fLTR: Maša Zia Lenárdič (@atypical_lens), Anja Wutej (@anja.woot), Başak Günak (@ahkosmos)
FILMMAKERS
Maša Zia Lenárdič and Anja Wutej are self-taught filmmakers born in Slovenia, where Anja graduated from Faculty of Arts and Maša from Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security. In 2013, they moved to Berlin, Germany where they now live, work and create.
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Maša has been working as a self-taught freelance filmmaker and photographer since 2011. She was on the organising team of the Berlin Xposed International Queer Film Festival from 2014 until 2018 where she learned a lot about what it takes to organise a film festival and gained some truly priceless and valuable experience which influenced her growth not only as a filmmaker, but also as a person.
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Anja is working as a freelance translator/interpreter (for German, English and Slovenian) and a stand up comedian. She has gained acting experience by appearing in several theatre plays and feature, short and promo films.
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Together, they have created 6 independent queer films - ''Take It / Break It'' (2011), ''(A)Typical Couple'' (2012), ''Queer Artivism'' (2013), ''Disconnected'' (2018), ''Not Your Ordinary Sister'' (2019) and ''Pussy Cruising'' (2021) - which have so far been screened at more than 170 international film festivals all around the world. In 2021 they completed a short queer film ''Pussy Cruising'' which was partially funded and supported by Queer Scope.
AH! KOSMOS
Başak Günak also known as AH! KOSMOS is producer and performer born in Istanbul, based in Berlin. In the last 6 years, she released two LPs from Compost Records & Denovali Records and numerous EPs. Both timeless and otherworldly, Günak’s work unconsciously defies being tied to a genre, tapping into something beyond an immediate surrounding or experience to communicate something more transcendental. Günak uses polyrhythms, electronic composition and found sounds to build a mystical world of modulation into which one can sink and be carried away.
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Günak splits her time between producing, live performance, sound installations and composing for dance, theatre, film, and visual arts. Her works for contemporary dance, theaters, and site-specific performances have been presented in several art spaces including Prague Quadrennial, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Prague Signal Festival, 18th&19th Istanbul International Theatre Festival. In 2020, she has presented her latest solo sound installation THE WELL, a piece for 11 speakers and performance in VKV Museum Istanbul and made music for Kunstmuseum Basel’s exhibition.
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Performing solo or accompanied by a guitarist, she has supported among others Sigur Rós and Jonny Greenwood’s Junun Project (Barbican Theatre/ UK), Julia Holter, Darkside and also has performed at numerous festivals including Sónar Barcelona, Berlin CTM Festival, Venice Electro Festival, Tokyo Electronic Music of Arts Festival, ZKM Karlsruhe and ARENA Theater Festival Nuremberg.
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In 2017, she launched FUU, a cluster that is conceived to flourish on the encounters between sonic and visual arts. And collaborated to the Sonar Calling Project.
THE FILM WAS KINDLY SUPPORTED AND PARTIALLY FUNDED BY
QUEER SCOPE
At least 24 lesbian, gay, transgender, LGBTIQ or queer film festivals take place in Germany. They account for 10% of all queer film festivals worldwide.
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QueerScope is a union of independent queer film festivals in Germany, a co-operation of 19 festivals in Germany and 1 in Switzerland, 15 of them taking place in autumn and 4 in spring. They reach an overall audience of over 30.000 each year and give numerous awards to short films, features, debuts etc.
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The festivals are all independent, but work together tightly. The QueerScope festivals partly screen films together, share promo material and exhibition copies in order to save filmmakers or distributors effort and money; they co-ordinate and share their own subtitle translations, and jointly invite filmmakers to the festivals.
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Programmers of QueerScope festivals have been invited to the Teddy jury of Berlin Film Festival, the juries of Frameline in San Francisco, Uppsala International Short Film Festival and other respected international film festivals.
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The QueerScope festivals encourage the dialogue about acceptance and equal rights, point out injustices and discriminations, which still exist in Germany and around the world— and above all they celebrate great movies.
