Monika Treut, Todd Verow, Sofia Alvarado, Jo Pollux & Theo Parker, Emre Busse, Jiz Lee & Shine Louise Houston, Kristian Petersen
Several Countries
Monika Treut holds a PhD in Literary Studies — and has been making films her own way since 1983. As a writer, director, and producer, she moves unapologetically through feminism, gender politics, and human rights. Between films, she has been teaching in San Francisco, New York, San Diego, Chicago, Bloomington, and elsewhere. Her films have been screened at major international festivals, including Berlinale, Toronto, and Sundance, and retrospectives of her work have taken place all over the world.
Todd Verow (Bangor, Maine, 1966) worked as a cinematographer for Gregg Araki and Jon Moritsugu before making his directorial feature film debut with “Frisk” in 1996. He has directed over thirty-five features and numerous shorts, establishing himself as the most prolific auteur emeritus of the New Queer Cinema. Fiercely independent, Verow describes himself as an underground filmmaker in the tradition of his idols George and Mike Kuchar, Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith and Andy Warhol.
Sofía Alvarado is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New York City, interested in exploring film as “the art of letting ghosts come back”.
Jo Pollux is a queer femme photographer and filmmaker focusing on the investigations of desire, storytelling and fantasy. She started studying Arts and Communication at The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and finished her Diploma in Communication Design in Berlin. Since then, she’s been living between Berlin and Paris, taking inspiration from the stories between the walls of the cities. Theo Parker, born in 1989, is a psychologist and works as an author and filmmaker in Berlin. After making several short films, he made his feature film debut in 2019.
Emre Busse is a Kurdish, Türkiye-born, Germany-based art historian and filmmaker specializing in contemporary sexualities and trans-cultural pornography studies. He earned his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin’s Department of Art History. Since 2023, he has been teaching seminar courses in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bremen.
Porn polymath Jiz Lee is an adult film actor, author, and advocate who has worked in the porn industry for over two decades. While most known for their role in front of the camera, they have worked behind the scenes in marketing and production for just as long. Twenty years ago, Shine Louise Houston founded Pink and White Productions, an acclaimed independent queer and feminist adult film company that centers queer and trans people and people of color, and that has, since then, expanded with PinkLabel TV and launched BLUSH Film Festival. All of Shine‘s work aims to create more space and provide accurate, respectful representation for her communities, fostering recognition, acceptance, and empowerment, even when it happens via a screen.
Kristian Petersen is a filmmaker, producer, university lecturer and film curator. Since 2009, he has worked as a moderator at Berlinale. He programs for several international film festivals and, since 2015, for several music festivals.