In the period from 31^st of January until 2^nd of February, Sarajevo Open Centre will organise and host Merlinka Festival in Sarajevo Art Cinema Kriterion (Obala Kulina bana 2). International queer film festival Merlinka was organised for the first time in December of 2009 in Belgrade, in order to promote films tackling gay, lesbian and trans topics, which rarely reach wider audience. The Festival was named after a murdered trans person, Vjeran Miladinović Merlinka. The goal of this Festival is to promote the rights and culture og LGBT persons through film art, which is one of the methods to reduce homophobia. Belgrade Merlinka festival is organised by the Gay and Lesbian Info Center (GLIC) and Belgrade Youth Centre.

The three day Festival programme consists out of 30 short and 3 feature-length films. A discussion on the topic of Transexuality in transition, aimed to question transexuality from a wider socio-ideological context of the countries in the region, starting from socialism to capitalism, and everything in between, as well as to show how and whether political processes have any connections with legal status and the daily life of trans* persons, will be organised on the second day of the Festival. Guests from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will participate in the discussion.

Detailed programme of the film screenings we will publish soon.