ART200 is the queer (umbrella term for the LGBT community: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) film festival in Bucharest. The festival’s main purpose is to encourage Romanian queer filmmaking, expression and collaboration between local queer artists, to encourage just and complex representations of LGBTQ+ characters in movies, to promote equality and solidarity through art and culture. The project has the following components: a queer film workshop for youth, a queer poetry workshop, a Pitch project contest, along with the festival per-se, which will include screenings, a poetry reading, a visual art exhibition.
We are organizing ART200 because we realize how important it is to encourage queer film-making in Romania. LGBTQ+-themed film production is almost inexistent in Romania: only two or three queer shorts are produced every year. Regarding feature films, only five-six LGBTQ+ films have been produced in the last 30 years. We believe that the existence of the festival itself will encourage more filmmakers to produce queer film because of the fact that there is a space dedicated to them, where they can create collaborations, exchange ideas and discuss their works.
At the same time, ART200 aims to show the general public complex and just representations of LGBTQ+ people, in the context in which this group constantly faces discrimination, violence and stereotypes.
