Annual Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will screen a world premiere

The British Film Institute’s 24th annual Lesbian & Gay Film Festival begins in London on Wednesday, and includes a world premiere.

The two-week festival opens with The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, which will be screened at the Odeon in the West End. Other set pieces in the festival – which closes on March 31 – include I Killed My Mother, written, produced, directed by and starring 20-year-old Xavier Dolan. The British Film Institute (BFI) describes this movie as “witty and articulate”. It “cleverly exposes the vulnerabilities and self-doubts of being a teenager”. The festival’s second showpiece is Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, Leanne Pooley’s award-winning documentary about Jools and Lynda Topp, folk-singing lesbian twins and national celebrities in New Zealand. There will be 75 feature-length films and documentaries during the festival, many of which have won awards at other international events, including Brotherhood, Nicolo Donatto’s gripping tale of gays in the neo-Nazi movement, and Ander, Roberto Castón’s portrayal of gay rural life in the Basque country. The BFI says: “We dip into the archives of non-profit women’s film organisation Cinenova for Short Films About Us: Lesbian Work at Cinenova, offering a rare opportunity to see short films from the likes of Barbara Hammer and Cheryl Farthing. “ ‘Of Heaven and Earth: the Films of Tom Chomont’ explores the work of the avant-garde master, leather fetishist and HIV survivor and includes nine 16mm films restored by the Outfest Legacy Project. “Legendary lesbian artist, filmmaker and activist Barbara Hammer returns to the festival to perform ‘Hammer! Making Movies out of Life and Sex’, an event combining readings, archival images, costumes and rare film clips. “With a retrospective of some of her most successful and critically acclaimed films including Working Girls, Dance, Girl, Dance, Craig’s Wife and The Wild Party, we celebrate Dorothy Arzner, a prolific director in Hollywood during the 1920s and 30s.” One of Britain’s oldest gay-campaigning groups, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), is at the festival for a second year, presenting the CHE Film Prize, which offers a £2,000 prize to the film that best reflects the values and objectives of CHE in its fight for social justice. The last film – on March 31 – will be Children of God, Kareem J Mortimer’s “gorgeously photographed” first feature, which tells the classic tale of love unfolding against a backdrop of violent homophobia and social unease in the Bahamas. “All this plus short films, club nights, events and networking opportunities over the course of two weeks make the 24th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival an indispensable highlight in the queer cultural calendar,” the BFI adds.