5th LGLFF - Opening Message

Once again it is time for another edition, the 5th, of the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which provides an opportunity to develop and study in-depth, subjects that have already been touched on in other editions, as well as new themes and issues that provoke renewed cause for concern.

The festival, lasting two weeks, was anticipated this year by three cycles of films shown during the summer in the Forum at FNAC-Chiado. This initiative organized, as it was last year, with the energetic support of FNAC has been highly successful.

This year, the festival focuses from various points of view, at times contradictory, on the undoubtedly complex and seldom consensual subject of gender. Numerous authors have, over time, analyzed this question, seeking to define what is masculine, feminine and transgender, often in the light of religious, moral and other criteria. Perhaps more suited to the present day, however, is the thought of the American author Eva Figes who puts forward the theory that indoctrination is the phenomenon from which masculine and feminine differences originate. In other words, a human being is what the society, of which he or she is part, wants him or her to be. Differences are not innate, but acquired. Would it not be more natural in a freer society, in which individual rights are enhanced and enriched, for diversity to be created by each individual and gender identity be discouraged?

For in the end, as the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote, “Love is essential, sex a mere accident”.

It was from these ideas that I decided to choose films such as La Confusion des Genres, by Ilan Duran Cohen; Beau Travail by Claire Denis and to pay homage to the extraordinary universe of Pedro Almodóvar.

It is also for this reason that we continue to include a straight theme in this festival. This year we have actually chosen three “Straight Nights” where films, very different from one another will be shown. All of them deal with subjects that justify their inclusion in a festival that by its very title might be assumed unlikely to exhibit them, but where all ways of life and living are included.

“Transgender Nights” are repeated again this year, with three films where the theme is dealt with in, three different ways: La Différence, a short animated film; Yo Soy Así and The Iron Ladies are the transgender choices for this year and will, we are sure, suit all tastes.

Also repeated are Hard Nights”, this year dedicated to a retrospective of the Canadian director Bruce LaBruce, who will be attending the Festival LaBruce is a well-known director who, through his work tries to conciliate art and pornography freeing them from the prejudices of both areas and following bis own course which is well worth discovering.

Besides Bruce LaBruce, the Festival is proud to have among its guests such well-known names as Vicente Molina Foix, Ángela Molina, Eusébio Poncela, Loles Léon, Baltasar Kormákur, Ilan Duran Cohen, Tsai Ming-Liang, Alain Burosse, Jorge Torregrossa, Sue Malawa Bruce, Mane-Pierre Huster, among other directors and actors. We would like to express our gratitude to them and also our pleasure in their company.

Our thanks also go, first and foremost to Lisbon, City Council which, as in previous years, has supported, encouraged and fostered this festival through the various departments which have collaborated with us, and through the Mayor himself, Dr. João Soares. Without their loyal support there would not be a Festival. We would also like to express our thanks to the German and British cultural institutes which have continued to support this project. Thanks also to ICAM the Portuguese Film Institute, Cinemateca Portuguesa, ATL and FNAC, who have yet again provided funding based on the success of previous FestivaIs and their faith in future editions. Most particularly we want to thank the Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish Embassy for their cooperation in our homage to the Spanish cinema, and to the lnstitut Franco-Portugais for the support and collaboration in the selection of the films of the Sexualities Cycle, underlining the contribute of Mr. Dominique Chastres. Regarding thes cycle, I’m also thankful to the guests present in its final round table. I reserve still a recognition word to the CEAS for their collaboration in the round table promoted around a few of the screened films in this Festival Special thanks go too to the translating team who have worked so hard and long on subtitling all the films exhibited, to make them accessible to all spectators.

A new facet this year has been the recently created Cultural Association of the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, a non-profit making, non-political organization set up to advise on the organization of the event. It should, however, be emphasized that this event was born, grew and reached maturity under the auspices of another association - Ilga-Portugal. This association is unmatched in the panorama of Portuguese GLBT organizations; both for the work it has developed and the respect it has attained, and fully deserves the gratitude of the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

This Festival attracts regular and new spectators every year, succeeding in attaining ever greater participation, involvement and support from the city of Lisbon, which once again is demonstrating its commitment, as it did in the past, to treading new pathways and discovering new, free worlds.

Enjoy yourselves!

Celso Júnior

Foto/Photo: Margarida Moz, Celso Junior e Enrique Alcides (Spanish Actor)