Bi The Way
Year: 2022
Duration: 16 minutes
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary \ Animation
Technical: 4K DCI | Color | 5.1 Surround Sound
Premiere: Frameline Film Festival 2022
Awards: 6 International Awards
Funded by: QueerScope Short Film Fund
Bi The Way is a short, funny, and intimate animated film about Amir’s life-journey as a bisexual cis man.
The film tells Amir’s story from early childhood until present day, highlighting his struggle to fit into binary culture making him unacceptable to the heteronormative community and invisible in the LGBTQIA community.
Dr. Maya Lavie-Ajayi and PhD candidate Zeinab Nobowati join in on the films historical-social discussion, providing background knowledge in queer and feminist theories to the subject matter of the film. They also shed light upon the hidden mechanisms of the modern western binary culture and why non-binary people struggle to fit in.
Best Comedy - QueerX (2022)
Best Comedy - OutReel Cincinnati (2022)
Best Short Film - CinHomo (2023 Official Jury)
Best Short Film - CinHomo (2023 Young Jury)
Best Documentary short (Special Jury Mention) - KASHISH Mumbai (2023)
Best Short (Honorary Mention) - Stamped Film Festival (2023)World Premiere:
Frameline Film Festival (2022) - Competition
Official Selection:
OUTFEST (2022) - Competition
Provincetown IFF (2023) - Competition
Interfilm (2022)
Seoul Indie-AniFest (2022) - Competition
TLVFest (2022) - Competition
Courts Mais Trash (2023) - Competition
The Short Nights of Berlin (2022)
PornFilmFestival Berlin (2022)
Slovak Queer Film Festival (2022)
Out On Film Atlanta's LGBTQ Film Festival (2022)
QFilms - (2022)
Beijing Queer Film Festival (2022)
Bergen International Film Festival (2022)
ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival (2022)
Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival (2022)
Madrid LGBTI+ Film Festival (2022)
QUEER Filmfest Weiterstadt (2022)
Filmhuis Cavia in Amsterdam (2022-2023)
Brussels Short Film Festival (2023)
Athens ANIMFEST (2023)
L'Hybride (2023)
Queer Mais Trash (2023)
Out & Loud PIQFF (2023)
OutFest Peru (2023)
Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival (2023)
Reeling The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival (2023) - Competition
Tehran International Animation Festival (2023) - Competition
San Antonio QFest (2023) - Competition
Stamped Film Festival (2023)
Post Pxrn Film Festival Warsaw (2023)
PERLEN - Queer Film Festival Hannover (2023)
Excentrico PFF - Chile (2023)
Hilltop Film Festival of Diversity and Inclusion (2023)
Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (2023)
OFFline Film Festival (2023)
Los Angeles Animation Festival (2023)
Gay Film Festival in Freiburg (2024)
Director's Statement
My motivation to making this film is very personal; As a queer-bisexual cis man, I had a very unique life-journey with my sexual-identity and I researched this topic my entire life. Thus, I believe I have a lot to say about it.
Being bi-sexual is very queer: I never feel 100% belong to the gay community and also not 100% belong to the heteronormative world. I also feel these communities never really accept me for who I real am. I would like this film to be an international voice of people like me, who straggle to find their place in our binary world.
The film is animated for a few reasons
• I am an award winning and experience animator – I have all the tools and skills to make it.
• My animatic/cinematic language is both funny and intellectual, thus it’s ideal for communicate complicated topics like fluid sexuality and non-binary lifestyle with international audience.
• Production wise, it’s cheaper and requires less pre-production and planning: The film was produced and animated in my own animation studio in Berlin ‘The Glass Prince’.