Life Without It

A remarkably intimate portrait of an artist on tour navigating identity, family, expectations, and acceptance, all while reflecting on his place within the legacy of Black, queer performers.

A funeral car cruises the streets of Medellín, while a young director tells the story of his past in this violent and conservative city. He remembers the pre-production of his first film, a Class-B movie with ghosts. The young queer scene of Medellín is casted for the film, but the main protagonist dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 21, just like many friends of the director. Anhell69 explores the dreams, doubts and fears of an annihilated generation, and the struggle to carry on making cinema.

An unnamed passer-by is forced to trace a circular route inside an abandoned tram station, facing loss and time. The broken walls act as a channel, transmitting fragmentary, blurred and analogical memories. 

It doesn't look spectacular at first. Two boys each talk separately about their experiences. In the end also on the sexual level. In the end they are also in the room together. In the end they don't leave it at talking.

Between Red and Purple is a documentary showcasing stories of setbacks but also triumphs. As article 534 remains unquestioned, the LGBTQ+ community in Lebanon also faces a deniable society.

The 3rd installment in James A. Burkhalter's QUEER ROOTS trilogy: After years of his mother begging him to do it, James decides to finally review and erase 10 years' worth of phone messages. It tells the story of James' "roaring twenties," constructed solely through the voices of friends, family, and lovers.

When Melody was a young child, 20+ years away from coming out as transgender, she developed an obsession with movies. One of her biggest hobbies was acting out her favorite VHS tapes, FBI warnings and trailers included, in front of her parents' camcorder. Mom and dad realized this was an easy way to keep their child busy. Thus, the camera became a sort of babysitter, resulting in dozens of tapes featuring Melody performing in front of the (usually stationary) camera.

Keenly aware that his niece is going through a particularly rough time at home, Uncle James teaches Ava Dee how to use the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. As an experiment, he tells her to shoot whatever she wants and he'll edit it into a film.

Image production is fiction-weaving. Together with Sheena Absalud, we spent an entire day in Pride Month in my room documenting ourselves using different cameras: three mobile phones, one action camera, one CCTV camera, and one laptop, while asking each other questions about our asexuality. Recognizing the role of the moving image in constructing prejudice, self-identity, and desires, and therefore the expansion of neoliberalism, "The Function of Fiction" attempts to abandon temptations to define “asexuality” and its place in the context of “LGBTQIA+”, in pursuit of new socialities and possibilities. Music in the film was spawned with plants and machines.

Vitor and Gustavo decided, in January 2020, to start a long-distance relationship, and were planning to meet again in a few months. Until COVID stopped them. This is the story of how they overcame the difficulties of time and distance through a lot of love and through Whatsapp audio messages.

Amidst the Colombian Andes, a group of trans women from the Embera Chami community make their way into the international fashion scene, empowered through artistic collaboration and creation while preserving their spiritual heritage and ancestral connection to their territory.

Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four transgender kids – beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 – as they redefine “coming of age.” These kids and their families show us the intimate realities of how gender is re-shaping the family next door in a unique and unprecedented chronicle of growing up transgender in the heartland.

Welcome to a different kind of drag race! As NYC emerges from the chaos of 2020, Marti Cummings (they/them), an audacious and big-hearted drag queen, goes all out in a historic bid to become a City Councilperson. It’s one of the most hotly contested Council races in years, and Marti’s strongest competitor is Shaun Abreu, a tenants’ lawyer with deep roots in the district’s Latinx community. As these first-timers race to do the most good for their Upper Manhattan neighbors, they offer very different visions for Democratic politics – one in a suit and tie, the other in combat boots and floral print. As this immersive documentary reveals, Marti’s passion inspires queer activists and allies to change the political system. Their campaign becomes a community of its own, especially for Marti’s non-binary peers who have never before seen themselves represented.

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?”

Thamirys and Raphael are filming the short film "Peixe Vivo", starring their children Agatha and Gustavo - two 8-year-old trans children.

Caro Comes Out is a queer torture experiment, but also a comedy, but also a short film about coming out to your entire Cuban family.

Artetrans is the first theater cooperative made up of transgender people in Latin America. Follow Emma Serna, Luly Arias y Natalia Zappacosta as they transform their experiences into a space of resistance.

Jana lived in social isolation. Ondřej suffered from depression. After discovering their sexual identity, they accepted themselves. They are like us, they just don't have sex. Two aromantic asexuals. Jana loves romantic stories, likes reading them and in the beginning of her career as a literary translator, romance novels were her daily bread. Ondřej hangs out with his friend Martina, who'd like to marry him. He lives with a gay couple and his cat, and sees it as an appropriate way of being himself.

As thousands of athletes prepare to compete on the global stage at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Olympic gold medallist and double world champion diver Tom Daley wants to shine a light on an issue that he cares passionately about. Some competitors live in fear of horrific brutality inside the countries they represent. With punishments including whipping, life imprisonment and even death, it is illegal to be gay in over half of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth. His journey takes him to some of the Commonwealth's most homophobic countries to ask what the sporting world can do to help. The film culminates with Tom taking a very public stand at this year's opening ceremony, in a powerful statement against homophobia.

Three young queer people share their experiences on what it’s like to deviate from the straight cis-norm. Throughout the film, painful experiences make room for a more positive perspective, such as the overwhelming sense of connection with millions of other queer individuals worldwide or the freedom that arises as one can relinquish certain expectations. This so-called ‘queer-joy’ is being discovered, providing inspiring and moving insights.