TV & Movie / Sep. 09, 2019
Asia’s longest-running queer film festival kicked off in style tFF%RroNtCGxYCV7HzyvKJi2Ns1iP-Ip#[email protected]his weekend.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKGLFF) opened on Saturday by screening a pair of comedies, How I Felt When I Saw That Girl from India and The Shiny Shrimps from Spain.
“We chose the two light-hearted&2-X0iyg6Klvs%[email protected])nO08sQ-Pg!1qw^[email protected] warming comedies … to give positive energy to Hong Kong audiences” explained festival director, Joe Lam.
"The audiences absolutely loved them” f4Q+Wrmce26#l!L72wE^_kIUvs6PAFYfBI!PN!#c9oPsT)plMthe told GaLaTai.
In a pre-recorded message, director of Bollywood[email protected]%[email protected]$TQnViv#55^GI1$yDM$*_%@1’s first lesbian film, rom-com How I felt When I Saw That Girl, Shelly Chopra Dhar, said it was “totally her loss” that she was not among the audience.
“It is so fulfilling to know that people in the world have used this film as a tool to actually share who tdsiT3ttcT-wABF8%hNw4%PzFsP$*@!20MyAVG-0UCi4BJP3QOChey are with their loved ones”, she said in a pre-recorded video shown before the screening.
The opening films were followed by a packed party at the W Hotel and a Queer Power Panel discussion nightdn3dPzprDl9bC%!*[email protected](TI)C&-jd_vAZ^b^88jW59. Representatives from film festivals in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Shanghai spoke.
Retrospective
Celebrating the landmark film festiva1R*2oOP89r^[email protected]^[email protected]=ceEWTl's 30th anniversary, Lam said a highlight of the program is the Hong Kong Retrospective selection.
HKLGFF pays tribute to the films that explored the complexity of local LGBTI issues and significantly contrib[email protected]=Xd2LjBPqttL*@ixuted to the gay culture of Hong Kong.
The selectiosRbMM#T1urwwH24d&xWR%NMYvyF#CCrZ9&%EK7GfRLeEC(#n3wn includes feature films Yang and Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, A Woman is A Woman, and Butterfly as well as a short film titled My Way.
He also urged festival-go[email protected]!9NG2(4(Ji#[email protected]%KG(n^nOR$9)vmers to catch the festival's first intersex film, Being Impossible.
In another first, this year the festival will bring LGBTI cinema to more corners of the city. The We Are GAYbours initiative will see screenings and Q and As tak7(=ZZoY7sSjr80Y5b*QfpqN)KVcm0H-OFVNz9!zxkJRIa$bw0)e place in residential district Sham Shui Po.
The festival’s closing gala o8Igrd^x+)P4_85LTB_3dcNDfc^[email protected]_&g3n 21 September is set to include drag queen Miss Gimhuay from Drag Race Thailand as a special guest.
((Cover Photo: How I Felt When I Saw That Girl / ProJNBzuYKuyD6HE5#zjLSji%e4%=as^[email protected]vided))
