Dear Mezipatra visitors,
I have been working at the festival for 9 years, and in that time, I have experienced moments of great joy, amazing success, great failures, and heart-breaking moments. To organize a festival that has a great reputation both here and abroad, but which has also been under-financed for a long time, is a big sacrifice for everybody participating. But we all make that sacrifice with joy and with a feeling of fulfilment, because we constantly keep in mind all of you who fill our cinemas every year and create an absolutely unique community. This is why I now feel the need to share this moment with you, as it means an unprecedented challenge for us.

The festival will happen. But this year has represented an absolute destruction of the film industry status quo. Many festivals didn’t take place at all, others went online, and others still only published the program that would have been offered if it had been possible. Simultaneously, films stopped being shot or finished for various periods of time. In such a film vacuum, our programmers were facing an incredibly hard challenge to put the program of this year’s Mezipatra together, but they have succeeded. And I have to note that we have one of the best programs that I remember.

This difficult situation forced us to think differently, which resulted in many innovative steps. The main, as well as short film competitions, will feature documentaries for the first time, as they absolutely deserve it for their unique topics and perfect forms. On the other hand, the documentary section will present a trio of older films that remind us of the key moments of the 20th century that made today’s queer communities possible. The non-competition section will introduce Polish shorts, a documentary about the representation of people with a handicap, and short queer porn films by independent filmmakers that subvert the distorted mass media ideas of a body and pleasure.

The festival will take place. And it will take place on the planned days. However, thanks to the lack of preparation of our government and the insufficient communication with the cultural community, we unfortunately still don’t know in what form. Although it is still not clear whether we will be screening in cinemas or online, I know we have managed to get the best films that you simply must-see.

The trailer premiere will take place online, with a live studio broadcast on October 16. You can watch it on our Facebook or YouTube channel, and we’ll introduce not only the trailer by the talented Jay Walker, but also the crème de la crème of our film program. You don’t have to worry about your festival passes, if the festival couldn’t happen in cinemas, you will get your money back.

Join us for our Thursday premiere, share our beautiful poster and later also our trailer. And, above all, come to see the best queer films of this year to cinemas, or watch them online, depending on the situation.
We need to feel your support more than ever.

With love,
Pavel Bicek, Director of Mezipatra QFF