It is, in fact, these corals that inspired Uma to learn how to swim, dive & paint in her 50s The Sonpur cattle fair in rural Bihar comes alive every evening when more than fifty girls take to the stage and dance for an all male audience. A barbedwire fence separates the performers from the spectators. The rumors that he as a pastor would wear women‘s clothes, force Hans-Gerd Spörkel after 27 years of community work to take a break, his then wife separates from him, the village turns away. Half a year later she resolutely returns as Elke Spörkel and holds her first service as a woman.
02:11-03:03 PM
29.11.2019 (Friday)
03:05-04:30 PM
29.11.2019 (Friday)
04:30-05:37 PM
The film revolves around the romantic relationship between Lukas, a 20-year-old gay trans man, and a cisgender gay man named Fabio. Lukas is in the process of transitioning from female to male. After 29.11.2019 (Friday) joining the gay scene in Cologne, Lukas meets an attractive bad boy named Fabio and an attraction develops between the two men. Lukas is faced with the choice of revealing his identity to Fabio and risking losing everything The film tells the story of police officer, Marc Borgmann (Koffler), who lives with his pregnant girlfriend, Bettina Bischoff (Schüttler). Whilst on a training course, Borgmann meets fellow police officer, Kay Engel (Riemelt), and a romance develops between the two men. Borgmann is torn between his love for 29.11.2019 (Friday) Bettina and his new found feelings for another man.
05:45-7:17 PM
07:30-09:11 PM
15
Alpo Jana Golpogulo
D
Sudarshana Chakraborty
2019 India
Bengali
32
The film focuses on the lives and livelihoods of transgender women in rural Bengal especially North Bengal.
30:11:2019 (Saturday)
9:30-10:00 A.M
16
I am Anastasia
D
Thomas Ladenburger
2019 Germany
German
95
This is the story of Anastasia Biefang, lieutenant colonel in the German military, who was assigned male at birth. At the height of her career she decides to finally come out as transgender. Much to her surprise, she does not face any negative consequences in her career in the military
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
10.00-11.35 AM
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
11:35 AM-01:00 PM
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
01:30-03:02 PM
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
03:10-04:35 PM
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
04:50-06:30 PM
17
18
19
20
Männerfreundschaften
Fireflies/Jonaki Porua
AWOL
Cleo from 5 to 7
D
F
F
F
Rosa von Praunheim
Prakash Deka
Deb Shoval
Agnès Varda
2018 Germany
2019 India, Assam
2016 Australia
1962 France | Italy
German
Assamese
English
French
85
92
85
90
A true cult of friendship among men was widespread in Weimar Classicism, whereas outdated homosexuality was frowned upon. The director follows relevant historical biographies and gives surprising insights. Fireflies' is the story of Jahnu's resilient journey to being Jahnavi, a transwoman, standing against the tide to be herself. Born in a society that is yet to catch up with her unapologetic claim to be different, Jahnavi must be her own light to battle the darkness of hate and ignorance. A young woman Joey is in search of direction in her small town. A visit to an army recruiting office appears to provide a path, but when she meets and falls in love with Rayna that path diverges in ways that neither woman anticipates. Cleo, a singer and hypochondriac, becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor.
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Gay India Matrimony
Grandma
D
F
Atasi: a story of love and hope
D
Hide & Seek
S
Aadiprakriti
Miss Man
Goodbye Beautiful
Yeh Freedom Life
S
S
S
DF
Debalina Majumder
Paul Weitz
Putul Mehmood
Sushmita Sinha
Souvick Chakraborty, Satyaki Chakraborty
Tathagata Ghosh
Debadrita Bose
Priya Sen
2018 India
2015 USA
2019 India
2018 India
2019 India
2019 India
2019 India
2019 India
Bangla, English
English
Bengali
Bangla
Bangla
Bangla
Bangla
Hindi
67
79
50
50
25
25
35
Why do people marry? For love, sex, companionship, security? What if one as a queer individual in India decides to test the marriage market for themselves? How would one’s friends, family, aquaintances react to their decision? The idea is to turn the camera inwards, look at intimate and public spaces, and see how our choices regarding marriage and candidate selection are shaped; how our caste, class, religious locations intersect those desires. When two same sex desiring person, dare to ask more than mere ncessional tolerance, does it upset the order? Shot over the period of five years, from 2014-2019, a tumultuous period in the struggle for queer rights, the film engages with the diverse perspectives, debates and humorous transactions that go on in one’s interaction with the institution of marriage and unpacks our worlds of desires, expectations and the dreams of expanded rights.
Lily Tomlin stars as Elle who has just gotten through breaking up with her girlfriend when Elle's granddaughter Sage unexpectedly shows up needing six hundred dollars before sundown. Temporarily broke, Grandma Elle and Sage spend the day trying to get their hands on the cash as their unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets. Atasi is the story of a young girl from Kolkata who was forcibly incarcerated in a mental hospital of Kolkata by her family for more than a year but did not let go of her search for ‘true love’ and ended up finding the love of her life. Love between two adolescent girls are received with condemnation by the school authorities and their parents. A meeting is called between the parents and the school authorities that will decide the fate of the girls. Unable to bear this alienation one of the girls attempted suicide. This film portrays nine abstracts where women revolt against patriarchal oppressions, ranging from plastic pollution to homophobia. It also talks about sisterhood, and how women should stand up for other women. It shows how women are re-claiming spaces that men had only kept to themselves resulting in a narrative which reiterated the fact that women should only look after the home and hearth. The film also tries to state that age is no bar for fighting against oppression. Manob is in love with another man. And he has a price to pay for that. Not only is he fighting the society around him, but his own homophobic father, who does not even refrain from physical violence to "cure his son from the disease of loving another man". A younger Manob once danced in his school function, dressed up as a woman. And it is from that time he possibly realized that he might be a woman trapped inside a man's body. The stakes get higher when he is also looked down upon by his lover, who refuses to accept him unless he transforms to a woman completely. Dejected, Manob decides to travel to the city to look into the possibilities of a sex change operation, where he faces challenges that he may not be ready to confront yet. Several people with various idiosyncrasies gather together in a party and find out that someone is going to die. As the party goes on we witness how hollow and superficial and self-centric they are. Their behavior, dialogues, and actions tend to trace a larger and wider politics, and they become a part of it knowingly or unknowingly.
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
06:45-07:52 PM
30.11.2019 (Saturday)
08:00-09:19 PM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
9:00-9:50 A.M
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
10:00-10:50 AM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
10:51-11:15 AM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
11:15-11:40 AM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
11:41 AM-12:15 PM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
12:16-01:26 PM
70 Yeh Freedom Life / This Freedom Life' tries to keep up with its protagonists, as they manoeuvre erratic and unpredictable love. One of them works at a local beauty parlour, the other runs the family’s small cigarette counter at a crowded intersection. They are surrounded by a cacophonous city; they are both in love with other women. The film accompanies them through their desire to live according to them, their ‘freedom lives’, outside society and family’s constant scrutiny and sanction. But this ‘freedom life’ also leaves them vulnerable to the precariousness of love, when it refuses such constraints.
29
30
31
32
33
Entropia
Yulia & Juliet
Lidérc úr / Mr.Mare
Four Quartets
Hector
E x p l o r i n g A t t r a c t i o n s Q u e e r M i x
B e r l i n a l e S h o r t s
Flora Anna Buda
2018 Ungarn
No dialogue
10
Three women, three lives in parallel worlds, until the moment a fly causes a bug in the system. The universe collapses, sex is in the air, bras are overrated and the stars twinkle! In the animated film Entropia by Hungarian artist Flóra Anna Buda, colours explode and sensually unleash new possibilities: Thanks to the fly, all that is abstract comes to life and sexuality plays an integral role. While there are echoes of the sci-fi series Black Mirror, the colours make everything more vibrant. The doe by the river is a nod towards Hungarian animation artist Réka Busci, whose work has equally opened up more creative narrative strategies in animated film. Buda’s graduation film heralds a new generation of animation artists from Hungary.
Zara Dwinger
2018 Niederlande
Dutch
12
Luca Tóth
2019 Ungarn, Frankreich
No dialogue
19
At first it seems like Yulia and Juliet are meeting in the school corridor, but then we notice the ventilation grilles in the image, through which the two lovers have to talk to each other. Yulia and Juliet are in prison. Worse still, Juliet will soon be released. But what will happen to Yulia? The emotionally charged drame takes a radical and brave turn. Zara Dwinger once again tells a brief, intense story about self-determined female protagonists. The nipple is the power button that gets the ‘cinema of the mind’ rolling – or is it in fact a reality? An Xray reveals it quite clearly: a little man nestled between the rib bones. There he lies and sleeps. The male’s host goes crazy, but it doesn't help, he falls asleep exhausted. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds a wound where his nipple used to be, and footprints on the floor. The search begins. But the little man refuses to be intimidated or annoyed or fooled. He confidently sets off to find his place in this gay universe. Who actually loves whom here? Surrealistic and absurd settings come up against a real, everyday world. Unfathomable, inexplicable, sensual, feisty, peculiar.
& G e n e r a t i o n
Marco Alessi
2018 England
English
11
He waves his arms in the air while his lithe body soaks up the beat and transfers it to his legs. Raf literally breathes in the music. At the same time he is constantly scanning the room. There is desire and expectation in his gaze, but also anxiety and shyness. Moving to the film’s rhythmic pulse and the intoxicating music in the queer club, we dance with Raf and cast off all inhibitions.
Victoria Giesen Carvajal
2019 Chile
Spanish
19
A fishing cove on an island fallen out of time and space, almost like the rocky island in Michelangelo Antonionis L’Avventura (1960). Nature is not merely decoration, but an active force of events. Ships appear in the distance, but do not dock. Here is where Gabriel works with a small group of young men. They amuse themselves in an age-appropriate way, but also talk frequently of the devil and are magically drawn to a cave. Out of nowhere, an androgynous creature appears called Héctor. Gabriel instantly falls in love. The birth of a love that Gabriel tries to decipher. But the enigmatic girl disappears. The other men burn her tent and clothes at night. A visually bewitching and disturbing film poem, which remains reserved and vague, constituting its fascination and magic.
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
01:30-02:41 PM
34
We Love Moses
35
Strings
36
Jamie
37
I am a Woman
38
Take your Partners
B r i t i s h
Dionne Edwards
2016
16
Richard Turley
2014
13
Christopher Manning
2016
9
C o u n c i l
Kai FiĂĄin y Azara Meghie
2016
4
Siri Rodnes
2015
14 UK
39
Where We are Now
-
Lucie Rachel
2016
9
40
Crush
B F I
Rosie Westhoff
2016
8
41
Balcony
Toby Fell-Holden
2015
17
42
Chance
Jake Graf
2015
17
43
Of Girls and Horses
Monika Treut
2014 Germany
44
45
Retablo
Zwei MĂźtter
F l a r e F
F
Dr
Alvaro Delgado Aparicio
Anne Zohra Berrached
2017 Peru
2013 Germany
German
Quechua
German
82
95
79
When Ella was twelve, she had her first fight. And when she was twelve, she discovered sex. Now eighteen, Ella reflects on how her obsession with her older brother Michael's best friend Moses left her with a secret she still carries. After the death of his wife, Dean leaves the Army to care for his son Luke. Convinced his dad is a spy, Luke embarks on a journey that leads him to discover the awkward truth. Strings is a tale of secrets, subterfuge and fallen heros set in 1970s Britain. Shy and quiet loner Jamie spends the afternoon with Ben, after meeting him on a dating app. As they chat, Jamie finds himself opening up and letting loose his hopes and tears in an unexpected awakening. A cine-poem that explores 'stud' identity with breakdancer and spoken word artist Azara Meghie, who uses rap and breakdance as a means of exploring her heritage (from Jamaica to South London) and self as an LGBTQI woman. An eight year ols 'tomboy' challenges gender expectations when forced to make an Easter bonnet with the girls. Then, when confronted with a family with two mums, she begins to question traditional family dynamics. Bravely subverting convention, her vivid imagination and resourcefulness leads her on a journey of discovery around her neighbourhood that will have radical and far-reaching effects.
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
02:45-04:32 PM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
04:32-5:54 PM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
05:55-07:30 PM
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
07:35-8:54 PM
A young woman and her transgender parent looking back on their changing relationship. Sharing their own experiences of coming out, they begin to think about what the future might hold for their family now the decision to transition has been made. Ella goes out of her way to pursue her crush, but as the two part ways at the train station, will she be able to finally reveal her feelings? This observational film draws us into the anxieties and uncertainties of a young girl as she comes into her own. In a neighbourhood rife with racial tension, Tina, a troubled teenage girl, is attracted to Dana, an Afghani girl. Tina is protective of Dana, but as we watch their friendship blossom we come to suspect that something is off. Trevor's life has become a void following the death of his wife. Days blur and he finds himself isolated and alone, when a chance encounter in the park with a mysterious stranger reawakens something. Alex is a 16-year-old misfit and high school dropout. In a final attempt to set Alex straight, her adoptive mother signs her up for an internship at a farm where Alex meets thirty-something Nina, a riding instructor who is taking a break from her partner Christine and their life in the city. Although Alex initially hates being stuck on the farm, she gradually connects with the horses. When upper-class Kathy arrives for a vacation, Alex dislikes her immediately. But as the days slowly drift by, the girls form a friendship, and when they are left alone one weekend things spin out of control. Segundo Paucar, a 14 year old boy wants to become a master story-box maker just like his father to carry on with the family legacy. On his way to a community celebration in the Andes, Segundo accidentally observes his father in a situation that shatters his whole world. Trapped in a chauvinistic environment, Segundo will try to deal in silence with all that is happening to him. The film is a drama about a lesbian married couple, Katja and Isabella, who decided to have a child in Germany, a country that imposes so many legal issues, high fees and other obstacles in a very difficult process. They agreed to find a sperm donor but not a father, so they can educate the child without any exterior interference.
01.12.2019 (Sunday)
CLOSING CEREMONY F=Feature, DR=Drama/Romance, SD=Short Documentary, D=Documentary, S=Short, Se=Series, DT=Drama/Tragicomedy, Dr=Drama, DF=Docu-Feature * All films are subjected to last minute changes
09:00 - 09:15 PM