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FFi shorts this year in blocks named after Björk songs

Audiences at the 18th annual Slovak Queer Film Festival can once again look forward to an international competition of short films. From the over 450 entries, programmer Karolína Priehradná has picked out 23 titles and arranged them into five thematic sections named after songs by Icelandic songstress Björk.

The section all is full of love is, as you might guess, all about love, wherever and in whatever form it is found. Whether it rises up in defiance of a hostile world or strikes unexpectedly amidst a neverending summer heat wave. Sometimes love just comes out of nowhere, unannounced – or unnoticed – and sometimes it’s been here for ages, demanding to finally be said out loud.

  • Pigeons Are Dying, When the City is on Fire (Greece, director: Stavros Markoulakis, 20 min.)
  • Honeymoon (Greece, director: Alkis Papastathopoulos, 25 min.)
  • Bubbling (Taiwan, director: Che-ming Chang, 22 min.)
  • Friend of a Friend (Canada, director: Simon Gualtieri, 15 min.)

The block arisen my senses is about awareness and sexuality, dreams fulfilled and fears that aren’t so scary after all. These protagonists discover – or rediscover – who they are, what they want, and what’s important to them.

  • The Red Panda Temptation (France, director: Haïga Jappain, 18 min.)
  • Angelo (Greece, director: Helias Doulis, 13 min.)
  • I’m With Her (France, director: Melodie Bianca Cissou, 12 min.)
  • Buďmo (Czechia, director: Yevgeniya Soldatova, 10 min.)
  • Boys in the Water (France, director: Pawel Thomas Larue, 39 min.)

black lake is a deeper, darker block of short films, plumbing the depths of themes such as corporality and restrictions on physical or mental autonomy. Sometimes we lose trust in our loved ones; sometimes we find love when it’s too late. This selection spans a wide range of genres and subjects, from resurrections to fascist cults and apocalypses.

  • Original Skin (United Kingdom, director: Mdhamiri á Nkemi, 12 min.)
  • 8 Minutes 20 Seconds (USA, director: Harris Doran, 9 min.)
  • Serf (Czechia, director: Vansh Luthra, 15 min.)
  • 7 Times (Switzerland, director: Christine Wiederkehr, 16 min.)
  • Queerfully Departed (USA, director: Trent Nakamura, 10 min.)
  • Piecht (Germany, director: Luka Lara Steffen, 30 min.)

A collection of short documentaries, hidden place trains its lens on lives led in secret, revealing its subjects’ most private desires, most distant memories and most vulnerable moments, and exploring themes such as the search for lost parent–child relationships and interpersonal connections.

  • Adult Child (Norway, director: Hugo Francker, 24 min.)
  • The Pride Liar (Belgium, director: Andres Lübbert, 19 min.)
  • Hello Stranger (Canada, director: Amélie Hardy, 14 min.)
  • Grand Prize (Croatia, director: Anja Koprivšek, 47 min.)

human behaviour is about discovering oneself and one’s surroundings. What happens when everything we know suddenly changes? Or, on the other hand, how can our perspective change when we return, years later, to a place we knew so well? What changes in how we relate to ourselves, our family, our friends, our surroundings?

  • Gigi (France, director: Cynthia Calvi, 14 min.)
  • Uli (Columbia, director: Mariana Gil Ríos, 15 min.)
  • Robespierre (France, director: Pierre Menahem, 24 min.)
  • The Return (Ukraine, director: Vadim Mochalov, 32 min.)

The sixth block of shorts was selected by festival programmer David Benedek. Entitled Slovak Premieres, it presents eight of the latest Slovak short films featuring queer themes and characters. More details coming soon!

 
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