From the LLGFF programmers
Every year we scour the world’s film festivals and receive many hundreds of submissions from around the globe. And every year we are surprised and delighted by what we find, whether it’s popular, big budget entertainments or compelling and insightful documentaries.
This year's Festival is a testament to the continuing creativity and engagement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender filmmakers with our largest ever programme. When a Pope feels the need to speak out against you then you know that your community is making an impact. When President Obama signs up to a programme of LGBT rights you feel a cautious optimism. The fact that both things have happened in recent months shows we need to keep on fighting against prejudice.
Our Centrepiece screenings are a welcome return for Festival favourite Monika Treut with her latest feature Ghosted, fresh from its world premiere in Berlin and a powerful new drama from Mexico, Burn the Bridges by Francisco Franco. Activism is a key part of this year's Festival reflected in a visit by Cleve Jones, Harvey Milk's assistant and creator of the Aids Quilt. Aids activism features in some key films: Fig Trees; Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story; Pedro (MTV biopic on Pedro Zamora); Sex Positive; and Out in India. We’ve also linked up with the Stonewall organisation to present an anti-homophobic bullying film competition.
Retrospectives include maverick German lesbian artist and filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger; Allyson Mitchell, a quirky artist and defiant fat activist; Gregory Markopoulos, a key avant garde experimental filmmaker; and a celebration of some classic Hollywood delights in Queer Film Noir. We celebrate Quentin Crisp alongside a special preview of ITV's An Englishman in New York.
Quentin features as part of a V&A collaboration entitled Self-Made Men - Gay Fashion on Film including films on Leigh Bowery, Mr. Crisp and Cecil Beaton. We celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Judy Garland.
Other highlights include new work from veteran filmmaker Barbara Hammer, a junior gay disco for alternative families (We are Family!), a 30th anniversary restoration of Ron Peck and Paul Hallam's ground-breaking Nighthawks, an academic evaluation of the career of porn phenomenon Fred Halsted by William E. Jones and a celebration of fatness in Invasion of the Chubsters. The Raincoats will perform around a new documentary on their work in an evening hosted by Beth Ditto.
Through the Festival we will be graced by some choirs giving us a foretaste of the Various Voices choral festival due to take place at the Royal Festival Hall in early May. London has a wealth of cultural riches and there is a huge potential to create a wider engagement with queer culture in all its thrilling diversity. A selection of key films will tour more than 40 towns and cities across the UK April - September 2009.
Jason Barker, Michael Blyth, Nazmia Jamal, Brian Robinson, Emma Smart, Kyle Stephan
