Twenty-three sessions at the Institut Francès and 37 works available on the Filmin platform. The Casa Lambda is preparing the programme for the 25th Fire!! International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The festival is on from 10 to 20 June and sees the return of on-site screenings at its usual venue while maintaining part of its activity online.
The festival organisers are preparing this year’s programme, which mainly features films which have never been shown in Spain. The opening film is the French and Belgian road movie Lola vers la mer, a cathartic journey in time for a father and his daughter, a young trans woman full or energy and gall, contrasting with the experience of her progenitor’s amorous failure.
Notable works we can see at the Institut Francès include one of the most complete films from this edition, Rürangi, featuring a large number of people with various gender identities and portraying a trans man in his home city after spending a decade away from it.
Motherhood, democracy and social responsibility are among the topics addressed in Our children, the latest film to be directed by Portugal’s Maria de Medeiros. The piece shows us the lives of a pair of brave battling women, from a natural perspective and with no pretensions.
Fire!! will also have a keen eye on works arriving from the other side of the Atlantic. One example here is Cicada, a North American production which is set to be one of the most highly acclaimed queer films of the year. The film offers a frank portrait of the amorous contradictions of two people who have overcome traumas and difficulties in their past.
From the works available on Filmin, the organisers highlight two in particular. The first is Sublet, where the Israeli director Eytan Fox puts two men together from different generations, who despite their differences feel attracted to one another. In contrast, the second film is about two women. Leading Ladies is a piece by Colombia’s Ruth Caudeli which brings two women together to build a female horizon which speaks to us of blame, fear, laughter, pain, light, darkness and more.
There’s no need to wait until June to start watching the films. Fire!! will be paying homage to Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau at the Filmoteca de Catalunya from 18 to 23 May, with screenings of Jeanne et le garçon formidable, Théo y Hugo, París and Drôle de Félix.
For more information and ticket purchases go to mostrafire.com.