Pure Queer Competition 2 | To liberate | KKC

This year, when 2ANNAS will celebrate its 30^th anniversary, Pure Queer program will be held for the third time. Number Three – which indicates synthesis in many esoteric and theological systems – has been important to us as well. This year, we’lll launch the 2ANNAS ISSF Pure Queer short film competition– it’s dedicated to  works from Central and Eastern Europe that will compete for the Queer Anna Prize. The included works build an image of a wider context that contains Latvia as well. After all, the boundaries of the queer community are mainly set by similar socio-political realities.

After the last year’s festival, mass demonstrations took place in Latvia and abroad, protesting against the denunciation of the Istanbul Convention. On a municipal scale, politicians voiced their cynicism against the existence of the Pure Queer program as such. It is yet another reminder that queer identities are often politicized and that, upon external pressure, our unity is what matters the most. United in spite of various conditions and courses of life – this is what selection of films by Transcendence program curators, Paloma Halén Román and Juno Frisk, declares. Their program focuses on trans-identity narratives that have resilience at their root. We’re In This Together program demonstrates links between generations, lovers and soulmates. They are discovered and created, and they do not break even during the apocalypse.

Programme curator - Žulijens Nuhums Kulibali