Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened...

THE CALLERS combines anonymous documentary testimony with imagined creative scenes to tell the story of those who have called the oldest queer support line in the UK, seeking guidance on everything from where to find the nearest leather club to how to come out, start a family or mend a broken heart. The film is a love letter to queer memory and possibility, LGBTQ+ community and care, and the power of collective imagination to create the lives we dream of.

The Lesbian Bar Project: FLINTA documents the complex and triumphant stories of the FLINTA communities in Cologne & Berlin; a reflection of where the queer community is headed internationally. Despite Lesbian Bars disappearing in Germany, there’s a growing FLINTA movement that epitomizes the evolution of queer culture. Featuring Boize Bar owner Payman Neziri, comedian Ricarda Hofmann, human rights activist Anbid Zaman, politician Tessa Ganserer, and party collectives Bebex and Girlstown.

From a young age, Natsuki knew she was a girl despite her sex assigned at birth. Against the backdrop of conservative Japanese society, this poignant docudrama tells her remarkable story of gender transition. Reflecting on her high school years, Natsuki interviews the supportive friends and family who supported her choices – and also confronts the people those who oppressed her freedom. Tracing Natsumi’s story to the present, this compelling portrait of gender identity in contemporary Japan offers insights of a layered experience in a complex society.

Leading activists and commentators explore the changes that have taken place since homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967 and the influence of gay culture on society.

The pro-Palestinian, anti-capitalist, BDSM-provocative, techno-punk performance art ensemble Hatari unsurprisingly drew attention to themselves with their performance at the Icelandic qualifiers for the Eurovision Song Contest. So much so that they won and therefore were allowed to perform at the main event in Tel Aviv. But what now? Should they boycott the event, swallow their idealism, or use their airtime to criticise the host country for their illegal occupation of Palestine? The Icelandic director Anna Hildur joins the boys in the band all the way to the fateful final.

Two of the biggest boy bands in pop history, New Kids On The Block & Backstreet Boys, brought their NKOTBSB Tour to the UK on April 28, 2012. The second night on April 29th at the world-famous O2 Arena also set a milestone- the show was broadcast online and in select theaters all over the world via livestream. NKOTBSB first shocked and delighted fans when they took the stage together for a medley at the sold out NKOTB Radio City Music Hall show in 2010. The two groups wowed audiences again in their first joint televised performance at the American Music Awards in November 2010 and then went on tour together in 2011 through 2012.

Ewa Hołuszko is a remarkable figure. In the 1980s she bore the male name of Marek Hołuszko, an active Solidarity movement activist. After 1989 she could not fully enjoy the regained freedom as the place of communism was taken by another enemy, more difficult to defeat, intolerance and exclusion. Gender change made her realize how far away Polish society is from full freedom. Nevertheless, she still believes that it is possible to live in a different Poland, free from stigmatization, persecution and prejudice against others.

How did the rise of LGBTQ visibility, political progress, and digital technologies in the 2000s come together to offer the abundance of complex queer and transgender representations we see today? Media scholar Katherine Sender shows how LGBTQ visibility and political progress have combined with new digital media technologies and television platforms to produce an increasingly complex range of queer and transgender representations.

Petar Peca Popović is one of the greatest, most famous, most authoritative and for sure, the best, connoisseur of Rock and Roll in the former Yugoslavia. He promoted Rock and Roll in those heroic times. We are going on a peculiar kind of trip with him, along an "emotional homeland", of ex-Yu, "searching for the lost times" and dear friends, the most significant representatives of this culture - rock'n'roll legends.

Jon Sistiaga takes an immersive trip to Poland, a country divided into two zones: on the one hand, the urban and pro-European, and on the other, the rural and ultra-Catholic, still anchored in the traumas of the war and the post-war period. Is Poland a homophobic country or does it have a homophobic government? How does the European Union allow this situation?

Cesária Évora made the music of the Cape Verde islands famous throughout the world in the early 1990s. This film is an introduction to the culture, music and zest for life of the Cape Verdean people. On the occasion of the famous carnival of Mindelno, on the island of São Vicente where Cesaria Évora was born, this documentary offers a musical journey to discover "Sodade" and its legacy. Cesaria Évora, who died in 2011 after a twenty-year career, has allowed Cape Verde to shine throughout the world. The "barefoot diva", considered the queen of the morna has conquered the world and inspired many Cape Verdean artists. The small archipelago, which was for several centuries an important hub of the slave trade has promoted since then an important ethnic mix, which has played an important role in the evolution of local music.