Cooking up Democracy – eine Masterclass mit Monika Treut

For almost 40 years, the Hamburg-based filmmaker Monika Treut has been shaping queer cinema far beyond Germany’s borders with her spirited and subversive narrative and documentary films. Her work has taken her from northern Germany to the USA and Asia. In “Cooking up Democracy”, she encounters a society in Taiwan where democratisation, digitalisation, and openness to non-conformist lifestyles are closely intertwined. In this moderated discussion, Treut uses her latest film as a starting point to talk about documentary filmmaking and the cinematic exploration of real-life experiences amidst social change. At the same time, the masterclass offers an insight into a body of work that has been challenging conventions since the 1980s and provided an important impetus for New Queer Cinema. How does Treut find her subjects? How is documentary storytelling changing alongside the societies it observes? A masterclass on perspective, curiosity, and nearly four decades of independent filmmaking. 

Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, 1:00-2:30 pm 

Willy-Brandt-Haus, Königstraße 21, 23552 Lübeck 

Admission is free. The event will be held in German. Admission is free with a Ticket, which can be booked at nordische-filmtage.de, and must be shown at the door either digitally or printed. 

A ticket is required for the movie screening on Friday, Nov 6, 2026, 1:15 pm, CineStar 7. 

In cooperation with MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and with the support of the Willy-Brandt-Haus Lübeck.