Welcome to the 16th edition of the Paris International Feminist and Lesbian Film Festival "Quand les lesbiennes se font du cinéma".

The Cineffable team is really happy to see you again for its festival. A festival marked by recognition.

Recognition From The Art And Cultural Circles
Since its creation, the festival has been aiming at being a place of discovery and promotion of feminine and lesbian Art. In gathering every year films and pictorial and photographic works made by talented women, and in offering a stage to musical bands and performers, Cineffable chose to celebrate in its own way the vitality, the quality, the wealth and the specificity of the feminine and lesbian Art. And the artists are well aware. More and more directors and artists from all over the world now contact us directly to have us promote their works. Several organizations and associations, in France and abroad, look for our advice and experience to help them with the creation and programmation of other feminist and lesbian cultural events. Within several years, the Paris International Feminist and Lesbian Film Festival "Quand les lesbiennes se font du cinéma" organized by Cineffable has become one of the major lesbian cultural events in Europe and we wish that it will keep on growing over and over.

Recognition From The Political And Public Authorities
Besides the recognition from the audience and the art circles, Cineffable is pleased to have seen its cultural role officially recognized by the City House of Paris with the granting of a subvention. We hereby would like to thank all the members of the Conseil Municipal who have supported our request. But most of all, we want to thank you, our audience, for your militant support and presence at the festival and during the "Best Of Mixed" which has shown very valuable for the obtaining of a recognition from the public authorities. Therefore, in order to show you our gratitude, we have decide to use part of the subvention to lower the screening ticket prices. We thus wish that you will fully enjoy, use and abuse of this new edition of the festival, and that most of all, you will keep on attending the festival with joy and happiness as this event is a place of discovery, get together and exchanges dedicated to you.

We wish you all an excellent festival full of fun and surprises!

Program 2004

2004: Lesbian Odyssey

If you liked Friday the 13th, Fatal Attraction, Emmanuelle or The Graduate, you're going to love their lesbian reincarnations. Lesbian films come in every genre, and it's a great excuse to reinvent ourselves and get together, both on screen and in real life, as we've been doing every year for 16 years now, at our festival, "Quand les lesbiennes se font du cinéma" (When Lesbians Make Movies).

By our third year here, we've settled in at the Trianon, with its auditorium and the stage that inspires wild performances. Last year we tried out the nereby Halle St-Pierre as a second venue, allowing for more screenings, debates end informal chats. We loved its proximity and intimate atmosphere, and now we've definitively adopted it.

Once again, we have gone around the world, knocking on all sorts of doors (other festivals, plus organizations and production houses) looking for the best and broadest possible view of the lesbian and feminist planet. For this 16th edition of the festival, we've selected 58 films from 19 different countries. While North America is once again predominant, we are proud to present some jewels from Italy, Greece, Argentina, Czech Republic, Brazil and more.

No less than 8 feature films, in every genre.
Goldfish Memory tells the tale of the disastrous amorous adventures of a few "perverts", their straight friends and the stork, who makes a timely appearance. A definitively romantic comedy. And if that isn't enough, you won't want to miss Intentions and Mango Kiss.

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

For the "Discover the festival" session (new this year), we've got one of the most popular films at lesbian video clubs, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, a timeless portrait of teen sexuality and the universal experience of falling in love for the first time.

Thrills and chills in store (and a great excuse to grab your neighbor) at Make a Wish, which explains how lesbians build their tent: with an axe, and a bit of ketchup thrown in for good measure.

Helen Lesnick, who directed the popular A Family Affair, seen at the 14th edition of the festival, has turned her camera towards more eroticism. If having sex on the kitchen table while your girlfriend is playing doctor with her ex in the living room rings a bell, then Inescapable is undoubtedly for you.

More serious, but just as good, Black Aura on an Angel deals with insanity in relationships in classic psychodrama style. If you've got a sweet tooth, don't miss Sugar Sweet, a tasty morsel of Japanese eye candy. And let's not forget the strong, funny or heart-warming women, fighting for their own and others' rights in our excellent selection of documentaries.

To begin with, the feminist organization The Penelopes introduces the "active women" (Femmes actives) in the Parisian suburbs who are rolling up their sleeves to free themselves of male oppression.

Aishah Simmons is back with NO! (A Work in Progress), of which an earlier version was shown at the 11th edition. Five years later, her film denouncing the collective silence of the black community about the rape of black women by black men is all the more striking.

Dalila Kadri is back too. After Ombre solaire, she brings us Fireflies, which will be the springboard for a debate about lesbians of colour.
Two old friends of the festival will be back once again: Carole Roussopoulos with Who's Afraid of the Amazons?, and Marie Vermeiren, with I Wanna Be a Butch.

Other testimonies of African-Americans butch lesbians, full of humor and hope despite their difficulty in being accepted, it is with Butch Mystique.

The legendary feminist punk-rock group Tribe 8 has their own way of challenging women's role in society. Tracy Flannigan brings up a close-up-and-personal look at these explosive, provocative women. Fans of By Hook or by Crook won't be disappointed. Kristen Wolf presents another lesbian icon in her documentary about San Francisco's legendary Club Q.

Documentaries are also a chance to address every stage of our lives as women and as lesbians:
- How does it feel to be 14 and to realize you're attracted to women? Don't You Worry, It Will Probably Pass.
- What does it mean to be VisibLes in Italy, especially when you're in the midst of TransAzioni?
- Where to go on holiday to recharge your batteries? Find out with I cuori di pietra.
- What do you do when you finally find love? Have One Wedding and a Revolution.
- How can you fight for legal status when you've founded a same-sex parented family in France? Carla and Marie-Laure explain it in I Have Two Mommies.
- And the stunning Liberty: 3 Stories About Life & Death will help us come to terms with old age and sickness.

For news about South American women's struggles against machismo and religious influence, don't miss Histórias lésbicas, Novela, Novela, Marcha lésbica México 2003 and Un jour d'anniversaire.

Though we are experts in lesbianism, there's one question we've never been able to answer: how in Goddess's name do Wonder Woman and Xena the Warrior Woman keep their amazing hairstyles in place while fighting bandits and other bad guys? Well, ladies and ladies, we finally found the answer in Double Dare.

Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking. A film festival is your big chance to see all those funny, creative, thought-provoking, experimental or animated shorts and middle-length films that you never see on TV, at the cinema or on video. We are pleased to announce that 2004 will be a vintage year, both for the quality of the films and for the number of directors who will be present at the festival. While it's impossible to cite all those other films here, it's almost equally hard to mention at least a few of them. So without further ado… don't miss the next Marlene Dietrich, in A Cow Walks into a Bar, the strange Argentinean Hevalino by Violeta Uman, a girl penguin at the pool in The P-P-P Pick-Up, the taste of Greek apples in The Red Apple, or a Spanish Woman's Daydream.

The wild and crazy adventures of a drag king are yours in The Undergrad and Puszta Cowboy.

Whether or not you get lucky at the festival, you'll know what to expect with A Woman Reported, Transit, Le bouillon, Toothbrush Tango, Hummer or F*Stop.

If you're nearly there, invite her to the hot show, or give in to the temptation to see Edith Edit's sci-fi sadomaso lesbian porn, Dominatrix Waitrix, (a ULO, an Unidentified Lesbian Object). You may realize that she's faking it once you've seen You Fake, and if you break up over it, you can always call Repodyke.

But where in the world do they find all this incredible stuff, you must be wondering by now. So we'll let you in on a secret. Every year, in order to encourage lesbian expression, we organize a screenwriting competition with a prize of 1,500 € and screening at the festival. Thus this year, we'll be showing Safia et Sarah, a short by Caroline Fourest, the 2002 prize-winner. Next year, we hope you'll be able to enjoy the work of Céline Jacquier, whose Quand les cheveux s'en mêlent won in 2003.

And which lucky scriptwriter will be angling for a spot in 2006? Find out on closing night, when this year's prize-winner is announced.

The Programming Committee 2004