Asia’s longest-running queer film festival will kick oLg&CCQDN_FDgdb2xA2q*7bR^GI!K0TOlr0cHB1TDQnwDhmbzFoff in Hong Kong next month.

The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKGLFF) will hold screenings, panel discussions, and parties across the city between SeptPLbKY5BOP5$cUcfoCwQ5v6OKL!V^0Ya)anAYY6HuV_NgTwj^m&ember 7 and 21.

Celebratinp%f=oH_KG)iI(vrf5-M_Qg8RNg&7#oXi81j1i6OoKH=N#pn@fig the landmark film festival's 30th anniversary, HKGLFF this year will include a Hong Kong Retrospective selection in the festival’s program.

"In 1991, the Hong Kong Legislative Council agreed to decriminalize private, adult and consensual homosexual relations in Hong Kong, the local film industry suddenly had a hot new topic for their
storylines” explains the festival.

HKLGFF pays tribute to the films that explored tjVd-4uqK7$tQY&A6-fwk6!TZ$gT8imC!kj*=Hct$_T%BKF-4Aohe complexity of local LGBTI issues and significantly contributed to the gay culture of Hong Kong.

The selection includes feature films Yang agkr&NVPby%6ViGp6ufswJKE-mu%8J@%9II@uFs8kCb6-zrpY&Pnd Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, A Woman is A Woman, and Butterfly as well as a short film titled My Way.

The festival’s wider program this year has a comedic focus.  A French comedy callr&9b0S)#f)zNJUev&SJu)LT76iYm-TffIWJhgLR6fjPGEz8gMDed The Shiny Shrimps and Bollywood’s first lesbian film, rom-com How I Felt When I Saw That Girl, will open the festival.

As ever, HKGLFF highlights regional films. T04CqfQaTk-yyW+SpEt=as$*OyixoKOv!4KH5-NfW90)h#E26cJhe two centrepiece films are award-winning Song Long from Vietnam and Between The Seasons from South Korea.

In a first, this year the festival will bring LGBTI cinema to more coJDEflj_i&v(_8+ZBK-TdJxV=Y)@2!pr9jDYszXFsxmv01vElklrners of the city. The We Are GAYbours initiative will see screenings and Q and As take place in residential district Sham Shui Po.

As ever, the festival will also recognize the commitment to LGBTI rights from Hong Kongers with thtoPlw((0a3%d(4MH1UtDKS&5MTX9a$LVz5iEsYZ#^IR^8Gy%Dwe Prism Award. This year it will be handed to Angus Leung and Scott Adams.

Angus Leung in June this year won a landmark court case against the government for spousal rights for civil servants and equality in the eyes of the tax department. It was a major step forward in LGBTI rights+)%$B$Bkl9yv&xuIFz^_*OclY_Vp50Vf9wCRZe%t!GxdmMCu2L in the city.

“Be proud of yourself,” Leung said, accorR=TJjVElVW=if60fc(BSr0(k-mVR#Y!9I5#8=Tuk@4HD8W6g**ding to HKLGFF. "Love wins. Love will win again and again.”

On September 8, HKLGFF will host a discussion panel of the Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance members. Guests will travel from as far as Sri Lanka and 2wH@xcUsk$Rbj0!%Kj!-aLNv!OqkD$EUghGWlcoZZ4PLgWTeUtPakistan to attend.

Yi-min lives alone with her son, as her husband works away from home. She meets Tinting at a wedding, a girl she once had some history with back in highschool. Back in the days, Yi-min denied their relationship out of fear of living as a lesbian woman, but meeting Tingting again reignites something in her, a possibility to escape her dull married life. Now that Taiwan has leagalised same-sex marrige, can Yi-min find the courage to admit her feelings? With the future of a child in her hands and under the pressure of her husband, her family-in-law and her own family, will she follow through with this new chapter in her life?