Queer premieres (March 18 and 19, 2005)

Spring programme of "Queer Saturdays on Friday (and Saturday)" would like to emphasise that movies screened in Queer Zagreb programme are almost exclusively premieres in Croatia. Out of sixty (60!) movies screened in last year's festival programme, only one was not a premiere - Oscar awarded "Monster" with Charlize Theron. This is not surprising at all since movies with LGBTQ characters can be found in the distribution network in Croatia only in cases of back up provided by prestigeous awards.

Considering that Queer Zagreb's selection mostly is constructed of premieres, it would be possible to (correctly) conclude that this month's programme guidelines are slightly meaningless since it can relate to our whole season. However, we wish to use the title "Queer premieres" to point out to the fact that Croatian distributors have little or no regard of queer cinematography and that negligence is not limited to celluloid but also to DVD and VHS releases so even private enjoyment of contemporary queer movies seems almost impossible for most.

Although we are aware of the difficult position of local distribution netword even with mainstream titles, of which many don't find their ways to Croatian cinemas, it is impossible not to notice non-accidental blocade the audience has to face with regards to queer movies. We hope the programme of queer premieres to raise awareness on realistic deficit of "different" movies in local cinemas, video rental stores and festivals up to the level that any justifications simply seem naive and at times insulting.

One of the moives that perhaps is the best example of this issue is Croatian-Serbian co-production "Virgina"by Srdan Karanovic which had not been screened in Zagreb even after 14 years of its completion.

With Queer premiers we simply want to remind you that most of the movies you will be able to see in Tuškanac cinema as part of Queer Zagreb, not only this month, you most likely will not be able to see in local cinemas.