First Published: March 2004
This is an OutUK Archive Item and so some of the links and information may be out of date.
| The programme for this year's London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has been unveiled, reports OutUK's Mike Gray. This is the 18th LLGFF, now the largest gay film festival in Europe, and during the two weeks from the 24th March more than 120 screenings will take place at the National Film Theatre on London's South Bank. With Opening and Closing Nights at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square and an LLGFF On Tour programme which visits 44 towns and cities between May and September, there's a feast of gay and lesbian cinema on offer. OutUK will be bringing you full coverage of the best of LLGFF this year and recommending some not-to-be-missed films from the 60 features and more than 100 shorts which are being shown. | |
| Opening Film is The Event has been described as the most significant film about AIDS since Longtime Companion. Olympia Dukakis, Don McKeller, Parker Posey and Sarah Polley star in Thom Fitzgerald's film which deals with the issue of whether you should be able to choose the time and place of your own death. It's very Hollywood, a real weepy and has received standing ovations wherever it's been shown. |
 The Event |
| As ever the LLGFF programme is a richly diverse mixture. Marking 10 years since the death of Derek Jarman is a new documentary Life As Art, together with a series of screenings of work by Jarman and film-makers inspired by him. | |
| Centrepiece screening Eating Out is Q. Allan Brocka's first feature and is a funny sexy film about your straight best friend who looks more gay than you, and decides to 'go gay' to see if he has more luck picking up girls. All goes well till he pretends to fancy fag hag Gwen's flatmate Mark, until he finds himself alone with him, together with a video and some Kleenex. |
Eating Out
|
| A documentary double bill focuses on two perennials of the UK gay scene. Jules Norrish's Carry On Calling paints a personal history of Gay Switchboard, which is being shown with Peter Tatchell: Just Who Does He Think He Is? a revealing portrait of an individual and tireless campaigner for gay and human rights. | |
| We're also looking forward to Bruce La Bruce's Raspberry Reich which promises to the LLGFF's most offensive film. It's the story of a gay terrorist group based on the Bader-Meinhof gang of the 70s who try and bring about the revolution through boy-on-boy action. A typically Bruce La Bruce mix of hardcore pornography, political excess, hardcore politics and pornographic excess. |
Raspberry Reich
|
| Even the LLGFF programme is interactive this year, so you can choose your cover image
with either a cat or a dog wearing a diamanté necklace with the letters LLGFF. The cat, Glitter, a sleek
tabby has previous modelling credits including several Whiskas television ads and
a James Bond film; the dog Boysie, a Boxer Bulldog cross is making his professional modelling debut.
There's full details of all the films and booking information on the LLGFF website, and we'll be bringing you coverage of the Festival here on OutUK. Priority Booking opens on 1st March, Public Booking on the 10th. | |
