- Mezipatra Queer Film Festival will introduce six documentaries on various current issues.
- 42 short films divided into seven sections will compete for the award of the student jury.
- Short films from last year's competition will be available on the Czech Television website from 1st November.
Documentary section
“What is it like to be a parent of a trans* child? How to deal with your life partner's death when you caused it yourself by loving too much? What's the situation around chemsex in the UK? These and many other topics are explored in the selection of remarkable documentary films from Europe as well as the USA,” summarizes Sandra Hezinová, the program coordinator.
Eric Juhola's Growing Up Coy follows the story of parents who sue the school their six-year-old daughter, Coy, attends. Because she is trans*, the school board has decided that she is only allowed to use the teachers' bathroom. The very first lawsuit of such kind in the USA becomes a media sensation. Will the parents be able to achieve what seems natural – that the school stops excluding Coy?
Chemsex is the name of a British documentary produced by VICE and also a spreading phenomenon: drug consumption during sex. Significantly connected to the boom of dating apps, the social trend is related mainly to metropolitan gay communities, for example in London and Berlin. The directors William Fairman and Max Gogarty talked both with men addicted to chemsex and with healthcare professionals focusing on this issue.
We will visit the British Isles once again with The Queen of Ireland. The portrait of a charismatic drag queen named Panti Bliss, who is more influential than Donald Trump according to a Time magazine poll, describes not only her success in show-business, but also her persistent political activism and fight for the rights of LGBT people in a strongly Catholic country. It was also thanks to Panti that Ireland legalized same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples last year.
"What He Did (Det Han Gjorde)," asks the intimate portrait of Jens Michael Schau, a Danish playwright who murdered his lover, an esteemed writer named Christian Kampmann, out of jealousy in 1988. After years in prison, he reflects the old tragedy not only in front of Jonas Poher Rasmussen's camera, but also together with a theatre group which adapts the event as a theatre play.
Stud, or femme? A bisexual, or a “real” lesbian? Masculine, or a mother-to-be? In her documentary called The Same Difference, the director and activist Nneka Onuorah concentrates on discrimination within the African-American lesbian community. Each woman who wants to keep her position must strictly adhere to the selected label and fulfill the stereotype which corresponds with her gender role – exceptions are not forgiven. The director will come to Mezipatra to introduce her film debut, made in the authentic environment of New York lesbians.
Yes, We Fuck! The motto and name of the Spanish documentary is clear. The film offers a sincere insight into the lives of six protagonists who are “queer” in more than one way. Miriam is in a wheelchair, Orial has cerebral palsy, Merxte is visually impaired... But they all have something in common: desire for sex, and also a sense of humour which helps them overcome such obstacles which most people usually do not have to face.
Short Films Competition
“There are forty-two short films in the competition this year, ranging from romantic dramas to original genre films. Everyone will get their money's worth – fans of relationship stories as well as of trashy gore,” describes Sandra Hezinova the selection of short films which are composed into seven thematic sections.
A Man in Five Ways and Relationships in the Feminine Way show the most varied forms of love; Family Ties are films about families both happy and unhappy, traditional and non-traditional; the protagonists of Do You Know Who I Am? are connected through searching (and successfully finding) their own gender identity. Faded Youth studies the issues of ageing and ephemerality; Evil Among Us examines the amalgam of sex and violence and the relationship of dominance and submission. Of Murders, Bears, and Men are stylish short film with pulp aesthetics.
As usual, the best short film will be chosen by a student jury. The selection of last year's films, including the winner, 9:55-11:00, Ingrid Ekman, Bergsgatan 4B, will be available for free on the Czech Television website from 1st November.
Ticket sale at theatre box offices and online, more information on the festival's website.
Prague 3rd – 10th November
Brno 11th – 18th November
regions: Olomouc 22nd – 26th November, Hradec Králové 8th – 9th December
Visuals 2016 – photo Michaela Karásek Čejková, graphic design Marius Corradini / Side 2
Complete program and information: www.mezipatra.cz
Film trailers and other videos here.
PRESS materials and photos for download:
https://mezimedia.capsa.cz
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