QFFM presents queer feature-length and short films. Queer is not a boundary here: it describes the distinct perspectives from which every film approaches universal human experiences such as coming of age, identity and parenthood.
It is important that alternative perspectives are shown. Right-wing populists around the world seek to push alternative lives and realities out of sight and to the margins. Violence, imprisonment and torture are still part of everyday life for LGBTIQ* people in parts of the world, and even in Europe minorities are once again treated as seemingly legitimate targets of aggression and hate.
With our festival, we want to help ensure that alternative perspectives do not disappear, but remain present as vital and equal ways of seeing and living in the world today.
What we stand for
Founded in 2015, QFFM | Queer Film Festival Munich is an independent film institution that promotes diversity on the cinema screen and presents films beyond hetero- and homonormative cinema. Through its film selection, the festival questions stereotypes and foregrounds intersectional queer perspectives and aesthetics.
The question of who represents whom in film, in what way and with which connotations is central to the curatorial process. The festival goes beyond representation alone and sees itself as a platform for filmmakers who understand and live queerness as a political, solidary and resistant concept. The works presented at the festival explore diverse ways of living and forms of sexual expression. They question what is considered conventional or “normal”.
The suggestion that queerness is new while precarity is normal—and that every millimetre of freedom must therefore be negotiated at length—belongs to the oldest playbook of conservative dominant societies. Queer history is absent from compulsory curricula. Through its festival programme, year-round screenings and discussions, dedicated school screenings and educational events, QFFM counters this institutionalised lack of knowledge with artistic visions of possible worlds and freedoms.
The festival is a project of Queer Culture e.V., a registered non-profit association made up of people from different areas of queer life. Through its cultural work, the association aims to create a public space for intellectual, emotional and action-oriented engagement.