Pink Apple - History

History

In 1997 the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Pink Apple was founded by a handful of film enthusiasts in Frauenfeld, a small city in the Canton of Thurgau in Eastern Switzerland. The Swiss ”Apple Canton“, also nicknamed ”Cider India“ because of its many apple trees, was the reason for its naming. Initially its aim was to promote the emancipation and acceptance of homosexuality in the provinces on the basis of a cultural activity. The festival was first held in 1998, showing ten films to a large crowd in the tiny Cinema Luna in Frauenfeld.

Pink Apple landed in Zurich in the wake of the lesbian and gay EuroGames held there in the year 2000. A programme with seven performances of seven films was very successful right from the start. Since then the festival has been growing continuously and the main focus is now in the "little big city" of Zurich thanks to the great public encouragement and rising demand for an annual gay and lesbian film programme. The opening of Pink Apple took place in Zurich for the first time in 2003.

In the meantime Pink Apple has become the largest lesbian and gay film festival in Switzerland. This year about 80 films are to be shown in 80 performances. The initial audience of 500 has increased more than tenfold to approximately 7,000 people in 2008. Nevertheless, the festival still takes place in its birthplace Frauenfeld as well, where a reduced programme is shown.

Pink Apple is based on a society and is an independent project. The members of the organizing committee (at present around twenty people) work on a voluntary basis.