Colors Sitges Link at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival

Last Friday, October 11, our entity’s president, Prado García, and secretary Martín Martín participated in the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, within the Family Kids section, where they introduced our association to students from IES Benaprés. This presentation took place after the screening of the film Green Night, a 2023 work directed and written by Chinese filmmaker Han Shuai.

Green Night tells the story of two women from the LGBTQ+ community in China who, after a chance encounter in South Korea, find themselves caught in a dark plot of survival and forbidden love. This feminist thriller, starring Fan Bingbing and Lee Joo-young, highlights the oppression faced by women and LGBTQ+ people in restrictive social contexts. Although homosexuality is not criminalized in China, it remains deeply stigmatized and subject to censorship and repression. The film has gained international recognition and was nominated at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival.

During our intervention, Colors Sitges Link not only shared the goals of our association as a non-profit organization but also spoke about the importance of LGBTQ+ visibility in spaces like cinema and festivals as significant as the Sitges Festival. In Europe, we enjoy freedoms that are not guaranteed in all countries, such as China, where expressions of sexual and gender diversity are restricted by regulations and government control. We reminded the young people of the fragility of hard-won freedoms and the importance of continuing to fight to preserve them.

Our participation aimed to inspire new generations to reflect on the importance of human rights and visibility in culture. We believe it is essential for stories like Green Night to reach the public to foster empathy and understanding, especially in societies where discrimination and repression still persist. Events like this provide valuable opportunities to engage in dialogue with young people about the representation of minorities in the media and the need for greater inclusion, both on and off-screen.

In addition to participating in this activity, Colors Sitges Link was also present at the Purple and LGBTQ+ Point that the Festival organizes in the Fanshop. We brought stickers of the mural created by IES Benaprés students last year after the Diversity Workshop we held, and we provided copies of our guide “How to Act in the Face of LGTBI Discrimination or Hate Crime in Sitges“. We also provided brief training to the festival’s volunteers on how to inform individuals who had been assaulted or discriminated against during the event. By the end of the festival, we were informed that the guide was a great success, with nearly a hundred copies distributed.

We thank the Sitges Festival for this collaboration, which allows us to make the LGBTQ+ community visible and integrated not only in film proposals but also in the festival’s activities.