Things got out of hand over the weekend at the annual film festival in Brussels — specifically at the premiere of Kristen Stewart’s new lesbian movie “Love Lies Bleeding” — resulting in both verbal and physical altercations.
During the screening of the thriller at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF) attendees said that “lesbophobic” and “toxic” comments were thrown at the screen in the divided theater, ending in a walkout protest by dozens of “queer” audience members, Variety magazine reported.
“Things spun wildly out of hand,” attendee Elina Fischer said, calling her experience “traumatic and horrible.”
“We were afraid for our lives, because the kinds of people who say such things during a film screening are the kinds of people who assault us,” she added. “So we got scared and had to get out.”
la #honte @bifff_festival qui laisse des commentaires et insultes transphobes, lesbophobes et misogynes, forçant une 80aine de personnes a sortir de la scéance car trop mal a l’aise et qui pour seule réponse appellent la police. La honte. pic.twitter.com/s1B44UtsDa
— camarade miel 🔻 (@lululatuile) April 13, 2024
“Once we stood up, we started hearing insults directed at us,” another attendee told the outlet. “It became something much nastier. Violent. We were overwhelmed, crying and we said to each other that this wasn’t normal.”
“We shouted so that they could hear us inside too, to spoil their experience of the film a bit, just as they had spoiled ours,” the person added, about the shouting from the movie lobby by those who walked out.
In a longer statement shared with the outlet, the attendees said, “We know the difference between standard jokes and lesbophobic insults and commentary.”
“When audience members applaud during [what we feel to be] a rape scene, when they pantomime masturbation and catcall the actresses on screen by shouting ‘get naked,’ ‘she wants c**k,’ ‘disgusting,’ and ‘dirty dykes’ at the slightest scene of lesbian intimacy, once spectators stand up to leave the theater or ask for respect, only to be booed, insulted and physically assaulted, and once dozens of lesbians leave the theater in tears, dirtied, degraded and shocked, we can’t speak of a ‘good-natured’ atmosphere,” the statement added.
BIFFF press chief Jonathan Lenaerts confirmed police were called out to deal with the altercations and walkouts during the premiere, adding, “10 people out of 1,400 is already 10 too many.”
“We had programmed this film specifically because it touched on the LGBT community. We thought it was great that [this kind of] fantasy filmmaking was also opening to this community, giving us the perfect opportunity to welcome a new audience to our festival,” Lenaerts said of the festival that typically attracted a male, geeky type audience, per the outlet.
“We have a duty to contextualize,” he added. “To make sure that all communities feel welcome and on the same footing. The humor in the room should never be targeted and mean spirited, and all exceptions are intolerable.”
Later, BIFFF released a statement calling the previous evening’s events “unacceptable” and issued an apology to the audience for “discriminatory remarks against any community.”