Best LGBTQ films to watch at the London Korean Film Festival
The 17th edition of the London Korean Film Festival is host to a range of LGBTQ+ feature and short films.
The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) returns for its 17th edition next month with a diverse array of box-office hits, independent cinema, animation, documentary and short films.
Running from 3 to 17 November, LKFF proudly hosts the biggest programme of Korean cinema outside of the country itself which includes a number of LGBTQ+ titles.
Here are the queer titles being screened at the London Korean Film Festival:
I Am More
This documentary from Lee Il-ha follows Mo Jimin as More, an electrifying drag queen who dreams of making it as a ballerina. I Am More chronicles Jimin being invited to perform in New York for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Uprising and the journey it takes to get there. Leaning into the fantastical nature of queerness with ethereal visual aesthetics, director Lee Il-ha journeys through Seoul and New York City with an observant and empathetic lens to capture the film’s subject on a journey of identity.
Coming To You
Byun Gyu-ri’s film documents two mothers both coming to terms with the unexpected coming out of their children. Overnight they have a new identity as the parent of a queer child. Hangyeol’s mother is a firefighter and Yejun’s mother is an international airline attendant, the pair are united as members of ‘Queer Children’s Parents Club’ and give themselves new names: Nabi and Vivian. Coming To You follows how both women got to this point.
Dear Chaemin
As part of LKFF’s ‘Women’s Voices Shorts x Seoul International Women’s Film Fest,’ Dear Chaemin is a short film made up of director Bae Cyan’s video letters that were sent to her younger siblings during the midst of COVID-19. The auto-fiction documentary questions the strange period we lived through, examining how Korean surveillance plays a part in the biopolitics of crowd control and contributes to the increased violence against queer Asian communities in Europe.
Transit
Part of the ‘Shorts x Jeonju International Film Festival’ programme, presenting the ‘cutting edge’ of contemporary cinema, Transit is a short film that follows a woman adjusting to life after gender-affirming surgery. Miho returns to work and while some are easy to accept her, others struggle to welcome back their colleague. Instead, Miho finds a kindred bond with a young girl whose innocent perspective on life proves a refreshing experience.
Find out about more films at the London Korean Film Festival and grab yourself some tickets to upcoming screenings here.