Uncensored is a space for film, discussion and reflection on different forms of censorship, discrimination and exclusion. Its first edition in March 2017 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with the subtitle International Film Days showed historical and contemporary films dealing with censorship to deepen and expand the critical discourse on the topic. Due to the lack of funding and rejection reasons reminding us – bad enough – of omnipresent censoring strategies, the second two days edition in 2019 had to be scaled down to a Film Program, Get-Together and Talk of a few hours. To mirror this and the ongoing state of being unheard and unseen (thus unknown) this next edition highlighted discrimination and exclusion in the art and cultural world based on the statement WE’RE SICK OF IT!. Hundreds of Migrant/Black/Indigenous/Lesbian/Queer/Trans* Artists of Color have signed it in 2018 to make a collective stand against structural discrimination in white art and cultural institutions. »While our individual experiences of discrimination might differ, we have all been confronted with racism. Hierarchies in the art world and the dependencies they produce (yes, even we have to live from something!) do not always allow us to speak out and defend ourselves against discrimination. … It is worth noting that this statement is a part of continuous –past and ongoing– efforts to fight and dismantle racism in the art scene.«*

Uncensored with the headline WE ARE SICK OF IT took place on December 6 2019 at the Blickle Kino/ Belvedere 21 in Vienna. A group of artists, filmmakers, activists, collectives and curators exchanged their ideas and strategies of empowerment, resistance and building alliances – dealing with structural racism and white supremacy, ignorance and privilege in the fields of Arts, Film and Culture and reflecting their own experiences, as well as former and ongoing fights and solidarities.

»Silence is like starvation. Don’t be fooled.«**

The guests were Pia Chakraverti-Wuerthwein and Laura Klöckner (SAVVY Contemporary Berlin – The laboratory of forming ideas), Maxime Jean-Baptiste (filmmaker, Brussels/Paris), MAI LING (artist collective, Vienna), Day Moibi (artist, writer, poet, performer, designer, London/Vienna) and moderator Djamila Grandits (film curator and part of CineCollective, Vienna). The international and local short film program after the talk consisted of artistic forms and collective concepts dealing with empowerment, healing and resistance featuring works by Ayo Akingbade, Karrabing Film Collective, Verena Melgarejo and Maque Pereyra, MAI LING and Tariq Suliman.

Kaleidoskop 2020. Fragmente. now shows half of the Uncensored: WE ARE SICK OF IT film program with works by Pêdra Costa, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Amjad Abu Alala and us.

And soon the films will be on the road again.