SHORTS
Retrospective 1: A Collective Becoming
Curated by Bartholomew Sammut, Pol Merchan, Thomas Schallhart, Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani, Merle Groneweg
Films that celebrate collective creation, the power of queer people coming together to build something meaningful, daring, and unforgettable. Works that embody the spirit of collaboration and resistance, reflecting how XPOSED has grown into what it is today. Stories where community is not just present, but powerful: where connection, solidarity, and shared vision become a force capable of creating something truly groundbreaking.
Sinema Transtopia
21.05.2026 – 18:00
International Dawn Chorus Day
On International Dawn Chorus Day (May 3, 2020), birds from six continents join a zoom call. They gossip about storms and cats and wires and dates. They talk about Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash, known for his satiric anti-dictator music videos, who died the day before in Cairo’s notorious Tora prison. They wonder about Egyptian queer activist Sarah Hegazi, famously incarcerated for flying a rainbow flag at a Cairo concert, now living as a refugee in Toronto. They don’t realize that a month later, unable to bear the pain of her prison trauma, Sarah will take her own life.
Director: John Greyson with Shady Habash, Sarah Hegazi
Country: Canada, 2020
Language: English
Subtitle: English
Duration: 15 min
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (Uma paciência selvagem me trouxe até aqui)
Vange, a lonely biker, is enchanted by the relationship and freedom of four girls, with whom she spends a weekend where exchanges about lesbian experiences and culture are present, accompanied by a mutual affection that gradually establishes itself.
Director: Éri Sarmet
Writer: Éri Sarmet
Country: Brazil, 2021
Language: Brazilian Portuguese
Subtitle: English
Duration: 26 min
I don't want to be just a memory
Fellow Berlin queer community members together mourn the loss of their dead friends due to substance abuse and mental health crisis (and the loss of urban safe spaces in general) by sharing a few personal materials, stories and honest criticism about the club/nightlife scene. Resembling glowing-in-the-dark fungi such as Panellus stipticus, they transform dead bodies and memories into a collective structure that sustains future living – radiating the light together as a network of support and care.
Director: Sarnt Utamachote
Writer: Sarnt Utamachote, Kareem Baholzer
Country: Germany, 2024
Language: English, Spanish
Subtitle: English, German
Duration: 20 min
Dogfriend (Hundefreund)
A casual hook-up takes an unexpected turn in this meditation on race, politics and history.
Director: Maissa Lihedheb
Writer: Lamin Leroy Gibba, Sailesh Naidu
Country: Germany/Tunisa, 2021
Duration: 18 min
Juck (Thrust)
JUCK is a 17-minute film which is a hybrid between documentary, dance and fiction. The film depicts the all-female dance group JUCK who made a name for themselves in 2013 with a video that became a viral hit all over the world. The word ”juck” is Swedish for “hump” and their groundbreaking appearance pushed the boundaries of how we are used to seeing the female body. JUCK questions the positions of object and subject. They provoke, inspire and break norms. The film asks: what is femininity?
Director: Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira
Country: Sweden, 2018
Duration: 18 min
