Queer Shorts From Turkey

9/8fight41: a 9/8 fight for all of us

Director: Gizem Aksu
Cast: Sema Semih, Gizem Nalbant, Banu Açıkdeniz
Turkey, 2022, HD, color, 29’ 

This documentary short dance film is based on Gizem Aksu's spectral friendship with Sinti-Roma boxing legend of Germany, Johann Rukeli Trollmann (1907-1944) and the inter-generational and inter-geographical journey of this friendship. Rukeli Trollmann was exposed to many forms of discrimination by the Nazi regime because of "boxing by dancing like Gypsy" and was murdered in the Wittenberge Concentration Camp. Inspired by the fight of Rukeli Trollmann, the film traces the artist's experience of immigration to Berlin and the fight for justice in Istanbul.

There Is Nothing Called Home

Director: Nur Özkaya
Cast: Aleyna Pişiren, Perihan Özkaya
Turkey, 2022, HD, color, 4’

The story of a person who is stuck with the concept of home and attaches a lot of meaning to small things, choosing herself as a weapon at a Russian roulette table and the battle of her inner roulette.

No One Would Go

Director: Tuğba Baykal
Turkey, 2022, HD, color, 39’ 

No One Would Go is a documentary about psychiatric and psychological "treatments" including physical interventions aimed at "curing" LGBTI+s in Turkey, and the experiences of LGBTI+s who have been exposed to these methods.