BEAST ANNOUNCES 6TH EDITION FULL PROGRAMME
BEAST announces the full programme for its 6th edition, under the theme "no happy ever after"
This year’s Official Competition features 37 short films from 22 countries in a selection that will bring to Porto the best of what is produced in the region. The selection is divided into 4 categories: EAST WAVE (fiction), EAST DOC (documentary), EXPERIMENTAL EAST (experimental) and the most recently created ANIMAEAST (animation).
In this year’s FOCUS COUNTRY, BEAST will present retrospective of Karpo Godina, with a selection of shorts from the 60s and 70s. The festival will also screen the first Slovenian feature film – “In the Kingdom of the Goldhorn”, by Janko Ravnik, in a cine-concert with the participation of sound artist Ivo São Bento. The FOCUS SLOVENIA programme includes a space for immersion in the country’s video art universe, with a screening named FEAST | BODY, created with the support of DIVA Station, which includes a performance by artist Pauline Maure. All these films join the previously announced opening films, two SCHOOL VISIT sessions, and a Queer Focus film. Focus Slovenia is supported by the Slovenian Film Center, Kinoteka, DIVA Station and the Honorary Consulate of Slovenia in Porto.
This year, the festival’s recurring queer programme is entitled How to care for cosmos. Part of the programme was created in collaboration with 2 film festivals: SLOVAK QUEER FILM FESTIVAL and SUNNY BUNNY. The programme also includes a special screening of the Slovenian documentary “LGBT_SLO_1984” by Boris Petkovič.
The CINE-GEOGRAPHY SOCIALIST | AFRICA — EASTERN EUROPE programme returns to the festival, curated by researcher Iolanda Vasile, founder of the NGO South Talks. The programme will host a screening of the documentary “Journey… far away from Africa” by Traian Cocoș and Răzvan Marchiș, followed by a talk with Iolanda Vasile.
The VISEGRAD FILM HUB section presents the programme THE RAISIN PROPHECY: ESTER KRUMBACHOVÁ. Two sessions dedicated to the work of Ester Krumbachová fundamental in the Czech New Wave. The VISEGRAD section includes a programme in partnership with the Primanima festival and a special screening of Tereza Nvotová’s “Nightsiren” (2022).
POST PXRN — Radical Visibility is a programme created in collaboration with Post Pxrn Film Festival Warsaw. It calls for resistance, the rediscovery of pleasure as a fundamental right, and freedom, free from impositions and religious narratives.
BEAST launches this year the RE/FOCUS programme: a section that arose from a desire to reconnect with Focus Countries from previous editions. Lithuania, Focus Country in 2019, will return with a special screening of the documentary “Roberta” (2023), directed by Elena Kairyte.
Finally, the festival presents DOCNOMADS – SHORT STORIES: a screening of four short films from the DOC NOMADS Master Degree in Documentary Filmmaking.
Besides the screenings, the programme includes 10 other parallel events. From talks, to a visual arts exhibition and even a performative gastronomic experience, BEAST aims to activate all the senses. A highlight goes to the Animation Workshop, for children aged 8 to 12, organised in partnership with Primanima Hungary.
BEAST takes place from 27 September to 1 October at Batalha Centro de Cinema, Casa Comum – Cultura U.Porto, Casa das Artes, Cinema Trindade and Passos Manuel. The festival is organised by OKNA – Associação Cultural, with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and Porto City Council.
