3 Lieder
Director: Anna Faroqhi, Germany 2003, 7', 16 mm, silent

Based on three songs by Robert Schumann and poems by Heinrich Heine 3 miniature films depict 3 different forms of love.

Alice
Director: Sylvie Ballyot, Frankreich 2002, 48', 35 mm, french/ engl. subt.

Alice is a 20 year old woman. Manon her sister is about to leave her: she's getting married. Alice meets Elsa. Because of this relationship, Alice relives the love she had for her sister. In so doing the two loves meld into one. The past mingles with the present, the phantasies with the reality.... the outcome of incest, the mourning of the first love..... Beautiful images and an extraordinary story make this film a true treasure.

Almost There
Director: Joelle Alexis & Sigal Yehuda, Greece 2003, 52', Video, hebr./ engl. subt.

"Almost There" is the story of a lesbian couple's move away from Israel and problems they wished to leave behind them. Joelle had lived in Tel-Aviv for eleven years but is tired of living in that violent world, while Sigal, hiding her true sexual identity from her family, felt she must distance herself to be able to live a more complete life with her partner. Together they travel through the Greek landscape in search of a new home. They film each other throughout their ‚travel diary', each expressing her own feelings as she observes and discovers the other. Their unfurling journey pushes them to question the very heart of their search: essential dilemmas such as "Where do I belong?", "What is home?" and "How can we be part of our families when the couple we are is different?" The film presents a couple that dares. Dares to change ist life, dares to deal with personal fears, dares to search for happiness... and most of all dares to make a film whose lens explores with care both the beauty and difficulties of intimacy, sexual identity and the complexity of family relationships. Factors both difficult to perceive or examine, unless we turn the camera upon ourselves.

Beauteous
Director: Giovanna Chesler, USA 2002, 24', 16 mm, OF

What if beauty becomes a curse? What if the Prom is about to happen? Donatella is searching for a way of dealing with the most important heterosexual initiation rite in the US-American society. Prom Queen or born-again virgin? Model or Writer? Het or lesbian? This outrageous comedy portrays the hysteria around prom queens in a manner reminicent of Hairspray, Blue Velvet, Heavenly Creatures and But I´m A Cheerleader.

Berlin Beshert
Director: November Wanderin, D 2002, 29', Video, germ../hebr./engl. /eng.subt.

The ironic misadventures of two sisters searching for their Beshert ("soulmate" in Yiddish): Dahlia, a secular Berliner Jew is not concerned with finding a 'nice Jewish boy', while her religious lesbian sister Leah wants a kosher girlfriend. Meanwhile, it seems everyone - from their mother teamed up with a matchmaker, their best friends, to the local kosher shop keeper wants to marry them off. Berlin Beshert humourously portrays the current life experiences of young Jews in Germany today. Berlin Beshert is a witty and romantic satire, that will turn your expectations about Jewish life in Berlin upside down.

Bertha Alyce
Director: Gay Block, USA 2001, 24', Video

In her documentary the filmmaker and known photographer Gay Block looks mercilessly at her relationship with her mother. Bertha Alyce lives in the world of the rich and beautiful. In order to distance herself from her narcissistic and flamboyant mother, Gay as a five-years-old proclaimed: "I don´t like my mom." The grown-up, though, is trying to make peace both with herself and her mother.
Block created this collage by using interviews, childhood movies and -photos and most fortunately her outstanding portraits of her mom.

Bit Of You, A
Director: Jennifer Markowitz, Canada 2002, 22', Video

Two best friends try to find their way between love and friendship.

Bitteren Tränen Der Petra Von Kant, Die
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, D 1972, 120', 35 mm, german

This 1972 classic by Fassbinder tells the story of fashion-designer Petra von Kant, who falls in love with a younger woman and is destroyed by her love.
Petra von Kant (Margit Carstens), tough, divorced and bored, plays with her silent servant Marlene (Irm Hermann) a game of dominance and subordinance until she meets Karin Thimm. Von Kant offers the younger Karin (Hanna Schygulla) not only a job as a model, but also her bed. After some time of living together the power structure has changed. The formerly controlled and controlling von Kant looses control. In her pain she destroys all her other relationships, including the one with Marlene.
In 1971 Fassbinder staged this lesbian melodrama as a play at the Experimenta. Thus it comes to no surprise, that the movie appears to be very theatrical. The minimalistic use of music and camera moves further support the excellent performances of the outstanding actresses.

Born Queer: dear doctors
Director: Shorona se Mbessakwini, USA 2003, 5', Video

An autobiographical story, an accusation against normalisation practices and the doctors who perform and a love poem "dedicated to the freaks, fairies, whores, sluts, genderqueers, pirates, revolutionaries, cultural (whisper it) terrorists, and just plain old punk dykes".

Burning Heart
Director: Alexa Schulz, Germany/USA 2001, 18', 16mm, engl.

Burning Heart is the fantastic tale about a young woman, Aurelia, who enters a surreal landscape of dreams where religions, fancies and fortunes are all for sale. Looking for a love dream she gets caught in a nightmare. Only after a disaster, the immolation of her boyfriend at her own hand, is she able to free herself from her oppressive father and find a way to a place where dream and reality merge.

Butch Mystique
Director: Debra A. Wilson, USA 2003, 34,52', Video

Well, is there anything new to say about butches? Meet this energetic boy-girls and you won't miss a minute of their reflections about life, identity and role plays. Butch Mystique expose the loves and raw emotions of African American lesbian identified butch women.

Candy Kisses
Director: Caz Gorham, UK 2003, 12', Video

A documentary on the world-famous lesbian ‚Candy Bar' of London - celebrating it's 6th anniversary by videotaping the costumers who had flirted or found love at the bar. Interviews with the couples who got to know each other at the bar are peppered with hot and sexy scenes of the women making out at the bar.

Cindy - ein Portrait
Regie: Karla & Peter Bech, Germany 2002, 43', Video, german

An unusual portrait of a young energetic dyke who has an equally unusual profession: she'd just become Germany's first female master blacksmith. Her sexual preference not necessarily being the movie's central subject, she tells stories about her everyday life, her job - which surely has a considerate visual attractiveness. Cindy's wry humour and her general easy-going personality will endear her to everyone in the audience - even those who don't consider metalwork as one of their favourite topics.

Cookie Project, The
Director: Stephanie Wynne, USA 2003, 60', Video

This documentary about the transformation of Derwin, an African-American family man, father of two, ex-Marine and now LA police officer into Cookie, a post-op transsexual lesbian that of course continues to be a father and a cop, is especially powerful because of its confident, relaxed and direct tone. Cookie's story isn't that of a victim, she defies dramatization and she shares it with the director and the audience in complete openess. The depiction of the operation of her genitalia may be hard to take for a lot of viewers but the result - the most beautiful pussy you can imagine - is definitely worth sticking with it.

Cortomiraggi
Director: Cristina Zanetti, Italien 2001, 16,35', Video, engl. subt.

A feminist seminar in film theory: two filmmakers escape the stiffling routine, want to hop into bed and have the greatest sex - until they take a closer look at each other… and a bitch fest ensues. Ironic sideblows to feminist rhethoric of the late 80es conjures a déjà vu of sorts and will have you doubled over laughing.

Dear Gabe
Director: Alexandra Juhasz, USA 2003, 50', Video

"Our family is not exceptional, even as it is unique." In a video-letter to her three-years-old son, Gabriel, Alexandra Juhasz portrays the unusual circumstances he grows up in. They are living "a complicated American dream" together with co-mum Cheryl Dunye and her daughter Simone. In interviews with befriended mums, who have again many different opinions on the subject of family, issues of race, religion and gender are problematized and interconnected.
Be it through adoption or sperm-donation, having and raising children has become a major topic in the lifes of US American-lesbians. Even to the point, that remaining childless is seen as an act of rebellion.

D.E.B.S.
Director: Angela Robinson, USA 2002, 11', 35 mm

Charlie's Angels revised or: how to save the world if you are young, powerful and - lesbian.... This glossy and entertaining short is a dream come true....

Do I Love You?
Director: Lisa Gornick, UK 2003, 73', Video

Women in their 30ies are supposed to blossom into their sexual peak - but maybe sometimes that holds more true for their neurosis. In this lesbian London version of Woody-Allen-ness the storylines fold and unfold around Marine, whose attempt at cohabitation with Romy is all too easily challenged by her girlfriend's acquisition of a new white fake leather couch. To her gal-pals belong Louise, a journalist, who writes about sapphic love, together with Alice, the photographer who is just breaking up with Lois, while Susie, Marina's Ex, dumps Rachel for Petra. Dyke drama full force! In a new update version that includes getting caught in lesbian phallus and weird theories on sex and gender and how that could all be linked to your love life.

Don't You Worry, It Will Probably Pass
Director: Cecilia Neant-Falk, Sweden 2002, 74', 35 mm, engl. subt.

The film is a feature length personal documentary about teenage girls' desires, forbidden feelings and fears, but also about discovery and acceptance of being different. The filmmaker on her approach:
"… I've become more and more curious about the girl I was, 15 years ago, and what happened during this time. Since a year and a half, three girls I met through an ad are doing video diaries, which are really 'before' coming out stories. Before telling, before knowing, before even naming oneself. That is what's so unique, that these girls talk to the camera as a video diary without their parents or friends knowing anything about what's going on."

Dressed To Drill
Director: Suzy Richter, Canada 2002, 4', Video

Qualified individual with hands-on experience and neat appearance wanted as 'sailor mechanic' - and uniforms will be provided! To match one's (lack of) qualification with one's fetish is easy - gender performativity we know by now. But beware of your little hairy friends…

Edge Of Each Other's Battles, The : The Vision Of Audre Lorde
Director: Jennifer Abod, USA 2002, 59,31', Video

Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992) has been intrinsically important to the development of second wave US feminism. Author of 15 books of poetry and prose as well as in her everyday life she was challenging racism, sexism, classim and homophobia, serving as a catalyst for change in different social movements: Black Arts and Black Liberation, Women's Lib, and Lesbian & Gay Rights. A staunch internationalist, she connected women from all over the world - albeit challenging her audience and followers with just the same feriocity as she attacked the political enemy. After a couragous struggle she had no change to win, Lorde died of breast and liver cancer in 1992.

Ent.Homo.Philia
Director: Hima B., USA 2003, 10', Video

In this dark short "queering Kafka" and an altered state of reality sets the stage for a beetle's unsuspecting participation in her mate's metamorphosis.

Eva Im Paradies
Director: Katrin Barben, Schweiz 2001, 2', Video, german

A female Robinson Crusoe finally finds her pleasure.....

Ex
Director: Julie Kalceff & Andrew Soo, Australien 2003, Video

Kath has just moved in and Rachel wants their first weekend to be perfect. Everything is going to plan until Kath's ex rings, destroying any ideas Rachel may have had.

Fin De Siglo
Director: Maike Mia Höhne, Germany 1998, 15', 16 mm, spanish/ engl. subt.

A young woman from Argentine travels to Cuba in order to make a movie about prostitution. Instead she is getting herself an afro-cuban lover and drives in a taxi all over town. The driver explains to her his insights and opinion about prostitution

Flamingo
Director: Nanna Huolman, Schweden 2003, 28', 35 mm, engl. subt.

Angelina, 20 years old, is unsatisfied: her job in a bakery is boring as well as her friend, who has at least "arms and legs". Everything changes when a young woman enters her life and her apartment and moves in....

Flying With One Wing (Tani Tatuwen Piyabanna).
Director: Asoka Handagama, Sri Lanka 2002, 35mm, 81min, engl. subt.

Manju lives the life of a man; he works as a mechanic in a car repair shop and lives happily married with his wife Kusum. When one day an accident brings him into hospital, the doctor discovers that Manju is a biological woman. He starts harrassing Manju and finally reveals his secret. As the news spread through town, not only Kusum, who knew all along, is utterly scared of the inevitable torment from the community. In a climate of persistent sexual violence Manju's life constitutes a major transgression. This subversive, equally touching and fascinating film evokes questions concerning sexual and gendered categorisations. Is Manju transgendered, transsexual, a passing woman, or a lesbian in an environment where this is completely unthinkable? The film shows us how wrong these questions are - and Manju's courage makes clear that respect and dignity do not (should not!) depend on labels.

Gazelletrap, The
Director: Felice Wonnenberg, Germany 2002, 7', Video, german

Imprisonment, laboriousness, senselessness - Felice Wonnenberg connects in her collage deep and moving impressions with dialogue excerpts in order to illustrate these feelings and show the complexity of the various ways of perception.

Gemeine Liguster, Der
Director: Nana Neul, Germany 2002, 12,40', 35 mm, german

Behind a hedgerow of a busy street a young woman is being attacked, raped and threatened with death by a man. The hedgerow doesn´t allow a view on the deed. It protects the perpetrator and his brutality from being seen by the passer-bys. The viewer, though, gets to see the crime and asks herself like the victim: Why doesn´t anybody see her/me?

Geschichte von Belinda und Zoe, Die
Director: Anna Faroqhi, D 1998, 13', S8mm auf 16 mm, silent

Belinda always fights with her boyfriend. Zoe waters her one plant almost every day. The two waitresses dream of a better life. One day a strange man enters the café, where they work. By mistake he leaves his suitcase behind. A suitcase full of money. Now the better life can start...

Goldfische Im Filmbett - Lesbensex und lesbische Erotik im Spielfilm
Director: Maria Samantha Schmidt, Germany 2003, 110', Video, german

This latest film historical essay by Samantha Maria Schmidt is an entertaining get-together of old acquaintances and new friends. Ellen, Catherine, Sharon, Shirley and Audrey, we meet them in bed, on the sofa, in the restrooms or underwater. Shy, hot, horny: lesbian sex in all its variations. This documentary shows more than 250 scenes from 130 movies presenting lesbians.

The book "Goldfische im Filmbett" will be published next year.

grosse jiddische Liebe, Die
Director: Diane Nerwen, USA 2002, 15', Video, Jiddisch / german subt.

"Die große Liebe" was the title of an Ufa melodrama with Zarah Leander - and one of the most loved film in Nazi Germany. This new version is the story of a love affair between Zarah and Marlene Dietrich, combining perfectly blended scenes from several movies featuring the two great divas, and a soundtrack that comprises excerpts of dialogues selected from Yiddish films of the 1930s and 1940s.

Hard To Know
Director: Kate Anderson, UK 2001, 2', Video

We - Animation on a poem by Imogen Avsec.

How Long Has It Been
Director: Tobaron Waxman, USA 2001, 7', Video

A daddy/boy scene between two ftm transman that brings about the question of 'how long it has been', that is how the experience of time changes in a scene for a submissive, through absolute trust, total surrender and the endorphine rush. The 'authenticity' (okay, a term very much in question) of the scene does not, as is often the case, become awkward in its representation but unfolds into a touching viewing experience with shifting subjectivities - including that of the viewer. http://www.artic.edu/~twaxma

Intentions
Director: Luane Beck, USA 2003, 96', Video

The story revolves around a young drama student who unexpectedly falls in love with her married female college Professor. They awaken things in each other that they had been trying to suppress creatively and emotionally. Through their love, they are forced to examine these passions and find the strength and courage to pursue their dreams. Luane Beck's first feature is a character driven, actors showcase that takes the audience on an emotional journey of sacrifice, love, heartbreak, desire and eventual resolve.

INTERSEX EXPOSITION: Full Monty
Director: Shorona se Mbessakwini, USA 2002, 7', Video

Spoken Word Performance and Intersex Coming Out, intercut with an interview with the filmmaker/performer.

It's Gold!
Director: Vicki Jones & Tamara Jungwirth, Australien 2003, 22', Video

What's the secret of winning a doubles match? The true adventure of two Aussie tennis players on the road to Gay Games Sydney 2002. Both players can see the funny side of their unlikely mission, but at the same time show complete dedication to achieving their personal best as they strive to overcome the pain and disappointment they encounter on the way to achieving a dream. This documentary takes a look at their progress from total strangers to a gold medal winning team who appear on Australian national television with Roy & HG. Features footage from the Opening Ceremony, plus cameos from the people they meet along the way.

Kiss And Tell
Director: Michaline Babich, USA 2002, 9', Video

"Did you ever kiss a woman?" Women who have never kissed another woman, kiss on screen and tell all. (catalogue L.A. Outfest 2003)

Las Amigas Bonitas
Director: Susan Youssef, USA 2002, 4', Video

A girl escapes her family drama to the grocery store and her first love.

Lez Be Friends
Director: Lisa Hayes, Canada 2000, 13', 35 mm

After making a short film about her best friend Abbey's struggle to accept her sexual orientation, Lily is assumed to be the true subject of the film. While Abbey, the film's star, becomes a legend in the lesbian community, Lily is trapped in a netherworld between heterosexuality and homosexuality, continually trying to set the record straight.

Lily Festival
Director: Sachi Hamano, Japan 2001, 100', 35 mm, japan./engl. subt.

6 elderly women live in an old appartment building somewhere in the middle of nowhere in rural Japan. When a man moves in - the perfect image of a grey haired bohemien - the old ladies become giggling teenagers again, who shamelessly obsess and flirt with the long haired casanova. Just like the visitor in Pasolinis Teorema he becomes the lover of all and the catalyst for a new variant of free-love. Two of the women finally figure out what this newly found freedom of old age can entail and begin a relationship with each other. The director Sachi Hamano has a longstanding history in 'pink films', japanese soft-core porn and has found the support of japanese women's groups. The bluntness in the depiction of sexuality especially for the taboo that age constitutes for lesbian and gay communities too, the serene images and the bright humor make this film a true treasure.

Matzo Maidels
Director: Jennie Olson, Monica Nolan, Julie Dorf, USA 2003, 5', Video

Brooklyn Bloomberg) and friends do some steamy kibbutzing in this fascinating piece of Yiddishkeit, circa 1923. Rare 16mm archival porn footage is overlaid with a hilarious voiceover, sprinkled with colloquial Yiddishisms.

Mermates
Director: Thurit Antonia Kremer, Germany 2003, 2', Video, german

A sweet short animation film about a girl out swimming and a group of mermaids who all have a little sensual dance under water.

Mine
Director: Carrie Schrader, USA 2003, 7', Video

Your peers are not always your best friends. A girl in junior highschool discovers the differences of being well-liked and being yourself.

Never Trust A Lesbian
Director: Samira Fansa, Germany 2003, 8', Video, german

Lesbian cruising, beautiful bondage - and an adamant statement against transphobia

Night Blue
Director: Elizabeth Meiser, USA 2003, 22', 16 mm

Let´s take a trip to the world of fashion. While Maani (the adorable Sarita Choudry) is part of the international fashion circuit and deals with people and clothes, Nina lives and works in her little clothing shop in NYC. She is happy, but alone, with her passion for antique clothes and pearls. When Maani visits her the question comes up: What is more meaningful? Maani or the "Nightblue"-pearl?

Original Message
Director: Beate Kunath, Germany 2002, 18', 35 mm, engl. / german subt.

Petra is on her way back from Amsterdam to Chemnitz, back home on an 9hours trip. The journey evokes mental images of her lost love to a woman and reflects on distant relationships and the balance between closeness and distance.

Out Im Kino
Mit Manuela Kay und Axel Schock: Ein Streifzug durch 100 Jahre mit lesbischen und schwulen Filmen, mit vielen Filmbeispielen, 120', DVD, german

"Out im Kino" (Out in Cinema) with Manuela Kay and Axel Schock is an educational trip through 100 years of gay and lesbian film history, consisting of a multitude of reviews.
This lecture (given in German) is based on the book "Out im Kino", which presents and analyzes a staggering amount of about 1000 movies featuring gay, bisexual and/or lesbian characters.
The lecture itself will be more like entertaining journalism than dry scholarship and starts with the first films to portray gay and lesbian characters, presenting the first film to show a lesbian/gay bar in film history, and takes it's course from New Queer Cinema to current Hollywood releases. Chosen examples from film history range from Girls In Uniform to Bound, and you'll witness general weirdness, homophobic slurs, drama and historic events - presented, of course, in an exiting and sensual style to match cinema's entertainment value.

Out Of The Blue
Director: Katrin Barben, Schweiz 2001, 2', Video, german

A day by the sea - the sun, the blue sky and - beautiful women.....

Pashke Und Sofia
Director: Karin Michalski, Germany 2003, 28', Video, alban./germ. subt.

Since turning thirty, Pashke (now 62) has lived as a sworn virgin, which means that she lives as a man in a political sense. Her biography motivates the decision to ask other women about their own perceptions of their lives and about gender roles in general. Sofia, for example, lives the traditional
women's role. She was married and has six children. But she also has ideas and wishes that in her world are considered to be partly subversive. Pashke and Sofia live in northern Albania in a mountain village called Theth and in Shkodra.

Paradise Lost
Director: Inge Blackman, UK 2003, 24,16', Video

A filmmaker's personal journey to Trinidad and Tobago to find lesbian and gay people and to reflect on her family history. Some of the interviewees agreed to partake in the film although being not ‚out' even to their own families, and this piece pay hommage to their courage and generosity.

Peeling
Director: Heidi Bollock, USA 2002, 13', Video

A somewhat strained mother-daughter relationship doesn't really improve when the mom watches the daughter kissing her girlfriend goodbye. Mom and daughter seem to be perfectly unable to communicate - and the girlfriend isn't the most easygoing person either. Just enough drama to keep your attention and enough affectionate sweetness between the two teen-girls blends into a cute short film.

Play Date
Director: Elise Hurwitz, USA 2003, 20', Video

Two beautiful, single, lesbian moms, Leah and Zoe, with beautiful tattoos and gorgeous kids live in most beautiful houses in San Francisco. Only one problem is left: where is love and lust found when life circles around the kids? "Sometimes it takes another mum to understand another mum." Ready for a play date at the zoo or not? A cute, very well done movie with beautiful images.

Politics Of Fur, The
Director: Laura Nix, USA 2002, 70'

Cool and beautiful Una shares her life with a baby-tiger and her gay servant Dick. When the music executive meets the young musician B. her well-organized, exclusive life get´s out of order. B. fullfills not only the masochist-needs of Una, but has her own ideas about sex, music and fun. Una more and more becomes dissatisfied with her one-way-love and her loosing control. Yet, breaking up and letting go could also mean freedom.
Laura Nix intelligently adapted Fassbinder´s lesbian melodrama "The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant", linking Fassbinder´s story with ideas of Masoch´s "The Venus in Fur". Recently, a new wave of "queer movies" is reusing Fassbinder´s plays and films. Whether it be Francois Ozon´s "Water Drops on Burning Rocks", Lisa Cholodenko's "High Art" or Nix´s "The Politics of Fur" the results are aesthetically and contents-wise convincing and add a lot of sex to the originals.
Filmmaker in attendance.

Push The Button
Director: Katrin Barben, Schweiz 2001, 4,20', Video, german

Push the Button to change the world.... A music journey through space and time in a virtual world.

Radical Harmonies
Director: Dee Mosbacher, USA 2002, 92', Video

Woodstock meets women's liberation in film: Radical Harmonies is about a movement that exploded the gender barriers in music. Dee Mosbacher chronicles in her documentary the Women's Music Cultural Movement and its evolution from a "girl with a guitar" to a revolution in the roles of women in music and culture. Through rare festival and performance footage, interviews, and archival material the film documents the creation of an alternative industry that changed women and music forever.

Robin's Hood
Director: Sara Millman, USA 2003, 81', Video

One is black, a femme and a social worker who really wants to make a difference. The other is white, a butch, a no-strings-attached-casanova, a full time thief and mechanic. The differences couldn't be any bigger and thus their first encounter does not seem to hold any promises at all. But after the supposed support systems of the state proves to be solely about discipline and control and not at all concerned with the human beings it is dealing with, the two women do come together and eventually they venture out together on the 'wrong' side of the law. Set in Oakland and framed with R&B and hip-hop rhythms this urban love story is a first-time-feature full of heart and overwhelmingly charming with its gorgeous lead actresses and a surprising end.
Filmmaker in attendance

Rosarote Frettchen, Das - Pink Ferret
Director: Katrin Kremmler, Hungary 2003 , 50', Video, engl.

Eine junge Staatssekretärin ist verschwunden. Für die Detektivin ist der Fall sonnenklar: die lesbische Mafia hat sie zur Seite geschafft! Aber die charmante Agentin, die homophobe Politikerinnen mit grossem Erfolg "behandelt", ist ebenfalls verschwunden, und die Sache wird immer undurchsichtiger. Die low-budget Krimiparodie ist der zweite Film des Budapester Lesbenfilmkollektivs.

A young female state secretary is missing. The smart detective has no doubts: this is the lesbian mafia's work.... But the attractive agent, who successfully cures homophobic politicians, also disappears - this case becomes mysterious.... A low-budget thriller parody and the second film of the Budapest Lesbian Film Collective.

Sadie's Daydream
Director: E.E. Cassidy, USA 2003, 5', Video

Back to the 60's. A young heroine finds herself lost in a sexy daydream of hot models, music and desire...

Sing Sing Sing
Director: Roswitha Menzel, Germany, 2002, 11', 35 mm, german

The poetic animation about a seamstress, who dreams about becoming an Operasinger. Instead, she gets hooked by a mermaid and a choir of tap-dancing rainbow-coloured sheep.

Socken
Director: Katrin Barben, Schweiz 2001, 2', Video, german

This cute short shows a young woman who does a striptease in a very unusual way.....

Starcrossed
Director: Lorene Machado, USA 2003, 21', Video

Sophie gets starcrossed when she attempts to woo a horoscope-obsessed co-worker. (catalogue NYC New Fest 2003)

Sterilized Cherry
Director: Susan Choi, Korea 2001, 3', Video

This short film plays with the image of the sexy asian girl by using candy pop aesthetics.

Strange And Charmed
Director: Shari Frilot, USA 2003, 16', Video

Quantum physics and desires meet in this sexy urban sci-fi film that weaves together the love lives of 8- year old Lua, 20-year old Chakra and 40-year old Amanda, whose different encounters during one night on earth finally collapse into one within a quark field.

Sugar Sweet
Director: Desiree Lim, Japan 2001, 67´, Video, eng. subt.

Aesthetically challenging and in a truly postmodern manner this movie shows us the lesbian scene in Japan of today. Sex and love exist only in the professional life of the aspiring filmmaker Naomi. Torn between being a porn-filmmaker in the conventional sexindustry and her own artistic values, she doesn´t find any time for a relationship. Chatting with Sugar in "Lavenders Paradise" becomes her only solace. For the shooting of a reality TV lesbian dating show she matches up her best friend, Azusa, who is frustrated in her own relationship with the glamourous night-club dancer Miki. But then the script takes its own turn and at last offers a big surprise even for Naomi.

Teaching Teo
Director: Diane Dodge, USA 2003, 15', Video

Baby Teo is actually easy-going. If only his intense lesbian moms, aunts and uncles would not insist on only the best education for the "Wunderkind". This mockumentary reveals in a humorous-manner the political-correct clichés of lesbian and gay circles.

Tipping The Velvet
Director: Geoffrey Sax nach einer Novelle von Sarah Waters, UK 2002, 3 Episoden, 180', Video

Set in England in the 1890's, Tipping The Velvet is a colourful, passionate and entertaining lesbian love story about Nan Astley (Rachael Stirling), a heroine as appealing and charismatic as Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. As she grows into womanhood, Nan realises that she is attracted to women and it leads her into a series of adventures which recall that earlier heroine Moll Flanders.

The glamorous world of 19th century music hall provides the backdrop for Nan's first love affair with Kitty, (Keeley Hawes), a popular male impersonator music hall star. They become a double act both on and off stage, but their manager Walter (John Bowe) wins Kitty's hand as she ultimately chooses the safety of a traditional life rather than risking the public disapproval of her true feelings for Nan.

Devastated by Kitty's betrayal, Nan takes to the streets to survive, in her guise as a male impersonator, and finds a niche in the Victorian sexual underworld. She is drawn to Florence (Jodhi May), but is unable to tell her the truth about her secret street life. Instead, she is spotted by the wealthy widow, Diana Lethaby (Anna Chancellor), a woman in her thirties who is amoral, capricious and predatory. She introduces Nan into a world of luxury and debauchery, and makes Nan her sexual slave.

When Nan is thrown back onto the streets, she searches for Florence, who is initially deeply mistrustful, but a strong bond develops between them that blossoms into real and lasting love.

Tödliche Leidenschaft (Kings & Disasters)
Director: Werner Hirsch AKA Antonia Baehr, Germany 2003, 25', DVD, Welturaufführung, german

Melodrama in replay: A meticulous re-staging of a mexican weepie, performed by dragkings that perfectly match the original style, class and manliness. The story keeps adapting to the varying production conditions, sometimes it even adapts itself out of the frame.

Traveling Eye Of The Blue Cat, The
Director: Shawn Atkins, USA 2001, 16', 35 mm

Using a surreal, fairy tale style, this photocollage animation tells the story of a girl awoken one morning by a mysterious seagull which crashes against her bedroom window. Following the bird into an abandoned garden, the girl discovers the edge of the world.....

True Spirit
Director: Tobaron Waxman, USA 2001, 17, Video

Two boys sexually assault another one in a staircase and skilfully dominate him, taking all of them on a pleasure ride. When the director intervenes to rearrange the players, viewing and subject positions start to shift. The erotics of gender deviant bodies and the tenderness that lies at the heart of sharing and exposing desires in S/M contexts, is completed by the unusual inclusion of the aftercare scene.
http://www.artic.edu/~twaxma

Unravel
Director: Claudia Molina, Canada 2002, 4:52', Video

Kira and Dawn are two women trying to connect, but they find themselves burdened with the knots of past relationships. A voyeuristic angel senses their discord, and becomes a witness to their passionate struggle to overcome past hurts and fears and finally unite.

Utes Ende
Director: Nathalie Percillier, Germany 2002, 5', 35 mm, german

Edna, a cow, is not doing what she is asked for by her role. Ute, her human counterpart is at her side... With a deep, analytical humor and unconventional ideas, Nathalie Percillier looks ironically at the structures of film-making. This is beautifully accompanied by the dry humorous way of acting of the main actress Lily Besilly.

Vamonos
Director: Paco Diaz Aguilar, Spanien 2002, 11,11', spanish

Manuela, a long-forgotten, forty-something actress has lived very fast. Carmen, a young frustrated mother belongs to the gypsies and has to make a living by trafficking with her husband's drugs. They represent two lives that find each other. In beautiful images Vamonos tells the story of an impossible love between two women from different social backgrounds.

Visceral Digestion
Director: Pamela Sprecher, USA 2003, 5', b/w, Video, silent

Drawing on the tradition of experimental black&white super-8 aesthetics and using her personal image archive of archetypes and dreams, the young filmmaker doubles, triples and peels off layers of her persona in the confinement of a bathroom.

Warten
Director: Anna Faroqhi, D/Israel 2003, 55', Video, german

The film was shot within a week in spring 2003 in Tel Aviv while the world was awaiting the war against Iraq led by the so-called "alliance of the willing". At this time, no one knew exactly as to what extend this war would spread and inflict the world outside Iraq. The film portraits everyday life in the streets of Tel Aviv during this period of expectant waiting. There are images of workers waiting in the street for a car to arrive with offers of employment for a few days or even a few hours. Of kids who walk to kindergarden carrying their gasmasks. Of people queuing outside the Ukranian embassy hoping for entry visas for their old homelands. What they want is to get out of a country unable to fulfil its promise of a new home. With the images comes a text narrated in the form of a diary. The text does not give a direct commentary on the documentary footage but is a narration of a woman waiting for her boyfriend to join her in Tel Aviv. While she is waiting for him the world is waiting for the war to begin. The narrator observes every day life in the city, meets friends and acquaintances and tries to understand how Israelis cope with the tension. She wants to find out how to live in a country in a permanent state of emergency. The cinematic essay "Warten" superimposes a prose text with documentary images. Anna Faroqhi searches for narrative forms employing both elements - the fictional and the documentary.

Wedding, The
Director: Ana Cecilia Costa, Brasilien 2003, 4,25', Video, port.

Outside the church the groom waits for his bride. Meanwhile the bride prepares herself with the make up lady. An unexpected attraction ensues between the two women: fact or fantasy of the groom?

What's 1 Young Lesbian Supposed To Do In The Big City?
Director: Katrin Kremmler, Hungary 2002 , 16', Video, engl. subt.

Life can be hard if you're 15, lesbian and lonely and mother sucks.... This coming out guide leads you to happiness - step by step. First film of the Budapest Lesbian Film Collective, a no-budget production and the first hungarian film by lesbians for lesbians.