On February 9, as part of the CSAK! Festival, the Auróra cellar will become a “sanctuary” for lesbian, feminist, and queer Hungarian herstory for one day.

Pop-Up Film Exhibition
The exhibition features a selection of films from the Budapest Lesbian Film Committee (2000-2006). The committee was formed in 2000, when the their first film, a short film entitled “What Should a Young Lesbian Do in the Big City?”, was made. After their debut, other amateur and professional filmmakers, members and friends of Labrisz joined the group. They were free to direct, shoot, edit, and act. They were featured in the film repertoire of the Hungarian LGBT Festival (now Budapest Pride) and at European and American lesbian film festivals from Prague to Zurich to Sydney and San Francisco. From the ten films produced over six years, we put together an audivisual installation space, in which we present some important moments in the history of Labrisz and the Hungarian LGBT community, in the authentic voices of the community members themselves. The witnesses appearing in the fims tell of events such as the first Pink Picnic, held in secret in the Buda hills. We also get a glimpse into the rehearsal room of the Eklektika Dance School and a drag king workshop. We follow the interviewees in Mária Takács’ documentary “Hidden Years”, who tried to find gay and lesbian places, company, and community in the capital. In addition to the Film Committee’s archive footage, the installation includes four contemporary animated short films, which were produced in collaboration with Budaörsi Animációs Bázis és Kreatív and Labrisz at a creative camp last summer.

We have Queer Feminists at Home! – Workshop
Between 5 and 8 p.m., we invite everyone to the workshop entitled “We have Queer Feminists at Home!” Feminist Action and Eastern Queerope will hold an interactive session exploring personal queer and movement stories that are underrepresented in mainstream discourse. People and histories from Eastern Europe are underrepresented in discourses on feminist and LGBTIQ+ history. Both academic and popular culture focus on individuals from Western countries, while favoring the telling of stories about cisgender husbands and people from the upper classes. In our workshop, we want to challenge this together: to draw attention to the queer women of local Hungarian and Eastern European history and highlight the intersectionality of their stories. Participants will learn about queer feminist figures in our region’s history and how their lives were affected by social class, capitalist oppression, and patriarchy. The workshop consists of an informative part, where participants can learn about individual historical figures and discuss them, as well as a creative zine-making session, where participants can apply their newly acquired knowledge in a creative way.
The moving images featured in the exhibition are part of the Labrisz archive collection. The stories presented at the workshop were compiled by the organizers using the archive and their own research materials. The content is available in English and Hungarian.