Free gender identities
In the present 16th edition, we have expanded our partnership with some important entities, such as Òmnium Cultural, Fundació Àmbit Prevenció, and the opening night will be with Casa America Catalonia. The sessions will take place at the Cinematheque.
Several debates and collaborations with these entities will complete the programme. For instance, the subject about AIDS thirty years later with be carried out with Òmnium Cultural, and the transphobia subject with the Fundació Àmbit Prevenció of Raval District, Barcelona City Council.
The guest country is Israel, due to the young emerging talented film directors from different film schools in that country. We have scheduled a session of short films dedicated to their jobs, with the presence of several filmmakers.
With a schedule of more than 50 titles from twenty countries, the prospect becomes wider one more year, and including the risk of filmmakers to deal with LGTIB issues in countries where there still exists death penalty for homosexuality. This year, twenty five professionals will introduce their films.
Some of the issues are: a Muslim girl who performs an act of love for another one who has been kidnapped and abused by Daesh, it is a film from Saudi Arabia; an allegation against homophobia reaching the most extreme point, by a filmmaker from Israel who will present the session dedicated to this country; a headmistress explains how the risk of an erotic dream becomes true, in a co-production between Israel and Palestine; children and adolescent transgender who have to endure transphobia which affects their lives, and AIDS survivors in San Francisco. These are some of the subjects conveyed in this yearly event, revealing the concerns of the most rebellious and nonconformist young filmmakers.
In our short films programming we also show several examples of identities whether or not transgender, since children transgender goes beyond attitudes, that’s to say, a kid with a boy’s role and a girl with a girl’s role are concepts already established by a repressive society. These young filmmakers want to break the rules socially imposed by male characters and their eagerness for classifing. They claim stop being labeled, and they are in favour of each one’s dentity by expressing their own feelings freely.
One of the targets we have set out along all 16 editions is that from The Barcelona International LGTIB Film Festival we have always wanted to give support the Catalan movies because we are aware how difficult it is to produce a feature film in our country. For this reason, we have included the world premiere of Wild Awakening, directed by Joanfer Martin where he explains a rather unusual issue in cinema today, as how homophobia is sometimes a result of a repressed homosexuality.
Xavier-Daniel
Founder and Film Festival Director
Board of Catalan College of Filmmakers
Member of the Catalan Film Critics Association and FIPRESCI