Queer Classic

Guest curation by Ruth McCarthy

‘I think you could learn something from us…’

Experimental sex, love and identity blossom wildly in the Berlin underground among a circle of sexy dykes and gender-bending freewheelers.

Cheryl Dunye’s place in history was assured by her 1996 milestone The Watermelon Woman, the first Black Lesbian feature, and a film that proved timeless enough to hardly age at all.

Mommy Is Coming is a far cry in theme and content but maintains the same joyful queerness in not only its subject matter but its inventiveness and irreverence for formal boundaries – plus Dunye’s trademark refusal to curtail female sexualities of all persuasions.

Released in GAZE’s 20th year, this seems a fine time for us to look back and dream of Sapphic high-jinx, group kinks and lesbian kicks in that queerest of queer cities, Berlin.

Gute nacht!

For lovers of… The Watermelon Woman, Blood Sisters

Ruth McCarthy is the Artistic Director of the mighty Outburst Queer Arts Festival in Belfast and a long-time friend and collaborator of GAZE.

Pre-Feature Short:

Baby Christina

Dir. Arthur Thorlak Delay / Denmark / 2021 / 19m

Travelling back in time to meet her six year old self, Christina is forced to face up to childhood trauma in this witty imaginative short.

Screening as part of GAZE 2022.