Five Films for Freedom, the world’s largest LGBTQIA+ digital campaign, will screen five new LGBTQI films from China, Croatia, India, Panama, and the United Kingdom.
The film program, now in its eighth year, maintains the British Council’s cooperation with the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, with short films available for free on the British Council’s global digital networks from March 16 to 27 to coincide with the festival.
The film program includes works by award-winning directors that have been hand-picked by BFI Flare and explore themes such as immigration, intimacy, and loneliness. It includes British-Nigerian filmmaker Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, whose short film For Love is about illegal immigrant Nkechi and the specific obstacles she experiences as a result of her sexual identity.
All Those Sensations In My Belly, an animated film by Croatian comic artist and animation director Marko Djeka, follows the story of trans girl Matia’s transition and her search for love, while Sunday, an Indian film by Arun Fulura, examines the desire and loneliness of a middle-aged man on his weekly visit to the barbershop.
Birthday Boy (Vuelta al Sol), a story about parents denying their son’s identity as a young trans man, is directed by Panamanian Judith Corro, and Frozen Out, an experimental short film directed by Chinese director Hao Zhou, combines scenes from rural Iowa and rural China to explore anxiety, dislocation, and self-exile.
This year, for the first time since the Five Films For Freedom began, audiences will be able to watch the films with Filipino subtitles.
The British Council has teamed with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), a prominent supporter of films that promote gender equality and anti-discrimination, to promote the digital campaign, as it has done for the previous two years.
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By watching the videos on the British Council Arts YouTube channel, global audiences are urged to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ groups around the world where freedom and equal rights are restricted.
Five Films For Freedom films have been viewed 17 million times by people in over 200 countries and principalities since 2015, with the programs running for less than 80 days. This includes all parts of the world where homosexuality is criminalized and all countries where the death penalty is in place.
Briony Hanson, the British Council’s Director of Film, said of the Five Films For Freedom program in 2022:
“This year’s films represent a selection of exciting voices from across the world, telling stories about the queer experience that are still rarely seen in many places. As LGBTQIA+ people across the world continue to fight for basic rights, #FiveFilmsForFreedom is as important as ever, driving home the message that love is a human right, no matter how we identify or where we are. We can’t wait for a global audience to enjoy them.”
Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s Senior Programmer said: ‘Five Films For Freedom is an essential moment in the global queer film calendar, uniting people across the world by giving free access to an incredible selection of shorts films. Not everyone has the same level of access to LGBTQIA+ film and images as we do in the UK, and this opportunity to bring queer work to millions of people remains as vital and meaningful as ever.’
Share the films more widely using the hashtag #FiveFilmsForFreedom, in recognition of the fact that Love is a Human Right.
Through the arts, education, and English language teaching, the British Council continues to seek to establish connections, understanding, and trust between people in the UK and around the world.
All films will be available to view from 16 to 27 March 2022 via the British Council Arts YouTube channel.
To find out more visit: https://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/fivefilmsforfreedom
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