First Published: March 2007
       This is an OutUK Archive Item and so some of the links and information may be out of date.
The programme for the 21st London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has been released and once again it's an exciting mix of gay cinema from around the world. OutUK's Mike Gray has been looking through the Festival programme which opens on Wednesday March 21st. Based at the BFI National Film Theatre on London's South Bank, this is now one of the UK's largest film festivals and regularly attracts audiences of over 250,000.
This year's programme is bristling with new talent and among this year's highlights is the first Centrepiece Screening Adaora Nwandu’s Rag Tag. This is a life affirming love story starring Danny Parsons and Damola Adelaja. The spotlight stays in the UK for the Queer Britannia strand, where Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger (Lawless Heart, Boyfriends) return with Sparkle.
This is not a gay film, but a warm and funny drama about the complexities of city life starring Stockard Channing, Shaun Evans and Bob Hoskins. Directors Mark James and Phil O’Shea bring us Vampire Diary, a slickly shot horror set in the pulsating world of the London Goth scene and Ian Poitier’s assured first feature, Oh Happy Day, is a fun, sexy and beautifully shot British romantic comedy.
The Closing Night Gala on 4 April will be Duncan Roy’s third feature, The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring David Gallagher. Like his earlier AKA, the film uses split-screens and sharp art direction to create a cool and beautiful work, swapping Oscar Wilde's 1890's decadence for the 21st century drug-fuelled promiscuity.

Looking further afield, Singapore filmmaker, Royston Tan returns to the festival with his new film 4:30. Told almost without dialogue, it is the remarkable depiction of a young boy’s isolation and his desperate attempts to connect. With Young-jun Kim and Xiao Li Yuan. Sam Feder and Julie Hollar delve into the heated debates between transgender and queer communities telling the stories of three young transmen from New York. This riveting documentary attempts to open a dialogue about transgender identity and queer feminism.

Kirk Shannon-Butts brings his avant-garde sensibilities to African-America cinema with his first feature Blueprint a New York set drama about the fragility of youth and the first flushes of love, with mesmerising performances by the two leads Blake Young-Fountain and Damion Lee, Shannon-Butts is a name to watch. Eytan Fox, the talented Israeli director responsible for Yossi and Jagger, returns to the festival with The Bubble, a beautiful funny and tragic love story set amidst the relentless nightmare of the Palestine-Israeli conflict with Ohad Knoller and Yousef ‘Joe’ Sweid.

Director Phillip J Bartell brings festival favourite Q Allen Brocka’s fast-talking screwball comedy script to life in Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds with high-octane sexual intrigue and plenty of eye candy provided by Jim Verraros, Emily Brooke Hands, Marco Dapper and Brett Chukerman. South Korean director Leeson Hee-il brings No Regret to our screens a film of bold sexuality where unexpected passion, desire and misunderstandings wreak havoc of an operatic intensity as redundant factory worker Sumin is seduced into a world of prostitution. With Lee Han, Lee Young Hoon, Jo Hyeon-Cheol and Kim Dong-wook. Julián Hernández (A Thousand Clouds of Peace) envisions a bold new direction for queer cinema in Broken Sky which charts the break-up of university students Jonás and Gerardo. It is a hypnotic dance of stolen looks, tender caresses and lustful sex that is both innovative and exquisitely romantic. With Fernando Arroyo, Miguel Ángel Hoppe Canto and Ignacio Pereda.

Art Of The Erotic Imagination

The Art of the Erotic Imagination strand contains films exploring gay desire, here you will find t he recently restored Pink Narcissus.

James Bidgood’s complex, beautiful and very stylish film starring Bobby Kendall which will be screening with the world premier of an interview with the director and Brian Robinson, filmed in Manhattan in December 2006.

Following a recent donation of Super8 originals to the BFI National Archive there will be a screening of The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome, a legendary pioneering figure in gay pornography. We are delighted that the director will be at BFI Southbank for an interview following the screening.

Generations Of Love

The year-long LLGFF project Generations of Love, supported by the Mayor of London and in association with Mediatheque, is designed to provide a space for older members of our community to share experiences through film, discussion and reminiscence.

You can get full details of the Festival in the free brochure or on the website llgff.org.uk

 

search | site info | site map | new this week | outuk shop | home | outback | more

 

 

  UK gay lads | Gay news UK | Gay travel and holidays UK | UK & London gay scene

OutUK features the latest gay news, advice, entertainment and information together with gay guides to cities and holiday destinations around the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. There are hundreds of galleries of photos and videos of the sexiest gay guys plus intimate personal profiles of thousands of gay lads from all around the UK.