FILM SUMMIT 2016
February 17th, 2016 STATION-Berlin
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INTRODUCTION
by
Wieland Speck Dear Queer Academy Attendees of all and multiple genders alike, First of all a warm welcome and a heartfelt thank you for coming from all corners of the world: after 35 years of working towards a summit of this kind, we finally have arrived. Thirty years ago, we did not even anticipate to be around for so long! For many of us were dying of AIDS exactly then – and the same group gathering today for this summit was merely 15 people strong. But it was the first jury for the first TEDDY AWARD! Exactly ten years ago, celebrating the 20th TEDDY AWARD, we realized how important it would be to stretch the TEDDY range beyond the festival cloud and to systematically collect, format and make available all the detailed information we have somehow gathered over the years about films we presented and those we didn't as well. What an incredible source of political and aesthetic memory that is! For queers of all kinds still unheard of since we are not yet part of the mainstream historical conscience. How is that possible – after so many decades of input on social, political and artistic levels from our side!? Well, we still got our enemies, that is for sure. And their means today, in the western world at least, is marginalisation. In most other places of the world, it is far worse and that's what we're here for: to claim what's ours: space to live! To stay were we grew up if we choose to. Not to be chased away. Not to be forced to flee from threatening circumstances. To cease at last being the largest kind of refugees on our own planet earth. Putting together the TEDDY 30 jubilee programme, we realized again how fragile our film history is: filmmakers die and their work disappears. Other works are in unusable condition and there are no funds to restore them. The legacy project Los Angeles is the best incentive to propel European efforts. Let's combine our knowledge and know-how – the people gathering today constitute the most prolific, most global summit ever: if not we, who else shall do this work!
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The Queer Academy is an annual convention of international filmmakers and festival organizers in the gay-lesbian-transgender context (2015 figures: 180 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 the 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. 4
SCHEDULE
FILM SUMMIT 2016
10.00 am
Opening: Wieland Speck, Berlin, Curator of the Panorama at the Berlinale
10.15 am
Keynote: Bob Hawk, Film and Festival Advisor
10.30 am
Keynote: Jan-Christopher Horak, Los Angeles, Director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive
10.45 am
Panel I: Re-imagining the Queer Archive
12.15 pm
Lunch break
1.30 pm
In Conversation with Christine Vachon, New York, Film Producer/Special TEDDY AWARD Winner 2016
2.15 pm
Panel II: Queer Film Festivals in Practice - Programming and Curating Strategies
3.45 pm
Break
4.00 pm
Programmers/Queer Academy Meeting + The Queer Connection
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Bob Hawk
Bob Hawk has been a part of the independent film scene for over 30 years, and has had his own consultation business, filmHAWK, for more than 20 years. Starting with his involvement in documentary as a researcher/archivist on Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning “The Times of Harvey Milk”, he has been credited with discovering and/or nurturing the talents of such filmmakers as Epstein, and Barbara Hammer. Hawk served on the Advisory Selection Committee of the Sundance Film Festival for its entire existence (1987-1998). Also, he has also served on many festival juries – including the Berlinale’s TEDDY AWARD. 6
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Jan-Christopher Horak
Jan-Christopher Horak is a recognized researcher and academic based in Los Angeles, USA. He is a former director of the Munich Filmmuseum and held a professorship at the University of Münster. Since 2007, he is the Director of the “UCLA Film & Television Archive” and professor of the Critical and Media Studies at the UCLA. His publications include Anti-Nazi-Films Made by German Jewish Refugees in Hollywood (1984), Lovers of Cinema. The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919-1945 (1995), Making Images Move: Photographers and Avant-Garde Cinema (1997), Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design (2014). 7
PANEL 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive FILM SUMMIT 2016
While researching for the TEDDY 30 retrospective, it only became too clear: Feature films, Video Art and amateur movies around the world are about to vanish and need to be restored, digitized and distributed. Archives are facing a challenge in order to prevent the analogue film stock from decay. Furthermore it will be a crucial task to re-invent models of distribution to make our queer film heritage part of our cultural memory. Participants: Alice Royer
Legacy Project Manager, Outfest Los Angeles; American Archive for Television and Film, University of California, Los Angeles
Prof. Martin Koerber
Head of the Archive at the “Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen”, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kraß
Department of German Literature, Humboldt University; Director of the Archive of Sexology, Humboldt University, Berlin
Dr. Dagmar Brunow
Institute for Film Studies, Linnaeus University, Vaxjö, Sweden
Cheryl Dunye
Filmmaker, Department of Cinema, San Francisco State University, Liberia/San Francisco
Dr. Nanna Heidenreich
Host, Institute for Media Studies, Braunschweig University of Art; Arsenal-Berlin, Forum Expanded, Berlin
Nanna Heidenreich works as a lecturer/researcher in media studies at the University of the Arts in Braunschweig (Germany). She is also co-curator for the Berlinale program “Forum Expanded”. She has worked many years with the “Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art” in Berlin, including her participation in the project “Living Archive – Archive Work as a Contemporary and Curatorial Practice” (2011-2013). She has published widely on migration, visual culture and postcolonial media theory and has edited several DVDs.
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Panel 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kraß
Andreas Kraß is a Professor of German Literature at the Humboldt-University Berlin, with a focus on premodern culture, Gender Studies and Queer Studies. He is a member of the “Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies” at the Humboldt University and the director of the “Research Center Archive for Sexology” that investigates the cultural heritage of Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institute for Sexology in Berlin. His forthcoming book on the literary history of friendship between men will be published in Summer 2016.
“What are queer archives and what can they do? Philosopher Michel Foucault and literary critic Eve Sedgwick can help answer these questions. In Archaeology of Knowledge Foucault distinguishes between physical and discursive archives. While physical archives collect historical documents about a specific time and place, discursive archives regulate what can be thought and said at a specific time and in a specific place. This distinction may be useful in analyzing the interaction between the “archive of heteronormativity” on the one hand, and queer archives, which question the premises of heteronormativity and establish a non-normative form of cultural memory, on the other. Sedgwick, in Epistemology of the Closet, differentiates between the notions of a master canon and a minority canon of literature. This distinction may be useful in analyzing the relationship between the master canon of heteronormative film and the minority canon of queer film. It may also be useful in order to redefine the heteronormative canon by looking at it from a queer point of view.” 9
Panel 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive
Dagmar Brunow
Dagmar Brunow is one of the programmers at the “International Queer Film Festival” Hamburg. As a film scholar she teaches Film Studies and Gender Studies in Sweden. Dagmar has been working for the “Women’s Music Centre” in Hamburg and has been one of the initiators of “Ladyfest” Hamburg. She is a longstanding member of the radio collective “Freies Sender Kombinat” in Hamburg. After publishing an edited collection on Stuart Hall in 2015, she is currently co-editing the first German-language volume on Queer Film Studies.
“The situation is urgent. Analogue film stock needs to be saved from decay immediately, otherwise LGBTQ* memories run the risk of falling into oblivion. Film archives and grassroots LGBTQ* archives are facing major challenges: Not only feature films need to be preserved, but also generations of amateur films as well as rapidly decaying video footage. Selecting and curating archival footage are important tasks for today’s archives, with repercussions on the global distribution of LGBTQ* film and its place in transnational film historiography. Some film archives are currently developing innovative forms of engaging with the archive, for instance through artists’ interventions or exhibition. At the same time, archival practice needs to include ways of queering the archival politics of national and other hegemonic film archives. Queering archives can broaden the scope from LGBTQ* identity politics towards a critical perspective on heteronormative archives and their curatorial decisions. Overall, queer archival politics can contribute to the increased mobility of film footage, opening up for new forms of reclaiming, remixing or reappropriating the LGBTQ* heritage.” 10
Panel 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is an Oakland, California, based director, who investigates race, class, and gender in the lives of queer women of color. Her 1996 debut feature, ”The Watermelon Woman”, won the Teddy Award and the award for best feature film at “Outfest”, Torino. Her most recent short film, “Black is Blue” (2014), explores the transphobic experiences of trans black men. It won several awards and will be expanded into a feature film in 2016. Cheryl is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema at San Francisco State University.
“As a director I explore the intersection of race, class and sexuality coded within storytelling and film histories. My work incorporates an autoethnographic focus building on a visual language that explores the intersection of truth and fiction in my life. By turning the camera on myself, my community, and my emotional and sexual relationships, I uncover a therapeutic margin to base myself upon. This process is founded on an academic, collaborative, and experimental exploration of concepts that eventually bring me closer to the truth of a story that I am creating. I am focused on the creation of "cinema" that gives prominence to the Dunyementary, a fictional staging of documentary footage. For THE WATERMELON WOMAN, I researched early black cinema history and visited African American and Lesbian archives before collaborating with photographer Zoe Leonard to create a “fake” archive of the “real” life of my main character. Techniques such as this are used throughout my career as a potential strategy for overturning sexism, racism and homophobia in the media arts.” 11
Panel 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive
Martin Koerber
Martin Koerber is the Head of the Film Archive at the “Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum” for Film and Television. He graduated from the Free University of Berlin with a degree in Media, Art History and Musicology and has been working in filmmaking since the 1980s. In his affiliation with the “Deutsche Kinemathek” he organized the retrospectives for the “Berlin International Film Festival” from 1998 – 2003. In 2003, he was appointed as Professor for Restoration of Audiovisual and Photographic Cultural Heritage at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin.
“The Deutsche Kinemathek has always been concentrating on those forms of filmmaking that others may neglect. From the 1980s on, we have been collecting independent films, including documentaries and experimental works, but also offbeat feature films. This policy included queer films, of course – for instance we are proud to preserve Lothar Lambert's entire output of films, as well as Rosa von Praunheim's complete works, including the paper archive concerning those productions. In 2016, we will be involved in a project of digitizing the films by Maria Lang, who unfortunately passed away some time ago. We are about to take in the work of Elfi Mikesch and we are talking to Jochen Hick about an archival project that concerns LGBT exclusively. As a museum, we have been working together closely with Schwules Museum for many years, as many exhibitions testify. We don't see the archiving of LGBT films as any different from other films, and we welcome the chance to talk about it. Preservation is always encouraged by the public interest in films and other materials we hold.” 12
Panel 1
Re-imagining the Queer Archive
Alice Royer
Alice Royer is a film and media scholar, archivist, and programmer from Los Angeles. She is the Legacy Project Manager at “Outfest”, where she oversees the “Outfest UCLA Legacy Project”, the only program in the world exclusively dedicated to protecting and preserving LGBT film. She is also an Assistant Programmer at “Outfest”, and has screened films for “AFI FEST” and the “Los Angeles Film Festival”. In addition to her film festival work, Alice is a PhD Candidate in Cinema & Media Studies at the UCLA.
“Independent and orphan LBGTQ films have historically lacked the institutional support necessary to ensure their long-term conservation and preservation. The Outfest UCLA Legacy Project was founded in 2005 in response to such systemic neglect, and remains the only program in the world exclusively dedicated to protecting and preserving LGBTQ films for future generations. A collaboration between Outfest and UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Legacy Project combats the crisis in queer film in three key areas: preservation, education, and access. By combining forces, Outfest and UCLA Film & Television Archive have taken the queer film expertise behind the longest running LGBTQ film non-profit in the US and blended it with the preservation, conservation, and academic strength of a formidable archive and educational institution. The Legacy Project seeks to contribute to discourses surrounding LGBTQ film archives, and collaborate with similarly committed initiatives in its work to redress generations of queer erasure.” 13
In conversation with Christine Vachon Christine Vachon is an “Independent Spirit Award” and “Gotham Award” winner who co-founded indie powerhouse “Killer Films” with partner Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over the past decade and a half, the two have produced some of the most celebrated American indie features including “Far From Heaven” (nominated for four Academy Awards), STILL ALICE (Academy Award winner), “Boys Don´t cry” (Academy Award winner),”One Hour Photo”, “Kids”, “Hedwig And The Angry Inch”,”Happiness”, “Velvet Goldmine”, “Safe”, “I Shot Andy Warhol”, “Camp”, “Swoon” and “I’m Not There” (Academy Award nominated). In television, Vachon recently executive-produced the “Emmy” and “Golden Globe” winning miniseries “Mildred Pierce” for HBO and an upcoming series on Amazon based on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald. Other recent work includes: “Kill Your Darlings”, “Magic Magic”, “Carol” directed by Todd Haynes and “Wiener-Dog” written and directed by Todd Solondz.
Moderation Toby Ashraf Toby Ashraf is a Berlin-based author, curator, and translator. He works as a film critic for both German and English speaking pulications. In 2014, he started the “Berlin Art Film Festival”, which presents unconventional and experimental Berlin films. He also regularly works for film productions and moderates film talks, among other things for the Berlinale sections “Forum”, “Generation”, and “Talents”. In 2015, he won the Siegfried Kracauer Prize for the best film review.
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PANEL PANEL 2 2 Queer QueerFilm FilmFestivals Festivalsin in Practice Practice FILM SUMMIT 2016
FILM SUMMIT 2016 Almost four decades ago, the first Gay Film Festival opened back in the day in San Francisco. Since then much has happened and those now called Queer or LGBTQI* Film Festivals have flourished Almost four in decades ago, the first Gay Film opened back the day in and expanded all cultural backgrounds all over theFestival world, most recently newinfestivals have been Francisco. founded in Africa also much in the Middle East. The growing numbernow of festivals fostered San Sinceandthen has happened and those calledalso Queer or different more diverse programs within the and Queerexpanded Film Festival From classical LGBTQI*and Film Festivals have flourished in Circuit. all cultural backqueer/LGBTQI*content to pornography and from the avant-garde to activism; six programmers grounds all over the world, most recently new festivals have been founded in from different cultural backgrounds will talk about their view on curating and activism on this Africa panel. and also in the Middle East. The growing number of festivals also foste-
red different and more diverse programs within the Queer Film Festival Circuit. From classical queer/LGBTQI*content to pornography and from the Participants: avant-garde to activism; six programmers from different cultural backgrounds Desiree Frameline - San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival will talkBuford about their view on curating and activism on this panel. João Ferreira
Queer Lisboa – International Queer Film Festival
Participants:
Alexandra Carastoian
FAQiff – Feminist and Queer International Film Festival, Bucharest
Dr. Skadi Loist Xiaogang Wei
Department of Media Studies, University of Rostock; Beijing Queer Film Festival Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage, Hamburg
Nosheen Khwaja
GLITCH QTIPoC Film Festival Glasgow
Saadat Munir
AKS Film - Art - Dialogue Festival, Pakistan and Denmark
João Ferreira
Queer Lisboa – International Queer Film Festival
Alexandra Carastoian
FAQiff – Feminist and Queer International Film Festival, Bucharest
Desiree Buford
Frameline - San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival
Jürgen Brüning Dr. Skadi Loist
Xiaogang Wei Nosheen Khwaja Saadat Munir Jürgen Brüning
Porn Film Festival, Berlin
Host, Department of Media Studies, University of Rostock; Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage, Hamburg
Beijing Queer Film Festival
Skadi Loist is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for GLITCH QTIPoC Film Festival Glasgow Media Research at the University of Rostock, Germany, and co-founder of the Film Festival “Research Network”. She has published on film, media AKS and Filmissues - Artof- gender Dialogue and industries andFestival, sexualityPakistan with a focus onDenmark film festivals and queer cinema. Since 2002, she has worked with the “Hamburg International Queer Film Berlin Festival”, served as board member, and Porn Film Festival, organized the conference “Queer Film Culture: Queer Cinema and Film Festivals” for its 25th anniversary in 2014.
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Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Jürgen Brüning
Since the early 1980’s Jürgen Brüning has been involved in producing, directing and curating films. He is mostly known for his long collaboration with Bruce LaBruce as his producer. Jürgen was the co-founder of the “Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Berlin” in 1993 and the founder of the “Porn Filmfestival Berlin” in 2006. He has been working as a curator for “Interfilm Festival”, the Documentary Film Festivals in Leipzig and Neubrandenburg and currently selects films for the “Panorama” section of the Berlinale.
“Porn Film Festival Berlin is a non-profit collective consisting of five members. The programming is a mix of scouting, solicitation, and submissions. The selection of films and workshops, performances and lectures is based on the different perspectives of each curator. The festival looks very carefully for films in countries where sexuality, gender and body politics are subjects of censorship and oppression. The festival invites yearly around 160 short and long films of all genres. This high number of attending filmmakers is an important challenge for the festival because we want to orchestrate a fruitful and rewarding communication between our audience and the makers concerning the subjects of the films and other works presented. The festival works closely with other festivals sharing information to obtain films and contacts to filmmakers. We are happy to work with Cinekink in New York, PopPorn in Sao Paulo, Perv Festival in Melbourne to name a few. This enables the festival to present a diverse range of films dealing with the subject of sexuality.” 16
Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Desiree Buford
Des Buford leads the inner workings of “San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival”. As Director of Exhibition & Programming she provides curatorial oversight for the Festival, programs year-round screenings, and administers the “Frameline Completion Fund”. She is experienced on the queer film festival circuit, having worked over the past 15 years at “Frameline” and “Outfest”, as well as served as a juror at national and international festivals. In Furthemore, in 2012, Des was featured in The Advocate’s “Forty Under 40”, a list of influential American LGBTQ figures in media and politics.
“Part of what also makes us successful programmers is being attuned to our Festival’s particular audiences and being mindful of those truths. “What are they innately curious about? How can we challenge them with art that makes them step out of their own lived experiences?“ As queer film curators we also actively dispel the myth of there being one monolithic “LGBTQ community” As such, we also have a huge responsibility to ensure the curation of content that also centers underrepresented subjects and audiences in any given year.”
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Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Alexandra Carastoian
Alexandra Carastoian is a filmmaker, a photographer and a human rights activist from Romania. She is a founding member of the first Romanian NGO, which supports trans* individuals, and has been a part of the two annual festivals: “LGBT History Month” and “Bucharest Pride”. Furthermore, Alexandra is the director of the first Feminist and Queer International Film Festival in Bucharest, whick took place in November, 2015. Last year she won the “Young Talent GOPO Cinematography Award” for the film “It Takes Two to Fence”.
“The first ever FAQiff had just happened in November. At this point, we are writing history simply because we have initiated a feminist and queer film festival in Romania. Until it becomes an annual event, we can only say that we are learning by doing and we are just getting to know our audience. Even thought the community in Romania is not very visible, it is important that queer stories are seen by a larger public. If we are able to attract more stories that share feminist and queer perspectives, we, the programmers, are therefore responsible for creating a starting point for our archive, for creating our history. Unfortunately one cannot be objective, when selecting films, depending on their own background and personal life. And when there is a competition involved, there is always the question: do we wait for the stories to come to us, or do we start searching for them? Quantity does not automatically bring quality.”
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Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
João Ferreira
João is a Lisbon based Artistic Director and Programmer of “Queer Lisboa – International Queer Film Festival”. He was an actor in the Sensurround Theatre Troupe, directed by Lúcia Sigalho; and an actor, playwright, and director in “Projecto Solilóquio”. He is currently staging and acting in Heiner Müller’s “Hamletmachine”. He is the award-winning author of two plays, as well as having published several articles and participated in lectures and debates, on Queer, Film, and Performance Studies, in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Brazil.
“Since its very beginning in 1997, Queer Lisboa has had a critical approach to so-called “LGBT Cinema” and “Queer Cinema”, often programing films that are generally perceived as “non-queer” or simply as “arthouse”. This had led the festival to question what is Queer Cinema, and what are its narrative and aesthetic boundaries, be it from the creators’ point of view, or from the spectators’ point of view. We believe that this ongoing quest has enriched our program, and has raised important cultural, social, and political debates among our audience. In this presentation we aim to discuss how queer film and queer film festivals are a mirror of our society, and how a festival should handle ever-shifting identity, gender, and sexuality categorizations, so as broader political issues which are more and more a structural element in Queer Culture; how we should, on the one hand, embrace and celebrate queer heritage, and on the other have the freedom to build new concepts and break old barriers.” 19
Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Nosheen Khwaja
Nosheen Khwaja is the artistic director of “GLITCH” - Europe’s first 10 day QTIPoC film festival and also the chair & leading tech tutor of the “Digital Desperados” filmmaking course for Women of Colour. Aside from a devotion to film, she is also a practicing multimedia artist, filmmaker, jewellery maker and audio-visual tech & problem solver. She has run workshops, co-curated cabaret nights & screenings, exhibited artwork and performed in Hamburg, Berlin, Montreal, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, New York and the UK.
“GLITCH’s programming focus is on either films & video art on any subject made by QTIPoCs or films featuring/documenting QTIPoCs by filmmakers of any identity. This focus offers space to explore the interior worlds, passions and preoccupations of QTIPoCs. It also serves to incorporate exploration of racism, sexism, capitalism and specific cultural interests into the festival. We are a multi-faceted event, welcoming all yet offering especial solidarity and interest to QTIPoCs & PoCs. Creating GLITCH in the context of white supremacy means that the fact we place QTIPoC art, experience and voices firmly to the fore enables a more truly reflective and accurate version of queer history to emerge. Like all festivals we play a role in not divorcing what gets called art from what gets called politics. Art has the potential to expand the often all too narrow bandwidth of communication, encouraging a kind of political discussion that doesn’t exclude emotional and personal resonance.”
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Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Saadat Munir
Saadat Munir was born into the dichotomy of European and Asian culture, having been raised in Denmark by his Pakistani parents. Munir runs “Madari Films”, a production company that focuses on realistic cinema. He is an experienced film curator, programmer and critic. Presently, Munir curates as Creative Director the bi-national AKS-film, art and dialogue festival for minorities and marginalized communities that illuminates socio-political aspects of transgender, queer, people of color living in Pakistan and Denmark.
“I have strong faith in art that that contributes brings change. Cinema influences internal structures and the understanding of what is important.I believe a good programmer should always take a critical view of social, political and cultural issues while programing film festivals. My recent initiative of AKS Film allows me to expand my horizons and comprehend two culturally distant audiences and their observations towards queer cinema. The socio-political circumstances have an impact on programming and challenge me to wisely chose films that not only fit the expectations of the audiences but also lead into a discourse to raise important issues. Despite the fact that the film programme of AKS festival focuses on political activism in order to raise the voices and create visibility of minorities and marginalized communities, my personal admiration for quality cinema also plays a role. I think it is important for the festival curators to find a fine line between personal tastes and the demand or the significance of the subjects that must be spread out.” 21
Panel 2
Queer Film Festivals in Practice
Xiaogang Wei
Xiaogang Wei was born and raised in Xinjiang, China. Since 2010, he is the executive director of the NGO Beijing Gender Health Education Institute. It constitutes one of the first Chinese NGOs to focus on issues of gender, sexuality and sexual health. Together with the BGHEI, Xiaogang launched a series of groundbreaking events in China, including the “China AIDS Walk” and the “China Rainbow Awards”. Xiaogang is the Co-curator of the “Beijing Queer Film Festival” and a board member of the Beijing LGBT Centre.
“The Beijing Queer Film Festival plays an important political and activist role in China. As Mainland China's longest-standing independent film festival, we continuously deal with negative government attention and face constant pressure to pack up and shut down. Even though Chinese law does not criminalize homosexuality, Chinese censors consistently hone in on LGBT content in media and film. This has seriously affected the development of an LGBT film market in China. We want to encourage more people to produce LGBT visuals, and send out a wide array of diverse LGBT messages to our audience. Moreover, most of our organizers are both activists and filmmakers, and we see our love for queer and independent films also as a positive choice: we generally wish to showcase films questioning and pondering the commercialized and "pink-dollar" Westernized LGBT film culture. With our festival, we wish to go beyond identity politics: we wish to inspire a queer spirit with our screenings and discussions that breaks open new views on a diverse and accepting society.” 22
Credits Publisher TEDDY Foundation Grainauer Str.11, 10777 Berlin E-Mail: info@queeracademy.org www.queeracademy.org Concept and Coordination Michael Stuetz Editor Philipp-Sebastian Schmidt Assistants to the Editor Johanna Mitz, Daria Tashkinova Conference Team Klaus Mabel Aschenneller, Marisa Balz, Jacopo Bianchini, Hasan Karaben, Marie Kassmann, Eva-Maria Krusch, Anja Lindner, Thomas Malz, Elser Maxwell, Marco Urizzi von Plach Layout Cabine, Olivier Husson
Der QUEER ACADEMY FILM SUMMIT 2016 wird gefĂśrdert durch die Bundeszentrale fĂźr politische Bildung - bpb
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