15h30

(Queer Pop)
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, by Matt Wolf (USA, 2008, 71’)

Wild Combination is director Matt Wolf’s visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singersongwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, Arthur
prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Now, over fifteen years since his passing, Arthur’s work is finally finding its audience. Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Arthur’s family, friends, and closest collaborators—including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg—to tell this poignant and important story.

17h30

(Feature Film Competition)
Pedro, de Nick Oceano (USA, 2008, 93’)

From the same screenwriter of the recent film Milk, by Gus Van Sant, Pedro is the biographical film adaptation of the life of Pedro Zamora, who became famous by participating in the MTV reality show The Real World. Born in Cuba, he emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1980. The youngest child in a close family, Zamora’s life changed at the age of 13 when his mother died. Already a top student, he immersed himself in his studies. When he was 17, and after engaging in unprotected sex, he discovered that he was HIV-positive. Once he absorbed the initial shock, Zamora made the lifealtering decision to become an activist and educator. He decided to audition for the San Francisco season of MTV’s The Real World, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS. The exposure brought Pedro worldwide recognition. For millions of people, he was the only person they knew living with HIV.

19h30

(Feature Film Panorama)
Rückenwind | Light Gradient, by Jan Krüger (Germany, 2009, 75’)

Two young men, Johann and Robin, take a trip into the countryside. The more they walk the forests of Brandenburg, the stranger their adventure becomes. Bikes disappear, maps prove useless – and each gets to know a new side of the other. Johann and Robin regard the new situation as a kind of sporting challenge. They allow themselves to just go with the flow. After several days of hiking, the two lads arrive at an old farmhouse
inhabited by a woman and her adolescent son. The men receive a surprisingly warm welcome and soon begin to share the small family’s daily routine and their secrets. For a while they enjoy an enchanted round of excursions and storytelling, flirting and games – until one day the new companions get too close for comfort. Johann and Robin are flung out of their refuge and back into the world at large. Light Gradient tells the story of a journey of two men, travelling light, searching for the truth beneath the facade, for fairy-tale moments in the heart of the countryside, and for a natural gay relationship far from the madding crowd.

(Feature Film Competition)
Strella | A Woman’s Way, by Panos H. Koutras (Greece, 2009, 113’)

Yiorgos is released from prison after 14 years of incarceration for a murder he committed in his small Greek village. He spends his first night out in a cheap downtown hotel in Athens. There he meets Strella, a young transsexual prostitute. They spend the night together and soon they fall in love. But the past is catching up with Yiorgos. With Strella on his side he will have to find a new way out. An extraordinary and spellbinding relationship, a post-modern Greek tragedy in the glowing nights of Athens, the story of A Woman’s Way is the kind of story told at dinner parties, a type of urban legend. These stories usually capture an element of mass consciousness, making direct references to archetypical myths, most often Greek. Which is exactly what the film’s heroes are: Greeks, living in a country both ancient and contemporary, where the need for a new European identity and a new value system is more pressing than ever. Torn between east and west, Greece has to revise its cultural heritage without preconceptions and find a way to face the future.

0h00 / LESBIAN PROGRAMME (Hard Nights)

Blind Porn, by Émilie Jouvet (France, 2005, 3’)

Two girls are having sex, but we can hardly see them. Love is Blind, but not Deaf...

Champion, by Shine Louise Houston (USA, 2008, 90’)

Jessie Eaton is a hotshot jock who can’t let go of her exgirlfriend, Cathy Summers, while making her way into
women’s professional MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Her plans hit a snag when a run in with an old nemesis, Bobby
Malone, blocks her way to the top with a little blackmail. To save her career she must throw the fight that would surely be her ticket into the professional arena. Even trickier is her attraction to the woman she is suppose to beat, Violet Vahn who is Jessie’s toughest opponent inside and outside the ring. It’s a big lesson in humility and integrity for Jessie as she juggles her relationships and her career. Will she win or will she loose...?