Short film screening Queer short films: Searching and Arriving
XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin at Lenbachhaus with Merle Groneweg
When:
Sun, May 18, 2025, 2pm – 3.30pm
Free admission
Duration:
Film blocks of 72 minutes each
Meeting point:
Georg-Knorr-Saal
No registration is necessary.
Free seating, limited number of seats.
The films are shown in their original language with English subtitles.
When:
Sun, May 18, 2025, 2pm– 3.30pm
Free admission
Duration:
Film blocks of 72 minutes each
Meeting point:
Georg-Knorr-Saal
No registration is necessary.
Free seating, limited number of seats.
The films are shown in their original language with English subtitles.
Animated snails and dark red lips, a tender initiation in the midst of adverse circumstances, an intimate photo essay full of questions: the XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin brings six diverse short films to the Lenbachhaus! Whether experimental, documentary or scenic – the filmmakers and their protagonists explore queer identities, empowerment and resistance. What new self can there be, what new places can be experienced as home – without losing the connections to the old?
Merle Groneweg, curator at the XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, has put together a short film programme that we will be showing at 2 pm and 4 pm in the Georg-Knorr-Saal, right next to the entrance foyer. The entrance to the room is barrier-free. The screening is free of charge on International Museum Day!
The films in screening order:
Slug Life
Sophie Koko Gate, Großbritannien 2019, 7 min
We watch one young woman’s unconventional attempt to take control of her own love life by growing the perfect partner - a beautiful giant slug. Both freaks of nature, it’s a seemingly perfect match; until the slug is introduced to the outside world where he develops a taste for dinner parties and stimulating.
I Was Never Really Here
Gabriel Bihina, Deutschland 2022, 23 min
"I Was Never Really Here" is a love story about two boys who meet over a summer that will forever change their lives. Kwesi understands he is not in a privileged position as he awaits the news about his residence permit, but the hot summer days allow the boys to escape for a moment, even if it means holding on to these memories for as long as they can.
Comme Tous Les Garçons
Morisha Moodley, Großbritannien 2022, 10 min
The name of the film is "commes tous les garçons". It is a meditation on what it means to be/come like all the boys and also what it means to want to be/come like them. It navigates images and ideas of masculinity and trans masculine identity, combining found footage, illustration and personal archive in an act of assemblage that mirrors the erratic and eternal piecing together of a queer identity. The film attempts to trace a story of becoming, the active process of stitching oneself together from a myriad of starting points, whilst also laying bare the moments of conflict and interruption that occurs from this process.
Soft Bwoi
Danny Bailey, Großbritannien 2023, 6 min
Filmmaker Danny Bailey returns to our screens with a mission – to turn the derogatory accusation of softness on its head. In yardie culture, “yuh too soft” can mark you from childhood, the equivocation of gentleness and sensitivity with weakness and irrelevance. In this ensemble production, Soft Bwoi (2022) refuses such sentiment and Babylon itself, using folklore and imagery from Caribbean carnival culture and queerness to redefine this misconception. The concealment of emotion, embracing norms, and the repression of femininity are no longer signs of power and strength. Instead, it is in seeking the divine feminine, deep connections with one another and the rejection of toxicity that will unite Black men to find better ways to survive in this harsh but limitless world. Yes lawd!
Queer Exile
Ahmed Awadalla, Deutschland 2024, 10 min
When an activist escapes Egypt after the 2011 revolution, he is forced to start a new life in Berlin, where he hopes to find safety and freedom. Instead, he has to live in a refugee camp in an area where far-right groups stage regular anti-refugee protests. Torn between the hostility in the new home and the nostalgia for his past life, he questions his life choices and what it means to tread a queer path. Delving into memory archives, he develops a new understanding of exile. He forges new friendships with his surroundings and generates a new meaning for homemaking in Berlin.
Flores Del Otro Patio
Jorge Cadena, Kolumbien 2023, 16 min
In northern Colombia, a group of queer activists use their extravagance to denounce the disastrous exploitation of the largest coal mine in Colombia through performative actions.
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