A college freshman uses magic to escape her broken heart and obsessive-compulsive disorder in queer comedy short, Misdirection. Director, Carly Usdin, talks to us here about creating quite a personal story and balancing the comedy and positive representation.

Four of director Tina Takemoto’s shorts are featuring in BFI Flare Film Festival. They focus on various aspects of queer Asian American identity. Here, she talks to us about the processes of creating her experimental pieces and the importance of supporting all women in film, particularly queer women of colour.

Through beautiful hand drawn animation, Linnéa Haviland expresses how love and community can soothe hate and offer support in her experimental short film, Turning. She speaks to us about the joys of working with others and looking after yourself whilst working.

This experimental short titled Flora explores gender and sexuality in a unique way. The director, Chaerin Im, chats to us here about breaking conventions and speaking up against gender discrimination.

A Russian Inuit couple are attempting to escape their difficult situation on the Bering Strait after receiving a border closure message in the outbreak of the Cold War. Gwenn Joyaux, director of Tomorrow Island, speaks to us about different kinds of borders dividing us all and creating female and LGBTQ+ stories for the screen.

The short documentary, Wicked Women, focuses on a radical BDSM magazine of the same name which turned the 1980s Australian gay scene upside down. The director, Anna Brownfield, talks to us about the amazing history of the magazine and the significance it still holds today.

Life isn’t going to plan for Emily, a bisexual woman who ends up finding the joys of polyamory in romantic comedy, Two In The Bush: A Love Story. Debut director, Laura Madalinski, talks to us about drawing from her own experiences to represent polyamory, something which is so rarely seen in stories, both fictional and true.

In First Day, 11-year-old trans actor, Evie Macdonald, plays a character who changes schools and stands up for herself in the face of bullying. Director, Julie Kalceff, talks to us about the importance of showing how being transgender is just one aspect of someone’s identity and that trans children still deal with the same issues that all children do.

A friendship is jeopardised after a drunken hook-up in Rosie Westhoff’s short film Treacle. Here she talks to us about putting the relationship/friendship within the film together and giving the B in LGBT a louder voice.

The loss of a friend in school still cuts deep in Ellie Rogers’ beautiful short film They Found Her In A Field. Here the director talks to us about shooting on 35mm film and dealing with a sudden snow storm during production.