desired! – film lust & queer

desired! – film lust & queer

»SOUND THE ALARM …« SOOKEE – VON SEEPFERDCHEN UND SCHRÄNKEN

What does dealing with queerness in the media actually mean? First of all, queer is what women protagonists often call themselves when referring to their position or desire, which does not correspond to that of a society where heterosexuals are in the majority. Many of the films in the desired! Section, for example, tell their stories from the perspectives of lesbian, inter* or trans* people.
But also normative forms of narrative or time structures can limit the audio-visual debate. Turning instead to more experimental cinema can be seen as a way of negotiating queerness. In the desired! section, we show films of all types and genres which always pursue queer strategies on an aesthetic level.
The category itself isn’t actually that old, queer cinema historically changes in sync with shifting social structures. It is also a cinema of intervention in power relations, which are relayed and consolidated through films. Thus, against a backdrop of racist, sexist and nationalist violence, queer cinema also aims to strengthen feminist, anti-racist and decolonizing positions. Desire and positions of identity are starting points for many of the films, as is the longing for other possibilities, increased dialogue and change.
The documentary film Vibrancy of Silence by Marthe Djilo Kamga is part of a research project at the University of Michigan. The film is designed as a multidimensional dialogue and seeks to actively intervene in post-colonial knowledge structures through this form of recording, and question the dominant writing of history.
In this year’s desired! programme, we not only watch fulllength feature films, but also bring other formats into the cinema. The documentary Juck by Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert and Ulrika Bandeira transfers a feminist intervention in public space into the cinema space. Through the transformation of medium, the bodies of the action suddenly also refer to the treatment of bodies on the screen. And by doing so, they stand up against sexism here too. Or more precisely: they move against it, look back and dance.

In a panel discussion, we will turn the spotlight onto queer audio-visual forms of activism in the Internet. How is film used online for activist politics, networking and visibility strategies? What forms of (counter) narratives and what possibilities for intervention does the net offer? And how do these forms of film relate to cinema?
Vina Yun, Tine Fetz and Patu present Homestories in a comic reading, a semi-documentary and (auto-)biographical work in which Vina Yun talks about the experiences of two generations in the Korean diaspora in Vienna.
With a look back at the series The L Word, which ended almost 10 years ago, we also have a TV series in this year’s desired! section, marking the planned return of the series next year. Centred around the lives of a group of lesbian friends, the series was considered revolutionary when it started in 2004. At the time, it was hoped that many more major productions would follow. But that hasn’t happened – at least, not yet.
Natascha Frankenberg