Queer Cinema: International – Fokus Ukraine I

In the current semester, the seminar QUEER CINEMA is dedicated to international queer cinema. Over the course of two days, we will shine a spotlight on queer cinema in the Ukraine and take a look at related theoretical, aesthetic, narrative, political and cultural dimensions and discussions with the help of a curated programme.

In 2020, the beginning of the Covid year, the ZBOKU initiative (Kyiv) organized a joint online screening of “Dubravka” as a mutual support practice. Following the screening and the discussion, Syaivo and Mariam wrote a text for the Queer Anti-Archives about the original story, the context, and the possible queer readings of the film. Today, under different circumstances, the community around ZBOKU cannot gather in full force as before. On April 21, an online discussion with Syaivo and Mariam after the screening of Dubravka will consider the value of jointly researching queer contexts of the past and following the anti-colonial ways of thinking.

Syaivo is a researcher of Ukrainian art and culture currently living in the UK. Syaivo is a member of ZBOKU initiative that is dedicated to the search for feminist and queer creativity, gender, sexual and other forms of cultural dissent, as well as the context shaping this dissent.

Mariam Agamian is a researcher and writer from Kyiv who works with antiracism, queer feminism, standup comedy and theatre. Co-creator of Kviradio, the place for reading queer feminist theory, manifests, poems, and fairytales out loud. She is now based in Berlin.