Babylon Kreuzberg 30.05.2025 – 20:30

This program looks at multiple screens: be it television screen, cinema screen, VR glass screen, green screen, and how each offers the possibility of “another life”. Dancing in the lights opens up the program via one of the earliest “vlogging” cultures, the hand-held camera of Nelson Sullivan who strolled the New York queer scene in the 1980s – the Youtube of the bygone era. Many characters from that time, one could assume, have later passed away in the AIDS crisis. Slow Down The Fall mocks the female athlete body that over-performs for the toxic sport tournament and fails to follow through, only to fall over. 315 shows us the correlation between someone’s personal dates and global historical incidents, and an associative train of thoughts that hints at the massacre happening in 1989 Peru. The Orange shows parallel stories of two young couples in Phnom Penh, caught in their own fears for the future to come. It features cinema, again, as a space of imitation and possibility. Lastly Uncanny Home – the winner of XPOSED Short Film Fund 2022 – explores the unreal yet familiar nature of virtual realities, which offer two “Bixa” friends in Berlin a sense of strange home-like comfort, yet it is not their real Brazil.

Dancing In The Light

The video camera was Nelson Sullivan's closest friend. He shared every moment of his life with it for twenty years - from insignificant grocery shopping to deaths of his friends that affected him deeply. He was part of the New York underground scene where he witnessed the birth of stars including the legendary RuPaul.

Content Notes:
none
Julie Petríková

Czech republic, 2023

English. Subtitles in English

30 min

Slow Down The Fall

The reunion of two ski jumping champions whose romantic past will resurface as they face the demands of their sponsors.

Content Notes:
none
Camille Tricaud and Franziska Unger

Germany, 2023

French englisch german. Subtitles in English

20 min

315

A sequence of family anecdotes and historical events coinciding with the artist's date of birth takes on a different tone as he unearths what happened in his native Peru on that specific day in 1989. The monotonous pattern of facts pertaining to the 31st of May suddenly begins to unveil connections to notions of oppressive masculinity, the nuanced tactics employed by imperialist forces, and a neoliberal dream that facilitated the neglect of an important episode in Peruvian history.

Content Notes:
flashing lights, mention of mass murder
Daniel Jacoby

Peru/Netherlands, 2023

Spanish. Subtitles in English

14 min

The Orange

Two childhood best friends reconnect after years of separation. Chay, a Phnom Penh resident, helps Lyer, who comes from the countryside, get a job as a projectionist in the city. A film screening prompts them to wonder about their future together.

Content Notes:
none
Seakleng Song

Cambodia, 2024

Khmer. Subtitles in English

17 min

Uncanny Home

Two friends share the same body in virtual reality as they travel back to their home country to relive good and bad memories and reopen wounds.

Content Notes:
mention of transphobia
Eric Bitencourt

Germany, 2025

Brazilian Portuguese. Subtitles in English, German

11 min