The evolution of queer cinema in the past decade has encouraged us to reflect upon where we stand in the social and cultural orders, and how this shapes our discourse and defines our gaze. Similarly to how the feminist movement once claimed the “female gaze” as a form of resistance against the white male heteronormative dominance over both discourse and artistic production, the growing assertion of individual and collective LGBTQI+ realities, calls upon an affirmation of a “queer gaze”, a non-binary and non-prejudiced regard upon the world, in order to rewrite history in a more truthful fashion. Following the pandemic period, film has gained a new boost of life, and this year’s editions of Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto seek to do justice to this “queer gaze” by offering a non-polarized look, gazing across borders.

 

In Lisbon, the opening film honors go to Patric Chiha’s latest feature film, “La Bête dans la jungle”, which premiered at the past edition of the Berlinale. The film is a free adaptation of the homonymous novel by Henry James and follows the story of John and May, who, spanning 25 years, from 1979 to 2004, dance against time in anticipation of a mysterious event. In its cast, French film icon Béatrice Dalle and up-and-coming actress Anaïs Demoustier take the screen. “Queendom” will be the title in charge of closing the festival program - a courageous documentary that follows performer Gena Marvin, a Russian queer artist whose performances put her life at stake as she refuses to remain silent in the face of repression and war in present-day Moscow.

 

This year’s Queer Lisboa program includes two special screenings: the most recent feature by Ira Sachs, “Passages”, a torrid three-way love story starring Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos; and “Sisi & I”, a new historical revisitation of the figure of Empress Sisi, focusing specifically on the ambiguous relationship she maintained with her last lady-in-waiting.

 

From dance (“Cidade Lúcida”, a documentary about Benvindo Fonseca, celebrated dancer of the Gulbenkian Ballet), to medicine (“Oliver Sacks: His Own Life”, about the life and thought of the neurologist and author who redefined our understanding of the mind), the Panorama section will once again trigger discussions on important social and cultural issues. All films will be complemented by debates and conversations with different guests to be announced soon. In addition to the already publicized “Arrête avec tes mensonges” (a film based on the homonymous novel by Philippe Besson, who will attend the festival), two more titles take part in this section: “Intransitivo: um documentário sobre narrativas trans”, directed by a trans-centered group that travels through Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul interviewing trans people, and the fiction “Drifter”, which follows the journey of a young man who moves to Berlin, ending up submerged in night life hedonism.

 

Queer Porto 9 opens this year with the new film by Brazilian director Ricardo Alves Jr. “Tudo o que Você Podia Ser” is a docu-fiction that, through everyday life and encounters between a group of friends from Belo Horizonte, weaves an affectionate portrait of the family that one chooses to form through the value of friendship. Ricardo was the 2021 Queer Art Competition Prize winner at Queer Lisboa for the film “Vaga Carne”, co-directed with Grace Passô. The closing film, “Commitment to Life” (pictured above), documents the central role that the city of Los Angeles played during the dramatic period of the fight against the AIDS epidemic. The film features interviews, rare archival and activism footage, as well as actions by celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and David Geffen.

 

Batalha Centro de Cinema will also host a series of special screenings, namely the documentary “bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation”, based on an extensive interview with the North American essayist, of whom Orfeu Negro has published this summer the Portuguese translation of “All About Love”; the film “Music Is My Boyfriend”, which documents the trajectory of the irreverent authors of queer messianic pop band The Hidden Cameras; the very inventive and thought-provoking documentary “Feminism WTF”, which mixes political activism and intellectual challenge; wrapping up with one of the sensation films of the past edition of the Cannes Film Festival, “Un prince”.

 

The festivals had previously announced the retrospectives of each of the next editions - Yvonne Rainer in Lisbon; Vivienne Dick and the no wave cinema in Porto -, and Olivier Peyon’s “Arrête avec tes mensonges”.

 

The competitions and remaining titles of the programs will be announced on the next 7th of September.

 

Complete list of titles announced so far:

 

QUEER LISBOA 27

 

OPENING NIGHT
La Bête dans la jungle / The Beast in the Jungle, Patric Chiha (France, Belgium, Austria, 2023, 103’)

 

CLOSING NIGHT
Queendom, Agniia Galdanova (France, USA, 2023, 98’)

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Passages, Ira Sachs (France, 2023, 91’) 
Sisi & I, Frauke Finsterwalde (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, 2023, 132’)

PANORAMA
Arrête avec tes mensonges / Lie with Me, Olivier Peyon (France, 2022, 98’) 
Cidade Lúcida / Lucid City, Adrian Stölzle (Germany, Portugal, 2023, 91’)
Drifter, Hannes Hirsch (Germany, 2023, 79’) 
Intransitivo: um Documentário sobre Narrativas Trans / Intransitive: a Documentary about Trans Stories, Gabz 404, Gustavo Deon, Lau Graef, Luka Machado (Brazil, 2022, 72’)
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, Ric Burns (USA, 2019, 111’)

 

RETROSPECTIVE: “Becoming Yvonne Rainer”
Feelings Are Facts: the Life of Yvonne Rainer, Jack Walsh (USA, 2015, 83’)
Film about a Woman Who…, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1974, 105’)
Journeys from Berlin/1971, Yvonne Rainer (USA, UK, former West Germany, 1980, 125’)
Kristina Talking Pictures, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1976, 90’)
Lives of Performers, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1972, 90’)
The Man Who Envied Women, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1985, 125’)
Murder and Murder, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1996, 113’)
Privilege, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1990, 103’)
Rainer Variations, Charles Atlas (USA, 2002, 42’)

 

TALKS
Talk with Philippe Besson (moderated by Franck Finance-Madureira)

 

DEBATES
Yvonne Rainer, cinema and dance (with Gisela Casimiro, João dos Santos Martins and Jorge Jácome, moderated by Cláudia Galhós and Joana Ascensão)

 

QUEER PORTO 9

 

OPENING NIGHT
Tudo o que Você Podia Ser / All that You Could Be, Ricardo Alves Jr. (Brazil, 2023, 83’) 

 

CLOSING NIGHT
Commitment to Life, Jeffrey Schwarz (USA, 2023, 115’)

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation, Sut Jhally (USA, 1997, 66’)
Feminism WTF, Katharina Mückstein (Austria, 2023, 90’) 
Music Is My Boyfriend, Robert Kennedy (Canada, 2022, 40’)
Un prince / A Prince, Pierre Creton (France, 2023, 82’) 

 

RETROSPECTIVE: “No Present. No Future. No Wave.”
A Skinny Little Man Attacked Daddy, Vivienne Dick (UK, 1994, 23’)

Beauty Becomes the Beast, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1979, 41’)

Black Box, Beth B, Scott B (USA, 1979, 20’)

Empty Suitcases, Bette Gordon (USA, 1980, 52’)

Guerillère Talks, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1978, 25’)

The Irreducible Difference of the Other, Vivienne Dick (Ireland, 2013, 27’)

Liberty’s Booty, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1980, 48’)

Like Dawn to Dust, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1983, 7’)

Lydia Lunch: the War Is Never Over, Beth B (USA, 2019, 75’)

New York Conversations, Vivienne Dick (UK, 1990, 21’)

New York Our Time, Vivienne Dick (Ireland, 2020, 79’)

Red Moon Rising, Vivienne Dick (Ireland, 2015, 15’)

Rome ’78, James Nares (USA, 1978, 82’)

She Had Her Gun All Ready, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1978, 28’)

Staten Island, Vivienne Dick (USA, 1978, 6’)