ALONDRA, A TRANSSEXUAL DIARY
(historia de una transexual)
by Carles Porta & Danielle Schleif
2007, Human Interest, 80', Spain
Spanish
Alondra is attractive, poor, an immigrant, a prostitute and transsexual. We come into her life at a critical juncture, the moment she has decided to complete her gender reassignment via a sex change operation. But she needs fast money.
We travel with Alondra from Spain to Thailand where she undergoes complicated surgeries to complete her gender reassignment. And through Alondra’s own self-shot footage, we experience her personal struggle for acceptance both in society and her own family when she flies to New York after being absent for 9 years to see the mother and extended family who knew her only as a boy.
The film explores the internal struggle of a person betrayed by her own body since infancy who makes the radical decision to change genders.
Produced by Antartida
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
2004, Cultural, 59' and 75', NL
English
SELECTED FOR IDFA 2004, Silver Wolf Competition!!
‘Based on a true story’ is a remarkable journey back in time reconstructing this day in August 1972. Whereas John Wojtowicz wants to star in his own memories, his control over the story slips away when other accounts come to light. With stunning original news footage, clips of the film Dog Day Afternoon, and recollections of both the hostages, the Police, the FBI and John Wojtowicz, this becomes a story of many faces.
One hot August afternoon in 1972 John Wojtowicz attempted to rob a Brooklyn branch of the Chase Manhattan bank. An unexpectedly rapid police response prompted Wojtowicz to take eight hostages. Once Wojtowicz revealed that he had committed the robbery to finance the sex change operation of his lover, there was no turning back. A 10 minute robbery degenerated into a 14 hour stand off. Cops, crowds and cameras - the robbery was a spectacle that eventually served as the basis for Sidney Lumet's 1975 film DOG DAY AFTERNOON.
Of all the accounts as to what took place during those 14 hours, Wojtowicz's testimonial is the only one missing. After serving time in prison, Wojtowicz was released, taking up residence several blocks from the bank, leading his life in the illuminated shadow of cinematic memories that were not his own.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE BASED ON A TRUE STORY
www.kasanderfilm.nl
BEFORE STONEWALL
An engaging portrait of the history of
homosexual experience in America
25 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SCREENINGS!!
by Greta Schiller
1985, Cultural, 90', USA, English
Produced By Robert Rosenberg, John Scagliotti, and Greta Schiller
In 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village decided to fight back, transforming a routine police raid into three nights of rioting which marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement.
Before Stonewall examines the historical background to this sudden burst of political energy - from the social experimentation of the Roaring Twenties, to the discovery of the true size of this hidden society during World War II, to the scape-goating of homosexuals during the McCarthy era, to the development of the early homophile rights movement - providing an informative and engaging portrait of the history of homosexual experience in America.
The film also celebrates the strength of character and courage of those who led their lives with dignity despite widespread social discrimination, fear and prejudice. Whether one is gay or straight or in-between, audiences of all types are sure to find Before Stonewall a remarkable historical record of social change in America.
Emmy Award Best Historical/Cultural Program 1987
Emmy Award Best Research 1987
THE BRANDON TEENA STORY
by Susan Muska & Greta Olafsdottir
1997, Culture, 59' & 90, USA
English
The Brandon Teena Story" is a documentary about hatred and homophobia in the heartland of America.The film focuses on the last few weeks of Brandon Teena's life in a small town in Nebraska.
When 20 year old Brandon arrived in rural Fall City, Nebraska in late 1993, his handsome looks and boyish charm won him several friends and a pretty young girlfriend. On Christmas Eve Brandon was brutally raped and beaten by two of his friends who became enraged when they found out that Brandon was in fact a woman passing as a guy. A week later, on New Year's Eve, the same men murdered Brandon along with two of his friends, Lisa Lambert and Philip Devine. All were shot twice at a close range and Bradon was stabbed several times as well.
The far-reaching effects of ingrained homophobia and misguided loyalty under a veneer of revealing the truth, and how this led to Brandon's destruction are unravelled in this film.
NOMINATED FOR A 2000 EMMMY AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST; TEDDY AWARD AND AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY, BERLINALE FILM FESTIVAL; CANADIAN FILM BOARD AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENARY, VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL; TIME OF HISTORY JURY AWARD FOR BEST FILM, VALLODOLID INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL; GRAND JURY AWARD FOR BEST FILM, GREAT PLAINS FILM FESTIVAL .
Produced by BLESS BLESS PRODUCTIONS
BUT I WAS A GIRL, The Story of Frieda Belinfante
by Tony Boumans
1998, Portrait, 52' & 69', NL
English/Dutch
.....but I was a girl The story of Frieda Belinfante This film tells the story of Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995), a remarkable woman who was the first female conductor to have her own symphony orchestra in Holland and later in Orange County, United States. Controversial, because of her homosexuality she shows a remarkably strong and positive will in everything she does.
Born in a family of musicians in Amsterdam, she joins the resistance during WW II and flees to Switzerland. After the war she moves to the U.S. where she proceeds with her musical career in the Hollywood studios and forms her own symphony orchestra with only Hollywood musicians. The story of her life is told by herself, her older sister Renee, old students and friends, and illustrated by the places where she lived, archive material of her orchestra and some of her most beautiful music.
EDIE & THEA: A Very Long Engagement
by Susan Muska & Greta Olafsdottir
2009, Culture, 59', USA
English
WATCH TRAILER HERE!
After 42 years, feisty and delightful lesbian couple Edie and Thea are finally getting married. From the early '60s to the present day, the tireless community activists persevere through many battles, both personal and political. These two compassionate and brave women are a model of courage and strength that speaks to everyone, of any age. Through this film audiences will recognize that dancing, like loving, can continue at any age, and rediscover the timeless message “Don’t postpone joy”. Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir (The Brandon Teena Story) return with a love story of two remarkable women whose commitment to each other is an inspiration to us all.
2009
Audience Award for Best Documentary Outfest
Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary Skeive Filme
Audience & Director's Club Award for Best Documentary Reel Pride
Audience Award for Best Independent Feature Documentary Image Out
Docula-Award for Best Documentary Hamburg Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
2010
Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Australia
Audience Award for Best Documentary and over all Audiences Favorite Film of the Roze Film Dagen Festival, Amsterdam.
Audience Award for Best Documentary, Internationales Frauen Film Festival Dortmund/Köln
Audience Award for Best Documentary, Pink Apple Film Festival in Zürich, Switzerland.
Audience Award for Best Documentary, Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival - presented by HBO
Audience Award for Best Documentary, Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Audience Award and the Jury Award for Best Documentary, QFest, Philadelphia
REVIEW
Produced by BLESS BLESS PRODUCTIONS
ESCAPE TO LIFE
by Andrea Weiss & Wieland Speck
2000, Cultural, 56 & 84 min, UK/Germany
EnglisH
Chronicling the extraordinary lives of Erika and Klaus Mann, children of author Thomas Mann, Escape to Life presents two talented artists who challenged both social standards and the fascist Nazi government through their outrageous performances. Forced to flee their native Germany, only Erika later returned home.
The voices of Corin and Vanessa Redgrave give this brother-and-sister pair the liveliness for which they were so well known.
Produced by Jezebel Productions
FATHERHOOD DREAMS
By Julia Ivanova
2007, Culture, 54', Canada
English
Meet four gay men who have always wanted to be dads and discover the challenges they face as they realize their dreams of becoming parents.
Fatherhood Dreams takes the audience into the day-to-day lives of Scott, Steve, Randy and Drew, who are fathers through SURROGACY, CO-PARENTING and ADOPTION. Their private journey through fatherhood forces them to deal with much larger issues, including the legal aspects of surrogacy, the complexity of "open adoption", and the battles concerning the official recognition of multi-parent families. Fatherhood Dreams also gives the voice to children - an outspoken four-year-old named Kizea and a teenager Jazz.
These men represent a new possibility, showing how in a modern world gay parenting can transform from a distant dream into a reality.
www.fatherhooddreams.com
Produced by Interfilm
GAY CHAMPIONS
by Tim den Besten & Nicolaas Veul
2012, Culture/G&L, 48', The Netherlands
video; dutch/english/ukraine
A special coverage, by two dutch journalists, of Ukraine’s very first Gay Pride (during the Euro 2012 Championship) that never happened due to extremist threats. The secret route had been leaked and hundreds of members of dangerous anti-gay groups chased gays who were on their way to the Pride. Two of the organizers were hospitalized.
With the world’s gaze fixed upon Ukraine, gays – who have no rights there - felt encouraged to stand up for their rights. It might get even worse when a law against ‘gay propaganda’ passes: (positive) media coverage, support and education of homosexuality will be punishable.
 
Produced by VPRO
GAY SEX IN THE 70s
by Joe Lovett
2005, Culture, 70', USA
English
Documentary producer/director Joseph Lovett focuses his lens on the unbridled sexual passion and exploration that marked the twelve years from Stonewall (1969) to the first reported cases of AIDS (1981). With access to a filmic and photographic treasure trove of erotic life on New York's West Side Piers, trucks, bars, dance clubs, baths and beaches, Lovett's cast of Storytellers (including AIDS activist and writer Larry Kramer and erotic photographer Tom Bianchi, and others) takes us from the remarkably repressed pre-Stonewall period to an era of sexual excess unparalleled since ancient Rome.
Straightforward, funny and titillating at the same time, they tell their stories with remarkable wit, humor and perspective. For younger people - those who became sexually active after the age of AIDS - this film may be a startling revelation of what everyday life was like when American youth were cutting loose from Puritanical values and ascribing to the watchword of the time "if it feels good, do it."
www.gaysexinthe70s.com
Produced by Lovett Productions
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, BOY
by André Schäfer
2007, Culture, 52' & 90, Germany
English/German/French
SELECTED FOR THE 2007 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, BOY tells the story of the coming-out of gay and lesbian cinema and the slowly developing self-confidence of its makers and their audience - a self-confidence which has been characterised in recent times by films which have received awards at renowned film festivals like Berlin and Venice or even the Academy Awards in Hollywood. Gay and lesbian films have had to break through sociological barriers in order to assert themselves and to eventually realise their own coming-out to a broader audience. This film will deal with these and many other important films of the last few decades. Plenty of clips form international productions and behind the scenes footage will complement the interviews with the talent from behind and in front of the camera - with Stephen Frears, Gus Van Sant, Rosa von Praunheim, Tilda Swinton, John Waters, Geneviere Turner and many others!
 
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
INTERNATIONAL SWEETHEARTS OF RHYTHM
by Greta Schiller & Andrea Weiss
1986, Culture 30', USA
English
The rise and fall of American's multi-racial, all-female swing band, which shot to fame during World War II. Produced in association with Channel Four.
Shown at over 100 festivals worldwide. Prize of the International Jury, Oberhausen Short Film Festival; Jury Prize, Leipzig Documentary Festival. Selected for "Highlights of British Television", BBC. Broadcast in 13 countries including Britain, France, Holland, United States (PBS), China, Denmark, Australia, Canada and Japan.
Produced by Jezebel Productions
IS SHE OR ISN'T HE?
by Justin Pemberton
2011, Human Interest/Gay 45' & 70'
New Zealand, English
Growing up as a small town boy who feels like a girl, Graham is an outsider who can see only one solution - to become "Ashleigh". Ashleigh's greatest desire is to be an attractive woman "with beautiful big breasts that a man would love." She insists that she's both heterosexual and a virgin.
But just as Ashleigh starts to really change her appearance, she also reveals her inner conflict and confusion about what she's actually doing. Ashleigh dreads being identified as transgender and divulges that her ultimate drive is simply to become "normal".
WATCH TRAILER!
Produced by The Docufactory
JAMES DEAN
little prince, little bastard
by André Schäfer & Werner Köhne
2005, Culture, 52' & 90, Germany
English
James Dean – alias Jim Stark – crouching on the roadside, giggling childishly into himself. James Dean – alias Cal – lying in a corn field watching the fruit grow. James Dean – alias James Dean – the collar of his coat turned up in New York: Images which have collaborated on building a myth – the image of eternal and misunderstood youth. Unlike Marlon Brando, the proletarian rebel with identifiable goals, James Dean was the timeless and androgynous youthful rebel. His death on the Interstate 46 leads us back to 1950s America, a time when youth was re-interpreted all anew.
The USA was looking for its profile: While the McCarthy-hysteria was reactivating the tough patriar-chal America, the internal social fabric was determining its course for “Big Mama“. All of this followed a general “psychologicalisation” of all spheres of life: Authenticity, truth and rebellion turned into values attributed to youth and also revolutionised the Hollywood studios. James Dean played himself – but like no one else before he also produced himself. It was through this that he was turned into an icon of a media created youth culture, the shadow of which is still hanging over us today.
Excerpts of James Dean’s three films, behind the scenes footage, archive from 1950s America and original photos will merge with the newly shot material tracking the phenomenon James Dean in present day New York, Fairmount and California.
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
MAXINE SULLIVAN: THE LOVE TO BE IN LOVE
by Greta Schiller
1991, Portrait, 48', USA
English
A portrait of the late great jazz vocalist. Produced in association with Channel Four UK and La Sept, France.
Theatrical premiere at the ICA, London, and Film Forum, New York City. Broadcast in France, Britain, Germany and Yugoslavia.
Produced by Jezebel Productions
PATERNAL INSTINCT
by Murray Nossel
2004, Human Interest, 59', USA
English
Mark and Erik have been together for ten years, and they've decided it's time to have kids. But they don't want to adopt. Is there a woman out there willing to serve as a surrogate mother and help them realize their dream?
PATERNAL INSTINCT chronicles two years in the life of these New Yorkers on their journey to become fathers.
Mark, a computer engineer, and Erik, a land conservationist, choose to pursue parenthood through surrogacy, a process increasingly considered by gay couples as an alternative to adoption.
Placing a "NYC Gay Couple Seeks Surrogate" ad on the Internet, they begin the process of fulfilling their primordial desire to have biological children. Mark and Erik are delighted when they get a response from Wen, a married mother living in rural Maine. At an initial meeting in Boston, they work out the paperwork and payment, kicking off a two-year odyssey that will be filled with anxiety, disappointment and, ultimately, joy.
PATERNAL INSTINCT has been featured at a number of domestic and international film festivals, including the recent Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It was directed by Murray Nossel, whose other credits include the Oscar®-nominated short film "Why Can't We Be a Family Again?"
PATERNAL INSTINCT was produced by Murray Nossel and Craig Harwood; directed by Murray Nossel; edited by Susanne Rostock; director of photography, Edward Marritz; original music composed by Hahn Rowe. For CINEMAX Reel Life: consulting editor, Geoff Bartz; supervising producer, John Hoffman; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
www.paternalinstinctfilm.com
PARIS WAS A WOMAN
by Greta Schiller
1996, Culture, 75', UK
English
In the first quarter of the 20th century Paris was the undisputed cultural capital of the world. It was also the meeting place for a new generation of independent women, who literally flocked to the West Bank of Paris and made it their home. Authors Colette, Djuna Barnes and Getrude Stein joined painters Romaine Brookes and Marie Laurencin, photographers Bernice Abbot and Gilsele Freund, publishers and booksellers Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier and journalist Janet Flanner and together they created a now legendary community.
Produced by Jezebel Productions
THE MAN WHO DROVE WITH MANDELA
by Greta Schiller
1998, Portrait/Cultural, 54 min,
UK/USA/South Africa
English/Afrikaans
In 1962, at the height of oppression in apartheid South Africa, a gay white theatre director was arrested with Nelson Mandela. His name was Cecil Williams. This is his story. Featuring Corin Redgrave as Cecil Williams.
Produced in association with Channel Four (UK), AVRO (Netherlands), SA Broadcasting, VRT-CANVAS (Belgium), Corporation for Public Broadcasting (USA), London Production Fund and the BFI.
World premiere Edinburgh 1998. Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, 1998. Berlin International Film Festival 1999: Teddy Bear Award for Best Documentary. Best Documentary, Milan Gay Festival, 1999
Produced by Jezebel Productions
ROCK HUDSON, dark and handsome stranger
 by Andrew Davies & André Schäfer
SELECTED FOR BERLINALE 2010!
2010, Culture, 58' & 90', Germany
English
There are two reasons to revive interest in the Hollywood star Rock Hudson in 2010: If he had not died of AIDS 25 years ago, it would have been his 85th birthday in November 2010. The film portrays a very male looking gay leading man who had to perform a secret balancing act between the heterosexual Hollywood world and the dark side of closeted sexuality. In fact he was someone who always needed to tell lies. He had to become a very good actor even in real life.
The film includes interviews with his French doctor Dr. Philippe Siou and Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Rock’s American doctor who became the first physician to describe a new disease that would later become known as AIDS, friends like Stockton Briggle and his personal secretary Mark Miller, Yanou Collart, his French PR manager, Armistead Maupin, bestselling author, Richard Dyer, film historian, Robert Hofler, author of the book “The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson”, Richard Anderson and Salome Jens, co-stars of “SECONDS”, Leonard Stern, producer of Hudson's TV series “McMillan&Wife” and Hollywood reporter Rona Barrett.
Produced by Florianfilm Gmbh
TINY & RUBY: HELL DIVIN'WOMEN
by Greta Schiller & Andrea Weiss
1986, H.I/Music, 25 min, USA
English
A portrait of Tiny Davis, the woman billed as "The Female Louis Armstrong", and her partner for over forty years, on and off the bandstand, Ruby Lucas. Produced in association with Channel Four, UK.
Silver Plaque Award, Chicago Film Festival; Finalist, American Film and Video Festival. Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival and Festival International de Films de Femmes, Creteil
Produced by Jezebel Productions
WOMAN OF THE WOLF
by Greta Schiller
1993, Cultural, 28 min, USA/UK
English
A sumptuous fairy-tale in which two opposing versions of the same story are told: one recounted verbally by a male guest at a dinner party, and one enacted visually by the elusive woman he meets on a fantasy cargo boat. Starring Alex Kingston as the Woman of the Wolf. Produced in association with Channel Four, PBS (US), and London Production Fund.
Premiere: Berlin International Film Festival, 1994.
Produced by Jezebel Productions
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