International Conference

University of Hamburg, 14-15 October 2014
in conjunction with Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival (14-19 October 2014)

The queer film and festival landscape has seen vast changes in the last 25 years. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival we want to assess the status of queer film culture in the form of queer cinema and film festivals today. Considering the availability of queer images, are queer film festivals still necessary? The vast number of more than 200 active festivals worldwide suggests they are. Then, what are the tasks and functions that queer film festivals serve for today’s queer film culture? What is shown at these events? The buzz of recent arthouse releases such as Weekend and Blue Is the Warmest Color beckons the question: What is queer cinema today? Have we reached a post-gay era of global art cinema or has a the New Wave Queer Cinema arrived?

This two-day international conference hosted by the University of Hamburg, taking place during and in conjunction with the Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival will bring together a stellar cast of international film and festival studies scholars, critics and festival programmers to discuss these issues. Two keynotes delivered by Prof. B. Ruby Rich (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Dr. Marijke de Valck (University of Amsterdam) will frame the conference and bring together the fields of film festival studies and queer cinema. In three panels we will approach Queer Film Culture from various angles. In a first panel, festival scholars will present current research on LGBT/Q film festivals. In a second panel, festival programmers will discuss the current tasks and challenges of LGBT/Q film festivals. In a third panel, film scholars will assess the current trends in queer cinema. In addition, the documentary film Queer Artivism,which is screened with the filmmakers in attendance, will provide audiovisual input from five LGBT/Q film festivals.

Conference language is English. Attendance is free.
Please register by 10 October 2014 at: conference[at]queerfilmculture.org.

More information is available on the conference website: www.queerfilmculture.org.

Organization & Contact

The conference is organized by Skadi Loist with support by the Körber Fonds Nachwuchsforschung and the Institut für Medien und Kommunikation, Universität Hamburg.

Skadi Loist
Universität Hamburg
Institut für Medien und Kommunikation
Von-Melle-Park 6, Postfach 20
20146 Hamburg
Germany

Email: skadi.loist[at]uni-hamburg.de
www.queerfilmculture.org

PROGRAM

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

9.30-10.00h   Registration

10.00h  Welcome & Introduction

10.15-11.15h  Keynote: Film Festival Studies

“Film Festivals in Transition”
by Marijke de Valck (Amsterdam)

11.15-11.30h   Coffee Break

11.30-13.30h   Panel 1: Queer Film Festivals in Research

Chair: Laura Coppens (Berne)

• Skadi Loist (Hamburg/Rostock): “Performativity and LGBT/Q Film Festivals”
• Christian Klesse & Jon Binnie (Manchester): “Queer Solidarity and Spaces of Festivality: Queer Film Festivals in Europe”
• Ger Zielinski (Trent): “When Film Was Film, and Video Was Video: On Queer Film Festival Programming and the Limits of Community Taste”
• Pedro Marum & Sandra Palma Saleiro (Lisbon): “Queer Lisboa’s Audience in Research: How Queer Is the Queer Audience?”

13.30-14.30h   Lunch Break

14.30-16.30h  Panel 2: Roundtable: Queer Film Festivals in Practice

Chair: Dagmar Brunow (Hamburg)

• João Ferreira (Queer Lisboa): “From LGBT to Queer: Defying Categorizations at Lisbon’s International Queer Film Festival”
• Manny de Guerre (Side by Side): “LGBT Activism: Side by Side LGBT Film Festival”
• Aleš Rumpel (Mezipatra): “Work Bitch: Volunteers and Professionals in the Context of Queer Film Festival Organization”
• Joachim Post (LSF Hamburg): “LGBT Programming and Grassroots Democracy”
• Antoine Damiens (Ecrans Mixtes & Queer Palm, Cannes): “Queering Cannes? A-list Festivals and Queer Cinema – the Case of the Queer Palm”
• Michael Stütz (Xposed & Panorama, Berlinale): “Back to the Future? Queer Film Festivals and the Spaces They Inhabit”

19.00h   Evening Program

Opening Night of 25th Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg | International Queer Film Festival

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

10.00-11.30h   Film Screening in cooperation with the IMK

Queer Artivism
(Slovenia 2013, Maša Zia Lenárdič/Anja Wutej, 96’)

12.00-14.00h   Lunch Break

14.30-15.30h   Keynote: Queer Cinema

“The New Queer Cinema: Back To The Future”
by B Ruby Rich (Santa Cruz)

15.30-16.00h  Coffee Break

16.00-17.30h    Panel 3: Trends in Queer Cinema

Chair: Jan Pinseler (Magdeburg)

• Marc Siegel (Frankfurt/Main): “How Do I Look (Now)?”
• Rosalind Galt (King’s, London): “Returns to Nature: The Queer Pastoral in World Cinema”
• Eliza Steinbock (Leiden): “Contemporary Trans* Cinema: Affective Tendencies, Communities, and Styles”
• Natascha Frankenberg (Oldenburg): “Temporal Relations On and Off Documentary”

18.00h   Closing Remarks