The aim of this paper is to examine some productions showed at the Hamburg International Queer film festival 2022 under the light of Nina Menkes’ film/talk Brainwashed: sex, camera, power (USA 2022, D: Nina Menkes), also part of the festival, and particularly her “list” of items that she uses to prove that shot design is a gendered practice. Can we find those framing elements in queer films too? Are those settings challenged by the non-adherence of the characters to heteronormativity and the binaries associated with it? A long feature and a short film, both focusing on lesbian experience, were chosen as corpus. The queer gaze present in both those production, through narrative and formative elements, showcase that an alternative way of looking at and making movies is possible.
