For 28 years now, we have worked hard to stay true to the pioneering spirit of our roots: a festival of film, art, debates and ideas put into words, images and actions by and for women.

"Free women are only starting to be born." Now more than ever, Simone de Beauvoir's words resonate with our programming. Now more than ever, we must continue the struggle, and these films are here to remind us of that. Film-making is a powerful tool, capable of broadening our horizons, upsetting ages-old habits, and denouncing the unacceptable. And the unacceptable is often distressingly ordinary.

As proof of that, we can cite the disgraceful decision made by a Paris labor court in January 2016 in a case involving a hair salon and one of its employees. The court ruled that the word "faggot" could not be considered homophobic, "because it is well known that hair salons frequently employ homosexuals [...]." The logic behind that reminds us that the progress we have made must not be taken for granted: it requires our constant vigilance.

The road to equality is still long, and without a doubt, we are still the main agents of our own emancipation.

Faced with obscurantism and fundamentalism of many kinds, we are both obliged and honored to defend and support artistic creation - be it curious, enraged, rebellious, off-beat, or diaphanous - because it always bears a message of hope and freedom.

Long live the free women who have been or are being born, and enjoy the festival!

Editorial of the programming committee

I enjoy changing skies, climate, light. Bird of a single season, I fly away with the summer,? And my fickle flight goes from stern shores to enchanted shores.
In Memoriam, August 1850 Louise Ackermann

That is the kind of journey Cineffable is offering you this year. Among the scheduled ports of call are some that really mean the world to us.

Let's go meet women who point fingers or who get involved in struggles, who are searching for empowerment or taking part in the winds of freedom blowing through their countries, or others who are in exile. Remarkable women all, they evoke here, there and elsewhere, their hopes and dreams of fleeing stern shores.

Shorts and features, animated films and documentaries bordering on the experimental, creations on the verge of pleasure will all crop up over the course of the journey ... One island upon a time turns into an archipelago, beckoning us towards the road less traveled.

Two particularly quirky ports of call: suspended in the Silencio of a darkened theatre, let yourselves be ravished by the aestheticism and magic emanating from the screen. Or be the Brides' best women at a wedding where the worst eclipses the best - but consider yourselves warned: this one is not for insensitive souls!

And finally, you can hop out along the many shores of Lesboland, from North - for a wild ride with a Swedish lesbian rock group - to South, for an Italian romance.

May each of you find your own enchanted shore!

Transmission Event - Tuesday, November 1st at 12pm

La peau des mots / Skinning Words Films, Performance, Competition

Words echo, dialogue and bounce back and forth... after the fabulous opening set by Sails and Natalya N'rouv Quand les mots résonnent (When Words Resonate), words will reason and resonate - over, through and between butch bodies and books, femme slams and fans, and more - in lesbians and in French Sign Language.

Words to see, to hear and to feel deeply:

Words given voice, on stage:

Once again, you can actively participate in your festival.

Please send us your 3-minute-maximum film (with French subtitles) on the theme of the Transmission event, with spoken word, singing, reciting... wherever your talent lies.

October 28th to November 1st, 2016

28th Festival 2016 - Program

Awards

Hours

List of films

Concert

Exhibition

Debates / Round-tables

Workshops

Trailer

Catalog (pdf)