Archive

Dispatches from Elsewhere

A chain of strange coincidences leads computer scientist Peter to the mysterious Jejune Institute. Its charismatic director Octavio promises Peter a way out of the invisibility and quiet desperation of his everyday life, offering him instead the gateway to a life full of magic, beauty and “divine nonchalance”. Peter plays along. But is this really a game? Is it an alternative reality? Or a conspiracy making a bid for social control? Together wit...

Diva

Diva is a fan letter to Diva Cat Thy, a Vietnamese transwoman, street food vendor, and performer, who openly shares her life and struggles daily on social media. Trying to bridge distances of both geography and language, the French director uses found footage posted online by Diva and her community to get in touch with her. He has never met her, cannot travel to Vietnam due to COVID-19 restrictions, and relies on his boyfriend, an Australian ...

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

John has a penchant for off-colour jokes - and a drinking problem. And so, when somebody he met at a party suggests they go on an all-night bender in L.A. he simply can’t refuse. But after falling asleep in a drunken stupor on his drinking buddy’s passenger seat, he wakes up the next morning in hospital, a quadriplegic. Confined to a wheelchair for life at the age of 21, he now requires every last drop of his sense of humour to rediscover meaning...

Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse

Frau Dr Mabuse, boss of an international media conglomerate, needs to boost circulation. She has decided to create an artificial character who will fulfil all her readers’ dreams, only to then destroy him before their very eyes. She chooses Dorian Gray. Dr Mabuse takes the rich, narcissistic dandy to the opera, where he falls in love with singer Andamana. He also cuts a dashing figure at the Press Ball, and on a journey through the underworld, w...

Dream Boat

One week on a cruise ship, with parties, fun and new friendships. The all-gay clientele on board are preoccupied with topics such as identity, the body beautiful and the search for sex. Every evening is dedicated to a new theme, challenging the passengers to ever more extravagant, body-hugging outfits. In the cabins however, the talk is more than skin deep as the men open up about their private lives. Marek, a young Polish man just wants to be a...

Dream Boy

A drama about taboos, love and violence, based on a best-selling novel by Jim Grimsley set in a religious community in America’s south. Fifteen-yearold Nathan and his parents have recently moved to a small country town in Louisiana. One Sunday morning on the way back from church he notices the boy next door for the first time. Roy is only seventeen, but is already driving the school bus. He also has a girlfriend that he seems to love very much – a...

Dreaming Walls

The camera hovers, lost in reverie as voices and sounds waft through the gutted rooms of a building. Archive footage is sometimes projected onto unplastered walls and at others used as a soundtrack as we continue our tour. This is the legendary Chelsea Hotel, famous as the preferred abode of New York’s bohemia from the 1950s to the 1980s. Here, bourgeois society’s misfits – sex workers, poets, queers and artists – were able to find cheap acco...

Dress Rehearsal und Karola 2

A tie or lace? After trying on numerous treasures from New York’s second-hand stores, and extravagant fashion accessories, Karola Gramann decides on a traditional dinner jacket with cummerbund and bow tie. We then see her posing & vogueing to Bryan Ferry’s “These Foolish Things”. These shorts are an early gender bend that evoke Kenneth Anger’s biker etude SCORPIO RISING (1963) and even anticipate the Madonna phenomenon. ...

Drifter

Moritz arrives in Berlin with no particular plans. He might study art history, but there is no rush, he is only 22. He has moved here to be with his boyfriend Jonas, an attractive photographer who is a little more accustomed to the easy-going, noncommittal ways of the city. But then their relationship suddenly comes to an end. Devastated and alone, Moritz becomes a seeker. His first foray takes him to a gym. Little by little his fashion, his frie...

Driveways

‘Don´t you wanna invite any young people, too? – Not really…’

Cody’s summer begins with a road trip. Accompanying his mother Kathy, he travels to the house where his late aunt used to live. While Kathy is busy cleaning out the place, the almost nine-year-old has to pass the time on his own in the unfamiliar neighbourhood. The boy’s first encounter with old Del from next door marks the start of a special friendship. The loveable 83-year-old grouch...

Drôle de Félix

Felix and Daniel live in Dieppe. Thanks to a series of circumstances, Felix is able to realise a plan he has been contemplating for a long time, namely, to travel to Marseille to visit the father he has never met. But Felix is a bit of a dreamer by nature, and so, instead of taking a train directly to his destination, he elects to simply set off, willy-nilly. This method of travel involves ‘borrowing’ the odd car or two. The magic of spring, the ...

Dupe od mramora

Merlyn, a transvestite, and Sanela, a prostitute, share a home in the suburbs of Belgrade. Dzoni, who has returned from fighting on the Bosnian front gets to know them. A bit of sex is what he needs to overcome political violence and macho aggression. (BFI)

Dyke Hard

 

E-Love

Paule is pushing 50, as she repeatedly observes in her voice-over commentary. When she – a philosophy lecturer with a 10-year marriage and a 15-year-old daughter – learns that her husband is having an affair with a 28-year-old, this number takes on a special weight. The Internet site L’âme-soeur is supposed to help Paule get through her burgeoning midlife crisis. Although she doesn’t find any soulmates there, she does discover a great number of o...

EAST/WEST - Sex & Politics

Not a trace of socialism – Moscow, at least at its centre, nowadays bears comparison with any capitalist city. Wealth, showiness, but also elegance as far as the eye can see – Moscow is no longer a grey city of apparatshiks. However, democracy is still a slow to take hold, especially if the degree of genuine democracy in the country is to be measured by its population’s treatment of minorities. Although paragraph 121, which outlawed gay and lesbian...

easy love

Field experiments in matters of the heart: Seven men and women between the ages of 25 and 45 are faced with the pleasure but also burden of being the architects of their own destiny. But the associated risks and side effects of trying to balance hedonistic adventure with a longing for emotional security are unpredictable. Idealistic notions of individualism and freedom are therefore bound to collide with the fear of loneliness and disappointment...

Echolot

A clique gathers in a house in the country to hold its own personal funeral ceremony for a friend who has committed suicide. It's not unusual for extreme situations to lure people out of their shells. In this case,the suicide prompts them to switch off for a while; this weekend at least, these young people are no longer thinking about tomorrow. Instead, they surrender entirely to the moment and give their feelings free reign. They dance, love...

Edward II

Edward II, King of England, jeopardizes his reign when he brings his male lover to court. Embarrassed and outraged by the flaunting of his "degeneracy," his neglected Queen leads a vicious plot to assasinate his lover.

Ein Traum in Erdbeerfolie

COMRADE COUTURE is a journey through the wild underground world of fashion and so-called “survival artists“ in East Berlin. It was a world of make-believe amidst the restrictive daily life of the GDR. Here you could march to a different beat, be individual, and provocative. The most important distinguishing characteristic of this scene was your own personal style, as this was not for sale in the former East Germany. Subculture space was the place...

Ein Weg

A kiss by the sea, a promise for life. Who goes to the Baltic coast in the autumn? Nobody except Martin and Andreas. They come here every year and, every year, their son Max is a bit taller, and their own faces a bit older. This time Martin is fed up. The weather’s unpleasant and he’d much rather have stayed at home. Andreas on the other hand tears off his clothes and jumps into the freezing sea. A worried Martin tries to stop him and, stumbling...