Of Love & Law
We are delighted to welcome director Hikaru Toda to QFT for this screening.
Hikaru Toda’s involving documentary reveals the hidden side of Japanese society, highlighting the diverse human-rights work done by the country’s first LGBT law firm.
As an openly gay couple in Osaka, Fumi and Kazu bring impassioned personal experience to their professional lives as pioneers of Japan’s first LGBT law firm. This astonishingly dedicated pair champion civil liberties in a superficially modern, but disturbingly conservative country that has been censured by Amnesty International for moving away from global human rights standards. Their clients include undocumented minorities with no legal status; a teacher fired for refusing to sing the national anthem; and feminist sculptor Rokudenashiko, whose playful vagina art was prosecuted for obscenity. Hikaru Toda takes a suitably wide-ranging approach in her eye-opening and affecting documentary, following these modest heroes at work and home, while also examining a homogeneous society that is often misrepresented in the West.
- Manish Agarwal, BFI London Film Festival
Screening as part of QFT’s LGBT History Month season, Of Love & Law will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Prospect trade union.
The panel will feature director Hikaru Toda, Dublin Trans Pride founder Thomas White, and Annette Tshisekedi and Juliette Schaaf from Lesbians & Gays Support the Migrants. The panel will be hosted by Claire Mullaly, trade unionist and member of the TUC LGBT+ committee.
NUS-USI President and Love Equality coalition member Olivia Potter-Hughes will also give an update before the film on the fight for marriage equality in Northern Ireland.
This event is supported by Film Hub NI, part of the BFI Film Audience Network.
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