- Details
- Category: Festival
"There are festivals where you have to be for your career. There are festivals where you go and then you forget them. And there are festivals that get under your skin, where you want to come back to, and you feel that the people you see here can become your friends. Mezipatra is a festival just like that!"
― João Pedro Rodrigues, director, Portugal
"Mezipatra was amazing. I was very impressed by the way it was organized, the quality of the programming, and the fantastic people behind the festival. I'd recommend it to anyone and look forward to attending it again."
― Rhys Ernst, director and producer, USA
"Film festival Mezipatra became a well-known and respectable partner of other film shows that happen in the Czech Republic."
― Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic
"With a wide range of activities including international film competitions, retrospectives by renowned artists, and many discussions and lectures on specific themes, Mezipatra offers something for everyone. This is reflected in the diversity of its audience."
― Skadi Loist, Hamburg Lesbian and Gay FF
"I have travelled to many festivals during the last fifteen years and have always appreciated the exciting combination of thought-provoking programming and knowledgeable, kind and passionate organizers. I am happy to find out that is the very definition of Mezipatra, which I have been so pleased to discover as a member of the jury in 2016."
― Karel Och, art director, MFF Karlovy Vary
"The Queer Film Festival Mezipatra is turning into the most important queer film festival in Europe and is now the most affluent, the most professional and the most progressive."
― Benjamin and Dominik Reding, directors, Germany
„The best queer film festival ever."
― John Cameron Mitchell, director, USA
"We were very impressed with the team and the quality of all the movies that we had the opportunity to watch. We loved Prague and we cannot say anything but great words about the festival. It was an honor to be part of it. Mezipatra is from now on one of our favorite festivals in the world."
― Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, directors, Spain and China
"Mezipatra Film Festival has rightfully become a stable part of the Brno cultural scene. For ten years, the audience has experienced movies that are opening a debate on topics of human sexuality, gender, and other stereotypes. It also offers the necessary space for meeting hetero- and non-heterosexual viewers and divales. "
― Martin Ander, former Deputy Major of the Statutory city of Brno
"Mezipatra film festival was one of my favorites, and I've been to almost 90 cities around the globe as a part of my tour. It is well organized and helps filmmakers build great relationships, we also had the opportunity to party and interact with the community. The festival staff are some of the most genuine, professional, fun people I've worked with. It was a memorable time."
― Nneka Onuorah, director, USA
„I am of the firm opinion that Mezipatra is a vital contributor to current-day Czech culture, and that its significance is twofold; it's at once an important film cultural event, presenting many worthy and challenging films which would not otherwise receive a screening thereabouts, as well as a rallying point for the only relatively recently out but increasingly visible Czech queer community. They also know how to throw a damn fine party!"
― Cerise Howard, film publicist, Sight and Sound Magazine, Australia
"The main quality of Mezipater is its audience. As a filmmaker and distributor, I was at many gay and lesbian festivals, and I must say that young, let alone heterosexual audiences do not usually go on gay and lesbian films."
― Hong Khaou, film maker, UK
- Details
- Category: Festival
25th Mezipatra Queer Film Festival 2024
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Article 1.
MEZIPATRA Queer Film Festival (MEZIPATRA QFF) is a specialised competitive film festival focusing on gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and queer themed films. The aims of the festival organised on a non-profit basis are to promote quality human-interest films and to contribute to the emancipation of gender and sexual minorities in the Czech Republic.
Article 2.
MEZIPATRA QFF is held annually in the capital city of Prague and in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. A part of the festival program is also presented in other towns of the Czech Republic as “Echoes of Mezipatra”. QFF MEZIPATRA is a successor to the gay and lesbian film festival "Rainbow Above Brno", which took place in 2000 and 2001. The founder of the festival was the non-profit organisation STUD Brno.
Article 3.
MEZIPATRA QFF is organised by the non-profit civic association Mezipatra z.s., with its registered office at Francouzska 284/94, 101 00 Prague, Czech Republic.
Article 4.
MEZIPATRA QFF is organised in cooperation with foreign cultural institutions, embassies and consulates, as well as in cooperation with local and national cultural institutions and other similar-oriented film festivals.
Article 5.
The 25th MEZIPATRA will take place in Prague November 7 to 14, and in Brno November 15 to 22, 2024. The festival-related events (“Echoes of Mezipatra”) held in other Czech towns will follow the main festival program.
Article 6.
MEZIPATRA QFF presents selected feature films and short films, fiction and documentaries. The festival is open to filmmakers from all over the world. Films may be submitted by directors, producers, distributors and other legal entities. The submitted films are entitled to attend other film festivals, as well. The films in the competition will be selected by a selection committee. Selection criteria will include both the artistic treatment of the submitted film and its human-interest message.
Article 7.
MEZIPATRA QFF has three competitions – the films are judged by an international jury, students' jury and by the festival audience. The festival presents the following awards: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film and Audience Award. Only the films which have not been introduced in the past festival editions can participate in the festival competition. The completion year for the films in the competition(s) must be 2023 or later.
Article 8.
Submission rules
Eligibility (please read carefully):
Films with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer themes.
Films of any length are accepted.
Films of any country of origin are accepted.
Films of all types and genres are accepted.
The completion year for the films in the competition(s) must be 2023 or later.
Only films not previously submitted to the festival.
Submissions are not connected to any fee.
The submissions are open from 12th February until 30th June.
The applicant should deliver their submission application including the film screener on a DVD to the festival address (QFF Mezipatra, Francouzska 284/94, 101 00 Prague, Czech Republic) or an online screener via web or email no later than June 30, 2024. The DVD screener should be labelled with the name of the film, director, and contact information. The online screener must be valid until October 3, 2024.
The applicant must fill in the online ENTRY FORM (link below) for the film to be accepted as a submission.
For each submitted film an application should be filled in. The organiser welcomes any complementary material concerning the submitted film.
The organiser is not paying the costs of the preview copies of submitted films sent to the festival organisational body.
The preview copies will be returned to the applicants after the festival if an explicit claim of the applicant is submitted. The applicant is obliged to pay a fee of USD 25,- to refund the return of the copy.
All unclaimed materials and preview copies become a part of the festival archive. Applicant agrees that the festival organiser may use the Czech subtitled version of their film for non-profit use (e.g., educational screenings at schools).
Article 9.
Competition participation rules
The organiser will notify the applicants with the result of the film selection by email no later than October 7, 2024.
The screening copies of the selected films shall be delivered to the address specified by the festival’s shipping coordinator no later than 4 weeks before the start of the festival for both digital and physical copies (no later than October 10, 2024). The screening copies must be delivered on format(s) agreed on by the festival.
The films selected for the competition cannot be withdrawn from the festival program by the applicant. No film selected may be withdrawn from the festival program after its participation has been officially confirmed by the applicant, producer or World Sales company.
The screening copies of selected films of other than Czech, Slovak or English language version have to be equipped with English subtitles and the applicant must provide the organiser with the original dialogue transcript and its English translation. Also, the applicant agrees to provide the festival with a finalised screener for translation purposes, as all foreign language films will be provided with Czech subtitles by the festival.
The costs of selected films may be covered by the organiser according to proper consideration. The organiser assumes the liability for the damage or loss of the copy of the selected films only in the period from the reception of the film copy to its consignment to the filmmaker. The compensation for the loss or damage of the film copy in the said period is limited to the costs for the production of a new copy of the film as calculated from a regular price list.
The organiser does not pay any screening fee for the screening of films entered by submission.
The applicant permits Mezipatra to make a DVD copy of this work for a non-circulating festival archive.
All films participating in the competitions or having a premiere at the festival are expected to use the festival logo in their publicity and promotional material.
Applicant gives Mezipatra permission to use up to 3 minutes of footage or photographic stills from the work for broadcast, web publication or other promotional purposes.
The contingencies and events not stipulated herein shall be decided by the festival's program director in compliance with the festival's policy.
Article 10.
Completion and submission of the entry form indicates the applicant’s consent to the Festival rules and regulations.
Contact:
QFF Mezipatra, Francouzska 284/94, 101 00 Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail (submissions): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
e-mail (program): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.mezipatra.cz
ENTRY FORM: https://vp.eventival.com/mqff/mezipatra2024
- Details
- Category: Festival
Mezipatra (English translation: mezzanines) is a space which is neither up, nor down. Whether you move upstairs or downstairs, you always meet your neighbours in the space which does not belong to either of the flats. Mezipatra (or mezzanines) have no specific owner, nor are there valid rules of one and not the other. In the mezzanine, all the differences are irrelevant, no matter which floor you came from. Simply, you are and will always be welcome!
When we decided to organise the first Czech gay and lesbian film festival in the Moravian metropolis twelve years ago, we did not assume that it would have become the biggest queer event in the Czech Republic in few years. Duha nad Brnem (Rainbow above Brno - as went the original title of the event) presented eight films and three theatre performances. Within the ten years of its existence, the festival have not only changed its name to a more apt Mezipatra, but also the number of screened films and off program events, further, it has spread into 9 additional towns and actually beyond the borders of the republic too. In the years 2007 and 2008, the so-called "Festival Echoes" ran also in Bratislava, where they gave birth to a present-day Festival Inakosti (Slovak Queer Film Festival). Mezipatra has become a natural constituent of the social dialogue concerning human diversity, which is also possible due to the fact that around a half of the audience identifies itself as heterosexual. It succeeded to provide the most prioritised value of all the enlightenment, openness and balance; Various people meet in one space, so there is no room left for a one-sided discussion in a kind of a homoghetto.
Nowadays' more than ten thousands of visitors each year is a result of a volunteer work of around a dozen of people, who organise the festival simply because they see the point in doing so. In spite of the obvious financial lack, the festival team managed to extend the event to Prague as early as two years after its first one. In 2005, the festival was already visited by eight thousand viewers, with the attendance of the foreign artists, around seventy films were screened and twenty other off program events, ranging from theatre performances, through staged readings and exhibitions, to concerts, took place. The festival program of the following years was enriched by festival exhibitions, a record-breaking fifteen theatre performances in 2006. The same year, the festival took place in Český Těšín for the first time.
"Festival Echoes" have gradually begun to please the viewers in other Czech towns as well. In 2008 they spread into Olomouc, České Budějovice and Bratislava. A German postmodern director - Rosa von Praunheim - attended Mezipatra. The festival motto of the year was "Life after..." and it presented the fortunes of the unpretentious heroes and heroines after their sex change, after the diagnosis, after the loss of a partner. The previous years had also been focused on particular topics. The first thematic year, held in 2004, was dealing with gay and lesbian parenthood, in 2006 the main theme was Puberty and a year after that, when the civil partnership law came in force, it was Rebelliousness and Raves. The reason for this came with a realisation that the local community had, for years, been asserting the image of lesbians and gays as respectable citizens who live the same way as the mainstream society and desire the same rights and institutions. However, this kind of an image is usually very limiting and sets apart the punks, anarchists, gender and sexual experimenters or basically whomever who does not fit in the norms of the "decent" society of trade economics and monogamous coexistence.
In the year 2009, the festival marked the all-time high attendance of 12500 viewers. Mezipatra entered the new decade with a change in the attribute – from gay and lesbian festival to a queer film festival. With this attribute name change we manifested what we desired since the beginnings of the festival; not to be a gay and lesbian festival only for gays and lesbians. The term queer embraces all who find the traditional gender categories too tight. The tenth Mezipatra was dedicated to gender problematic with the name World War Three of the Sexes.
The traditional retrospective belonged to the famous director Derek Jarman, one of the leading representatives of the British film. Jarman was also the first publicly-known person to openly declare being HIV positive. In addition, a successful exhibition called The Other Kind of Blue was dedicated to Jarman. The name of the exhibition was chosen as a reaction to the legendary autobiographical film Blue, shot by Jarman in his sight-losing period due to the HIV virus. Jarman depicts his experience with the therapy, evokes the fragments of memories, visions of the compelling beauty as well as the dismay of the coming end, all on the background of the shining blue projection. The project The Other Kind of Blue also incorporated the artworks of the Czech and Slovak authors Darina Alster, Radim Labuda and Tamara Moyzes, reacting to Jarman's theatrical sensuality, formal experiments or his open politicalization of gay thematic. James Mckay, the producer of numerous Jarman's films, personally visited the festival and held the place in the main jury.
The tenth year also brought an off-competition section called Queer as FAMU, where the authors personally presented their own films. 2009 also meant an exceptionally eventful program, which was opened by an exposition of Josef Rabara, Jan Přibylský and Václav Kopecký named Body. The reactions towards the photography of Jan Přibylský, which depicted male and female genitals, were so intense that the owner of the café in Brno had a part of the exposition taken down. The colourful confession of the student – the Atelier of Photography at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem – was, according to the author, a study of nudity as well as of the shame of the photographed, the photographer and its perceivers. Nevertheless, the authors of the exposition refused exposing only the less controversial part and decided to move the whole project to the gallery of the Old Brewery. However, the highlight of the off program was a lecture of one of the most significant American theoretician of queer and gender studies Jack Judith Halberstam, presented within the Prague series of the Queer Café.
As usual, the festival welcomed the filmmakers from all over the world to present their films in person. The best pieces are awarded prices of by two international juries ever since the fourth year. The festival awards were created by Zdeněk Vacek and Daniel Pošta, the renowned designer and winner of the prestigious exhibition Designblok. The teasers were shot by the laureates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award - Michal Pěchouček and Radim Labuda; Mark Ther is a star too. Jan Kolář is a top graphic designer (redesign and new logo since the 10th year) nominated Grand Czech Design a Louskáček Awards for his work for Mezipatra. In 2009, besides the usual categories of three awards, Mezipatra along with the Gender Studies and the Counselling Centre for Citizenship, Civil and Human Rights announced an extra competition named Film Against Bullying, which anyone could submit their short film treating the subject of homophobia and its expressions in society to.
The main theme of the eleventh year was High Art. The contents accentuated the personalities of the exceptional artists whose off-the-mainstream work enriched or still enriches the queer culture. In 2010, we launched the co-operation with Amnesty International and expanded the "Festival Echoes" to Pilsen. The films of Matthew Bourn, who in a very brave and innovative manner transforms the classical opera art works into a modern form characterized by a captivating visuality and queer esthetics, were paid a special attention.
The traditional retrospective of Mezipatra was dedicated to an American artist and a lesbian video art pioneer Barbara Hammer. Also considered a queer film groundbreaker, Hammer has been focusing on the ever tabooed topics linked to female corporeality and lesbian sexuality. Among her most famous pictures, you could find Dyketactics (1974) and Nitrate Kisses (1992), the first feature documentary of hers, were the images of four gay and lesbian couples with the before-invisible history of gays and lesbians. Her films were presented in the most prominent galleries around the world, including Moma in New Yorku, Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern.
Apart from the filmmakers, the festival hosted foreign experts who, as usual, gave lectures within the Queer Café series. Namely, Lawrence Carter-Long, who spoke of the intersections of queer identities and life marked by a disability, and Harry M. Benshoff, the member of the main jury, with his lecture on the queer aspects of horrors.
Besides dealing with a different particular topic each year, Mezipatra are also the festival of the unique cinema premieres. In 2004 this was represented by a Spanish comedy My Mother Likes Women, two years later, by the phenomenal Shorbus of John Cameron Mitchell, who visited Mezipatra and the screening of his film in Prague cinema Světozor. In 2010, we introduced two premieres. American Howl, the reconstruction of the authentic interview with Allen Ginsberg and Heartbeats by a director, screenwriter and actor Xavier Dolan, who had already charmed the viewers of his previous film I Killed My Mother in Cannes.
In 2011, we welcomed the Hollywood star, director Todd Haynes. The year's theme was Time Travel and one could travel in time with most of the arranged pictures. The competition of the twelfth Mezipatra was won by the female rockers of the legendary band reunited after ten years. The jury awarded the Canadian film Trigger the best feature due to its brilliant dialogues as well as the apt portraits of people in their middle age.
- Details
- Category: Festival
Mezipatra (English translation: mezzanines) is a space which is neither up, nor down. Whether you move upstairs or downstairs, you always meet your neighbours in the space which does not belong to either of the flats. Mezipatra (or mezzanines) have no specific owner, nor are there valid rules of one and not the other. In the mezzanine, all the differences are irrelevant, no matter which floor you came from. Simply, you are and will always be welcome!
When we decided to organise the first Czech gay and lesbian film festival in the Moravian metropolis twelve years ago, we did not assume that it would have become the biggest queer event in the Czech Republic in few years. Duha nad Brnem (Rainbow above Brno - as went the original title of the event) presented eight films and three theatre performances. Within the ten years of its existence, the festival have not only changed its name to a more apt Mezipatra, but also the number of screened films and off program events, further, it has spread into 9 additional towns and actually beyond the borders of the republic too. In the years 2007 and 2008, the so-called "Festival Echoes" ran also in Bratislava, where they gave birth to a present-day Festival Inakosti (Slovak Queer Film Festival). Mezipatra has become a natural constituent of the social dialogue concerning human diversity, which is also possible due to the fact that around a half of the audience identifies itself as heterosexual. It succeeded to provide the most prioritised value of all the enlightenment, openness and balance; Various people meet in one space, so there is no room left for a one-sided discussion in a kind of a homoghetto.
Nowadays' more than ten thousands of visitors each year is a result of a volunteer work of around a dozen of people, who organise the festival simply because they see the point in doing so. In spite of the obvious financial lack, the festival team managed to extend the event to Prague as early as two years after its first one. In 2005, the festival was already visited by eight thousand viewers, with the attendance of the foreign artists, around seventy films were screened and twenty other off program events, ranging from theatre performances, through staged readings and exhibitions, to concerts, took place. The festival program of the following years was enriched by festival exhibitions, a record-breaking fifteen theatre performances in 2006. The same year, the festival took place in Český Těšín for the first time.
"Festival Echoes" have gradually begun to please the viewers in other Czech towns as well. In 2008 they spread into Olomouc, České Budějovice and Bratislava. A German postmodern director - Rosa von Praunheim - attended Mezipatra. The festival motto of the year was "Life after..." and it presented the fortunes of the unpretentious heroes and heroines after their sex change, after the diagnosis, after the loss of a partner. The previous years had also been focused on particular topics. The first thematic year, held in 2004, was dealing with gay and lesbian parenthood, in 2006 the main theme was Puberty and a year after that, when the civil partnership law came in force, it was Rebelliousness and Raves. The reason for this came with a realisation that the local community had, for years, been asserting the image of lesbians and gays as respectable citizens who live the same way as the mainstream society and desire the same rights and institutions. However, this kind of an image is usually very limiting and sets apart the punks, anarchists, gender and sexual experimenters or basically whomever who does not fit in the norms of the "decent" society of trade economics and monogamous coexistence.
In the year 2009, the festival marked the all-time high attendance of 12500 viewers. Mezipatra entered the new decade with a change in the attribute – from gay and lesbian festival to a queer film festival. With this attribute name change we manifested what we desired since the beginnings of the festival; not to be a gay and lesbian festival only for gays and lesbians. The term queer embraces all who find the traditional gender categories too tight. The tenth Mezipatra was dedicated to gender problematic with the name World War Three of the Sexes.
The traditional retrospective belonged to the famous director Derek Jarman, one of the leading representatives of the British film. Jarman was also the first publicly-known person to openly declare being HIV positive. In addition, a successful exhibition called The Other Kind of Blue was dedicated to Jarman. The name of the exhibition was chosen as a reaction to the legendary autobiographical film Blue, shot by Jarman in his sight-losing period due to the HIV virus. Jarman depicts his experience with the therapy, evokes the fragments of memories, visions of the compelling beauty as well as the dismay of the coming end, all on the background of the shining blue projection. The project The Other Kind of Blue also incorporated the artworks of the Czech and Slovak authors Darina Alster, Radim Labuda and Tamara Moyzes, reacting to Jarman's theatrical sensuality, formal experiments or his open politicalization of gay thematic. James Mckay, the producer of numerous Jarman's films, personally visited the festival and held the place in the main jury.
The tenth year also brought an off-competition section called Queer as FAMU, where the authors personally presented their own films. 2009 also meant an exceptionally eventful program, which was opened by an exposition of Josef Rabara, Jan Přibylský and Václav Kopecký named Body. The reactions towards the photography of Jan Přibylský, which depicted male and female genitals, were so intense that the owner of the café in Brno had a part of the exposition taken down. The colourful confession of the student – the Atelier of Photography at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem – was, according to the author, a study of nudity as well as of the shame of the photographed, the photographer and its perceivers. Nevertheless, the authors of the exposition refused exposing only the less controversial part and decided to move the whole project to the gallery of the Old Brewery. However, the highlight of the off program was a lecture of one of the most significant American theoretician of queer and gender studies Jack Judith Halberstam, presented within the Prague series of the Queer Café.
As usual, the festival welcomed the filmmakers from all over the world to present their films in person. The best pieces are awarded prices of by two international juries ever since the fourth year. The festival awards were created by Zdeněk Vacek and Daniel Pošta, the renowned designer and winner of the prestigious exhibition Designblok. The teasers were shot by the laureates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award - Michal Pěchouček and Radim Labuda; Mark Ther is a star too. Jan Kolář is a top graphic designer (redesign and new logo since the 10th year) nominated Grand Czech Design a Louskáček Awards for his work for Mezipatra. In 2009, besides the usual categories of three awards, Mezipatra along with the Gender Studies and the Counselling Centre for Citizenship, Civil and Human Rights announced an extra competition named Film Against Bullying, which anyone could submit their short film treating the subject of homophobia and its expressions in society to.
The main theme of the eleventh year was High Art. The contents accentuated the personalities of the exceptional artists whose off-the-mainstream work enriched or still enriches the queer culture. In 2010, we launched the co-operation with Amnesty International and expanded the "Festival Echoes" to Pilsen. The films of Matthew Bourn, who in a very brave and innovative manner transforms the classical opera art works into a modern form characterized by a captivating visuality and queer esthetics, were paid a special attention.
The traditional retrospective of Mezipatra was dedicated to an American artist and a lesbian video art pioneer Barbara Hammer. Also considered a queer film groundbreaker, Hammer has been focusing on the ever tabooed topics linked to female corporeality and lesbian sexuality. Among her most famous pictures, you could find Dyketactics (1974) and Nitrate Kisses (1992), the first feature documentary of hers, were the images of four gay and lesbian couples with the before-invisible history of gays and lesbians. Her films were presented in the most prominent galleries around the world, including Moma in New Yorku, Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern.
Apart from the filmmakers, the festival hosted foreign experts who, as usual, gave lectures within the Queer Café series. Namely, Lawrence Carter-Long, who spoke of the intersections of queer identities and life marked by a disability, and Harry M. Benshoff, the member of the main jury, with his lecture on the queer aspects of horrors.
Besides dealing with a different particular topic each year, Mezipatra are also the festival of the unique cinema premieres. In 2004 this was represented by a Spanish comedy My Mother Likes Women, two years later, by the phenomenal Shorbus of John Cameron Mitchell, who visited Mezipatra and the screening of his film in Prague cinema Světozor. In 2010, we introduced two premieres. American Howl, the reconstruction of the authentic interview with Allen Ginsberg and Heartbeats by a director, screenwriter and actor Xavier Dolan, who had already charmed the viewers of his previous film I Killed My Mother in Cannes.
In 2011, we welcomed the Hollywood star, director Todd Haynes. The year's theme was Time Travel and one could travel in time with most of the arranged pictures. The competition of the twelfth Mezipatra was won by the female rockers of the legendary band reunited after ten years. The jury awarded the Canadian film Trigger the best feature due to its brilliant dialogues as well as the apt portraits of people in their middle age.
- Details
- Category: Festival
Mezipatra
We are a queer film festival organized by non-profit organizations Mezipatra and STUD Brno. Every year, we introduce around a hundred Czech and foreign films centred around LGBTQ+ issues, and their creators. The films are apprised by a professional jury as a part of a prestigious international competition. Inherent part of the program are the accompanying discussions, lectures, workshops, exhibitions and parties. The festival's main part takes place in Prague and Brno, and its echoes follow in selected towns across the Czech Republic.
Queer liberates
What exactly does queer mean? The label of queer encompasses everybody who finds the traditional gender roles too narrow, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Queer liberates from the traditional perception of sexual and gender identities based on the invariable categories of man/woman, heterosexual/homosexual.
Our mission
Why do we do all this? We provide the people in the Czech Republic with a space for discovering the variety of sexual and gender identities through our queer program and its reflection. Each year, the festival is visited by about 12.000 people and we aim to not only broaden their horizons, but also offer a space for meetings and self-expression. Mezipatra helps understand one's own identity and the meanings related to the word “queer”.
International guests
Every year we invite filmmakers and other renowned figures from abroad to be part of the festival and enjoy the unique atmosphere. In the past, we were visited by such famous directors as Todd Haynes, John Cameron Mitchell, João Pedro Rodrigues and Monica Treut, Saga Becker, the first trans* actress winning the Swedish Gudbagge award, and the Transparent TV show producer, Rhys Ernst. Canadian director and photographer Bruce LaBruce honoured last year's festival as a member of the international jury. We regularly host film critics and professionals from the academic sphere, journalism, music (singer and music producer Planningtorock in 2015), arts, and international diplomacy.
Accompanying events
Throughout the year, we organize a series of screenings called Mezipatra Approved, presenting films from the previous editions. Moreover, we take part in the Prague Pride festival in August – not only as a part of the parade, but also with the accompanying program Identity in the city which includes an outdoor cinema and thematic discussions.
Become a part of Mezipatra
Each year, we are grateful for volunteers who can help us prepare the festival and ensure it runs smoothly. You can also support Mezipatra by adopting our films. Furthermore, you may support us by purchasing our merch. See the SUPPORT section.
