The Chéries-Chéris International LGBTQI+ Film Festival is back for its 27th edition from 20 to 30 November 2021 hosted in the mk2 cinemas Beaubourg, Bibliothèque and Quai de Seine.

The festival was started in 1994 by a group of four French film makers, ciritics and activists as a response to the lack of LGBT+ narratives represented in mainstream French media.

Originally named Festival de films gays et lesbien de Paris (FFGLP), it was renamed Chéries-Chéris in 2009 as an hommage to the famous expression “Chéri, chéri” of actress Alice Sapritch, which was imortalised in the famous sketch by Thierry le Luron in 1980 and later by Alice Sapritch herself in her 1986 song Slowez-moi.

The festival presents a Grand Prix and a Jury award in each of its three categories: feature films, documentaries, and short films. They also present an award for best performance to an actor in a feautre-length film.

All the films will be shown in the original language with French subtitles.

Our recommendations:

After Blue. Bertrand Mandico.

Feature Film:

After Blue, Paradis Sale is a French science fiction film set in the distant future on a planet inhabitted only by women. The story follows the lonely teenager Roxy, who is banished from her community alongside her mother for freeing a criminal buried in the sand. Sentenced to track down the killer, they begin roaming the fantastical planet they call home.

Documentaries:

Ultraviolette. Robin Hunzinger.

Ultraviolette is a French documentary of the story of a first love that marked two teenage girls forever, Marcelle and Emma. It starts at the moment of their separation, when great love turns into absolute love, as absence makes the heart grow fonder. Claudie and Robin Hunzinger retell this true story through magnificent archival photographs and numerous letters that Marcelle sent to Emma which the latter lovingly preserved through the years.

Acts of Love. Isidore Bethel & Francis Leplay.

Acts of Love is a documentary which follows a filmmaker who relocates to Chicago, when his older boyfriend loses interest in him, and uses dating apps to cast new lovers in an amorphous project about romantic attraction, compatibility, and attachment that his mother hates.

Short Films:

There are screenings of groups of 5 to 6 short films throughout the festival. Full details can be found on the Chéries-Chéris website.

My Darling. Phil Connel.

Other Screenings:

Cheries-Cheris is also screening a number of other feature length films and documentaries that are not shortlisted for awards this year as they were released in previous years.

My Darling (Jump, Darling) is a Canadian drama film following Russell, a rookie drag queen who escapes to the countryside after a breakup. He stays with his grandmother who in steep decline yet desperate to avoid the local nursing home.