&Proud Yangon LGBT Film Festival

In the last few years the Myanmar Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer community has become far more visible and vocal. The &PROUD Yangon LGBTIQ film festival, which is part of the Yangon Pride Festival, adds to this vibrant LGBTIQ cultural scene and each year celebrates the breadth and diversity of Asian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer lives.

Focusing on films from Southeast Asia and other Asian countries, as well as supporting new productions from young Myanmar activists and film makers, our aim is to encourage discussion and debate around LGBTIQ identities and to showcase the role of film in encouraging social debate and movements for LGBTIQ rights.

In February 2020 the Festival celebrated its six edition and continues to be the major LGBTIQ cultural event in Myanmar. As well as the film event we also held a Pride type festival in one of the parks in Yangon and in total around 17000 people attended sports events, a Drag Olympics, film screenings, performances, debates, and parties.

The festival welcomes documentary and fictional films, long and short. All films with a principal LGBTIQ storyline, or which address the LGBTIQ community’s experience, are welcome. All films will be subtitled in Burmese, and directors, producers and actors of some selected films will be invited to discuss their work with the audience in open sessions or panel discussions between showings.

Like in 2020, over the summer the festival organisers will work with local Yangon organisations to run a series of workshops for members of the Myanmar LGBT+ community interested in making films. Participants in the workshops will be supported to develop their own films which will be showcased in the opening ceremony of the film festival programme.