Porto’s International Queer Film Festival introduces a new competitive section

Porto’s International Queer Film Festival is currently ongoing until next Saturday, October 16th.

Besides resuming a program that includes activities like masterclasses and performances, a new competitive section was created, the Common House Award, dedicated to the Portuguese queer cinema in a partnership with Reitoria da Universidade do Porto.

Here we can find the delicate work that Tiago Resende performed in “Películas”, by reading a letter to Luís Miguel Nava, and André Murraças redeems the story, recovering a tale from António José da Silva Pinto, in “The Red Charm”. Paulo Patrício recalls, Gisberta, fairly recalled in cinema, theatre and literature, to which “Your Name Is” adds something new. Six more short films complete the program.

The sessions and further activities of the seventh edition will take place in Teatro Rivoli, Reitoria da Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Maus Hábitos and Mala Voadora.

Highlights

Bo McGuire was in charge of the opening session, with his recent feature film “Socks on Fire”, a cinematographic love letter from a grandson to a grandmother, having as a background the fight between a homophobic aunt and a drag queen uncle over a piece of property.

On the closing Night the focus goes to Claus Drexel, “Au coeur du bois”, with the Bois de Boulogne as backdrop, focusing on the sex workers who compose the space mythology.

Another Queer Porto 7 highlight is the presence of the German director, Monika Treut, an outstanding name of the new queer cinema in Europe since the eighties. She will present the recent “Genderation”, a documentary that looks at the leading actors of “Gendernauts” a 1986 classic, that will also be shown, followed by a masterclass with the director.

Competing Movies

The program includes the viewing of “Famille tu me hais”, by Gaël Morel, a portrait of a group of young people driven out of their homes, due to their sexual orientation, housed by Le Refuge Association.

In the official competition we have to stand out “Tiempos de Deseo”, a documentary from Raquel Marques, born in Porto, who accompanies the pregnancy of her former partner; Fred Baillif’s “La mif”, Generation’s Best Film in the last Berlinale, a visit to a fostering house of underaged girls that shows the wounds of a custody system at its limit; and “God has AIDS”, by Gustavo Vinagre and Fábio Leal, formed by a tile of gestures, provocations and testimonies of HIV positive Brazilian artists, among others.

The competition jury will be composed by Amarante Abramovici, filmmaker and programmer, Daniel Gorjão, RTP’s theatre director and programmer and by the artist larose a. larose.

Themes and Debates

Queer Focus, another programming segment, will have a debating part after the viewing of the films, taking “The City Was Ours. Radical Feminism in the Seventies” to Reitoria da Universidade do Porto, followed by a discussion with Ana Luísa Amaral, poet, Emeritus Professor, pioneer in feminist and queer studies in FLUP; and “Cured”, joining the debate will also be Jorge Gato, clinical psychologist and professor in FPCEUP, and Mia de Seixas, representing Ex-Aequo Porto network.

PROMETEU’s group will be present again in this edition. In an atypical year, efforts are being made to occupy Maus Hábitos room during the festival week, through a program that seeks new ways to humanize the gathering.

This years’ program is available here .