WELCOME TO QALEIDOSCOPE

QUEER FILM AND PERFORMANCE ON TOUR 2023 – THE BALKANS

ZAGREB • LJUBLJANA • SARAJEVO • BELGRADE • DUBROVNIK

2. 5. 2023 – 8 pm – 11 pm

multiple languages

Free entrance – voluntary contributions welcome

PLAC

Linhartova 43

1000 Ljubljana

QALEIDOSCOPE QUEER FILM AND PERFORMANCE ON TOUR 2023 – THE BALKANS – will feature Queer and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color) film and performance art that explore, question and play with identity to propose and investigate diverse ways of looking at sexuality, gender and race.

As the titles suggests, QALEIDOSCOPE – will be a well-textured assemblage of images, ideas, and realities that collide in fantastical, personal, and playful ways to produce an ever-changing, multi-faceted queer film and performance art viewing experience. Some of the films focus on image, sound and abstract narratives; others present information, facts, and queerforward realities; while others share the pleasure and pain of individual and collective identities. 

Even though experimental and artistically rigorous artworks are in abundance, and heavy hitting and thoughtful issues and topics such as feminism, race, racism, class, identity politics, community, colonization, conceptual art, politics, religion, violence, popular culture, gender and of course sexuality are provided for their important role in providing awareness and insight on many levels, transgressive and subversive play is also an important characteristic of several of the films on the tour.

This is in keeping with Queer City Cinema’s mandate to reflect hallmarks of queer image making — in this case, film with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek disposition and sensibility; injecting the programming with moments of intelligent, incisive humour – film that pleases and appeases.

QALEIDOSCOPE was conceived to promote the artistic vision of queer and QTBIPOC filmmakers and performance artists whose work might not otherwise be shown within these urban centres in The Balkans. These works, though falling under the banner of ‘queer’, remain relevant to the broader artistic communities in each of the five cities, not only because of the subject matter broached but also because many of the artists represented float amongst multiple disciplines within the context of the film, visual and performance art. In this sense, artistic rigour and the fluidity of experience are paramount in the programming for the tour. This will be the ninth tour of Queer City Cinema’s programming. This tour follows QALEIDOSCOPE – Queer Film On Tour 2023 Canada and QALEIDOSCOPE – Queer Film On Tour 2022 to the UK/Ireland.

This tour follows QALEIDOSCOPE – Queer Film On Tour 2023 Canada and QALEIDOSCOPE – Queer Film On Tour 2022 to the UK/Ireland. Upcoming – Qaleidoscope 2024 – The Baltics – Gothenburg, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Turku, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; Vilnius, Lithuania 

Gary Varro

Executive and Artistic Director

Queer City Cinema and Performatorium

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Program One

#identity #gender #Trans #healing #documentary #disability #body #kink #exploration

#protest #humour #queer space #spoken word

Finding Queer Disability

Love Intersections, 2018 | 6:09 min

This film explores the intersection of queerness and disability, looking at the ways that culture and language are also part and parcel of many other communities, including the Autistic community and the Deaf community. This film was created by Love Intersections, a media arts collective of queer artists of colour in Vancouver.

Wash Day

Kourtney Jackson | 9:52 min

As they get ready for the day, three young Black women discuss the public perception of their Blackness in relation to their cultivation of a strong sense of self. Wash Day is an intimate exploration into how private, domestic acts such as washing your hair or putting on makeup become a significant re-acquaintance with the body, before and after

navigating the politics of one’s outward appearance.

PAISA

Dorian Wood and Graham Kolbeins | 8 min

PAISA is an immersive fever dream that celebrates the beauty of queer brown sensuality, body positivity and individuality. Says Dorian – “…I wanted to create a permanent reminder for us queer, trans and non-binary folks of colour that our beauty stretches within and far beyond our times, in either direction…sex positivity grounded in mindfulness and consent. We are wiser than this world gives us credit for. We are powerful and plentiful. We are forever.”

Indigenous Luvvv

Demian DinéYazhi | 4:41 min

A short film about cruising as an Indigenous Queer.

Less Lethal Fetishes

TJ Cuthand | 9:30 min

Not a sex video, maybe a sexy video? About a latent gas mask fetish, but maybe actually about a certain art world tear gas controversy the filmmaker was involved in? But also about Chemical Valley in Southern Ontario? But with like a dick and tits and vag and gas masks and smoke bombs, lots of smoke bombs. A pretty film about weird shit.

Hello my name is Sarah

Sarah Hill | 10 min

Hello my name is Sarah, is a fast-paced video composed of short chapters. As a trans, gender non-conforming masculine of the centre person named Sarah, I have experienced a lot of uncomfortable situations centring my name. The name Sarah, shows up in the form of legal documents, cakes, mail, introductions, personal interactions, the internet,

music, and famous people. The compilation of Hello my name is Sarah is a small fragment of situations I have endured. The individual stories range from four seconds to a few minutes. The video explores the usage of puppetry, humour, paper dolls, footage from my childhood as well as archival video footage from a decade of making work.

Nathan Joe: Homecoming Series

Nathan Joe | 14 min

Using three poems, Nathan Joe explores the form of autobiography through performance poetry. A meditation that explores the vast lived experience between Christchurch and Auckland, between queerness and being Chinese- Kiwi. Where nostalgia intersects with hope to reveal a concise history of a whole self.

I am A Fag For You

Vivek Shraya | 5:25 min

Inspired by the cinematography of “Truth or Dare” and “Paris is Burning,” this video is a homage to the late 80s/early 90s gay culture and aesthetics and a creative response to the loss of queer spaces during the pandemic. We hope that this video will remind queer viewers that they aren’t alone, even when we can only connect virtually, and that our queerness–and faggotry–is beautiful and alive.

Total Running time – 69 minutes

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Program 2

#existentialism #transgender #masculinity #found footage #animation #manipulation #visual #aural #experimental #film #gender #art #objects #absurdity #micro #macro #desire #memory

Comme tous les garçons

Morisha Moodley | 10:13 min

comme tous les garçons meditates on images and ideas of masculinity and transmasculine identity. The film combines found footage and personal archive in an act of assemblage that mirrors the erratic and eternal piecing together of queer identity. Showing, too, how this process first consumes, then corrupts and queers. The film attempts to trace a story of becoming, laying bare the moments of conflict along the way. It asks what it means to be and become like all the boys, what it means to want this and how the spectre of Whiteness haunts the wanting.

Odehimin

Kijatai-Alexandra Veillette-Cheezo | 2:45 min

A lyrical film ode to the odehimin or heart berry. A two-spirit Anishnaabe person finds themself in a dark place with their body. They undertake a healing journey, stating aloud their intentions and reconnecting with the land and the water for strength. As they get more in touch with their body and the beings around them, we begin to see them heal.

Bellydance Vogue

Hadi Moussally | 4:55 min

“My birthday was on the 3rd of April 2020, and for the first time, I celebrated it all by myself. But even if I was alone, I decided to celebrate it as if it’s the last one” The film was made during quarantine, using archive films from the 80-90s and using a VHS recorder app.

All Falls Down

oberon strong | 6 min

Shot entirely on a VHS camera, All Falls Down launches us into a digital hell-loop in which the transgender antagonist comes to terms with ideas of home, anxiety, intimacy, our inevitable death, longing, and the conversation between obsolete and current technologies.

Doppelgänger Memorandum

Clark Nikolai | 6 min

In this claustrophobically surreal and comical short, a film-score composer is distracted by a haunted video monitor in the confines of his sound studio, where he watches scenes of disconnected conversations as a result of mis-dubbing. The slippage between dream and reality, past and present, here and there, leaves the viewer in a perplexed state.

Fluids

Rob Fatal | 14:33 min

6 years ago two artists attempted to make a queer, sci-fi porno: it failed. What emerged 6 years later out of its campy/tragic/melodramatic ashes is this erotic experimental documentary; a meditation on the intersections of failure and fetish as well the meticulous, accidental processes of constructing cinema and identity.

Policephaly in D

Michael Robinson | 23 min

Existential drift in the age of rupture. Leaping, falling, and meeting your new self in an earthquake. Losing one’s head, growing another.

Total Running time – 67.5 min

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Info

Production: Queer City Cinema and Performatorium – financially supported by Canada Council for the Arts

Co-production/co-organization: 24. Mednarodni feministični in kvirovski festival Rdeče zore, PLAC

Executive and Artistic Director and programme of Queer City Cinema: Gary Varro

Press: Saša Nemec, rdece.zore@gmail.com

Financial support: City Council Ljubljana

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Donations

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