Mezipatra Queer Film Festival celebrates 20 years of breaking barriers

The festival’s films are divided into five categories — international feature film competition, international short film competition, reunion, documentary, and Queer Kino presents — plus the winner of last year’s audience award, The Miseducation of Cameron Post.

The independent American comedy Adam opens the festival. Director and screenwriter Rhys Ernst will introduce it in person. Before making his feature debut, he was one of the producers of the TV seriesTransparent. The film, based on Ariel Schrag’s novel, premiered at Sundance.

Another festival highlight in the main competition will be director Levan Akin’s Swedish-Georgian-French drama And Then We Danced, set in modern-day Georgia — the one neighboring Russia, not the US state. The film explores the strict culture surrounding traditional dance, and a male dancer’s dilemma when he becomes attracted to another male dancer.

Queer Kino presents two films, with the highlight being the Canadian film Matthias & Maxime by director Xavier Dolan. The title characters have been friends since childhood, but when they are asked to kiss for a student film shoot, everything suddenly changes. The film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The documentary section has five films, with Seahorse, about a trans man trying to start a family, as a standout. Other films include Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life, about the porn industry’s disastrous influence on the life of a well-known Israeli porn star, and Changing Game, about three teenage athletes who challenge sports rules for trans people.

For more information, see the festival website and Facebook page.