Berlin Short Encounters: Persona

Grand Central Hotel is a ruminative portrait about the iconoclastic American composer, writer, transgender activist, and avant-garde sound collagist Terre Thaemlitz (better known by her moniker DJ Sprinkles). She remains hidden as one of the most influential artists in electronic music of the last 20 years. The film follows Terre as she arrives at a nondescript hotel for a night and maps for viewers her conflict with gender and identity constructs, her frustration as an aging MTF trans person, and a brazen twist that becomes a radical gesture and astute political statement. The film reveals a rare shrewdness and a solitary struggle for autonomy and it's precarious shifts.

Serge Garcia is a filmmaker with a penchant for aimlessly wandering. His films emphasize intersectional narratives that explore loneliness, alienation, and possibilities for agency. He's developed a body of work through music videos, underground documentaries and narrative shorts. He uses family, culture, social histories, and his own experience as a first generation Mexican-Guatemalan-American. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area he is now based in Berlin, Germany

When the child speaks from his or her androgyny – which is neither truth nor appearance, neither male nor female, but all at once – they will return to the places where they have belonged. He or she remembers and claims their identity as a foreigner, refugee, bilingual, rejected for not being a man or woman at all.

Melina Pafundi (1987) Mar del Plata, Argentina. She studied Film and Video direction, Philosophy and Fine Arts. She has worked as a film archive restorer at the Buenos Aires Film Museum, Pablo C. Ducrós Hicken. Since 2016 lives in Berlin, and she has worked with the director Franz Müller as an Assistant Director and is member of the film laboratory directed by artists LaborBerlin e.V.

A heartfelt letter to tell the mother the most painful of secrets. Amina, who in 2002 was the small protagonist of Ten by Kiarostami is now a transgender director who tries to make her voice heard, understood, and be understood.

Amina Maher (b. Tehran, 1992) is an Iranian queer filmmaker whose works deal with themes of social taboos and gender-identity in relation to violence and power structure. She began her cinematic activity as the main protagonist in Abbas Kiarostami's Ten which featured the real-life relationship between Amina and her mother. Her first short film was Sweet Gin and Cold Wine, followed by Orange. Her multi-awarded short film, Letter to my mother, was part of the competition at numerous international film festivals such as 38th Frauen Film Festival, Feminale, 36th Kasseler Dokfest, 35th Lovers Film Festival, 34th Mix Milano Film Festival and 26th Cheries Cheris, LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, Paris. Among numerous reviews, the film was described as a means for survival, a way to stand up and to understand – a fearless and strong examination that touches upon the centre of the pain and dares to look precisely. Amina currently studies her MA in directing at Babelsberg University Konrad Wolf.

Should we all be feminists? looks at different Women’s cultural, social, religious and political perspectives on role models and modern feminism in Berlin. The documentary is based on contrasting women‘s perspectives meanwhile talking about kindness, respect, empowerment and equality in their personal life. The main goal was to dig deep and find the right balance between sorrow and happiness, while respectfully capturing each story through an intimate cinematography.

Should we all be feminists? is a shocking, moving and admirable glimpse into each protagonist‘s lived reality.

Silke Meya was born in 1989, in Bielefeld/ Germany. From 2010 to 2014 motion design she studied at Berliner Technischen Kunsthochschule (BTK). During this time she made the documentary Leni (2012) and finally her graduation film Djado Ivan (2015), which premiered in Germany at the 49th Hof International Film Festival. Her work as director on Djado Ivan showed Silke her love for storytelling and supported her decision to make her first feature doc-fiction film Mojsłońik. In 2015 she founded the film production company “Noumia Film” with Laura Mentgen in Berlin.