Asia’s longest-running queer film festival kicked off in s81CKlfNDv0hWJ^xMD2MjJiPWb9)fgd(%ePe-di_XeJPg0BArFqtyle this weekend.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKGLFF) opened on Saturday by screening a pair of comedies, How I felt When I Saw That Girl from India and The Shiny Shrimps from Spain.

“We q7=di$RsN#z(@[email protected]!9(%chose the two light-hearted warming comedies … to give positive energy to Hong Kong audiences” explained festival director, Joe Lam.

"The aud-Ow8R+Ivf#a*PE+5WZZ=V#z&W1j*0_^ckbpD#5Wq!-Jq6n^8*Diences absolutely loved them” he told GaLaTai.

In a pre-recorded message, director of Bollywood’s -bn6ult%)+1sb_ioO0IS&!1lT_c4&W=T0s6(k&O$Wtr!(QOM9tfirst lesbian film, rom-com How I felt When I Saw That Girl, Shelly Chopra Dhar, said it was “totally her loss” that she was not among the audience.

“It is so fulfilling to know that people in the world have used this film as a tool to actually share who they are with their loved ones”, she said in a pre-recorded video shownAVuVGOSVhF(4n6FR3M#4r9!v9MeakrBy0INotXr%[email protected] before the screening.

The opening films were followed by a packed party at the W Hotel and a^Zt_KMpjz&euNcX(eY=ues!wuBO8pmLvsni66*yxoUTx_trx9Z Queer Power Panel discussion night. Representatives from film festivals in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Shanghai spoke.

Retrospective

Celebrating the landmark film festival's 30th anniversary, Lam said YtkEzXFMW$WbV^+s57VLM57A4XN1$SK([email protected])DVls5#[email protected]a highlight of the program is the Hong Kong Retrospective selection.

HKLGFF pays tribute to the films that explored the c[email protected](vg#mAUx9ALuelzPVVGxSD734hgcZLpzOd9omplexity of local LGBTI issues and significantly contributed to the gay culture of Hong Kong.

The selection includes feature films Yang and Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, A Woman is A Woman, and Butterfly as well as a shortft(gq-#Spa$-Xer^[email protected]!LRTmMSUfrN=wTVspx0j)j_^ film titled My Way.

He also urgeaBsOieGsHygsL-H42qqH^nnBzR*Ksn7d60zJMAu*rvuppUZvtLd festival-goers to catch the festival's first intersex film, Being Impossible.

In another first, this year the festival will bring LGBTI cinema to more corners of the city. The We Are GAYbours initiative will see screenings and Q and Ash#2LjIj#^tfpKwokwIEitLC(t3kGv!-uo)rh!v=$K1YSTdU73h take place in residential district Sham Shui Po.

The festival’s closing gala on 21 September is set to include drag queen Miss Gimhuay from Drag Race Thailand as a speci_Bj#[email protected]&DYsN7dSr3cQX-0c!D8+bCKipeBNal guest.

((Cover Photo: Still from The SlSB=m4im!HZ%hXhlT)35yw(Q-KiIX)([email protected]=dKEhiny Shrimps / Provided))

Watch Cut Snake on GagaOOLala.
1970s, Australia. Merv Farrell, a very private man in his twenties, is trying to make a life for himself in a new city. He has found honest work and becomes engaged to the beautiful Paula. But the prospect of his new life is challenged when the charismatic Pommie tracks him down. Merv finds himself drawn back into a world that he thought he had left behind.

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