Hong Kong film festival sheds light on gay Asia

http://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-film-festival-sheds-light-gay-asia-062106107.html

The Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF) opens Friday, offering new work from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and throwing a light on the challenges sexual minorities face around Asia.

With more than 30 full-length and short films on offer over two weeks, organisers said the festival promised new insight into what it is like to be gay in some of the world's most repressive societies.

Two weeks after Malaysian police effectively outlawed an annual gay rights event, HKLGFF organiser Joe Lam said Malaysia's first "queer film", entitled "In the Bottle", would be one of the festival's highlights.

Vietnam's first gay film, "Lost in Paradise", and Thailand's first lesbian film, "Yes Or No", were chosen to open the event as a way of showcasing the work of little-known Asian filmmakers, he said.

understanding and experience just by seeing the vast differences and enormous similarities in our cultures