Programme

This is the second year that 2025 2ANNAS ISFF is creating a queer short film section “Pure Queer”, which examines a phenomenon of this film genre in three focus programs, bringing together both, widely acclaimed works from around the world and short films that have only recently begun their festival circuit journey. This year, we will look at the concept of femininity through a queer lens, get closer to reality in a documentary film screening, and return to the “queer-coded” screen villains that were common during the Hays Code. This year, the festival’s public program includes a panel discussion on queer masking and stereotyping in contemporary cinema, as well as a section party at the nightclub “Skapis”, which will offer visitors the opportunity to imagine the most heteronormative version of themselves for one evening.

One of the foundational texts of queer and feminist theory, philosopher Judith Butler’s “The Restlessness of the Gendered,” shows that gender and other identities are performative; meaning that, they are constructed on a personal and societal level by repeating certain patterns of behavior, social structures, and expectations, and, like everything else, flow and change across time and cultures. This year’s focus programs offer a look at “femininity” not only as a social and personal role, but also as an aesthetic, philosophical, and filmic format; to feel the pulse of a global community threatened by political rhetoric once again and to train the queer gaze in everyday life through a documentary film program; to encounter characters on screen who have no place in a smoothed-out and “normal” world and its notions of good and evil.

After the screening of the “Queer Villains” program, we will meet for a panel discussion with filmmakers and researchers to discuss how queerness has been masked in 20th-century cinema, ways to recognize and see through these masks, as well as the stereotypes and tools used to construct queer characters in contemporary mainstream cinema. The panel discussion will be moderated by Žulijens Nuhums Kulibali , curator of the “Pure Queer” section.

 Žulijens Nuhums Kulibali - curator of the programme

Pure Queer discussion: QUEER MASKING 

Saturday 05.04. / 20:30 / Kaņepes Culture Centre, big hall

Queers in cinema have existed since cinema’s beginnings – the only question is how to see them? The 20th century practice of "queer coding" in cinema has often hidden or integrated LGBTQ+ community members into the screen world as villains or comic characters, which has left a lasting impression on how we recognize these identities on screen. In a discussion with filmmakers, researchers and curators, we will look at both coding practices in the cinema of our region and talk about contemporary queer cinema tops, codes and masks, trying to outline the direction in which this cinema is going.

The panellists:

• cinema director Romas Zabarauskas (Lithuania),
• cinema researcher and curator Ilona Vitkauskaitė (Lithuania),
• "Trans Fest Stockholm" creators Paloma Halén Román and Juno Frisk (Sweden).

The discussion will be moderated by "Pure Queer" programme curator Žulijens Nuhums Kulibali.

The discussion will be held in English.

Bleached jeans, rolled-up collars, "Sensation White" and Lady Gaga as the most scandalous accents on the DJ's playlist. If we understand queer as something that is not heteronormative, then what is hetero, remains an open question, which this evening, celebrating the "Pure Queer" program of the 2ANNAS film festival, we invite you to try solving on the dance floor, in drag performances and at the awarding of the best straight-drag visitor. Time to put the rave gear to rest, pull out low-waisted jeans and a polo shirt from the depths of the closet to turn the mirror on non-queers and say: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, tell me which queen is the most heteronormative of all"?

DJ: Partners in USB

Drag: Vilhelmīne Žagata, Asteria, Vencheska

Dress code: Early 2000's club scene