In First Day, 11-year-old trans actor, Evie Macdonald, plays a character who changes schools and stands up for herself in the face of bullying. Director, Julie Kalceff, talks to us about the importance of showing how being transgender is just one aspect of someone’s identity and that trans children still deal with the same issues that all children do.

A friendship is jeopardised after a drunken hook-up in Rosie Westhoff’s short film Treacle. Here she talks to us about putting the relationship/friendship within the film together and giving the B in LGBT a louder voice.

The loss of a friend in school still cuts deep in Ellie Rogers’ beautiful short film They Found Her In A Field. Here the director talks to us about shooting on 35mm film and dealing with a sudden snow storm during production.

It’s not all love’s young dream during a getaway at a British seaside resort, Ali Kurr’s short film Sparrow set in Skegness is showing at this years BFI Flare festival, here she speaks to us about getting into directing and how she made the short film along side a music video by bending the rules.

When a Hasidic man misplaces his hat one night, his two worlds look set to collide. We speak with Sarah Smith the director behind Black Hat and how she fought to bring authenticity to the Hasidic world despite their budget with the short film which is screening this weekend at the BFI Flare LGBTQ Film Festival.

Claire Zhou brings a recently divorced man’s story to light in her short film HIGH TIDE. Here she talks us through her inspiration for the short along with her thoughts on representation for gay men in Morocco.

Combining archived footage and the sudden challenges of HIV and AIDS, Lis Bartlett’s EMMY NOMINATED documentary LIGHT IN THE WATER is one to add to your list at this years BFI Flare LGBTQ film festival. Featuring the West Hollywood Swim team (later renamed West Hollywood Aquatics after they added water polo), here Lis talks to us about how past experiences shaped her way into becoming a director.

Kicking off our feature on the female directors showcasing their work at this years BFI Flare London LGBTQ Festival is the short film Transmission directed by Anahid Yahjian and Emily Mkritichian. K and L are cultural conservationists working in a not-so-distant future to preserve the artifacts and histories that are being systematically destroyed by a totalitarian government. We spoke to Yahjian along with her team behind the film including Emily Mkritichian, Kamee Abrahamian and Lee Williams Boudakian.