From October 31st to November 8th over 70 events, 29 performances of 16 shows, 25 films and documentaries, 4 parties, 1 special project for children, meetings with authors, workshops for teenagers; artists, works and works from China, Denmark, Spain, Slovenia, Israel, Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, Morocco, Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Italy, Argentina, USA, Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland…
These are some of the events that are announcing the thirteenth edition of Bologna Gender Bender, the festival produced by Arcigay “Il Cassero”, conceived and directed by Daniele Del Pozzo, dedicated to representations of the body and gender identities and sexual orientation in contemporary culture and the arts.
The festival opens with two important awards. Since June it has been part of EFFE, the circuit of high-quality international festivals selected and recommended by Europe for their extraordinary work in research and cultural promotion. Furthermore, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities has confirmed its support for the festival for the second year, including it among the leading national projects dedicated to contemporary dance.
Dance will once again be the protagonist of this edition, in a program that nevertheless remains faithful to the festival's eclectic and multidisciplinary vocation, always engaging with the most diverse languages and the most innovative artistic experiences on the international scene. Great dance, therefore, but also great cinema, theater, music, and meetings. All of this goes well beyond the confines of the program: within Gender Bender, the second edition of Rainbow Theater (www.teatroarcobaleno.webs.com), the program of theater performances and workshops for children that opens with Gender Bender and continues until March 2016 in the main stages for young people and very young people in the metropolitan city of Bologna.
This year's edition opens up to new countries, casting a curious eye on China, a place where, due to its history and culture, gender identity sparks a close dialogue with the social dimension in a completely unexpected way, dramatically establishing itself as a special observatory on the paradigm of identity, of the individual and of the entire community. The young choreographer will be the privileged ambassador. Er Gao, which presents at the festival in world premiere his Nightclub, an investigation into the phenomenon of disco music, a symbol par excellence of capitalist Western culture on the one hand, and a social phenomenon with a strong capacity to break down rigid male roles on the other.
The relationship between the individual and society, and that between tradition and innovation, are in fact the two main keys to understanding this edition. The first in particular is punctuated, for example, by the extraordinary diptych in national premiere which will open the Festival: the Spring Festival by Igor Stravinsky, one of the most popular and revolutionary ballets of the twentieth century, is articulated in the work of the Danish choreographer Granhøj balls in two distinct genre re-readings (Rite of Spring Extended And Rose) one completely male and the other completely female. Seven dancers in the first and seven female dancers in the second, grappling with the rites of passage that will lead them to the loss of innocence. The dialogue between bodies of also falls within the categories of male and female All dressed up and nowhere to go, the Italian's first choreographic work Giorgia Nardin. The extraordinary performance of the Czech Republic comes instead from the Dot504, Collective loss of memory in national premiereFive exceptional dancers explore human complacency in engaging in violence. The Dutch choreographer Liat Waysbort stages in Please me please a single young dancer: he will be the one to transform from man to woman, from object of desire to desiring subject, from dancer to porn star. Instead, they observe the dimension of the male duo as much Yellow place, national premiere, the instant understanding between two strangers signed by the Italians Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa, How much Ours, national premiere, the award-winning work of the Israeli Idan Sharabi, Ours, with music by Joni Mitchell. Teenagers from the outskirts of Bologna will also be the raw material with which he will work. Chiara Frigo, Italian choreographer who through Ballroom, a format suspended between a dance hall and a speed date, creates a relationship between genders and generations centered on the exchange of memories. "To be complete, you have to split yourself in two," says Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the incredible documentary. Fassbinder: liebe ohne zu fördern made by friend Christian Braad Thomsen that Gender Bender will bring to the screen at the Lumière Cinema: an intimate and completely untold story that explores the enormous contradictions of one of the greatest filmmakers in history. Another excellent biography in the film THE LAW Of Christian Faure, which tells the story of Simone Veil, the innovative French Minister of Health who led the fight for the legalization of abortion in her country in 1975. The film, instead, focuses on Yvonne Rainer, the lexical artist who revolutionized the world of modern dance in 1966. FEELINGS ARE FACTS Of Jack Walsh. And again: homage to George Takei, Chinese actor and activist, famous for playing the helmsman Sulu in the famous series Star Trek, with the documentary TO BE TAKEI Of Jennifer M. Kroot. Another documentary, Gardenia: before the last curtain falls Of Thomas Wallner, tells the story of the extraordinary world tour of Alain Platel's show of the same name, featuring a troupe of elderly transsexuals and drag queens who, in order not to resign themselves to loneliness, decide to take to the stage once again. The trans community and the drag scene are also protagonists of Bad bad, the documentary in national premiere directed by Antonio Santini And Dan Sickles which focuses on Puerto Rico, where the transgender liberation movement has significantly impacted the government's political agenda. Feature films on the program include the ruthless The Duke of Burgundy by the English director Peter Strickland, which tells the story of the methodical fetishistic ritual of two women, in which the masochism of one guides and imposes the sadism of the other. It is set in an English girls' boarding school. The Falling, the feature film of Carol Morley where a mysterious epidemic spreads among the students. The Legion of Christ community in Mexico is the setting for the scandal of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who was removed from the priesthood for pedophilia, as told in the film. Perfect obedience Of Luis Urquiza Mondragón.
For the program of meetings with writers, essayists and authors, we would like to point out the presence of Teresa De Sio live with the reading from his second novel, The Most Attentive, published by Einaudi, accompanied by the musician, journalist and radio host of Radio3 Valerio Corzani. Music and words tell a story double with noir tones, in which bodies and souls are realized in the fullness of their passions. The Most Attentive It's a noir story about the arduous journey the protagonist must undertake in search of her identity and, with it, her freedom. Desired and unruly, Karmen is an accomplished cellist who has left behind the narrow life of her adolescence, that of a woman in a man's body. It took determination, willpower, but also a good deal of physical and psychological pain to achieve the perfection that now makes her feel in control of her life in Rome. For some time, however, a strange string of murders has plunged her into anguish: the victims bear the imprint of ghosts emerging from the dark depths of her past.
Expectations at the festival too Nicla Vassallo, an internationally renowned philosopher, currently a full professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Genoa. author of Same-sex marriage is against nature. False!, Published by Laterza. Too many in our country believe that same-sex marriage is unnatural. Using the principles of sound philosophical reasoning, Nicla Vassallo provocatively and intelligently exposes the prejudice, calculation, and ignorance that rule out same-sex marriage.
The Gender Bender Festival lineup is rounded out by a nighttime section, offering four extraordinary events, all at the Cassero LGBT Center, featuring characters and imagery from the international underground scene. See you on October 31st for a Halloween Party in the company of The man inside Corinne, A prominent figure in the Parisian underground scene, the mastermind behind the Maison Derrière party, which even inspired the "Burlesque House" in The Simpsons' Springfield Village. Behind the decks, "the man inside Corinne" is an irresistible histrionics, accompanying his set with dance routines and diva-like poses. The drag queen talent show arrives on Tuesday, November 3rd. BaraccONE and the DJs Poppen, Mattia Matthew And Barbers for the party Fags & Queers. They will arrive from Berlin on November 6th. Pet Shop Bears, a DJ duo, creators of the evening of the same name dedicated to the bear community and who will be welcomed in Bologna in the setting of the most traditional of Italian "bear" gatherings: the party Feed the bears del Cassero. The grand finale will be on November 7th with a party. Chronicle which hosts from Vienna Electric Indigo, a real battering ram for the female gender in the conquest of a still strictly male stronghold, the console.