SHORTS
Retrospective 3: Performative Disruptions
Curated by Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani
What happens when the body refuses to fulfil its designated function? This selection of films explores the blurred boundaries between humans, animals, and vegetables. Whether through a foley artist’s phantom limb, a panda’s political voice, or the erotic life of a carrot, these works celebrate the plasticity of identity. Moving between surreal animation and public performance, the films in this program ask: how do we transform our skins to survive? Here, the body is not a fixed reality, but a shifting landscape of desire and resistance. From defiant drag in a coal-stricken landscape to the corporate gatekeeping of a theme park, these seven films contemplate the possibilities of images and textures that continually reshape themselves to transform our perception.
Sinema Transtopia
22.05.2026 – 20:30
Retrospective Shorts
Flores del otro Patio
In the Colombian Caribbean, a group of queer activists practice a militancy that challenges heteropatriarchal norms while engaging in other causes to collectively fight against the various social injustices that plague the region. When the management of the country’s largest coal mine announces a press conference to promote the development of mining, the group prepares to carry out a denunciatory performative action… and resolutely queer.
Director: Jorge Cadena
Writer: Jorge Cadena, Li Aparicio Candama
Country: Switzerland, Colombia, 2022
Language: Spanish
Subtitle: English
Duration: 16 min
Retrospective Shorts
PLEASE RELAX NOW
Director: Vika Kirchenbauer
Country: Germany, 2014
Language: English
Duration: 12 min
Retrospective Shorts
Passage
A foley artist creates sounds for a film starring a dressage horse and dissolves into his own imitation.
As the character in the film, played by the gender fluid performer Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, seems to transform into a gender-defying centaur, the film reflects on the boundaries between the human and the animal as well as on fictional gender roles and their transcendence.
Director: Ann Oren
Writer: Ann Oren
Country: Germany, 2020
Language: No dialogue
Duration: 13 min
Retrospective Shorts
Carrotica
A teenager is writing an explicit gay erotica in secret in his bedroom and his mother is falling in love with a carrot. They’re doing okay…
Director: Daniel Sterlin-Altman
Writer: Daniel Sterlin-Altman
Country: Germany, 2024
Language: English
Subtitle: English, German
Duration: 13 min
Retrospective Shorts
Panda Moonwalk
Sinema Transtopia
22.05.2026 – 18:00
Since 2017 the two Giant Panda Bears Meng Meng and Jiao Qing have been hired out by China to the Berlin Zoo for millions of Euros. Unfortunately for the Zoo this profit seeking attraction did not work out as planned – in fact it worked backwards. Meng Meng, the female Panda will only walk backwards – probably protesting against her imprisonment. Surprisingly the international press takes a different, sexist route and suggests that Meng Meng’s behaviour relates to the fact that she has not yet bred and is seeking attention. Kerstin Honeit’s video aligns Meng Meng’s protest with other performances of protesting bodies using movement in public space to address grievances.
Director: Kerstin Honeit
Country: Germany, 2018
Duration: 8 min
Retrospective Shorts
Eggism
Sinema Transtopia
22.05.2026 – 18:00
“Eggism” is a videowork that explores the boundaries of the body, the organic and the abstract. Drawing inspiration from the works of renowned French philosopher and writer Georges Bataille, the piece uses a unique combination of the human body, eggs, and line drawings to create sensual, yet abstract imagery. The addition of analog synthesizer sounds further enhances the overall viewing experience, inviting the audience to fully immerse themselves in this journey.
Director: Coco Schwarz & Alina Mann
Country: Switzerland, 2016
Language: No dialogue
Duration: 5 min
Retrospective Shorts
Real Snow White
Sinema Transtopia
22.05.2026 – 18:00
The absurd logic of the ‘real character’ and the extreme discipline of Disneyland become apparent when a real fan of Disney’s Snow White* is banned from entering the park in a Snow White costume. As visitors are encouraged to dress up and a lot of costume-like merchandise is sold at the park, the full costumes are only sold for children. The Disney slogan ‘Dreams Come True’ of course means dreams produced exclusively by Disney. Anything even slightly out of control immediately evokes fear of these real, possibly dark and perverse dreams coming true. The fantasy of the innocent Snow White doing something bad is so obviously real, that the security guards and management refer to it when explaining why the visitor can’t enter the park dressed up as Snow White.
Director: Pilvi Takala
Writer: Pilvi Takala
Country: France, Netherlands, 2009
Language: English
Subtitle: English
Duration: 9 min
