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Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū is delighted to host this sceening in collaboration with Christchurch Pride and the British Council New Zealand and the Pacific.

The films selected for this year’s programme are:

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 SteubleJohnson (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.

A partnership between the British Council and BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQIA+ film festival, Five Films For Freedom makes five LGBTQIA+ short films available to watch online for free anywhere in the world. Running annually since 2015, Five Films For Freedom has received more than 23 million views in over 200 countries.

Through the British Council’s global network in more than 100 countries, people everywhere are encouraged to watch and share the films from 13 to 24 March 2024 in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities in places where freedom and equal rights are limited.