Five LGBT films unveiled...
...for groundbreaking online film campaign
With topics ranging from transgender parenting to dating apps, the #FiveFilms4Freedom will be available online and free of charge for audiences across the globe from 16-26 March.
You can watch them all here
A suburban train station, London’s riverside and the streets of Paris form some of the backdrops to the stories being screened at #FiveFilms4Freedom, the world’s widest-reaching LGBT online short film programme.
The line-up for #FiveFilms4Freedom, run by the British Council (the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities) and the BFI, this year explores topics ranging from transgender parenting to machismo and sexuality to dating apps.
The five short films will be made available online and free of charge for audiences across the globe from 16-26 March.
The programme has been selected from, and coincides with, BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival, and builds to a single campaign day – Tuesday 21 March – when people everywhere are encouraged to watch the films in solidarity with LGBT communities in countries where freedom and equal rights are limited.
On the 21 March, global audiences are encouraged to watch and share the films using the hashtag #FiveFilms4Freedom to recognise that love is a human right.
As the world’s widest reaching digital celebration of LGBT film, the initiative, now in its third year will be promoted through the British Council’s global network of over 100 countries, reaching audiences from the Americas, China and India, to Europe, the Middle East and beyond. This will be a chance for audiences, wherever they are, to enjoy LGBT cinema and to find out more about emerging LGBT filmmakers from around the world. For the first time – and commemorating the fact that 2017 marks 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK – all five of the selected films are British.
Last year, the campaign reached 140 million people in 179 countries, with the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Germany being among the countries where the films were watched the most.
2017 films
The five short films selected for 2017 include both drama and documentaries and tell stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender experiences. They range from the tentative steps of first love, through an intimate portrait of an extraordinary family, to an exuberant picture of underground cultural expression. They are:
Crush
Director Rosie Westhoff / UK 2016 / 8 mins
An almost wordless story of the flash of first love as a young girl waits for her train in Britain.
Where We Are Now
Director Lucie Rachel UK 2016 / 9 mins
An intimate documentary portrait of the relationship between a transgender parent and her bisexual daughter in Scotland.
Heavy Weight
Director Jonny Ruff / UK 2016 / 13 mins
A boxer finds his world turned upside down by the arrival of a new fighter at the club.
Still Burning
Director Nick Rowley / UK/France 2016 / 9 mins
Era, a young migrant from Guadeloupe living in Paris, introduces his brother to leotards, heels and the ‘fierce’ attitude of the dance movement ‘voguing’.
Jamie
Director Christopher Manning / UK 2016 / 9 mins
After chatting to a guy online, shy Jamie makes the bold step to meet up with him in person.
The five films will be available to watch online from 16-26 March on the British Council Arts YouTube channel and BFI Player.