The Czech Queer Film Festival

The Czech Queer Film Festival was founded in 2000. The first edition of the festival, then named ‘Duha nad Brnem´ (Rainbow over Brno), introduced 8 feature and documentary films, 3 theatre performances and 3 fine art exhibitions to an audience of 800. The third edition, under its new title Mezipatra, expanded from Brno to Prague.

The name Mezipatra in Czech means “mezzanine”, i.e. the space between individual floors: a symbolic space for meeting of all kinds of people, regardless of their particularities.

The fifth edition stressed the international ambitions of the festival by growing attendance of international artist. 8000 viewers attended 67 film screenings and other 20 events – theatre performances, stage readings, exhibitions and music performances. The festival experienced a further expansion – the first Echoes took place in Hradec Králové.

The sixth edition took place in Brno, Prague and for the first time in Český Těšín. 90% of films were introduced as Czech premieres. The film program was broadened by four photograph exhibitions, two of which were created exclusively for the festival as reflections of the main topic, two panel discussions, and a stage reading night, literary night, two concerts and record-breaking fifteen theatre performances. The festival attracted 8 500 viewers.

The seventh edition took place in Brno, Prague and Český Těšín. In the two main cities, 85 films were screened and there were 30 events in off-program. Festival prizes were created by Zdeněk Vacek, a reputable designer and winner of the prestigious competition Designblok. The festival closing was moderated by actress Ivana Uhlířová, holder of Alfréd Radok Prize for Talent of the Year. The patronage was accepted by Mr. Václav Havel and MUDr. Pavel Bém, Mayor of the City of Prague. The interest of wide range of viewers was projected in the attendance of 10 500 viewers.

Mr. Václav Havel and MUDr. Pavel Bém accepted the patronage of next year´s eighth edition too. In 2007, the main topic was rebellion, and 95 screenings in 9 cinemas were shown. Festival Echoes took place in Český Těšín, Olomouc and also in Bratislava, the capital of Slovak Republic. In 2007 the festival spot was created by Michal Pěchouček, one of the most outstanding figures of the young generation of artists and a laureate of Jindřich Chaloupecký Prize. During the Prague section, the second channel of the Public Czech Television broadcasted the festival daily Mezipatra Minutes.

Student Jury Award for Best Short Film

On the occasion of its 10th edition, Czech gay and lesbian film festival Mezipatra changes its subtitle and logo. The New visual identity is being created by a prominent Czech graphic designer Jan Kolář.

The popular festival, which attracted over 63 000 viewers in the course of nine years originated as Duha nad Brnem (Rainbow over Brno).  The title alluded to the international symbol of gay and lesbian liberation movement. After two years, the festival started taking place also in Prague and other cities in the Czech Republic, thus a change of title was necessary. Mezipatra means Mezzanine and the word is a metaphor for a meeting point of various kinds of people regardless of the direction they are taking. The festival audience is equally represented by straight and non-straight audience, which makes it a space for understanding different lifestyles and identities.

The festival enters another decade of its existence with an altered subtitle – Czech gay and lesbian film festival is now replaced with queer film festival. The internationally used term “queer” liberates from the traditional understanding of sexual and gender identities based on rigid categories male/female, homosexual/heterosexual.

The festival director Aleš Rumpel explains: „Queer includes lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people as well as nonconforming heterosexuals and people who reject traditional labels. By using the word queer we would like to point out the ruling heteronormativity, i.e. belief that heterosexuality  is the only normal and natural orientation with everything different being an aberration.“

The new logo was designed by Jan Kolář, laureate of many prestigious awards including the National Design Award and the author of corporate identity styles of the cities of Pardubice (2004), Olomouc (2008)  and district Královéhradecký (2005).

The designers explication: „Logotype is conceived as two blocks of text composed into the shape of a flight of stairs (floor). Typography is accompanied by a graphic element of stripes. These stripes express:

The basic logotype has a jubilee version, which is complemented by the Roman letter ten, also symbolising a ruling out cross or a person X.

The entire graphic style is designed in black and white as this colour scheme best  represents traditional cinematographic visuality. It also highlights the queer aspect, something rebellious, unconventional. “

The festival spot for the 10th edition of Mezipatra will be shot by the controversial visual artist Mark Ther, whole solo exhibits took place in such prestigeous venues as the City Gallery Prague or Brno’s Galerie G99. The festival will take place in Brno 23-31 October and in Prague 2-8  November 2009.