G R E E T I N G

THE 8th TOKYO INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN & GAY FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
1999. 07. 15 (Thursday) - 07.20 (Tuesday) , SPIRAL HALL, AOYAMA, TOKYO

Welcome to the 8th Annual Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival.
With our new dates in July, this year's festival hums with the heat of summer, from sunshine and tanlines to lazy, free-spirited afternoons. Whether gay classics from the 1960s and 70s or features hot out of the editing room, this year's lineup of films radiates sexiness, romance and the adventure of summertime, and the mood continues with the festival free bar in the lobby and　the Grand Bal on Saturday night. For this year's festival, we've planned a lush, luxurious celebration of lesbian and gay culture, We hope you enjoy it!

Takao Kawaguchi,
Festival Director *********
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Hot summer days and cool summer nights... This year's Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival combines the best of hot and cool, with a double-bill of award-winning features from the cutting edge of Hong Kong cinema, a retrospective of Spanish films from the 1970s and 80s, most never before seen in Japan, tributes to some of queer cinema's most innovative directors, steamy, sizzling summer shorts and a peek into the wild and wonderful world of the men's public toilet.

Now in our eighth year, the Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is the largest and oldest lesbian & gay film festival in Asia, and saw a combined audience of 8,000 in Tokyo and our sister festival in Osaka at our 7th annual festival in 1998. Films screened last year at our Aoyama venue included Werner Schroeter's LOVE'S DEBRIS, Zhang Yu's EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE (Japanese premiere), Yvonne Rainer's MURDER and murder (Asian premiere), Su Friedrich's HIDE AND SEEK (Asian premiere) and Muraishi Masuya's FATHERLESS, currently playing at Eurospace. The festival has also hosted the Japanese premieres of such films as JEFFREY, WATERMELON WOMAN and HUSTLER WHITE, all of which have gone on to theatrical release in Tokyo.

Following on last year's suite of premieres and filmmaker tributes, this year's festival brings a strong lineup of lesbian, gay and transgender features and shorts onto the screen at Spiral. After ringing off with the powerhousedouble bill of Hong Kong Academy Award-winning PORTLAND STREET BLUES and BISHONEN, which entranced audiences at its international premiere at the BerlinFilm Festival this February, special programming continues with a quartet of Spanish lesbian and gay features from the decisive years of the 1970s and 80s, including rarely seen early work from Pedro Almodovar. Our filmmaker focus series turns the spotlight on directors Sadie Benning, Oki Hiroyuki (HEAVEN-6-BOX) and Bruce LaBruce (SUPER 8 1/2), last seen in Tokyo at the TLGFF 1997 premiere of HUSTLER WHITE. Other highlights include the Japanese premieres of Deepa Mehta's FIRE, which made headlines late last year for its over whelming reception from Indian women and protests from conservative groups, new Korean work from the Seoul Queer Film Festival, and shorts from directors like Mark Christopher (54) and Tokyo's own Donald Richie.

Venue Support

Spiral/Wacoal Art Centre