The Transfiguration is a film about identities that fall outside conventional social narratives. Stephan lives in Germany. Sometimes he is a she. His mother understands and accepts him. He has an uncle in Bulgaria who knows only a part of his nephew – the masculine one. But that’s about to change. Director and leading actor Stephan Ganoff made this highly personal film together with his family as a piece of “first person cinema”. He will present the film at ZOiS and then discuss with artists and academics how migration processes in Eastern Europe are radically changing gender identities and social norms.

The Transfiguration (directed by Stephan Ganoff, Bulgaria/Germany, 2018, 20 minutes, original languages with English subtitles)

• Stephan Ganoff studied directing, acting and animation at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia and at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. His current film "Преображение" / The Transfiguration won the Jameson Short Film Award for the best Bulgarian short film at the Sofia International Film Festival 2018.
• Petja Dimitrova is an artist and activist. She lives in Vienna and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts. She works at the interface of the arts and political and participatory cultural work.
• Regina Elsner is a theologian and a researcher at ZOiS. She currently works on the project Morality instead of peace. The social and ethical discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church between theological sovereignty and political adaptation.
• Chair: Magdalena Nowicka is Professor for Migration and Transnationalism at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and heads the Integration Department at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) in Berlin.

To make our programme more accessible to parents, we offer free professional child care during the event. Please register at least one week in advance, stating the age(s) of your child(ren).

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