Five Films for Freedom, the world’s widest-reaching digital celebration of LGBTQ+-themed film, is coming to Belfast’s Imagine Festival.
For 11 years, the groundbreaking global programme has been celebrating LGBTQ+ stories annually, standing in solidarity lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual people across the world.
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A partnership between the British Council and BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, this year’s programme will represent LGBTQ+ filmmakers from Indonesia, New Zealand, the UK and USA/China. Check out the productions included below!
Dragfox (UK)
Animation director Lisa Ott offers this short film about an 11-year-old called Sam who struggles with their gender identity. Amid these feelings of loneliness and confusion, a mischievous neighbourhood fox jumps through their window late one night, taking Sam on an all-singing, all-dancing journey of self-discovery and acceptance.
If I Make it to the Morning (USA/China)
Accompanied by her overbearing mother, Chinese teenager Ziyi spends the final night of her cross-state college tour at her cool aunt’s apartment in New York. But as Ziyi starts to think this could be the perfect place to live and study, an unexpected revelation suddenly brings tension to the group.
NGGAK!!! (Indonesia)
Indonesian film critic and journalist Oktania Hamdani and filmmaker Winner Wijaya present this short about the struggles loved-up girlfriends Sekar and Bebi have to navigate as the former’s mother phones to tell her she is to be set up with a potential partner. How will Sekar make her understand that she has already found ‘the one’?
We’ll Go Down in History (UK)
Directors Charlie Tidfmas and Cameron Richards bring to the screen this heartfelt documentary about TRUK United, a grassroots, proudly trans football club formed in January 2021. Filmed over two years, the short captures the highs and lows of the pioneering UK team on and off the pitch as they strive to create a haven for their community in the face of rising transphobia.
Wait, Wait, Now!
When best friends Alex and Sam are left at home for the night, they raid their mum’s wardrobe, play dress-up, and create a fantasy world where they feel safe and accepted. For them, it’s just what all teenage boys do, but little do they know that their parents are on to them. Is their safe bubble about to burst?
Five Films for Freedom is not only a celebration of queer storytelling but also a call to action for everybody who wants to join this global solidarity movement. The event will take place as part of the Imagine Festival at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, on March 28, with free admission. For those who can’t make it, the films will also be available online for free from March 19 to 30. Find out more here.
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