Link to tickets: https://www.melkweg.nl/nl/agenda/queer-pride-queen-of-lapa-2019-27-07-2023/

Queer Amsterdam will take place for the first time from July 22nd until July 28th and Humans of Film Festival is participating! Humans of Film Festival is proud to announce our collaboration with the new Queer Pride by Queer Amsterdam this year. Queer Pride centers queer people of color, transgender and non-binary people, and queer people with disabilities. We have chosen Alejandra Ortiz, writer (her book: “The Truth will set me Free“), grassroots activist and guest curator Queer Currents 2023, to select two films (that will be screened at Melkweg and Studio/K) and to decide the topics that she wants to discuss during the panel discussions after the films. Through our other projects (including LGBTQ Humans of Amsterdam) you will find more programs (for example in collaboration with Pride and Sports) and even an exhibition about the Gay Games 1998 in the Amsterdam Museum.

27 july 2023 | Film screening at Melkweg: Queen of Lapa (2019) + after talk with Alejandra Ortiz 

The next day we show another beautiful film, Queen of Lapa (2019), a film by Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat, at Melkweg. Queen of Lapa is about the amazing Luana Muniz, actress, activist and proud sex professional. She created a new reality in her hostel by providing a safe working environment for several generations of young transgender women and girls in the neighborhood of Lapa in Rio de Janeiro. Alejandra Ortiz also moderates a panel discussion after this film. This time with panelists and trans activists Ana Paula Lima (Brazil) and Anancy (Portugal). During this conversation, topics such as family rejection, sex work, differences between the West and the global south, but also migration are discussed.

Synopsis: Queen of Lapa (2019)

Larger-than-life actress, cabaret performer, activist, and proud sex professional since the age of eleven, Luana Muniz – arguably one of Brazil’s most recognizable transgender personalities, shapes a new generation of transgender sex workers in her hostel by providing a safe working environment in the dangerous neighborhood of Lapa in Rio de Janeiro. “Queen of Lapa” explores the day-to-day lives, quests for love, housemate rivalries in a turbulent political climate under matriarch Muniz’s watchful and guiding eye.

Panel Talk: “The juxtaposition of it all: family rejection, sexwork, migration, and chosen family”

During this talk we would like to talk about the juxtaposition of characters in regard to family rejection, sexwork, but also migration. Although one can relate to the realities portrayed in comparison to one’s life, as a migrant there can be differences. Also when coming from the global south what can we learn when we compare the situations over  there to living in the West. We idolize the West as a safe haven and when we live here we discover it is not perfect. Anancy moved from Portugal and Ana Paula from Brazil, we wonder what of this film resonates with their experiences.

• Moderator: Alejandra Ortiz, writer (her book: “The Truth will set me Free“), grassroots activist and guest curator Queer Currents 2023

• Panellist: Anancy, a co-creator of a transhouse in Lisbon, Portugal;

• and Panellist: Ana Paula Lima, a Brazilian trans rights activist living in Amsterdam.