2011. October 24-28. Művész Cinema (VI. Teréz krt. 30.)
2011. October 29. Merlin Theatre (V. Gerlóczy u. 4.)
2011. October 28-30. Labrisz office (VIII. Szentkirályi u. 22-24.)
Lesbian Identities Festival (LIFT), the first lesbian cultural festival in Hungary took place in 2005 and included film screenings, workshops, literary readings, a lesbian herstory exhibition and a women’s afterparty. The festival's main purposes are to create a public event attracting the lesbian community in all its diversity, to encourage collaboration and networking between lesbian groups and individuals in the region, and to make the lesbian community and culture more visible to the public. From 2007 on the festival has been organized annually.
Step in to Labrisz Lesbian Association’s LIFT for the sixth time!
This year we’re again into pictures, meetings and discussions – you can meet rebellious lesbians on the screen, at workshops, in art works and, of course, in person as well.
At the screenings of Művész cinema (from Monday to Friday) you’ll have a chance to get a glimpse into the lives of nuns, artists, punks, intersexuals, the elderly, the loving, and dreaming lesbians in action.
If you want to do something with your hands, you can join the comics workshop on Friday and Saturday, and the one making unique vegan sex toys out of recycled bicycle parts on Sunday. At our workshops in Merlin on Saturday, you can hear authentic experiences from the situation of Hungarian lesbians living in neighbouring countries. You can learn about he political and psychological effects of BDSM, and talk with experts about what queer theory and practice means. You can play poker with Csajka all night long, share your opinion on our lesbian national consultation wall, find pleasure in lesbian art works, be in fever to see who this year’s winner of the LIFT prize will be, and in the evening you can choose from two dance halls to party in.
The evening party is for women only, all other programs are open for everyone.
Művész Cinema, 24-28 October, 8 PM
The films are screened in their original language with Hungarian subtitles.
Entrance fee: 900 HUF
24 Oct Monday |
25 Oct Tuesday |
26 Oct Wednesday |
27 Oct Thursday |
28 Oct Friday |
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8 PM
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The Lesbian Avengers eat fire, too Orchids, my intersex adventure |
The role of the cat in French literature Donor unknown
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The Edge of Heaven
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Damned if you don’t Radical act
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Tough girls don’t dream Too much pussy! Feminist Sluts, a Queer X Show (18+) |
D: Su Friedrich. USA, 1993, 55 mins.
This film documents the first year of actions by The Lesbian Avengers, a group of bold and brazen New York City activists fighting for recognition and equal rights for lesbians everywhere. “We’re wasting our lives being careful. Imagine what your life could be. Aren’t you ready to make it happen?”
D: Phoebe Hart. Australia, 2010, 56 mins.
An auto-biographicaldocumentary from 2010 about one woman’s struggle to understand her own intersex condition against the backdrop of interviewing other intersex people. Director Phoebe Hart used digital cameras and a small crew on a road trip of self-discovery through various areas of Australia, recording some personal struggles disclosed to her by other intersex individuals. The film won the Atom Award for Best Documentary General.
D: Virág Zomborácz. Hungary, 2006, 13 mins.
Fear and trembling in a suburban sublet. Surrealistic queer comic based on Zsuzsa Bruria Forgács’s writing, as pictured by a young and talented Hungarian woman director.
D: Jerry Rothwell. UK, 2010, 78 mins.
A film about identity, genetic inheritance and the family of the future. Donor Unknown follows the story of JoEllen Marsh, 20, the daughter of two lesbians, as she goes in search of the sperm donor father she only knows as Donor 150.
D: Fatih Akin. Germany-Turkey, 2007, 122 mins.
Ayten, the political activist of the illegal Turkish communist party participates in a terrorist attack in Istambul. All women in the group get arrested, but she flees to Germany. She meets Lotte, a university student, who gives her more than a place to hide. The two women fall in love, but Ayten gets deported back to Turkey. Lotte sets out to release her love from the depth of a female prison in Asia. The film has won 11 awards, including the grand prix of the jury at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Festival, and the award for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.
D: Su Friedrich. USA, 1987, 42 mins.
Beautifully shot in black and white, it blends conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs to create an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. We enter an isolated convent, whose tale of passions leashed and unleashed provides the leitmotif for a young lesbian who watches it and the lonely nun she pursues and seduces. As the two women’s lives come closer to joining, voiceovers from the biography of a 16th century lesbian nun and the reminiscences of a woman’s closeted romances at a Catholic school flesh out the theme. When the two women finally meet and make love, the woman’s careful unwrapping of the nun’s complicated prison of clothing is both foreplay and liberating metaphor.
D: Tex Clark. USA, 1995, 55 mins.
In the summer of 1995, filmmaker Tex Clark travelled around the country to interview female musicians, journalists and historians about how their sexual and gender identity impacted their lives and informed their work. Radical act captures a moment in indie rock history and speaks to the universal experience of finding your voice in an indifferent and occasionally hostile world.
D: Zsófia Zsemberi. Hungary, 2011, 10 mins.
Chicky dreams, a dream bar, dream cleaners in an artificial world where it is fatal to dream. The very first Hungarian lesbian sci-fi, based on Jeanette Winterson’s short story “Disappearance”. At last!
D: Wendy Delorme, Émilie Jouvet. France-Germany, 2010, 93 mins.
A documentary road-movie about 7 young women artists on tour on a bus, all over Europe, who create on stage a manifesto on feminism, sex, art and education. The director travels across France and Germany with her camcorder and her posse of performance artists delivering their own version of feminism. They bring sexuality to the forefront, live and breathing, visceral and inescapable, right in front of your eyes. Jouvet further crosses the lines between porn, erotism, art, and activism with the live-shows that challenge reserved notions.
Labrisz Office, 28-30 October
28 Oct Friday |
29 Oct Saturday |
30 Oct Sunday |
6 PM Comic workshop with Helena Janecic |
10 AM Comic workshop with Helena Janecic |
4 PM Bikesexual: vegan DIY sextoys from recycled bicycle parts |
You have a story that you would like to tell in pictures? You like to doodle while you speak on the phone? You have a secret talent for drawing women in skimpy outfits? Come and find out the unlimited possibilities with which to fill an empty sheet of paper! We will also cover some concepts of comic book story telling. Materials and supplies will be provided at the workshop.
For maximum 25-30 participants, previous experience not needed! Learn how to make a harness, handcuffs, a collar, a whip or just a bracelet or jewelry, all from broken bicycle parts, with simple techniques, to make your sex life as dirty, as cheap and as green as you like, and to go beyond the limits of what you can get in a sex shop.
Merlin Theatre, 29 October
The workshops will be held in Hungarian except for Lesbian BDSM which will be held in English.
We try to offer English translation for those who are interested.
Café | Small Room | Rehearsal room | Theatre Room | |
2 PM |
Exhibition of the works of lesbian artists Lesbian National Consultation wall |
Femininity, masculinity and rebellion | ||
3 PM | ||||
4 PM | Lesbians beyond the borders | “Are you normal?” Discussion about queer, sexual politics, and identity | ||
5 PM | ||||
6 PM |
6 PM Verazélet 7.30 Reading |
Lesbian BDSM – The Politics of Desire | ||
7 PM | ||||
8 PM |
8.30 Supporting mini-concert with Pa-Dö-Dő 8.45 Awards ceremony of the 2011 LIFT prize |
Poker championship with Csajka | ||
9 PM |
Exhibition of the works of lesbian artists Lesbian National Consultation wall |
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10 PM | ||||
11 PM | Lesbian party with Ösztrosokk | Lesbian party with Ösztrosokk | ||
- 5 AM |
Are rebellious women masculine? Are masculine women rebellious? Do lesbians rebel against traditional gender roles? Is it necessary, is it important to rebel against these? Is it rebellious if a woman takes up a ‘man’s role’, has a ‘male’ job, communicates her feelings in a ‘masculine’ way, has a ‘masculine’ appearance? What does ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ mean, to start with? What does rebelling mean in the public sphere? And in the private sphere? Do traditional gender roles and their critiques appear in the public communication of LGBT communities? We are looking for answers to these questions with Dóra Mester, sex educator and Dorottya Rédai, gender and sexuality researcher.
LIFT is the Festival of Lesbian Identities – how many kinds of lesbian identities exist? Who is the “normal” lesbian? Compared to whom? Do we want to be “normal”? Queer theory and activism raise these questions among others regarding the relationship of majority society and homosexuality. Discussion about identity labels, sexual and love relationships, visibility and gay pride, and the possibilities of LGBT and anti-homophobic community. Conducted by Kati Turai and Katalin Kis.
Roundtable discussion about Hungarian lesbian and gay life outside Hungary. Communities, formal and informal societies, meeting opportunities, social environment, identities. Assessing the situation, exchanging experiences, getting to know each other and getting inspired. Guests from Transsylvania, Vojvodina and the Czech Republic.
In the lecture feminist counsellor Yana Ziferblat will discuss the background of voluntary engagement in the usage of force and humiliation as part of the erotic experience. She will explore the historical background of political engagement with BDSM in the feminist movement, the psychological background of personal engagement with it, and the coming together of the personal and political “in the dungeon”. She will inquire into the personal-political roots of erotic, gender and love, and how those influence our erotic choices, and finally the dangers of non-reflexive BDSM, the ways of becoming aware of the frequently hidden needs of those involved, and the utter importance and tools of on-going dialogue and reflection about the relations between shame, pain and pleasure will be discussed. The lecture will be held in English.
Discussion with Anna Lovas Nagy about her first novel. Discussant: Kriszta Bódis
Of the best works submitted for the call for fiction by Labrisz.
TexasHold’em Championship. Nomination fee: 500 Ft, which will be exchanged for tokens. It’s up to you how long you stay in game, but if you are out of money, you have one chance to “re-buy”. The first three best take all! Apply at Ez az e-mail cím a spamrobotok elleni védelem alatt áll. Megtekintéséhez engedélyezned kell a JavaScript használatát. or at the venue (from 7.30 pm).
It is the 5th time to award the LIFT prize for a person who has been working prominently for the lesbian community. Our awardees so far: Ágota Weiszgerber, Judit Szabó, Márti Kis, Bea Sándor, Magdi Timár.
What does the Hungarian lesbian nation want? You can write on the wall set up at the festival venue what you expect as a lesbian from Hungarian society, and from Labrisz Association.
Paintings, photos, and installations of Tea Erdélyi, Krisztina Gyurkó, Dragana Marosevics, Judit Szabó and Zsófia Zsemberi. The works can be seen after the festival for 2 weeks in Café Vis Major.
Get into the partyLIFT with Ösztrosokk! Let’s meet after 10 pm in Merlin, and let’s top the one-week festival with a party flavored with eclectic dance music. Contemporary house/electro upstairs, retro delicacies in the ground-floor small room. Women only on all levels!
Entrance fee: 1200 HUF
Tickets for the movies: 900 Ft. Saturday programs during the day are free, donations are welcome. Saturday night party: 1200 Ft.
The organizers maintain the right of change of program.
Labrisz Lesbian Association