DIVINE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL – VIII EDITION (17-18-19 MAY 2024)
FRIDAY, 17 MAY 2024
19.00 Divine Aperitis
20.30 VOLANO GLI STRACCI – performance with Thin Threstile (60’)
21.30 OFFICIAL OPENING
DIVINE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL – VIII EDITION
21.45 RED SHOES – THE SON OF BOSS
by Isabella Weiss (Italy, 2012 – 61’) out of competition – the director Isabella Weiss and the protagonist Daniela Lourdes Falanga intervene
The true story of Daniela Lourdes Falanga, born Raffaele, the only son of a Camorra boss. Daniela through countless obstacles suffering and so much humiliation, she manages to become the person she has always wanted since childhood. A queer story of strong emotional impact, which must be heard, to give hope.
23:00 Drink and Divine chat
SATURDAY 18 MAY 2024
14.00 NARROW PATH TO HAPPINESS by Kata Olah (Ungaria 2023 – 83’) in competition
A young gay Roma couple from a remote village in Hungary has such an absurd dream that it seems impossible: to make a musical film based on their lives. Against all odds, they move to Budapest just as the Hungarian government becomes increasingly authoritarian and hostile to LGBTQ+ people.
15.25 RAZZE PURE / PURE BREEDS by Giuseppe Zampella (Italy, 2022 – 20’) in competition
During a summer course for young farmers, Danilo finds himself romantically and physically attracted to two of his classmates: a boy and a girl. This will upset the balance of their symbiotic relationship.
15.45 LEA AND THE FENICOTTERO by Antonio De Palo (Italy, 2023 – 27’) in competition
In an Italy where the Conservative Government wants to imprison all transgender people, because they consider it a threat to the traditional family, Lea, a trans woman detained in solitary confinement in a remote mountain prison, plunges into a severe depression. As imaginary situations take shape in her mind, social conflict erupts in the country and Lea will have the opportunity, mixing reality and imagination, of finding a role that restores the desire to live and fight for her freedom, and all transgender people.
16.15 HEY MAN by Kai Tillman (USA, 2023 – 23’) in competition
As he navigates through hot encounters on Grindr and the rideshare service passengers, Eli reluctantly changes his transmascoline queer identity to move into a heterosexual and cisgender world for his physical and emotional security.
16.40 CONVERSATION WITH ALBERT KNOLL by Philipp Gufler (Netherlands, 2023 – 25’) in competition
Albert Knoll has been an employee of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial since 1997. He is a founding member of the Forum Queeres Archiv Munchen (FQAM), established in 1999. The short film offers a very personal and profound insight into Knoll’s historical work and his commitment to FQAM, with a focus on oral and social history.
17.10 THE PRIDE LIAR by Andres Labbert (Belgium, 2023 – 19’) in competition
Emzo, a brave queer activist, fled the persecution in Georgia five years ago, finding refuge in Belgium. This short documentary captures its unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ+ cause, showing the indomitable spirit of an individual’s struggle for acceptance and equality.
17.30 PLACE/PORTAL by Sean Dorsey (USA, 2023 – 3’) in competition
Set in vast fields and watered coves, PLACE/PORTAL is a dance film starring Sean Dorsey, Emmy Award-winning transgender choreographer and dancer. What happens when a trans body is allowed to dream of the future? This short film is part of a series of dance films created as part of Sean Dorsey Dance’s THE LOST ART OF DREAMING project.
17.35 OSAS AND THE WOMEN OF BENIN CITY by Gabriele Gravagna (Italy, 2023 – 17’) in competition
A wave of violence affects the city of Palermo between 2011 and 2014: three Nigerian girls in their early twenties were killed a short time apart and the bodies are found among the garbage bins. One is charred. Public opinion will say that it was just “prostitutes”, but the woman who tells us this story – Osas Egbon, 42, president of the first Italian association against the exploitation of prostitution – reminds us that Loveth, Favour and Bose were human beings.
18:15 Panel run by the National Observatory Femicides, Transcidals, Non-Unless Bidios
19.15 Divine Aperitis
20.30 EVENING OPENING
21.00 ARE INNAMORATO DI PIPPA BACCA
by Simone Manetti (Italy, 2019 – 76’) out of competition – Pippa’s family members intervene
March 8, 2008: the performance of the artist Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, the stage start from Milan, with destination for Jerusalem, and her friend Silvia Moro, and her friend Silvia Moro. The trip involves the hitchhiking crossing of eleven countries, with stops at the home of people contacted previously. At each stage they meet the local midwives, so that Pippa can wash their feet; an evangelical ritual, learned as a child on the path of Compostela, which wants to express gratitude for those who favor life in post-war contexts. On the way to Istanbul Pippa is raped and killed by a man who offers her a ride.
23:00 Drink and Divine chat
24:00 Party AMOR at Cultural Association Variante Bunker in via Nicolò Paganini – Turin.
SUNDAY 19th MAY 2024
14.00 FUTURE COMES AT THE RIGHT TIME by Elena Bongiorno, Sofia Merelli, Gabriele Umidon, Martina Tamburini (Italy, 2023 – 26’) in competition
Nowadays, sexual freedom and gender self-determination are punished with detention or death in several countries. The documentary tells the story of Nelson and his escape to Italy after a violent assault. Nelson was born 25 years ago in Benin City, one of the most unstable areas of Nigeria. In 2018, the territorial commission that examined its case considered its account not sufficiently credible and rejected its request for international protection. In 2021 Nelson appealed to the Court of Venice. Waiting for the verdict, which could take months, Nelson spends his days working, dating friends and making music, hoping to become a great singer one day.
14.30 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US by Imran Siddiquee (USA, 2023 – 24’) in competition
An undocumented immigrant in Philadelphia begins to fall in love with a roommate he has never met, forming a bond that will test the limits of his romantic imagination.
15.00 CIURE’ by Gianpiero Pumo (Italy, 2023 – 110’) in competition
Life in the outskirts of Palermo can be hard: Salvo is a young father who struggles between improvised jobs and grotesque criminal affairs to support his son. When the spiral of violence turns against him, he meets Ciurè, a transgender dancer who helps him, opening the doors to a kaleidoscopic gay club where he performs every night.
17.00 ??CHANGETHENARRATIVE2 by Gentian Minga (Albania, 2023 – 1’) in competition
There is a lot of hate propaganda out there, especially online, but also on the streets. With little effort, by fighting the observer effect, we can change the narrative and turn hate messages into messages of love. Like this graffiti artist.
17.01 THE BIRTH OF NAIKEE by Clémentine Decremps (France-Germany, 2023 – 20’) in competition
Naikee is a black trans woman. At 38, he reflects on his transition path, abandoning his birth name and gradually changing his appearance. To obtain its “right to exist” in a different way, it creates a framework that reinvents and reinterprets the codes of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. As he faces his bond with his body and his right to exist differently, he is reborn before our eyes.
17.20 MAGHREB’S HOPE by Ben Brahim Bassem (Tunisia, 2023 – 23’) in competition
Through a mix of drawings, animations and royal images, the film traces the journey of queer individuals from the “Great Maghreb”, including Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. They challenge the social taboos associated with their gender identities and non-regulatory sexuality, addressing family, social and legal pressures.
17.45 The LAST of the ROMANOV by Andrea Cozzolino (Italy, 2023 – 36’) in competition
Life testimonies in LGBT in the years before the civil rights movements: 1960s, 70s and 90s, in Turin, in Northern Italy. Alex/Alessia talks during a dinner with friends about her artistic activity as a showgirl, “soubrette” (does not recognize herself as a drag queen) and the clandestine room, the Paradis, which hosted playback performances by Turinese artists. History in 6 chapters: the beginnings; the Paradis; Yesterday and Today; Identity; Love; 1990 and 2000.
18.15 VIOLET BUTTERFIELD: MAKEUP ARTIST FOR THE DEAD by Brooke H. Cellars (USA, 2023 – 13’) in competition
The short film weaves a compelling narrative centered around a unique protagonist – a disturbing mortuary beauticist who goes beyond the normal confines of his profession. Set in the left but charming atmosphere of her mortuary house, the story follows Violet as she anticipates a quiet, never-be-event evening. However, his expectations are quickly broken when a new customer enters his macabre domain. As Violet interacts with her visitor, she reveals a deep truth.
18.30 UNNAMED by Iranmehr Salimi (Iran, 2023 – 13’) in competition
Zainab is a successful girl who financially supports her family, but considers herself a boy inside; therefore, she has decided to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Zeinab has been playing for a while on Iran’s national volleyball team and now plays in the high-level league. If he became a boy, he would not be able to play in men’s professional teams because of his lower stature and lower endurance than men. Zeinab would not only lose her professional future in volleyball, but also puts herself and her family, which depends on her financially, in trouble.
19.00 Divine Aperitis
20.15 AWARD AND CEREMONY OF CLOSING
20.30 NICOLA – COZZE, KEBAB & COCA COLA
by Nicola Palumbo (Italy, 2021 – 85’) out of competition – the director intervenes
Antonio, a director short of ideas, has a vision of the city’s patron saint, St. Nicholas, who asks him to make a film about his true story. So Antonio sets out in the footsteps of myth through all the countries where the saint is venerated: Turkey, Belgium, Holland, France, Russia, up to the United States, where he is best known as Santa Claus, that is, Santa Claus. A journey in the midst of a melting pot of popular cultures and traditions, with all their contradictions, a journey between colors and religious rigor mixed together giving life to a sacred figure who is, at the same time, a consumerist model.