Queer Lisboa – International Queer Film Festival, returning to Cinema São Jorge and the Cinemateca Portuguesa from 18 to 26 September, has now announced this year’s retrospective, entitled ‘Reclaiming Futures: queer cinema through the looking glass’. The programme, presented in collaboration with the Cinemateca Portuguesa and conceived to celebrate Queer Lisboa’s 30th anniversary, runs across the festival’s two venues this year in the form of a series of eight double bills, offering a selection of films that, in their day, sought to create utopias and served as models for the construction of a sense of community. The programme rediscovers works by leading filmmakers in queer cinema, including Cheryl Dunye, James Bidgood, John Greyson, Kenneth Anger, Kim Longinotto, Marlon T. Riggs, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Lisa Cholodenko, Sally Potter, Su Friedrich, Ventura Pons and Yonfan. There are 19 titles in total, many of which have never been screened at the festival before and have recently been restored, thereby regaining their status as canonical works.

 

The programme kicks off on 20 September with the premiere of the restoration, carried out by the Cinemateca Portuguesa, of the medium-length film ‘Fatucha Superstar – Ópera Rock… Bufa’ (1976), by João Paulo Ferreira, an icon of Portuguese underground cinema, alongside the short film ‘Scorpio Rising’ (1963), by Kenneth Anger, the enfant terrible of American experimental film, whose hypnotic short was banned for many years. The counterpart to this screening is the cult film ‘Pink Narcissus’ (1971), by James Bidgood, a prime example of kitsch and camp aesthetics, which screens on the same day, at Cinema São Jorge.

 

The day before, as a sort of prologue and in the run-up to the festival’s opening night, at Cinema São Jorge is screened ‘Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives’ (1977), a groundbreaking documentary by the collective The Mariposa Film Group, which, at the time of its release, became a symbol of activism for the visibility and rights of the LGBTQIA+ community in the USA. Immediately following this, after its first screening at the Frameline Festival, the programme’s only new work, ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’ (2026), will celebrate its international premiere. This pastoral medium-length film by Irish filmmaker Paul Rice is an adaptation of the 1977 gay manifesto of the same name by writer and publisher Larry Mitchell. It will be screened twice in the ‘Rank’ venue at Cinema São Jorge – a room that is something of a rarity with its 21 seats – in the presence of the filmmaker.

 

Another highlight of the programme is the double bill featuring the cult classics ‘Bound’ (1996), by sisters Lana and Lilly Wachowski (‘The Matrix’), and ‘High Art’ (1998), by Lisa Cholodenko (‘The Kids Are All Right’), which depict intoxicating love stories between women and in which, coincidentally, neighbours play the leading roles in both films. From the same decade, the 1990s, two trans themed films set on the Asian continent are featured: ‘Bugis Street’ (1995), by Hong Kong filmmaker Yonfan, a feature about sex workers on the legendary street in Singapore, and ‘Shinjuku Boys’ (1995), by the British filmmakers Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, a documentary portraying three Japanese onabes, male trans hosts in a club in Tokyo.

 

The boundaries of gender identity become blurred in the double bill comprising ‘Orlando’ (1992), by Sally Potter, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name starring Tilda Swinton, and ‘Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait’ (1978), by the recently deceased Catalan director Ventura Pons, a documentary about the Andalusian painter and counterculture activist José Pérez Ocaña in post-Franco Barcelona. Sexual freedom and gay cruising in the early 1980s in two European capitals are juxtaposed in two trailblazer works of their time: ‘The Wounded Man’ (1983), by Patrice Chéreau, a tragedy-laden romance set in Paris, co-written with the author Hervé Guibert and which premiered in the Cannes Competition, and ‘Taxi to the Toilet’ (1980), by Frank Ripploh, an explicit, autobiographical comedy set in West Berlin.

 

Black culture and historiography are revisited through two canonical works of queer cinema: ‘Black Is... Black Ain’t’ (1994), the final film by Marlon T. Riggs, a moving humanist compendium that Riggs completed whilst in hospital, and ‘The Watermelon Woman’ (1996), the debut feature by Cheryl Dunye, an intelligent mockumentary on the portrayal of lesbian Black identity in film history, which won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale at the time. The film is preceded by the equally autobiographical short film ‘Spin Cycle’ (1991), by North American Aarin Burch, a poetic reflection on desire and the creative process.

 

Finally, three films in which the activist element is key: the DIY-style documentary ‘The Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too’ (1993), by Su Friedrich and Janet Baus, a portrait of the pioneering New York group campaigning for the visibility and rights of lesbian women, shown here alongside Lucy Winer’s short film ‘Greetings from Washington, D.C.’ (1981), a historical record of the first National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which took place on 14 October 1979 in Washington DC and was filmed by filmmakers such as Barbara Hammer and Greta Schiller; and bringing the retrospective to a close, on the festival’s final day, the musical comedy ‘Zero Patience’ (1993), a highly political work by the Canadian filmmaker and activist John Greyson, which examines the myths surrounding the origins of AIDS.

 

Comprising rare screenings, the programme ultimately looks to the past to take stock of the community’s achievements and seek clues for charting future victories.

 

The full programme for Queer Lisboa 30 will be announced in early September, while Queer Porto 12’s programme, taking place from 3 to 7 November, will be announced in early October.

 

FILMS ANNOUNCED FOR QUEER LISBOA 30:

 

RETROSPECTIVE / ‘Reclaiming Futures: queer cinema through the looking glass’

 

Programme 0:
The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Paul Rice (USA, 2026, 40’)
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, Rob Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix, Veronica Selver (The Mariposa Film Group) (USA, 1977, 132’) 

Programme 1:

Fatucha Superstar – Ópera Rock… Bufa, João Paulo Ferreira (Portugal, 1976, 43’) 

Pink Narcissus, James Bidgood (USA, 1971, 68’) 

Scorpio Rising, Kenneth Anger (USA, 1963, 28’) 

 

Programme 2:

Ocaña, Retrato Intermitente / Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait, Ventura Pons (Spain, 1978, 85’) 

Orlando, Sally Potter (UK, Russia, Italy, France, The Netherlands, 1992, 94’) 

 

Programme 3:

Bugis Street / Yao jie huang hou, Yonfan (Singapore, Hong Kong, 1995, 101’) 

Shinjuku Boys, Kim Longinotto, Jano Williams (UK, 1995, 53’) 

 

Programme 4:

Bound, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski (USA, 1996, 109’) 

High Art, Lisa Cholodenko (USA, 1998, 102’)

 

Programa 5:

L’homme blessé / The Wounded Man, Patrice Chéreau (France, 1983, 119’) 

Taxi to the Toilet / Taxi zum Klo, Frank Ripploh (West Germany, 1980, 90’) 

 

Programme 6:

Black Is... Black Ain’t, Marlon T. Riggs (USA, 1995, 87’) 

Spin Cycle, Aarin Burch (USA, 1991, 6’)

The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye (USA, 1996, 90’) 

 

Programme 7:

Greetings from Washington, D.C., Lucy Winer (USA, 1981, 28’) 

The Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too, Su Friedrich, Janet Baus (USA, 1993, 56’) 

Zero Patience, John Greyson (UK, Canada, 1993, 100’) 

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

 

Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar (Spain, 2026, 112’)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun (USA, Canada, 2026, 112’)

 

PANORAMA

 

Barbara Forever, Brydie O’Connor (USA, 2026, 102’)

Blue Film, Elliot Tuttle (USA, 2025, 85’) 

Jim Queen, Marco Nguyen, Nicolas Athané (France, 2026, 85’)

Maspalomas, Jose Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi (Spain, 2025, 109’)

Prosecution, Faraz Shariat (Germany, 2026, 113’)

Un jeune homme de bonne famille / A Very Good Boy, Sébastien Lifshitz (France, 2026, 87’)