Introducing the 2023 Slovak Queer Film Festival spot!

Two weeks before the festival kicks off, the Slovak Queer Film Festival presents its video spot, which ties in with this year’s festival theme: Our Differences Connect Us. “With this spot, we wanted to bring more love and joy to our current times,” says director Ivana Hucíková. 

According to filmmaker Hucíková, this has not been an easy year for LGBTI+ people in Slovakia. “In spite of that, we still have lots of things to be happy about. That’s why the festival spot is a celebration of love and relationships, not just at the romantic level, but at the levels of family, friendships and community, too. As Hucíková sees it, the cinematic medium allows us to create worlds that may not even exist yet. “But even in utopias like these, we can see symbolism, importance and meaning.

The spot was shot near the summer’s end at Bratislava’s Pisztory Palace and at the Rainbow Pride festival on the city square Námestie Slobody (Freedom Square), capturing images of queer couples, friendships and families. The stars of the video – performer Šárka “Lotta Love” Nohelová and IT manager Lenka Gulašiová – invite us into their own intimate world by incorporating personal footage of theirs created before the film shoot. The spot was produced by Monika Kraftová and Michala Cellerová from the creative production company NO CAP. The festival organizers use the theme of “our differences connect us” to communicate the strength, unity and mutual support of Slovakia’s LGBTI+ community and inspire Slovakia’s society, in these times of high polarization, to be unafraid of what is unknown to them. Diversity, after all, can benefit every one of us.