Joe Lam, the director of the Hong Kong Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, is full of excitement about this year’s event. “This year we have such an amazing line up; I’ve had so much good feedback,” he says.
 

In its 20-year existence, the HKLGFF has moved from a niche community-focused event to an all-encompassing exploration of queer filmmaking. Not only is it now an LGBT social calendar highlight, but it has also become an important component in promoting cultural diversity in Hong Kong. “We are hoping that the general cinema-going public will be interested in coming along because this is an open way for people to learn about the gay lifestyle,” says Lam.
 

Opening the festival is the lauded Spring Fever – winner of best screenplay at this year’s Cannes Film Festival – which explores all-consuming love through impassioned performances from its trio of Chinese protagonists. This is the first time that director Lou Ye has shown a movie in China since receiving a five-year ban from the Mainland. Films like Spring Fever act to illustrate that, while some governments are still in the dark ages, the trend of integrating gay and lesbian focussed content into the mainstream is now well established while helping to fuel the not-so-new New Queer Cinema movement.
 

The HKLGFF program is littered with independent films and documentaries that failed to recoup their production costs but which are fundamental to the cultural integrity of the festival. The most controversial of these may well be Dose, which approaches the topic of paedophilia through the eyes of its twelve-year-old protagonist. Pascal-Alex Vincent’s Give Me Your Hand, meanwhile, explores the intense and sometimes violent love between brothers, and features breathtaking cinematography.
 

This year’s coveted Prism award is tinged with grief as it has been given to the festival’s late executive director, Wouter Barendrecht, and his company Fortissimo Films. The Dutch-born, Hong Kong-based producer had been a fundamental cog in the organisation of the festival. “It’s hard for me to look at his picture,” says Lam, “but we have a solid team that has put together something really special this year.” A section of this year’s program is dedicated to the work of Barendecht, including his most celebrated production, Shortbus. But those who are attending the festival for the first time shouldn’t miss the poignantly titled No Regret, a retrospective of and tribute to Hong Kong’s longest-running gay festival.

Mary Agnew
 

Films will be shown at: Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei, IFC Palace in Central and AMC Kowloon Tong. See hklgff.hk for more info.