The 2nd edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival will take place in Berlin, Germany from the 9th to the 11th of June, with a program consisting of three feature films, eight curated short blocks, a talk on the “horror hag” subgenre, a workshop on monstrous representations of the “other” in horror, and an art exhibition with five female artists working in horror.
Final Girls Berlin Film Fest showcases horror films that were directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-binary filmmakers.
Festival co-director Sara Neidorf says, “The films we’re presenting relish in various forms of resistance: decimating traditional representations of women in film; blurring bodily boundaries; highlighting the perversions lurking within the nuclear family structure; contorting the conventions of romance; painting bloody portraits of revenge.” Co-director Eli Lewy adds, “The films screening in FGBFF express women’s fantasies and fears in poignant, new ways, showing that horror is fertile ground for feminist filmmaking.”
WOMEN WHO KILL
The opening night feature is Ingrid Jungermann’s hilarious, queer dark comedy, WOMEN WHO KILL, which premiered at Tribeca Film Fest 2016.
Morgan and Jean, ex-girlfriends who run a true-crime podcast about female serial killers, find themselves in a bind when they suspect Morgan’s new love interest of being a murderer as well. Jungermann, a Brooklyn-based comedian, was obsessed with female serial killers growing up, and has an affinity for the genre world: “I’m not interested in making personal films that don’t invite people into the experience. Which is why I’m drawn to comedy and genre. It allows you the chance to expose yourself while still thinking about the audience.”
XX
XX is a horror anthology with four chilling segments made by four horror bad-asses. Jovanka Vuckovic (former editor of Rue Morgue Magazine) adapts a spine-tingling Jack Ketchum story in The Box, Annie Clark’s (St. Vincent) directorial debut The Birthday Party is a hellish take on Weekend at Bernie’s; Roxanne Benjamin (V/H/S trilogy, Southbound) gives us an old-school horror romp in Don’t Fall; and Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Girlfight) has to come to grips with the darkness in Her Only Living Son.
IN MY SKIN
Esther (Marina de Van) is an ambitious 30-year-old woman. One fateful night at a party, she seriously hurts her leg, but can’t seem to feel the pain. This incident propels her toward the start of a self-destructive compulsion. IN MY SKIN is an exploration of a professional woman’s descent into increasingly disturbing and obsessive acts.
Marina de Van broke her leg when she was 8, and it forever changed how she viewed her body. “I didn’t faint and I didn’t really feel pain. Instead, I saw my leg as if it wasn’t part of my body, as if it was an object. For me, then, it was a fascinating deformed object… I was also struck by how little it takes for our bodies, or parts of our bodies, to suddenly become alien objects, but ones which fascinate us.”
Short Film Programs:
MOMMY ISSUES
– Childer (dir. Aislinn Clarke, UK, 2016)
– Postpartum (dir. Izzy Lee, US, 2015)
– Man in the Moon (dir. Monique Mulcahy, Australia, 2017)
– Goblin Baby (dir. Shoshana Rosenbaum, US, 2015)
– MOMMY (dir. Heidi Moore, US, 2013)
– Leonarda (dir. Luca Brinciotti, Italy, 2016)
– The Kingdom of Doug (dir. Victoria Thaine, Australia, 2012)
PHANTASMAGORIA
– Roger Ballen’s Theatre of Apparitions (dir. Emma Calder & Ged Haney, UK, 2016)
– A Blurred Line (dir. Neela Tayade, India, 2016)
– The Betrayal (dir. Susan Young, UK, 2015)
– Earworm (dir. Tara Price, US, 2016)
– Normalized Woman (dir. Lo-Yi Lee, Taiwan, 2016)
– Yuletide (dir. Marinah Janello US, 2016)
– She is the Dark (dir. Hassan Vahdani, Iran, 2016)
– Abjection (dir. Jiyeon Choi, China, 2017)
– Phyllis (dir. Zina Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria, 2010)
– Disco Inferno (dir. Alice Waddington, Spain, 2015)
IS IT DEAD?
– Thanatopraxia (dir. Victor Palacios, produced by Elena Albert, Spain, 2014)
– What Remains (dir. Denne Sritharan, US, 2017)
– The Awakening of Selma (dir. Andrea Fergo, Brazil, 2016)
– Wakey Wakey (dir. Rebecca Gransbury, UK, 2015)
– Night Shift (dir. Emily DiPrimio, USA, 2015) **
– No Strings Attached ( dir. Courtney Rawitscher, US, 2016) **
– The Perfect Shot (dir. Natasha Leivers, UK, 2016) **
– You are a Lesbian Vampire (dir. Thirza Cuthand, Canada, 2011)
– Strawberries are Nuts (dir. Rui Videira, written by Zuzanna Grajzer, Germany, 2017)
– What Happened to Her (dir. Kristy Guevera-Flanagan, US, 2017)
BODY HORROR
– Paint the Town Red (dir. Arielle Hansen & Christopher Graham, Canada, 2017)
– Das Buffet ist Eröffnet (dir. Daviel Shy, Austria, 2013)
– Rash (dir. Merryl Roche, France, 2014)
– Fish Out of Water (dir. Kirsten Carthew, Canada, 2015)
– Innsmouth (dir. Izzy Lee, US, 2015)
– I Want You Inside Me (dir. Alice Shindelar, US, 2016)
– The Stylist (dir. Jill Gevargizian, US, 2016)
SWEET REVENGE
– Rites of Vengeance (dir. Izzy Lee, US, 2017)
– Willow Garden (dir. Kate MacDonald, US, 2017)
– La Corriente de las Agujas (dir. Lucía Pérez, Uruguay, 2016)
– Last Words (dir. Raeshelle Cooke, US, 2015)
– Stitched (dir. Heather Taylor, US, 2016)
– Watch Me (dir. Briony Kidd, Australia, 2017)
– Consommé (dir. Catherine Fordham, US, 2016)
– Blame (dir. Kellee Terrell, US, 2015)
– Oedipus (dir. Roxanne Bordeaux, UK, 2016)
DYING OF LAUGHTER
– Monja Satanica Trailer (dir. Viva Ruiz, US, 2007)
– A Tricky Treat (dir. Patricia Chica, Canada/US, 2015)
– Shortcut (dir. Prano Bailey-Bond, UK, 2016)
– Connie (dir. Cat Davies, UK, 2016)
– Murder Springs: Chapter One (dir. Adam van Dyke, produced by Margarita Hernandez, Natasha Ramos, and Sam van Dyke, US, 2016)
– Munchies (dir. Sinead Stoddart, UK, 2016)
– Tales of Untimely Deaths (dir. Marcie LaCerte, US, 2016)
– Rotten (dir. Rona Cohen, Israel/UK, 2016)
– Beautiful Eyes (dir. Rani Deighe Crowe, US, 2012)
– Potholes (dir. Jaclyn Goldstein, US, 2016)
– You Are A Lesbian Vampire (dir. Thirza Cuthand, Canada, 2011)
– Violent Violet (dirs. Tom Moore, Ambika Thompson & Jane Flett, Germany, 2015)
– Tampoon (dir. Jeanne Jo, US, 2015)
ALL IN THE FAMILY
– Don’t Think of a Pink Elephant (dir. Suraya Raja, UK, 2017)
– Everything is Allowed (dir. Anais Girard-Blanc, France, 2017)
– The Farm (dir. Ellie Tossol-Smith, Australia, 2016)
– Upir (dir. Laura Rembault, France, 2016)
– The Black Line (dir. Ester Llorens, Spain, 2016)
– Scrawls (dir. Pedro Pacheco Arlandi, written and produced by Maria Dopico, Spain, 2016)
– Supper with the Smiths (dir. Rachel Cylie Gross, US, 2016)
– Invasion (dir. Auguste Kuneviciute, Lithuania, 2016)
– Emile von Karneville (dir. Yuliana Barco, Mexico, 2016)
ESCAPE
– Emergency Stop (dir. Diane Jessie Miller, Ireland, 2016)
– Restart (dir. Olga Osorio, Spain, 2015)
– Mirror (dir. Sara Eustaquio, US, 2016)
– Whisper (dir. Jo Lewis, UK, 2015)
– Shah Mat (dir. Razan Takesh and Kirill Kripak, UAE, 2016)
– Drip Drop (dir. Jonna Nilsson, US, 2016)
– Puppet Man (dir. Jacqueline Castel, US, 2016)
– Black Case (dir. Caroline Monnet and Daniel Watchorn, Canada, 2014)
– Murmur (dir. Aurora Fearnley, UK, 2015)
– The Last Roadkill (dir. Xavier Hamel, produced by Tonia Rightley, US, 2016)
The full program can be viewed here.
Film stills as well as the official FGBFF June 2017 images are here.
Tickets are available to purchase at Moviemento, Central, and online: www.moviemento.de
