David Bakum is a film curator and community builder dedicated to empowering voices through film and human rights advocacy. With experience in curating and pre-viewing for various festivals, including the XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin and the Edinburgh International University Film Festival, David brings a passion for bridging film, research, and political education. Their work focuses on queer narratives, (post)migrant perspectives, and social justice.
David Bakum
David Bakum participated in “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025, a first-ever poll of its kind as a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image. yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, in collaboration with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, distributors, critics, and scholars worldwide to nominate 10 audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. This was David Bakum’s submission:
| Movie | Original Title | Director | Country | Year | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meshes of the Afternoon | Alexander Hammid , Maya Deren | USA | 1946 | 14’ | ||
The film that started it all for me. |
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| Window Water Baby Moving | Stan Brakhage | USA | 1959 | 13’ | ||
What a miracle is life. And what a miracle is film. |
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| The House Is Black Khaneh siah ast | Forugh Farrokzhad | Iran | 1963 | 22’ | ||
This film changed me as a person. “O overruning river driven by the force of love, |
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| Hedgehog in the Fog Ёжик в тумане | Yuri Norstein | Soviet Union | 1975 | 11’ | ||
I grew up with this film, and it still haunts me. Each return reveals something new, every version of myself finds a different meaning. |
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| Tell Me Dis-moi | Chantal Akerman | France | 1980 | 46’ | ||
What a warm film, despite its painful background. I can see myself in Akerman. |
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| Tongues Untied | Marlon Riggs | USA | 1989 | 55’ | ||
A film that showed me how powerful film can truly be. |
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| Outer Space | Peter Tscherkassky | Austria | 1999 | 11’ | ||
This film was born the same year as me. My mind feels just the same and I don't believe in time or space either. |
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| Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba ابوكي خلق عمره ١٠٠ سنة، زي النكبة | Razan AlSalah | Palestine, Lebanon | 2018 | 7’ | ||
How painful to see one’s home forcefully changed, forgotten, stripped of its past. At least this film keeps a memory alive. |
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| Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall อนินทรีย์แดง | Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke | Thailand | 2020 | 30’ | ||
Very few films have ever left me speechless. This one has everything and more, perhaps the best script every brought to film. |
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| Grandmamauntsistercat | Zuza Banasińska | Poland, The Netherlands | 2024 | 23’ | ||
I relate to this film on a confusing level of genderfuck, family glitch, I am child and I am parent. |
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