It’s that time of year again. Now celebrating its 22nd birthday, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will screen at the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank from March 27 to April 10, offering queer-themed shorts, documentaries, and feature films from around the world.

The Chinese Botanist's Daughter

You can view a complete list of the films on offer here. Among the ones reviewed or mentioned by AfterEllen.com are the romantic tragedy The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter (pictured above), the American TV pilot Don’t Go featuring Guinevere Turner, and the Oscar-winning short documentary Freeheld, about the fight of dying lesbian policewoman Laurel Hester to see her pension go to her partner Stacie Andree.

There’s also the Taiwanese romance Spider Lilies, the German drama Vivere, the French coming-of-age film Water Lilies, and the South African period romance The World Unseen.

The World Unseen

There’s the 1996 American documentary It’s Elementary — Talking About Gay Issues in School, and its 2007 follow-up, It’s STILL Elementary — The Movie and the Movement. And there’s the HBO film Life Support, starring Queen Latifah as an HIV-positive charity worker (although unfortunately her character isn’t a lesbian).

A program titled "The Face of Another: Imagining Lesbian Desire" offers a chance to see Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring fall in love in Mulholland Dr. It also includes films that explore female relationships but are not so overtly lesbian-themed, like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and the Madonna–Rosanna Arquette flick Desperately Seeking Susan. … continue reading

I'm usually in need of inspiration on Mondays. What better way to get it than to peruse some pretty pictures? Let's start with the new poster for The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman.

I think that green dress must really be the other Boleyn girl, because it's taking up the whole damn poster. And Scarlett's lips are looking huge, even for her. But who am I kidding? All I can really see here are the names Johansson and Portman on the same poster. I'm in. … continue reading

Maria Bello, whose most recent work includes The Jane Austen Book Club, calls her new gig as librarian Rachel Weisz Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor "the role of my dreams. It is just a blast." Here's a reminder of what this replacement looks like:

And what's in this role of her dreams? Bello says that her Evelyn is "a very different character than Rachel played. She's a bad-ass action chick. I had to train a lot. I had to do wushu, a martial-art form, some kick-boxing, swordfighting, rifle training for a couple of months before we even started shooting." Here she is in Toronto, all brunette already:

… continue reading

Sounds good, but I still can't figure out how this is going to work. Generally when a different character is introduced, I want, you know, a different character.

Either the French Legion knows that Michelle Yeoh can kick their collective ass back to the Napoleonic era, or they are smarter than American audiences, who have yet to give Yeoh her due. I'm guessing it's a bit of both — but there's no doubt that Yeoh's formidable skills have earned her the Legion of Honor medal (Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur), to be given at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 3.

The French civil award is akin to the British honor of knighthood, minus those pesky monarchy complications: Since its establishment by Napoleon himself (no complications there, right? oh, wait a minute ...), membership in the Legion has been based solely upon merit without regard to birth. Yeoh received a similar award in 2001, when the Sultan of her home state in Malaysia granted her the honorary title of Dato.

The "Queen of Martial Arts" — who started off as a dancer and beauty queen — tends to be modest about her accomplishments (once referring to "her own little style"), but there's nothing modest about her ability to hold her own with just about anyone, from Bond to Jackie Chan. She also happens to be an easy addition to the "making 40 fabulous" list. … continue reading

Joan Chen is an actor and director whose work I've admired for years.

How can you not respect a woman who, when faced with a dearth of interesting roles from a (still!) largely white industry, will go and make her own films? And brave the displeasure of the Chinese government in the process? Chen has also been good to lesbian audiences, accepting roles in films with lesbian stories, such as What's Cooking and Saving Face. She spoke with AfterEllen.com about Saving Face and also did an interview with iFilm.com: … continue reading