Seven award-winning LGBTQ+ short films, one Welsh village afternoon.
As part of its 20th anniversary tour, the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival is bringing a hand-picked programme of award-winning short films to over 25 venues across the UK — and this June, Llansteffan Pride is proud to host one of those screenings.
Seven films, seven very different stories: two short poetry films from Welsh poet Jane Campbell opening each half, a hidden chapter of LGBT+ history, a tense night in a London tower block, a tender meditation on Black queer love, an Oscar-winning satire of a world where kissing is outlawed, and a glittering coming-of-age story set on the Welsh coast.
A narrator prepares for a joyful "after-death" as she becomes part of the orchard she planted — a tender, hand-animated poetry film to open the afternoon.
A short documentary about the life of Jackie Forster — a groundbreaking, outrageous, and largely unknown LGBT+ rights campaigner whose underground donor sperm operation helped the first queer women to have children.
Reuben is preparing a birthday party for his boyfriend in their London tower block flat. As music blares and an argument erupts from the neighbours next door, an uneasy tension builds. Reuben's curiosity draws him into something he doesn't fully understand and can't quite shake, and over the course of one night, small disturbances grow into something much harder to name. Blackout sits with the quiet impact of violence, both overheard and unspoken, and the moments where love, control, and consent begin to blur.
A lyrical stop-motion animation imagining a paradise where two Black men can simply exist together — free, happy, and in love — without the weight of policing, prejudice, or expectation. Adapted from Dean Atta's celebrated poem of the same name.
Stretch your legs — back in a few minutes.
Two older women become the subject of fascinated gossip from a ticket collector on a train, in this sharp, funny animated short narrated in Welsh with English subtitles.
In a monochrome, absurdist world where kissing is a capital offence and slaps to the face are currency, an unhappy woman becomes fascinated by a playful shopgirl — and risks everything for a single kiss. Shot in sumptuous black and white, narrated by Vicky Krieps.
In a quaint Welsh fishing village, aspiring drag performer Henrick secretly longs for Arwyn, a fisherman whose quietness masks a storm of emotions. As Henrick dazzles the local stage alongside his mother, Frida, their glittering act stirs tension with his tradition-bound father, Clive. Arwyn, caught between love and obligation, wrestles with his own heart. When Henrick contemplates leaving the only home he's ever known in search of acceptance, the future of their relationship — kept secret from family and village alike — hangs in the balance. Filmed on location in Tenby, Pembrokeshire.
Right in the heart of the village, on The Square — just across the road from the pubs.
Two of the seven films are BBFC rated 15.
Free entry — just come along.
Around 2 hours including a short interval. Doors from 3:30pm, programme starts 4:00pm, finishing approximately 6:00pm.
Llansteffan Pride, as part of Iris on the Move, the official touring programme of the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Cardiff.