THE SCREAM AND THE KISS

Which is better for a change: a proactive fight or the hope that things will collapse on their own? To march loudly on the streets or to act quietly as if change had already happened? Which is better: an honest scream or a subliminal message? A media uproar or a simple kiss on the street? Probably both. For gays and lesbians a firm protest to defend their rights might be as effective as a public kiss, holding hands in public, not hiding a civil union or a marriage from coworkers, at the baker's or at the tax office. Those images, which enter homes through TV's contextual filter, might have a stronger impact when examples are actually next door, when eyes meet, in simple daily situations.

Activism and spontaneity are the best tools we have and the main message in the documentaries selected this year.

We all owe so much to Vito Russo's activism… And to all those who "were here", wiped away by the first strikes of AIDS and actively remembered by their families, who keep pushing for more scientific research. Although they couldn't stop the deterioration of gay rights in the USA, the activists of Illegal Love encourage us to stay very much alert. Florent Morellet is such an inspiration with his now gone New York restaurant and his 23 years of activism, food and parties, just like transsexual Sylvio Luccio in Olhe pra mim de novo. Although it might seem futile, among so much organdy and fashion shows, the affections and rows that fashion "emperor" Valentino Garavani and his partner and lover Giancarlo Giammetti exchange like any other couple are also an inspiration. They live between France and Italy, two countries where same-sex marriage is still illegal.

Let's keep up the fight, then! And the kissing.

Antoine Leonetti, Mostra FIRE!! Coordinator

FORTY YEARS GOING BY

Paris in three stages of love in free verse for three French films that describe the seventies, the eighties and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Three romances that are the starting point of three stories that we know better today because we live them. The film we will make, the novel we will write and the song we will compose one day have something to do with what we experienced then, with what we learnt with the postcards we received from Paris telling us they loved us; even if it wasn't true or if we didn't love them back, poor things..

Johan, Les témoins and Les chansons d'amour accidentally coincide in a corner of the Tuileries with views of the Eiffel Tower. From there, loves become cultural products, rested and performed so that memory hurts less, is less burdensome or shows us our own reflection with a lighter guilt from what we were not, did not do, did not love or loved badly and too much.

The film we will make, the novel we will write and the song that will become our big hit for posterity talk exactly about that. About all the loves we didn't understand because they were too complicated, too different from what we had been told had to be, before learning that everything we were to live was invented. Created by us, but not imaginary: real.

Roberto Enríquez, Writer and Journalist