Five Films for Freedom

Five Films For Freedom is coming to Galway Arts Centre this year on 23 March from 15:00-18:00 for a FREE screening and panel discussion !

Five Films For Freedom is an online celebration of global LGBTQIA+ stories, in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual rights. This is a British Council global programme in partnership with BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.

On Saturday 23rd March in Galway Arts Centre- Nuns Island Theatre- dive into the world of LGBTQIA+ cinema and hear from a panel of filmmakers and academics on this years five films while celebrating global LGBTQIA+ stories!

This is the tenth anniversary edition of the Five Films for Freedom programme where the British Council showcase global LGBTQIA+ stories that resonate with strength and spirit, from the historic defiance of Compton’s 22 in San Francisco to the heartfelt journey of love and understanding in Halfway. This year’s selection, including Little One, Cursive, and The First Kiss, dives deep into themes of family, identity, and the universal quest for acceptance. For more information on these films see below.

The screening will be held in Galway Arts Centre- Nuns Island Theatre and will be followed by a panel discussion with local and international filmmakers and academics who will breakdown the films in the context of LGBTQ+ rights generally and in an Irish context. There will also be a Q+A as part of this conversation which will allow audience members the chance to ask their burning questions. There will be more information on the speakers available shortly.

Watch the Five Films for Freedom 2024 trailer 

This Years Films

Little One

Directed by Clister Santos (Philippines – 9 mins)

A pregnant mother, unsure of how to raise a child, arranges an interview with her two gay dads but fate intervenes when his dad suffers a heart attack. Memories captured on an old camcorder help her reflect on their family’s history.

Cursive

Directed by Isabel Steubel Johnson (UK – 9 mins)

When a woman on the verge of a breakup gets help from a mysterious stranger to improve her handwriting, she finds the inner voice she longed for all along.

Halfway

Directed by Kumar Chheda (India – 14 mins)

A turbulent couple ends up at different entrances of Juhu Beach, forcing them to walk towards each other and meet halfway.

The First Kiss

Directed by Miguel Lafuente (Spain – 9 mins)

Today is a special day for Andi, heading to Madrid to have his first date with a boy he’s met online, but things don’t turn out quite as he expected.

Compton’s 22

Directed by Drew de Pinto (USA – 18 mins)

Three years prior to Stonewall, transgender sex workers and drag queens revolted against police violence at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Compton’s 22 imagines what happened.

Panelists Biographies:

Rico Johnson-Sinclair

After working with Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, Rico Johnson-Sinclair went on to build CineQ, a Queer film festival that prioritises QTBIPOC audiences. During his career as a programmer, He’s programmed for festivals such as Outfest in Los Angeles, Fringe! Queer Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival and more. Outside of programming and exhibition, Rico has had a long career of working in the inclusion space all across the creative art sector, and regularly consults with organisations for events, shaping policy and creating formative partnerships that focus on inclusion and diversity. He worked as Race Equality Lead for the British Film Institute, working to bring a critical perspective into conversations about race in the film industry and working intersectionality to develop work around class, disability and gender from an intersectional perspective. He has recently taken up the role of Skills and Training Director at Warner Bros. Discovery Film which includes working to bring a critical perspective into conversations about race. Rico is also a steering group member for the Anti-Racist Taskforce for European Film, an organisation that seeks to develop equitable processes across European exhibition and production, with successful events at Cannes and London Film Festival in 2022. He produced the BFI-backed film ‘Sweet Mother’ in 2019 written and directed by Zane Igbe, has worked as a consulting producer for many films in the regions, and has recently completed his first short film as Writer/Director titled ‘PREY’.

Maria Molloy

Maria Molloy is Vice-Chairperson of the AMACH! LGBT+ Galway. As well as a background in science and healthcare management, Maria holds a Certificate in Family and Community Studies, University of Galway. She is also a board member of LGBT Ireland, Sexual Health West and Saolta Arts. Maria has volunteered for several charities over the years but her work with AMACH and the opening of Teach Solais LGBT+ Resource Centre in 2017 until it closed in 2020 has been one of her proudest times within the volunteer sector. Now that AMACH looks to re-open a bigger and better Resource Centre, we hope that as well as it being a health and wellbeing hub, the centre will be, once again a creative place for culture and arts forthe LGBT+ community within this region.

Alan Phelan 

Alan Phelan is an artist who works in film, sculpture, museum interventions, public art and collaborations with other artists, writers and curators. All of these elements inform and contribute to an interest in the narrative potential of an artwork.  Narrative is explored through historical events, ideas, things, and places as well as through their fictional counterparts.  Recent film works include Foly & Diction, 2021 made for the RHA Dublin and shown in Void Derry, CCI, Paris; Our Kind, 2016 made for the Hugh Lane Gallery and also shown in Oslo, Bergen, Derry, Belfast and Carlow where it won the Hotron Éigse Art Prize; Pantone 2685, 2016 made for EVA International; and Edward & Arlette, 2014 made for Golden Thread Gallery and shown in Dublin, Stockholm, and Treignac Projet, France. 

Jamie Bigley 

Jamie Bigley is an artist, teacher, and researcher from originally from County Tyrone, now based in Galway. They are a graduate of the MA in Drama and Theatre Studies at University of Galway and will soon complete their PhD thesis which looks at how contemporary queer performance may challenge and/or reaffirm hegemonic understandings and practices of resilience. They have delivered papers in Reykjavik and Galway on their research, as well as held an in-conversation event in 2021 with Philly McMahon (THISISPOPBABY) on the future of queer performance in Ireland. They have worked with Galway Theatre Festival as a member of their programming committee and as the Coordinator of the Visual Arts Invigilation Programme for Galway International Arts Festival.

Rod Stoneman

Rod Stoneman was Director of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media at the University of Galway. Before that he was CEO of Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board until September 2003 and previously a Deputy Commissioning Editor in the Independent Film and Video Department at Channel 4 Television in the United Kingdom.  He has made a number of documentaries, including Ireland: The Silent Voices, Italy: the Image Business, 12,000 Years of Blindness and The Spindle, and has written extensively on film and television. He is the author of Seeing is Believing: The Politics of the Image; Chávez: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.