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EXB’s guide to Visionär Film Festival

With a focus on emerging talents, this festival at ACUDkino is keeping the same programme as their cancelled April edition. Our film editor runs you through the highlights.

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Indianara is a powerful documentary about the victims of transphobia and the fight for survival of the transgender community in Brazil. Photo: Santaluz

The Visionär Film Festival (21-28/09 at ACUDkino) is keeping the same programme as their cancelled April edition, with the only change being that each film and block of short films will be screened twice this month. So, no excuses for missing out on a very promising line-up of films.

The festival continues to grow as a platform for emerging talents and champions new filmmakers from around the world. Last year, Visionär doubled down on its commitment to gender parity with more films by female and non-binary directors than by men, a rarity on the festival circuit. For this year’s 4th edition, the programme offers an international selection of first or second features in Competition (all German or Berlin premieres) and a selection of 19 short films made by Berlin filmmakers, with a continued focus on gender equality and inclusivity: 6 female and 6 male directors feature in the competition strand, while the shorts section tallies 13 female and 8 male filmmakers.

One of this year’s highlights is the spotlight on Latin America: the programmers have stated that “the social turmoil following the state of repression needs voices of denunciation”, and this is seen in films like Nicolás Rincón Gille’s Tantas Almas (Valley of Souls) (25/09 – 7pm; 26/09 – 6.20pm) the powerful documentary Indianara (24/09 and 27/09 at 7pm) about the victims of transphobia and the fight for survival of the transgender community in Brazil, and the quietly devastating Chilean production Enigma (25/09 – 9.30pm; 26/09 – 9pm), about a woman asked to appear on a TV show to tell the story of her daughter, a young lesbian who was brutally murdered 10 years ago. On a much lighter note is another documentary, this time from Canada: L.A. Tea Time (22/09 – 9pm; 23/09 – 5pm). Fresh from its screening at last year’s Idfa, Hot Docs and Visions du Réel festivals, Québécoise director Sophie Bédard Marcotte’s droll meditation on the creative process sees two filmmakers embark on a roadtrip to Los Angeles to have tea with actor/director Miranda July.