Korea Queer Film Festival kicks off online

The Korea Queer Film Festival is being held online on the streaming platform Purplay from Friday to Sept. 29, showing 20 films related to queer life.

KQFF, now in its 20th year, aims to share the diverse lives of sexual minorities through the screenings while providing a place for queer people in the film industry to network and contribute to the development of queer movies.

Although the festival is usually held around June, it was postponed due to the spread of COVID-19. The slogan for this year is “Further, Closer.”

“Although everyone is scattered and isolated, what keeps us close is not the distance but our hearts. So the Korea Queer Film Festival will again show the life of queers that is distant yet close,” said KQFF organizers.

The opening ceremony, moderated by Shin Hyo-jin, the executive chairman, and author Kim Kyu-jin of “Unni, Will You Marry Me?” will include performances by rapper Sleeq, who has been a vocal advocate of sexual minority rights along with singers Darin and Shin Seung-eun. The ceremony, which kicks off at 6 p.m., is to be streamed through the KQFF YouTube channel.

Two local feature films and 10 short films are to be shown at the festival along with five international films, including “The 34th – The Story of Marriage Equality in Ireland.” Director Hong Ji-young of feature film “Monster, Ghost, Freeman” will hold a livestream on YouTube on Sept. 27, and the directors of 10 works in the short film section and staff members who worked on those films will hold a Zoom meeting that can be viewed by the public.

Three films deal with current issues such as space for queers and redefining sex from a medical doctor’s point of view. Experts will discuss those topics in a section called Q-Talk, which will also be shown.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)