Film festival at Blackpool Central Library shines spotlight on trans lives from England to South Korea

The award-winning shorts from the Iris LGBT+ Film Festival were screened last night as part of the Winter Gardens Film Festival, which runs until Monday.

Audiences were joined by Iris’ festival director Berwyn Rowlands, producer James Bell and director Leo Lebeau for the show. Berwyn said: "The situation for trans people today is like how it in the late 70s and 80s for gay people, when I was coming out. It’s horrendous. What we do have, through Iris and other film festivals, is the opportunity to tell these stories which are not mainstream.”

The films included Pop, by Margo Roe, which follows a young boy called Jack who attempts to befriend a recently-released ex-convinct, Pop, following the death of his own father; God's Daughter Dances, by Sungbin Byun, which tells the story of Shin-mi, a transgender woman called to attend a military service examination; and Birthday Boy, by James Bell and Leo Lebeau, about a closeted transgender boy, Alex, who experiences bullying at an all-girls school.

James said: “From the beginning we wanted to bring trans people in and have as much trans representation and understanding as possible. We had some trans ambassadors who spoke about their experiences with bullying at school, and their happiest moments. We reached out to trans people all around the world and asked them to share a short story about themselves and it created an amazing community feeling.

Leo said: "It was always important for us to have a trans actor play the lead.

"I would love it to get to a point where we can have trans actors play a cisgender role, and a cis actor play a trans role, and it’s no big deal. But until that time comes I think it’s important that the opportunity should be given to trans actors to play trans characters, because they dont often get that opportunity.

"I wanted to tell this story for one reason which was that I never saw much trans representation in film. I didn’t want it to be judged as a trans film, I just wanted it to be a great film with a trans character.

The Winter Gardens Film Festival continues tonight with ‘Dream Town: A Brief Anatomy of Blackpool’ at Art B&B, 180 Promenade, at 6pm. The 1994 documentary sees actor David Thewlis return to his hometown, where beer is drunk and dreams are played out against a backdrop of British fantasy.

Four more shorts from the Iris LGBT+ Film Festival, hailing from Libya, Russia, Wales, will be screened at the Winter Gardens Pavilion tomorrow from 4pm, with a Q&A session with Berwyn afterwards. This will be followed by a film showcase from student filmmakers from the Blackpool School of Arts.

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