Camera Erotica: Baldiga (“Baldiga – Unlocked Heart”)

Documentary 

Duration: 1h 32m

Country: Germany

Director: Markus Stein

Language: German

Subtitles: English

Berlin, late ’80s. Smoke-stained apartments, walls plastered with flyers and photographs, nights that never end. Jürgen Baldiga is there with his camera. “My libido will kill me one day.” His life is art and fucking. Elation and desperation in skin, in photographs. “My cock is a gun. My ass a grenade. A kiss, a knife.” — recording a generation burning bright while the AIDS crisis looms like a shadow.

Baldiga – Unlocked Heart is not just a documentary; it’s a manifesto of survival, art, and desire. Diaries, images, and raw voices collide to tell the story of a man who refused to shut down, who lived with his heart wide open while the world around him tried to collapse. His intimate photographs portray Berlin’s queer community of the 1980s and ’90s — its struggles and passions, its joys and traumas.

The film premiered at the 2024 Berlinale Film Festival and has already participated in over 30 festivals. Now is the time for the Estonian premiere – October 16th 8pm.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with Alana Proosa on the topic of RAW & EXPOSED: Intimacy Through the Lens. Proosa is an Estonia-based photographer whose work explores themes of identity and sexuality, with a focus on transgender experiences, offering fresh perspectives on the diversity of human existence.

Camera Erotica is a special programme dedicated to cinema and eroticism by offering a safe space for investigating sexuality and intimacy.