Girls Life Is Trembling(2009)

Notes about identity(es)

Hating Peter Tatchell(en)

The powerful and inspiring true story of the controversial human rights campaigner whose provocative acts of civil diso bedience rocked the British establishment, revolutionised attitudes to homosexuality and exposed world tyrants. As social attitudes change and history vindicates Peter's stance on gay rights, his David versus Goliath battles gradually win him status as a national treasure. The film follows Peter as he embarks on his riskiest crusade yet by seeking to disrupt the FIFA World Cup in Moscow to draw attention to the persecution of LGBT+ people in Russia and Chechnya.

Draw Me Egypt - Doaa El-Adl, A Stroke of Freedom(en)

Doaa el-Adl, the first woman to be awarded the esteemed Journalistic Distinction in Caricature, serves as a catalyst for transformation within the predominantly male-dominated realm of Egyptian political cartoonists. Challenging patriarchal norms, she routinely confronts censorship, harassment, and even threats to her life. In a remarkable fusion of documentary, cartoons, and animation, Egyptian director Nada Riyadh breathes life into el-Adl's most renowned works. This dynamic and fearless presentation delves into the issue of violence against women, stretching the boundaries of freedom of speech in a society often characterized by restrictions. Through her exceptional talent, el-Adl not only champions women's rights but also serves as an inspiration for societal change.

Fidel Lemoy(es)

Equatorial Guinea became independent 51 years ago from Spain. This African country lives under one of the longest-lived dictatorships in the world, Teodoro Obiang, a military man trained in Zaragoza. His regime strongly represses all freedoms, including sexual ones. Franco Spanish laws are still in force in the country, such as the «public scandal». It is not possible to protest on the street and the only LGTB organization in the country has not been able to legalize itself. In addition, the country’s Parliament is studying hardening the current penal code. To denounce the situation, the group «We are part of the world» has collected the voices of the community in a documentary that pays tribute to Fidel Lemoy, one of its best-known faces, who disappeared last year.

The Perfect Circle(it)

Earth to earth, water to water. The body weight of a newborn child is up to 85 percent water, but in adulthood, the ratio can be cut into half. In a way, people dry up as they grow older. In Claudia Tosi’s documentary, people drink water, watch the rain and wait for their death. The Perfect Circle depicts a man and a woman, Ivano and Meris, who spend their final days at a hospice in the hills of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy. Their illnesses are in the terminal stage and they know that death is only a matter of time. But the ever-nearing end may fleetingly be forgotten, like when they close their eyes and get lost in the music – until the bodies being carried out next door once again remind them of the inevitable. Death also becomes a part of life for the patients’ loved ones, who want to spend the last available moments with the soon to be departed.

Hunted Like Animals(en)

A documentary about the atrocities committed against the Hmong people by the Laos government. Shot by Hmong people with cameras provided to them in 2006, this film provides a unique look into one of the worst, and silent, human rights tragedies of the 21st century.

Loyal to My Image(en)

Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.

The Life and Hard Times of Susie P. Winklepicker(en)

Combining Documentary, Black Comedy and Musical genres, this genuine film, done in collaboration with the Women and the Law collective, shows some of the ways in which, during history, states have designed their systems to promote women's economic dependency towards men.

Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth(en)

The compelling story of an extraordinary woman's journey from her birth in a paper thin shack in the cotton fields of Georgia to her recognition as a key writer of the twentieth Century.Walker made history as the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her groundbreaking novel, The Color Purple.

Posted by: İlhan Sami Çomak(tr)

The story puts İlhan Çomak at the center, even though he is not physically present in the film. It focuses on the 21 years that İlhan spent in prison and his family’s experience of those years without him. The narrative is constructed through the letters İlhan wrote and aims to describe his life, his emotions and longings. The film constructs İlhan’s history through a chronology in the prison but refrains from restricting it only to a “prisoner’s quest for justice”, and rather tells a story of the situations he finds himself in over the years and his emotions and their equivalents in life.

Requiem for a Tribe(fa)

Hajar is a 55-years-old Bahktiari woman from Iran who is betrayed by her family and forced to abandon her nomadic lifestyle. Climate change, urbanization and social issues have drastically diminished the traditional migratory activities of the Bakhtiari tribe from Southwestern Iran.

Code Name: Butterflies(es)

In the 1950s, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa Mirabal - who were known by their codename "The Butterflies" - created an underground resistance movement against Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic. On November 25, 1960, Trujillo had all three sisters assassinated. The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into national heroines and symbols of feminist resistance. The documentary interweaves interviews with over forty witnesses to the story, including the Mirabal family friends, colleagues, co-revolutionaries, teachers, and most importantly, their surviving sister, Dedé, along with dramatic reenactments and archival footage.

The World's Worst Place to Be Gay?(en)

Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.

Power Meri(en)

Power Meri follows Papua New Guinea's first national women's rugby league team, the PNG Orchids, on their journey to the 2017 World Cup in Australia. These trailblazers must beat not only the sporting competition, but also intense sexism, a lack of funding, and national prejudice to reach their biggest stage yet.

Working Class(en)

Loosely based on Charles Dicken’s book “A Tale of Two Cities”, Working Class tells the tale of underground street artists Mike Giant and Mike Maxwell and their decade long friendship that started with a tattoo. The story is told through the cities they call home by, cutting back and forth between the neighborhoods of San Francisco and San Diego, as the artists talk about their life philosophies and the work they create.

Bellini and Mantegna: Renaissance Rivals(de)

The mysterious parallel story of Italian painters Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1435-1516), brothers-in-law, public rivals and masters of the early Renaissance.

Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship(fr)

It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…

Riot Not Diet(en)

A golden summer dress in XXL, the ice-lolly drips slowly onto the hot ground. RIOT NOT DIET creates a queer feminist utopia far away from BMI norms and male* gaze. The fat women* and queers in this movie are not ashamed of their expansive body dimensions, but confidently claim space for themselves. They use their bodies to blow up patriarchal structures and enjoy their corporeality beyond the neoliberal logic of exploitation. In times of self-optimization, your belly is a statement!

In Memory(fr)

One year after the death of Simone de Beauvoir (14 april 1986) Delphine Seyrig pays homage by visiting her grave. which she finds still covered with flowers and letters from all over the world.

Massacre River(en)

Pikilina is a Dominican-born woman of Haitian descent. Racial and political violence erupts when the country of her birth, the Dominican Republic, reverses birthright citizenship and she and 200,000 others are left stateless.