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Practicing Hope at Cinema Queer

SAQMI -The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images kommer tilbaka till Cinema Queer i år tilsammans med Open out från Tromsö Flat Earth Film Festival från Island och Išgirsti

Filmprogrammet som visas är Practicing Hope som curerades kollektivt av SAQMI, FEFF och išgir̃stì till Open Out: Queer Cinema 2024. 

Director of Lost Arab Careen Koleilat and curator Kolbrún Inga Söring will be there to present the program and answer questions afterwards.

Programmet:

Be Vardų, Be Kojų (2023, 3 min)
by Brigita Gedgaudas
The film is a foray into queer world-building, using the indeterminacy of digital space to imagine queerness within Lithuanian folk dance, a traditionally binary dance style.

A bath in my mothers womb (2022, 17 min)
By Mona Namér
The film is a short experimental dance film adapted from a solo-piece of choreography by Dancer, Choreographer and Director Mona Namer. Namer and her Co-Director Sofia Aedo Zahou take the conceptual themes of birth, chaos and stillness and twist them into an impressively cinematic piece.

you who were loved, like no others (2024, 10 min)
by Finnur Kaldi
is an experimental short film that traverses through various moments and memories in transition. The film is made from both shoot footage and personal archives which the filmmaker has gathered through their life. It is a journey that delves into unrequited grief.

Om det var 2007 (2019, 6 min)
by Jon Ely Xiuming Aagaard Gao
A music video for the poem and later song “Om det var 2007” / “If it was 2007” from the EP “Ohavsdjur” / “Monster sea creatures”Text and film by Jon Ely Xiuming, Music by Erik Annerborn

Simeiz (2022, 18 min)
by Anton Shebetko
Simeiz is a small village on the southern coast of Crimea which is temporarily occupied by Russia. In the Soviet era, an underground gay resort arose in the village. It started with a small nudist beach; a popular bar and night club, Hedgehogs, appeared later in independent Ukraine. From the 1990s on, Simeiz became a significant meeting point for members of the LGBTQ+ community from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Every year, about 4,000 people visited the place before the temporary occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. At the moment, Simeiz, as a gay resort, is threatened with disappearance due to the homophobic laws of the Russian Federation. If this happens, old photos and videos will be the only evidence of its existence and extinction.

Queers without borders (ongoing, 4 min)
by ESE
This documentary project (still ongoing), aims to highlight some of the struggles queer people face in Nigeria. But also, to shine a light on the beautiful queer joy that continues to grow in a country that ignores our existence and is comfortable discriminating and killing us simply because of who we are and love.

Lost Arab (2022, 5 min)
by Careen Koleilat
Lost Arab is a visual poetry collage reflecting my journey as a queer Arab immigrant, exploring identity, belonging, and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion. Inspired by Omar J Saker’s poetry book “The Lost Arabs,” it conveys the emotional struggles of a queer Arab artist.

Voices from Diaspora (2024, 9 min)
by Omar Abogabal and Aleya
An intimate close-up on Aleya, a trans woman who has recently moved from Cairo to Berlin right after her transition. This portrait marks her first year as a woman, having to cope with the loss of loved ones, family disownment, hormonal and psychological turmoil. She shares intimate stories, anecdotes and poems that document her transition.This short film portrait is a segment from the audio-visual collective, “Voices from & to: a diaspora”, 2024.

Still from 'Be Vardų, Be Kojų' by Brigita Gedgaudas
Poster from 'A bath in my mothers womb' By Mona Namér
Still from 'you who were loved, like no others' by Finnur Kaldi
Still from 'Om det var 2007' by Jon Ely Xiuming Aagaard Gao
Still from 'Simeiz' by Anton Shebetko
Poster from 'Queers without borders' by ESE
Poster from 'Lost Arab' by Careen Koleilat
Still from 'Voices from Diaspora' by Omar Abogabal and Aleya