What does it mean to listen while being vulnerable? Taking the concept "music as a gift", four Berlin-based migrant queer musicians surprised their close friends or relatives with a special song, which then triggered a moment of deep appreciation between them. This film documents that process of them opening up, becoming vulnerable and letting go - with conversations about their marginalized kinship, trust, fluidity and fragility of life. Together they find comfort and "reverberations" (physical phenomenon) of their sounds in each other.



In this film I found peace and solace in these people's act of listening. Coming from my background in music video and media content, this film is dedicated to the mostly fragile queer beings in Berlin - with whom I'm close friend with. It regards few aspects of collective healing and belonging, which I believe are potentials of queer friendship. Working with languages which are not my mother tongues, this is a challenging project which forced me to think about how to represent such polyvocal or diverse perspectives, beyond those of my "birth country" and beyond any specific identities.

Festivals/screening:
- Doc ‘n Roll London 2022
- Soundwatch Music Film Festival Berlin 2022
- Kasseler Dokfest 2022 (German Premiere)
- Outfest Fusion 2023 (North American Premiere)
- Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt 2023
- Rice and Roots Asian Festival Cologne 2023
- Xposed Queer Film Festival Berlin 2023


Credits:
Protagonists: Folly Ghost, Sanni Est, Nansea (Marek Pólgesek), Radoslaw Pólgesek, Naari, Kei Watanabe

Camera: Sarnt Utamachote
Sound recordig: Katrina Singleton, Rocket Loam, Kareem Baholzer
Bee farm: Nadja Wrona, Silke Meyer
Film equipment: Klaus Salminen (Nordic Media House), 25P Cine Support Berlin, Seeyourent Berlin
Location assistance: Aleksandr Lange, Ragil Huda
Transportation: Kareem Sarfoh, Adrian Bang

Editing: Sarnt Utamachote
Editing assistance: Ygor Gama, Cécile Tollu-Polonowski
Sound design: Takuro Sakamoto
Sound mix: Dr Rey (Uferlos Studio)
Colorgrading: Agustin Melfi
Graphic design: Alexander Rolfsen
Studio recording/sound engineering: Dr Rey

original soundtracks:
Folly Ghost "Music is a gift", 2021
Nansea "Give your gift to the world", 2021
Naari "Desert Moon", 2021
Kei Watanabe "Postcard", 2021

under mentorship of Cécile Tollu-Polonowski 2021

supported by Xposed Short Film fund 2020 (winner), Nautilus Houseboat GmbH

Courtesy of Sarnt Utamachote Productions, Berlin 2021/22