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Rainbow Umbrella Film Festival
Thursday, 16 January 2025 until Saturday, 18 January 2025
Following the success of 2023's festival , we are delighted to announce the eighth RAINBOW UMBRELLA Film Festival, which will take place at THE HEN & CHICKENS THEATRE in January 2025. The programme will be announced in December 2024 and tickets will go on sale at unrestrictedview.co.uk & uvff.co.uk
The festival is run by filmmakers and aims to celebrate the very best in indie and encourage all aspects of independent LGBT film making.
As well as live screenings, there will also be various networking events to be announced shortly.
The Festival is at The Hen & Chickens Theatre, an independent cinema in Islington, North London and the pub below will be the networking and meeting place.
Festival Director Mark Lyminister has worked with Unrestricted View and been Theatre Manager of The Hen & Chickens Theatre for many years. He has also worked extensively as an actor in theatre, film and TV.
" Rainbow umbrella has been set up to encourage actors and film makers from the LGBT community to have a platform to express their hopes, fears, desires and experiences and share them with new audiences. We aim to allow anyone with a voice, an opinion, a vision, a calling, to be free to write, act, direct and be free to express themselves through the medium of film. From first time film makers with little or no budget to the films with more experience and financial clout, they are all welcome under our umbrella!
We want to share films that show every emotion of someone experiencing life as an LGBT person."
Best Short
Best Foreign Short
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Cinematography
Best Screenplay
2025 films...
DAY 1 (16th January 7pm)
QUEENS IN FINISTÈRE
Directed by Vanessa Le Reste (France, 63 mins)
15 cm high heels, false eyelashes, and a sharp tongue—follow Britany Hart, the Queen of Brittany, and her girls through the wild Breton nights and, more importantly, their daily lives! Drag show, Parties, Friendship, and Commitment. A dive into the heart of the Hart family and the Drag Queens at the edge of the world, in a small town in France. Where they are redefining new ways to live together
SEAN DORSEY DANCE: Dreaming Trans and Queer Futures
Directed by Lindsay Gauthier (USA, 10 mins)
This Emmy Award-winning, visually-exquisite short is a fusion of dance film and documentary, profiling the trailblazing
transgender choreographer/activist Sean Dorsey (USA) as he embarks on an ambitious new project: inviting transgender and queer communities to dream at the very moment their lives and rights are under attack everywhere.
PUP PERFECT
Directed by Henry Baker (USA, 17 mins)
Explore the world of gay/queer human Pups. This subculture that evolved from the gay leather community and now thrives in tandem. Interviews with over a dozen Pups reveal that Pup Play is a way of embodying the spirit of a dog, both physically and mentally. More than just a sexual fetish, Pup Play provides a way for individuals to escape the stresses of everyday life and embrace a mindful existence.
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DAY 2 (17th January 7pm)
AND A LITTLE FOR ME
Directed by Kathryn Roake (USA, 6 mins)
What begins as a typical, summer beach day: an afternoon of surf, sun and dinner, escalates into a theft and a riot. Why?
BEYOND THE VOID
Directed by Joss Berlioux (France, 3 mins)
Two broken souls, Alexia and Léa, find a final refuge in each other on the rooftop of a building, where love and despair blend in a heart-wrenching farewell.
175
Directed by Kasra Karimi (UK, 22 mins)
Ruth and Juliet are waiting for the British Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage so can get married. But Juliet suffers from a terminal illness and doesn’t have long to live. They are racing against time.
AVE MARIE
Directed by Celestina Louisa Marie Sumby (NZ, 13 mins)
Ave Marie is about adopted siblings Marie and Xavier who use dance as a way to escape the day-to-day reality of their mother’s religious rants and the neighbourhood bullies.
I’M NOT OKAY
Directed by Joy Rieger (Israel, 12 mins)
Joy, a young, helpless, sad, and frightened actress is fresh out of a breakup. She decides to go to the gym, there, she bumps into her ex and her new boyfriend. She decides it’s time for a confrontation.
VOYEURESS
Directed by Jan Fabris (Slovenia, 24 min)
What if a person you are secretly watching, is also watching you?
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DAY 3 (18th January 7pm)
SHAPE NOTES
Directed by Bryan McHenry (USA, 12 mins)
A middle-aged church organist seeks help caring for his aging mother and finds the courage to start exploring his identity.
CHRISTMAS 1978
Directed by Lara Fullalove (UK, 17 mins)
‘Christmas, 1978’ is a short film that delves into the nuanced relationship between a father and son and expores the paradox of Catholicism and Homosexuality
BERGAMOT
Directed by Hsu Chien (Brazil, 15 mins)
Bergamot, the name given to tangerine in southern Brazil. This fruit with such a characteristic smell and for many an
aphrodisiac, will trigger a night of seduction, sensual dancing, blood and revenge on an ordinary night in Rio de Janeiro.
MAKING UP
Directed by Ryan Paige (UK, 15 mins)
Set in the 1980s. Ted is diagnosed with a hereditary illness and so must reconcile with his daughter, Cassandra. However, being a celebrated drag queen, paired with the bitter feelings she harbours over their past, presents an obstacle for Ted to overcome.
WHERE ARE ALL THE GAY SUPERHEROES?
Directed by Tom Paul Martin (UK, 15 mins)
Professional superheroes Sterling and Meridian have just finished saving the day (again) when suddenly, they find themselves in a rare moment alone. The suits come off, but when old tensions and old enemies return, our “heroes” learn the dark truth about who they are underneath.
MAFIA
Directed by James Cleave (UK, 16 mins)
MAFIA is a comedy drama that follows a wine-fuelled family as they play a post-dinner round of Mafia, a playful game (supposedly), that soon spirals out of control as embarrassing secrets are revealed and uncomfortable truths are exposed…