Queer history is a Special Programme theme of Tampere Film Festival 8th-12th March

Short films are at the heart of the festival, and like previous years, hundreds of short films are screened in the National, International and Generation XYZ competitions, as well as the Special Programme screenings. The most prominent Special Programme themes of 2023 include Queerscenes, shining a light on queer history, Free Zone, exploring the use of public space, and Maghreb & France, with four screenings of recent short films from France as well as the Maghreb countries Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Through these films, the audience gets an insight into the history and present day of France’s former colonies and their relationship with France and the French language. We are invited to take a look beyond the newspaper headlines and to get to know the reality of the Maghreb countries as well as the life of people with North African heritage living in France.

Well-known Finnish actor Elina Knihtilä’s career is celebrated in a retrospective screening and on Thursday, 9 March at 16.00 in a Masterclass discussion, in which Knihtilä is interviewed by actor Seidi Haarla. In addition, the Elina Knihtilä: Carte blanche screening features a selection of Knihtilä’s favourite short films. 

Azar Saiyar, who won the AVEK Award in 2022, and works with moving images, will also have her own retrospective screening. Saiyar’s works could be characterised as essay-like studies, where memories and archives come together as transitory layers. The screening is realised in cooperation with AV-arkki.

Queer History from the Archives to the Big Screen

The Queerscenes Special Programme brings gender and sexual minorities to the forefront through various archival films and short films by marginalised filmmakers. Two of the Queerscenes screenings are compiled by the Swedish queer archive SAQMI (The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images): Queer Moving History, which deals with the political struggles and the history of the Swedish Pride movement from 1979 to the present day, and See Us – Dark Matter, which gives space to the “dark matter” of queer Sweden by bringing lesser-known, anti-mainstream filmmakers to the big screen. Complementing the SAQMI screenings, an open panel discussion Making Queer Heritage takes place on Friday, 10 March at 16.00 concentrating on the power implemented on and the marginalisation of the LGBTQ+ community’s cultural heritage from both outside and within the community. The discussion is in English and moderated by Sam Message, the curator of the screenings.

Queerscenes screenings Q-Files 1–2 take a look at Finnish queer history. Tampere Film Festival Executive Director, Riina Mikkonen, says the screenings came about out of an interest in researching how the audiovisual history of sexual and gender minorities has been recorded in Finland: “The idea is to also bring to the forefront material that has not necessarily been thought of as queer history. Queer has historically been on the margins, and its recording has been almost non-existent. These topics may have been consciously forgotten or considered taboo. The objective is to shine a light on people and phenomena that have been overlooked, and remind us that minorities also have a valuable history.”

Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova‘s decadent cult film Salomé (USA, 1922) is also a part of the Queerscenes Special Programme, screened at Cine Atlas on Friday, March 10 at 21.30. The intensely atmospheric silent film, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s play, is live-accompanied by Draama-Helmi, known for her experimental rap music, and guitarist Tommi Kakko.

More information

See the whole program: tamperefilmfestival.fi/en

Serial cards and tickets for individual screenings are on sale in Lippupiste (online and sales points). The competition screenings are also available on the Festhome TV platform 8–19 March. For more information on tickets, please see: tamperefilmfestival.fi/en/festival-2023/tickets