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Festival Program 2026Shorts 9: WATERING THE SEEDS

SHORTS

Shorts 9: WATERING THE SEEDS

This program explores processes of growing up, growth, and unlearning that many queer people experience while confronting patriarchy, gender binaries, social conventions, and even personal addictions. Opening the program, A Black Man’s Day confronts us with powerful testimonies from transmasculine people in rural Brazil, challenging us to rethink what masculinity can mean beyond inherited norms. Honey, My Love, So Sweet follows a queer child growing up inside a cinema in Manila, observing the many social groups that pass through its doors while gradually discovering new parts of themself. I Am Tejimola summons an Assamese folktale about a figure who may be read as queer, oppressed yet constantly resurrecting and shapeshifting, becoming a symbol of endurance for future generations. Rezbotanik turns toward rest and healing. While queer pleasure is often associated with nightlife and clubs, this film steps outside, exploring the quiet connections between bodies, landscapes, and the natural world. A Is for Andra adopts the playful format of a mockumentary television show, introducing queer Indonesian personalities across the globe. Through humor and performance, the film reveals how friendship and chosen families shape queer belonging. The program closes with Girl-Boy, returning to the question raised at the beginning: what does it mean to be transgender in a rapidly changing world? While gender binaries may appear increasingly fluid, police violence and anti-LGBT+ legislation, particularly in parts of Africa, continue to intensify. Together, these films reflect on how queer people grow, question, unlearn, and continue to thrive despite the harsh structures that surround them.

Content Notes: mention or implication of transphobia

Babylon Kreuzberg

31.05.2026 – 20:30

Black Man Days (Um dia de Negão)

Three black trans men confront manifestations of their unconscious while living their daily lives in the Salvador. Each encounter reflects their internal struggles and the pressures of a society that demands a rigid masculinity. Amidst these experiences, they share reflections on the expectations of living a healthier masculinity, free from stereotypes.

Director: Rebeca Carmo and Analu Nascimento
Writer: Rebeca Carmo, Analu Nascimento and Zahran Lorenzo
Country: Brazil, 2024
Language: Portuguese
Subtitle: English
Duration:  7 min

Honey, My Love, So Sweet

In a decaying cinema in the heart of Manila, Life discovers first love through films and their new friend’s father.

Director: JT Trinidad
Country: Philippines, 2025
Language: Filipino/Tagalog
Subtitle: English
Duration:  20 min

I am Tejimola (Tejimola-he Moi)

While getting ready for the day, the protagonist feels the presence of something sinister, and soon comes to face it. During their confrontation, they turn to a childhood story for strength.
Tejimola-he moi is an animated short film that re-tells a classic Assamese folktale, through the eyes of our protagonist’s personal experiences. It talks about queerness, gender expression, and fluidity as a form of resistance.

Director: Aditav Dowerah
Writer: Aditav Dowerah
Country: India, 2025
Language: Assamese
Subtitle: English
Duration:  6:51 min

Rezbotanik

After heavy nights partying with drugs and sex, Rezmorah goes to the Botanical Garden of Lisbon to get sober again. More than a park, the place is a living museum: and is amidst its tropical and exotic flora that Rez talk about their relationship with the night, with that space, and with gender, wondering what plants may have to teach us about ways of seeing and thinking queer life.

Director: Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro
Writer: Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro, Rezmorah
Country: Brazil, Portugal, Spain, 2025
Language: Portuguese
Subtitle: English
Duration:  18 min

A is for Andra

A is for Andra is an experimental documentary film following a queer, revisionist narrative, taking as its core the story of Andra, a former MTV VJ and TV host in Indonesia from 2007-2011. Using humour, performance, and poetry, Andra tracks their evolution from a young, rising star in Bandung to a non-binary transmasculine adult living a private life as a kindergarten teacher in Berlin. Through the framing device of an entertainment variety show, the film uses found footage, movement sequences, and interview material to map the limits of expression in the early 2010s media imaginary and the gendered constraints that Andra often found themselves in, as well as the slow unlearning of their identity.

Director: Charmaine Poh
Writer: Charmaine Poh, Dirandra Sandyakala
Country: Indonesia, 2025
Language: English, Indonesian
Subtitle: English
Duration:  16:02 min

Girl-Boy

Four women navigate life as masculine-presenting women in Nigeria, a society with rigid gender expectations.

Director: Ajay Abalaka
Country: Nigeria, 2025
Language: English
Subtitle: English
Duration:  30 min

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