Suddenly, many of us find ourselves with a bit (or a lot!) of spare time on our hands. I've decided to use this time for something productive.
I love lists! No, not the kinds of lists that make one more organised or help plan cleaning (which I hate, with a passion! I consider it a necessary evil at best). The kind of lists that make a new topic more accessible for someone who's just getting acquainted with it, say lists of must-read books, songs or books.
This below is my list of Polish queer films to watch. While I don't claim it to be any sort of definitive list, as I'm a relative newbie to all this myself, I thought this might help someone else who is at the very beginning of their journey (or simply holed up at home, bored and queer!):
1. Artykuł Osiemnasty (Article 18) - is a documentary on the article in the Polish constitution that promotes a special position of heterosexual marriage and family.
2. Nina - comes highly recommended by a friend. Story of passion, love, complicated relationships and even more complicated choices that follow it.
3. Sztuka Kochania (The art of loving) - tells the story of Wisłocka - the Shere Hite of Poland under SSSR occupation - the woman who revolutionised, or tied to, a very sexually repressed Poland.
4. Książę i Dybuk (The Prince and the Dybbuk) - a documentary about the legendary Polish director, Waszyński, who escaped Poland and preferred not to talk about the reasons why. Takes one on a fascinating journey of the complexities of his story and identity.
5. Mój Koniec Świata (The end of my world) - a short film about you gay love, first love, heart break, and dealing with it.
6. United States of Love - a Swedish-Polish collaboration. Poland 1990 - intertwining stories of neighbours, at the heart of which are love and relationships in a newly 'freed' Poland.
7. Mów mi Marianna (Call me Marianna) - a transition story. Marianna is faced with some very tough choices on her path to find and be herself.
8. Strefa Nagości (Nude Area) - a tense story of lust and love games between two teenage girls.
9. W Ukryciu (In hiding) - a story of passion, lust and forbidden love between two women in 1940s Poland.
10. Płynące Wieżowce (Floating Skyscrapers) - dubbed the 'first gay romance in Poland', and nominated for awards at home and abroad, the film tells a story of love, relationships, and being true to oneself in a world of convention.
Queeroteka is an excellent, more general resource on queer films, from around the world. With pages and pages of listings, you could spend days going through it, let alone trying to watch them all!