Sofia Pride 2018 program

The opening event for the cultural program of Sofia Pride, in partnership with HUGE.bg.

Free entrance with a registration in advance at www.huge.bg.

 

Line-up

DJ Soren Luka (France)

DJ Kaloo (Bulgaria)

dance performances by

Chris Arte (Greece) & Hamington Sanchez (Spain)

 

“Sex and madness”- a digital projection of photographs by Nikola Djukich, Serbia. Based in Novi Sad, Nikola creates photographs that tell stories of the peculiar world of human beauty and mentality. Between kitsch and grotesque, his works address the usual representation of the naked male body in a sociopolitical and aesthetic context. “Being a gay artist in Serbia is particularly difficult, because people still consider it a taboo, something crude and indecent, especially talking about erotism. I think people are still afraid and live with that 90s belief about homosexuality as a disease. But this changes step by step, and it brings about freedom of the people to share,” says the author.

Start – 10 pm, Fabrika 126

Bachata is a dance of mutual trust and respect. The role of one of the partners is to lead categorically, but easy and nicely, and the other one should let themselves be led while expressing their own individuality. Often like in real life. :)

Our bachata instructors, Stunny and Yoanna, have danced at large European scenes and have a long experience at teaching, and since a year and a half they have their own dance school in Sofia with a common goal: passing their love of dancing to the people while showing them another pleasant way to have fun and discover new friends and emotions!

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Easy Club, 6 “Professor Boyan Kamenov” St, Studentski grad

Performance by Thomas Noesler and Voin de Voin (Jane D and the Vicious Pussy)

7 pm, Aether

10 native and foreign artists present their quest in the inceptive topic of love. When seen through the prism of stereotypes, legal restrictions and taboos, forbidden and judged, love often drives us to labels, but even today – do we really have the freedom to love?

Participants include Gonzalo Orquín, Josh McKenna, Ego Rodriguez, Iskra Blagoeva, Kalin Serapionov, Natalia Lenz, Ptpetrov, Radostin Sedevchev, Sevda Semer, Yasen Zgurovski.

Opening – May 18, 7 pm, Generator

On May 19th at 11 am in Zaimov Park, before the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day there will be the first of a kind 3 km couples run, where participants would be tied to each other with a band across the hands. Most enthusiastic participants will receive prizes!

During the event CheckPoint Sofia I Center for Sexual Health will provide free and anonymous testing for HIV, and GLAS Foundation will hand out informational materials and condoms. Counseling on the subject will be available by volunteers of the organizations.

The event is supported by the Physical education and sports development program of Sofia Municipality and Sofia 2018 – European Capital of Sports.

11:00 am – 1:00 pm, Zaimov park

Workshop on street self defense to respond to physical and mental attacks and aggression.

The workshop will include theoretical and practical part and will last about 3 h.

The techniques are based on the Chinese martial art Wing Chun, and the main objective is overcoming a physically stronger aggressor/s in a close distance.

The workshop will be led by certified Wing Chun instructors C-Jey Alex Boreva and C-Hing Konstantin Krastev.

3:00 pm – 6:00 pm.  

Sredets House of Culture, 2А Krakra St.

When the present disappears; when the past becomes an asylum; when we are hiding from the wind in a chest of memories; when the fear OF becomes the wish FOR…

FLAPSƎ – a wordplay of the worlds flaps – the push of bird wings during a flight, and lapse – an air current.

Development and choreography: Zhivko Zhelyazkov

Dance: Gergana Ilieva, Vasil Zelyamov

Music and sounds: Ivan Shopov

Photographer: Yana Lozeva

Graphic Design: Teodora Simova

Project coordinators: Mihail Baykov, Yana Yaneva

Producer: Atanas Maev

15 lv – regular ticket, 12 lv – students

7:30 pm.

Derida scene, Derida Dance Center

Photo exhibition of Paul Cliff, UK, following the intimate life of some of the most famous drag queens in Manchester. Paul graduated in photography in Tameside College and has a long experience in studio and black-and-white photography. In his work, he often partners with social work organizations, showing the honest face of people behind the camera.

+ #FiveFilms4Freedom – a selection of short movies by the British Council.

Sredets House of Culture

Miryana Tashkova, Viktor Stransky and the Femmination dancers will introduce us to some of the basic styles in voguing. Boyr (Vogue) or voguing is a highly stylized dance, created in the 80s. It originates from the Harlem dance scene in New York and is developed by the African American LGBTI+ community in the city. They will also show us the choreography they have prepared for the Sofia Pride March 2018!

Queer party at 10 pm!

After the workshop we will stay for a party to show off our new voguing skills!

Sofia Pride Arts & Sofia Pride Sports are partnering for this event.

7 pm – 10 pm

10 pm – Queer Party

Fabrika Avtonomia, 149 Tsar Samuil St.

III year “Dramatic theater acting”, led by prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD.

PAPAS IN MOTION by Ronald Rudol

Translation: Vladko Murdarov

Director: prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD

Scenography and costumes: Teodora Lazarova

Choreography: Zhivko Zhelyazkov

Plastics and scene fights: Vesela Hadzhinikolova

Photographer: Maria Tsvetkova

In the first act one lady claims her name is Elizabeth. She also claims her husband is not only a psychotherapist but also gay. The discovery had been by chance and after hesitating for a long time Elizabeth decides to announce it to the rest of the ladies whose men are well-disposed to men. This is the beginning. You have the opportunity to stay at the bar, or to bypass it…

Tickets at the ticket office of the learning center and on www.eventim.bg. 8 lv.

7.30 pm.

Training theater, Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and it belongs to all of us. Everybody should have the right to play, watch and use soccer without the fear of discrimination. For the first time a soccer tournament is organized as a part of the Sofia Pride program.

The Soccer tournament against homophobia will be organized in 5+1 mixed teams and small soccer goals. The football tournament is supported and subsidized by the FARE network.

The FARE network is an organization that unites everybody who works to combat inequality and discrimination in soccer and uses sports as an instrument for social inclusion.

4:00 pm – 7:00 pm.   

Peace and Amity Sports complex, 83 Nikola Gabrovski, Studentski Grad

A documentary photography exhibition showing shots and videos of all cities organizing Pride on the Balkans. The takes are provided by the different Pride organizations on the Balkans and for the first time trace the whole history of the movement for equality in the form of an art project.

Opening May 28, 6.30 pm.

Sredets House of Culture

by Danielle Villasana
Finalist Fotoevidence Book Award with World Press Photo
The exhibition is part of the program of ninth edition of The Month of Photography and is presented in partnership with FotoEvidence – Documentary Photography and Social Justice. The exhibition is included in the program of Sofia Pride ArtsA Light Inside, an ongoing documentary project by photojournalist Danielle Villasana, explores the life-threatening challenges trans women face throughout Latin America.
Most trans women in Latin America die or are murdered before they reach 35. Latin America leads the world in homicides of transgender people (80% of global trans homicides occur in the region) …and the rate of HIV infection among trans women is nearly 50 times higher than the general population.
The human rights violations perpetrated against trans women throughout this region are the result of toxic societal forces. The region’s highly machismo, conservative, religious and transphobic culture ostracizes and stigmatizes them, posing a serious threat to their health, social security, life expectancy and employment prospects. With few options or economic support, the majority fall into prostitution. As trans sex workers, they’re targets of disease, violence and sexual and substance abuse. Without legal protections, many cases of violence and murder go undocumented.
While the media in Latin America often paints trans women in a negative light, Villasana has focused on their personal lives with friends, family, and partners. When photographing the streets, she strives to convey the tight-knit connections between the women, the abuse by law enforcement, and the discomforts of sex work. Media focus on the sensational obscures the humanity of trans women and fuels society’s misunderstanding and judgement. “A Light Inside” strives to counter that.
Bio:
Danielle Villasana is an independent photojournalist whose documentary work focuses on human rights, women, identity, displacement, and health across the world. She’s based in Istanbul and contributes to Redux. Danielle won the 2015 Magnum Foundation’s Inge Morath Award, is an alumna of the Eddie Adams Workshop, a past attendant of the New York Times Portfolio Review, placed as a finalist for the 2018 FotoEvidence with World Press Photo Award, was selected for the 2015-2016 Emerging Talent Roster at Getty Images Reportage, and is an IWMF fellow. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibits and has been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, National Geographic, PRI’s The World, PBS News, ABC News, News Deeply, and Al Jazeera among others. Danielle is a member of The Everyday Project’s Community Team where she writes frequently for Re-Picture and where she recently helped build The Native and Everyday Projects mentorship program, which aims to nourish emerging photographers from underrepresented regions worldwide.

Opening and artist talk: 28 of May 2018, 6 p.m. Center for Culture and Debate “Red House”

At the exhibition „Peeping Toms and Jerries“ Pavel Naydenov continues his study, started in the framework of the “Multipolis – the City Images” project of The Fridge in 2016. In the first realized installation of the project he looks at unknown city places of pleasure. In the Peeping Toms and Jerries he studies looks and outlines their most incredible trajectories as lines of desire.

Pavel Naydenov is a Bulgarian artist and musician living in Vienna. He studied pop and jazz singing at The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, and then graduated in cultural management at the same place. Now he studies “Social design and art as a city inovation” at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

He takes an active part in the concert activity of the Gaudeamus chorus, Plovdiv and realizes many tours and concerts in the country and abroad. In his work as an artist he focuses on topics such as affiliations, subcultures, etc. He works with found objects and images, experimental music and audio installations.

Opening: May 29, 6.30 pm.

The Fridge

A collection of wedding rings for gay couples by Bulgarian jewelers Neva Balnikova and Nikolay Sardamov.

7 pm.

Sabai

A collection of conceptual subjects of the Tezgyah studio – Vladislav Kiryazov and Mila Varbanova. In this collection Tezgyah is inspired by the club culture of New York of the early 90s, and more specifically by cult personalities of the time such as Lady Bunny, Jo-Jo Americo, Richie Rich, etc. Extracting memories and visual images of their own archive, the authors give a new shape of ordinary everyday household items.

7 pm.

TEZGYAH

In our rapid everyday life we have less and less time for a complete rest, enough sleep or time to pay attention to our diet. In the last event of the Sofia Pride Sports program we will discuss the main principles of healthy eating and the role of food, sleep, water and sleep in our everyday life and how to develop a balanced diet in order to be healthier and more active.

18:30, A Hub, 3 Hristo Belchev str.

Rainbow Kingdom is here to slay! Club One to One gives a start to Pride Week with a Pre-party for Sofia Pride 2018!

On June 1 2018 we open the club for all the people of the rainbow. A magnificent celebratory program – a one-of-a-kind show with live performances of emblematic LGBTI anthems, Rainbow Queens, Go-Go Boys, ballet and dances until dawn!

Entrance fees income will be donated to the organization of Pride 2018!

The party begins at 11:30 pm sharp!

Entrance: 10 lv.

For bookings and information:+359 877 181 343

Club One to One

Sofia, 22 Positano street

11:30 pm.

The International Competition of Sofia Pride Film Fest 2018 will be held between June 2 and 8 at Dom na Kinoto and Odeon cinema. Apart from that, this year a parallel panorama program will display international short movies.

You can learn more about the program of the film fest at: http://www.sofiapridefilmfest.com/ , and on the Facebook page of the Fest: https://www.facebook.com/SofiaPrideFilmFest/.

Dom na Kinoto,

Odeon cinema

Transfiguration

20 min, Bulgaria, experimental, director: Stephan Gannoff

He is young and handsome and he lives in Germany. Sometimes he is a she. He is honest with his mother. She understands him and accepts him. He has no father. He has an uncle in Bulgaria who knows only a part of his nephew – the masculine one. It’s time for the whole truth.

 

Whole

21 min, Bulgaria, fiction, director: Slava Doytcheva

A wedding. A girl. A closet. And the choice to be made once and for all – against the current or against herself.

6:30 PM, Dom na Kinoto

Zen Play plays with known conceptual pictures, unscrews the bolts and nuts of established forms. It winds about and erases the division lines of the mind – the place where an idea ends and another one starts.

The illusion of reality is completely real. The man is not a man, and the woman is not a woman.

The performance is for everybody who is not scared to grow up – downwards.

Conception and choreography: Zhivko Zhelyazkov

Composer: Ivan Shopov

Visual environment: Polina Stoyanova (Jo Iyaa)

Performers: Filip Milanov, Marion Darova, Diana Aleksandrova (With the special appearance of Dinko Zhelyazkov)

Producer: Atanas Maev

7:30 pm.

Derida Scene, Derida Dance Center

A documentary verbatim spectacle portraying the fight LGBTI people lead inside themselves, and which makes us stand up against the largest institution and measure of our life – the family.

Director and scenography: Konstantsa Getsova, Daniel Aleksandrov, dramatist Ivaylo-Valentino Uchanov and actors Mihail Milchev, Denitsa Darinova, Ahmed Yumer, Tsveta Doycheva.

7 pm.

The Red House

More Than God

9 min, Ireland, fiction, director: Kev Cahill

A pious Doctor is forced to deal with a family matter whilst hiding under the bed of a stranger.

 

Dream Boat

92 min, Germany, doc, director: Tristan Milewski

Once a year the DREAM BOAT sets sail for a cruise only for gay men. Far from their families and political restrictions, we follow five men from five countries on the quest for their dreams. The cruise promises seven days of sunshine, love, and freedom – but on board are also their personal stories, their doubts and uncertainties…

Berlinale 2017

8:30 pm, Odeon Cinema

The Condom Man

12 min, Ireland, doc, Director: Cara Holmes

 

The story of how Irish people fought the system, provided front-line and core services for haemophiliacs and other HIV and AIDS patients, and ultimately saved lives.

 

Soldiers

119 min, Romania, fiction, director: Ivana Mladenovic

Set within Bucharest’s impoverished ghetto Ferentari, Ivana Mladenovic’s intimate narrative debut navigates the unexpected relationship that blossoms between a young anthropologist named Adi and Roma guide Alberto.

20:30, Odeon Cinema

I’m Roger Casement

12 min, Ireland, experimental, Director: Dearbhla Walsh

In a stunningly visual and visceral artistic exploration, choreographed by Fearghus Ó Conchúir, I’m Roger Casement dances its way through the queer legacy of the Irish revolutionary. The film is a sensuous, poetic and moving evocation of a complex history seen in contemporary bodies.

 

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

105 min, USA, doc, director: David France

This documentary uses never-before-seen footage and rediscovered interviews in a search for the truth behind the mysterious 1992 death of black transgender activist and Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson.

8:30 pm, Odeon Cinema

ALJONA

15 min, Russia, fic/doc, director: Julia Grauberger

A poetic film about an ordinary Russian girl, her 23-rd birthday and the heavy silence that rules her life.

 

Small Talk

88 min, Taiwan, doc, director: Hui-Chen Huang

Taiwanese filmmaker Hui-chen Huang knows her mother is a lesbian, but just about nothing else about her. They have lived like strangers under one roof for decades, and almost never talk to each other. One day Hui-chen finally summons up the courage to sit her down and make her mother talk. But is she ready to hear what she has to say?

8:30 pm, Odeon Cinema

Underground literature readings

6 pm

Essence Bar

Society we live in becomes more and more pornographic. Everywhere around us there is an abundance of sexuality and sexual images. At the same time we as people become more and more virtual.

Choreography and performance: Krasen Krastev

Costumes: Scilla Ilardo

Sounds: Deru, Göem, Andy Sttot

A production of Théâtre Arsenic, Lausanne

Krasen Krastev is a choreographer and a performer based in Lozana, Switzerland. He graduated the National School of Choreography in Sofia. In 1993 together with Teodora Popova and Lilia Stefcheva he creates the first contemporary dance company in Bulgaria “Amarant Dance Studio”. Krasen continues his dance education in Switzerland where he studies under world famous choreographer Maurice Béjart at his school Rudra-Béjart (Lozana). In 1996 he joins one of the best Swiss companies for contemporary dance Linga, where he works as a performer and an assistant.

9 pm

Kanaal

Monthly meeting of the literature club

7 pm.

Rainbow Hub

No Strings

23 min, Ireland, fiction, director: Eoin Maher

Bryn, a jaded young man new to London, must spend the night with Sean, after their casual sexual encounter leaves Sean stranded.

 

Red Cow

90 min, Israel, fiction, director: Tsivia Barkai

As the search is on for the rare red heifer, required for Jewish purification rituals at the advent of the Messiah and the building of the Third Temple, this film is a coming-of-age story for Benny, 17, born in the Israeli settlement of Beit– El. Motherless since birth, and the only child of Joshua, a “Temple loyalist” and right-wing extremist, Benny is at a critical juncture in shaping her sexual, religious and political consciousness.

Berlinale 2018, Sofia Film Fest 2018

8:30 pm, Odeon Cinema

A concert of Ivo Dimchev with an improvisation of texts, suggested on Facebook, on the topic of HIV.

8.30 pm.

Fabrika 126

In the Sofia Pride month, Friedrich Naumann Foundation organizes again a discussion on LGBTI related topics.

1:30 pm – 5:30 pm

French institute

PURE is a performance-installation. Every spectator is  absorbed individually in a sequence of situations and experiences, which stimulate the imagination and the perception of reality. The audience/participants are taken through different spaces, in which visual and sensuous compositions are activated through their physical presence.

PURE is the second part of a trilogy inspired by Spinoza’s idea of ETERNITY, raising the questions of birth and death.

Hristiyan Bakalov graduates the National School of Choreography – Sofia in 1991 in the class of Iliyan Drangazhov and the same year he joins the troupe “The Young Ballet of France” in Paris. His career as a dancer continues in the National Choreography center “Claude Brumachon” in Nantes. With this group he embarks on world tours in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the USA for 7 years. Between 2002 and 2005, Hristiyan Bakalov plays at City Center – New York, Theater de Ranelagh in Paris, the Conservatory of Seoul, Korea, the Conservatory of Lion, France, the French Theater in the Prague, The National School of Choreography – Sofia, Ballet Arabesque – Sofia, and the Sofia National Opera.

Over the last 10 years, Hristiyan Bakalov works with renowned names in contemporary dance and theater such as Robert Wilson, Jérôme Bel, Jan Fabre, Ivo Dimchev, and many others.

In 2009 Hristiyan Bakalov moves to Brussels, participates in the creation of Volksroom, Ivo Dimchev’s space for contemporary art. Hristiyan Bakalov is also the recipient of the “Rayonnement de L’Opera de Paris” Prize. He graduated Pedagogy at the National Center for Dance in Paris.

6.30 pm.

Fabrika 126

3 Friends

23 min, Ireland, fiction, Director: Michael Moody Culpepper

Based on Colm Tóibín short story, 3 Friends follows Fergus, a pensive young man, who is propelled on a powerful journey that begins at his mother’s funeral. His grief becomes a catalyst to reflect upon his life and relationships. Ultimately it is through death, joy, and sex that Fergus looks inside to define himself.

 

Най–обикновени бащи/The Guys Next Door

74 min, USA, doc, director: Amy Geller, Allie Humenuk

An intimate portrait of a real Modern Family: Meet Erik and Sandro, a gay couple with daughters birthed by their friend Rachel who’s married with three teenagers of her own.

7 pm, Dom na kinoto

Entrance-free!

A part of the income will be donated for the organization of Sofia Pride 2018!

Bookings and information: +359 895 931 999

9:00 pm.

Barcode

Sofia, 95 Knyaz Boris I St.

9:00 am – 1:00 pm.

French institute

The official after party of Sofia Pride 2018!

Special Guests:

DJ’s SEXSHOOTERS (London)

 

Warming Up

DJ Tony Louis (Bulgaria)

Pixxel Alien Drag

Go-go dancers

Bookings and information: +359 893 883 773 or http://tickets.re-vault.bg 

11:30 pm – 06:00 am.

PARTY HALL

Sofia, 10 Tsar Osvoboditel

Bookings and information: +359 877 181 343

11:00 pm.

Club One to One

Sofia, 22 Positano St

06:00 am.

Bookings and information: +359 895 931 999

Barcode

Sofia, 95 Knyaz Boris I

A meeting and a discussion with Balkan LGBTQIA – a Brussels-based organization that advocates LGBTI rights and helps people from the Balkans who reside in Belgium. The organization responds to signals of violence and discrimination, participates in international projects and works in partnership with organizations from various European countries.

6:00 am.

Rainbow Hub