This year's Queer Lisboa retrospective, “Becoming Yvonne Rainer”, will be dedicated to Yvonne Rainer (San Francisco, 1934), in partnership with Cinemateca Portuguesa. Choreographer, performer and filmmaker, Rainer is a pioneer of the North American avant-garde movement, with a career spanning over five decades in dance and film. Although this facet of hers is less known, the artist is widely considered one of the most influential personalities of the vanguard of queer feminist cinema, with works that emphasize experimentalism and challenge conventional forms in the exploration of social, political and gender issues.

Her seven feature films, recently restored by the MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, with the support of The Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation, and distributed by Zeitgeist Film in partnership with Kino Lorber, address provocative themes and offer innovative perspectives that expand the canons of contemporary cinema. In her first films, "Lives of Performers" (1972) and "Film about a Woman Who..." (1974), Rainer develops a performative analysis of women as subjects, whose complex social position embodies a transformative potential; in "Kristina Talking Pictures" (1976) and "The Man Who Envied Women" (1985) she continues to address relational themes, focusing on the nature of romantic relationships. Using a series of psychiatric sessions as a narrative device, her 1980 film "Journeys from Berlin/1971" explores the ramifications of terrorism, evoking experiences of power and repression. The artist's last couple of feature films, "Privilege" (1990) and "Murder and Murder" (1996), close her filmography with bold reflections on aging, illness, and sexual identity.

In addition to the films directed by Rainer, the retrospective also includes two documentaries about her career: "Feelings Are Facts: the Life of Yvonne Rainer", by director Jack Walsh, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2015; and Charles Atlas' "Rainer Variations" — a subversive and inventive portrayal of Rainer's creative process in her own words. Radically different in their form and approach, the two proposed documentaries help us understand how the artist approaches the use of the body in her work – which breaks with the classical canons and looks instead at everyday gestures – that Rainer develops on stage, in contrast to a more psychological concern that she will end up exploring in her films. The program also features a debate on the work of the featured artist, in partnership with BoCA - Bienal of Contemporary Arts, with João dos Santos Martins, Gisela Casimiro and Jorge Jácome as guests, and moderated by Claudia Galhós, and which will take place also at the Cinemateca Portuguesa.

This year, the programming team of the Queer International Film Festivals - Queer Lisboa and Queer Porto considered 1.061 films, 455 of which were received as submissions. The Queer Lisboa 27 and Queer Porto 9 competitions and the rest of the program for both Festivals will be known over the next few weeks.

RETROSPECTIVE “Becoming Yvonne Rainer”:

Feelings Are Facts: the Life of Yvonne Rainer, Jack Walsh (USA, 2015, 83’)

Film about a Woman Who…, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1974, 105’)

Journeys from Berlin/1971, Yvonne Rainer (USA, UK, West Germany, 1980, 125’)

Kristina Talking Pictures, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1976, 90’)

Lives of Performers, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1972, 90’)

The Man Who Envied Women, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1985, 125’)

Murder and Murder, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1996, 113’)

Privilege, Yvonne Rainer (USA, 1990, 103’)

Rainer Variations, Charles Atlas (USA, 2002, 42’)

* Debate: “Yvonne Rainer: cinema and dance” - in partnership with BoCA (with Gisela Casimiro, João dos Santos Martins and Jorge Jácome, moderated by Cláudia Galhós and Joana Ascensão)