Pink Life QueerFest says hello to its 9th year with an opening ceremony at Institut français on January 23 and an opening party at Babylon. The festival is full of empowering, eye-opening, enticing and exciting films as well as thought provoking discussions and workshops. Here is a short overview of what to expect this year:

Under the Rainbow
Once more, Under the Rainbow selection brings together a variety of queer experiences of aging, migration, youth, bisexuality and mysticism. The selection will feature TRANSFINITE, (2019), Chronic (2017), Greta (2019), These Peculiar Days, (2019) and Tinta Bruta, (2018).
Queer Documentaries
The selection this year will initiate new discussiong in LGBTI+ public opinion in Turkey! Here is a list of the films featured:
Transitioning (2016), Shelter: Farewell to Eden (2019), Lemebel (2019), The Archivettes (2018), No Box for Me. An Intersex Story (2018), I’m Moshanty. Do you love me?(2019) Paternal Rites (2018)
Queer Series
Club Splendida (2019) will be the guest of the Queer Series selection this year.
cULT
Pink Life QueerFest proudly presents My Beautifl Laundrette (1985) and The Celluloid Closet (1995) under the cULT selection this year.
Short Selections
Seven short film selections will be featured this year at QueerFest:
Queer Shorts from Turkey will feature:
Kardelen Eren’s Örtünün Altı (Under The Blanket, 2019)
Özgür Can Taşcı’s Yıkımın Üstünde Dans (Dancing On The Ruins, 2019)
Kübra Bekmez’s Öteki (The Other, 2019),
Harun Güler’s 2740 Nolu Oda (Room 2740 – Shot on iPhone, 2019),
Volkan Güleryüz’s Iris (İris, 2019),
Gizem Aksu’s SOULSOLESOURCE (SOULSOLESOURCE, 2019),
Ömer Tevfik Erten’s Misafirhane–Bir Vardım Bir Yoktum (Guesthouse-Twice Upon a Time, 2019),
Gökçe Onur’s Akışkan (Fluid, 2019),
Nicolas Jakubiak’s Barbo (Barbo, 2019)
Şeyhmus Altun’s Zerreler (Fragments, 2019) filmleri yer alıyor.
The screenings on January 24 will be followed by a discussion.
IQMF Amsterdam Shorts Selection: IQMF Rising Stars will be at the QueerFest this year. The selection’s jury included Esra Özban of QueerFest last year. After the screening on January 24, curator Chris Belloni will be present to answer the audience questions.
Mezipatra Shorts Selection: Endangered Species is curated by the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival based in Czech Republic. The screening at Vault34 on January 25 will be followed by a Q&A with Pavel Bicek from the festival cew.
QueerFest has a shorts selection for every taste! Tariz Section aims to touch on the romantic hearts, Lavinia! ‘s title inspired by the early years of Lubunca, Queerness #Forever is here to tell us about aging and Koli Gazes Upon Kolis! is all about desire and excitement.
EVENTS
TALK: WRITING WITH ONE’S BODY, MULTIPLYING IN WRITING
January 25, 20:00, Institut français
Seçil Epik and Sevcan Tiftik will discuss how to increase visibility through writing and the potentials which writing brings, following the documentary Lemebel .
TALK: OUR BEAUTIFUL FILMS: ON QTIPOC FILMS
January 26, 19:15, Vault34
A conversation on QTIPOC cinema with Marc David Jacobs from Scottish Queer International Film Festival, following the screening of My Beautiful Laundrette.
TALK: LGBTI+ ARCHIVING – WHY DOES IT MATTER?
January 25, 20:15, Feminist Mekan
Following the screening of Archivettes, a film on the lesbian bisexual feminist archive collective active since 1970’s, Lara Güney Özlen and Okay Gökmen will talk about LGBTI+ history and archiving.
TALK: STORIES TRANSFORMED
January 24 Ocak, 19:00, SALT Galata
Following the screening of Kuir Belgeseller bölümünün dikkat çeken filmlerinden Paternal Rites, Nayuk (Nazlı Mayuk) and Hilal Esmer will talk about the transformative potential of the survivors’ stories.
TERF ARGUMENTS(?) CACOPHONY
January 24, 20.00, Institut français
Trans Exclusive Radical Feminism (TERF) has become concerning for both the global trans movement and the LGBTI+ movement in Turkey. Following the screening of Transitioning, QueerFest will answer the transphobic discourses through the perspectives of diverse subjects. Activists Beren Azizi and Vanessa Lee Nic will participate in the discussions’ origins and bust all the arguments of this transphobic alliance.
TALK: QUEER PERFORMERS SPEAK!
January 24 18.00, Institut français
The talk will take place after the screening of Queer Shorts from Turkey.
Bulut B.Sezer and Nihal Albayrak will talk about their experiences as queer actors on a heteronormative stage and the struggle that ensued.
ROUND TABLE: NON-BINARIES COME TOGETHER!
January 25, 15.00, SPoD Office
This roundtable aims to bring non-binaries together and increase the visibility of non-binary experiences by sharing and listening the stories.
Workshops
SOUND FOR VIDEO WORKSHOP
January 25-26, Altyazı Sinema Derneği
This workshop aims to provide insights on how the sound accompanies and enriches the visual narrative. The participants will record, edit and manipulate their own sounds on Ableton Live software for the visual material of their own choosing. The facilitator is Gizem Oruç.
QUEER APPROACHES TOWARDS CIS-HETERO ROLES
January 25-26 14.00-17.00, The Circle
The participants of this workshop are encouraged to bend and disrupt the heteronormativity by queering the cis-hetero roles and their performances in fron of the camera. The facilitator of the workshop is actor Ayça Damgacı.
QUEER DOCUMENTARY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
January 25 10.30-17.30, Altyazı Sinema Derneği
The workshop focuses on many aspects of documentary making, such as development, production, post-production with instructions on funding, distribution and narrative. The facilitators are Metin Akdemir, Rüzgar Buşki, Burcu Melekoğlu and Vuslat Karan.
Note: Please note that the workshops may not have instruction in English. The films do have subtitles in English. This is a summary to inform our English-speaking audiences and the screenings, events or workshops in this list might not be suitable for non-Turkish speaking audiences.
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