MEMORY-LIKE: An Oral History of QueerFest(2025)

Verbotene Liebe - Queere Opfer der NS-Diktatur(de)

Sexual minorities were oppressed, imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis. Paragraph 175 criminalized homosexual men during the Nazi era – but the Nazis also discriminated against lesbians and trans people. They should be excluded from the national community. More than 50,000 queer people have been proven to have been persecuted. The documentary highlights three poignant fates in the context of Nazi terror.

Teguh(id)

Teguh was dishonorably discharged as a policeman due to his sexual orientation. With the support of his partner Tonny, Teguh decided to purue justice by bringing his case to court, an act that has never been done before in Indonesia from the LGBTQI+ community. From this, the question arises, why would he put himself in potential danger by going against the institution? The film tells a love story between Teguh and Tonny, which becomes the foundation of why this fight needs to be fought for.

Polonia: ¿zona libre de LGTBI?(es)

Jon Sistiaga takes an immersive trip to Poland, a country divided into two zones: on the one hand, the urban and pro-European, and on the other, the rural and ultra-Catholic, still anchored in the traumas of the war and the post-war period. Is Poland a homophobic country or does it have a homophobic government? How does the European Union allow this situation?

Que sirva de ejemplo(es)

What is heteronormativity, what does it mean for men and women, what is the cultural canon, does culture reflect or does culture construct? We reflect on all this by putting in dialogue ten people who, from different fields of culture, have thought about this.

Australia Says Yes(en)

Packed with drama, high emotions and cliff-hanger moments, Australia Says Yes is the intimate and personal history of struggle and perseverance that propelled Australia to say Yes to marriage equality. The film shows how a group of determined individuals fought tirelessly against unjust laws that treated LGBTIQ people as second-class citizens, creating a movement that saw them go from criminals to legally equal over the course of five decades.

The Times of Harvey Milk(en)

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

Illegal Love(en)

In 2008 French filmmaker Julie Gali traveled to the US to film the election of Barack Obama. In spite of this victory for civil rights, it soon became apparent that the rights of another minority were under threat. In California the passing of Proposition 8 marked the only time in U.S. history that a civil right was actually taken away after it had been granted. Upon seeing this, Ms. Gali decided to immerse herself in the growing grassroots struggle of the gay community, which culminated in the October 11, 2009 March for Equality in Washington DC.

Being BeBe(en)

The intimate journey and unpublished backstory of BeBe Zahara Benet – a charismatic drag performer originally from Cameroon, and the very first winner of the culture-changing phenomenon, RuPaul’s Drag Race. With over a decade of unprecedented access, we observe BeBe’s struggles with celebrity, authenticity, success, and failure.

to boyhood, i never knew him(en)

Archive footage from 2006 - 2010 of a young girl growing up during the ages of four to eight. Only fragments of what is remembered exists. Words from a transgender man float to the surface as fleeting memories go on.

How I Became a Woman(es)

In the first person, a documentary that shows us the experience of Vida Rodriguez, formerly Inocente Duke, in situations that the Trans Law favors: what happens when entering a sauna, locker room, or a public service (even in the Congress of Deputies). An experience that, with respect and large doses of humor, brings us face to face with a law and its difficulties in its implementation.

#pinQCity(en)

Interweaving lives of LGBT personalities compose this documentary about the struggles and hopes of a queer community living in the country’s premiere city.

Pursuit of Equality(en)

By issuing marriage licenses to same gender couples, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom uproots the status quo and attempts to change the way the nation looks at life, love, and marriage.

Trans*BUT — Fragments of Identity(tr)

Fragmentary perspectives on Human Rights and transgender (trans*) People in Turkey. What remains at the place where a murder happened? What constitutes trans* life? How to cope with daily violence and hatred? We begin to search for traces. We follow the tracks of resistance and survival. We are collectors of the expelled. We gather fragments of trans* lives inspired by texts of Nazim Hikmet, Foucault, Benjamin and Zeki Müren. Trans*BUT is a documental research study driven by the question: “What keeps you going when all else falls away?”

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution(en)

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

La purge LGBT : La sombre histoire(fr)

The Purge traces a dark and little-known moment in Canadian history: the systemic discrimination faced by members of the LGBT community within the Armed Forces and the federal public service. From 1950 to 1996, it was yesterday, no effort was spared to flush out these men and women deemed "immoral" and representing a "danger to national security": intensive and coercive interrogations, humiliating tests, polygraphs, forced confessions and denunciations.

Equality from the Heart(en)

'Equality from the Heart' captures the narratives of various LGBTIQ individuals in Malta, shedding a light on the lived lives of our community throughout the 20th Century, during a time when our identities were considered a taboo, as it reflects on the progress this country has made and looks to the future with optimism.

Erinnerungen an Zeiten, die noch kommen werden(de)

Your Call Is Important To Us(fr)

The only thing colder than a Canadian winter is Canadian bureaucracy (probably). Based on five real life stories, Romy Boutin St-Pierre and Joe Nadeau pay homage to the nation-wide stress headache of phone calls with the government in this surprising short.

Family Album(es)

Through archive footage and images as well as interviews, the movie paints the portrait of a legendary trans womens' rights activist in Argentina. Like a family album to flip through, the narrative charts the ties solidarity and mutual aid create between people of the LGBTQI+ community and the long road to make the personal political, during the brutal 1980s in latin America.

ALHIVE(es)

One morning, Leonardo Galicia wakes up with a dull pain and an intense fever. After a pandemic experience that made him aware of his mortality, the last thing Leonardo expected was an HIV-reactive result.
 The illness caused by the virus takes hold of Leonardo's body and forces him to take an indefinite break while recovering in a hospital. There, he meets a mysterious young man, Augusto. By sharing common thoughts, hopes, and dreams, the two will find refuge in each other's arms.