Everything is possible and is still to be done

This year, the Casal Lambda Film Festival focuses more than ever on the process of growing up and learning, on the discovery of one's own identity. We look at childhood, adolescence and youth through a respectful, caring, sensitive and tender gaze. And, we hope, in a positive, optimistic way.

It's your life! Quite a statement of intent. Love for life, to enjoy every moment, to love whoever you want, to do what you want, to be what you want to be. Miquel Martí i Pol wrote the poetic line "Everything is possible and is still to be done", a cry for freedom. And we look back, also, to the years of our youth, when we were still deciding what we wanted to be. And, why not, to all those moments in our lives when we need to look beyond ourselves, to discover that we can choose our own path and that we are in charge of our own lives.

At Casal Lambda, we are well aware of all this. That is why, during these difficult times in our country, when rights such as freedom of expression, creation and thought are under threat, we celebrate a new edition of FIRE!! as a space for freedom. We welcome everyone, one and all, whatever their opinions, whatever they are like, because we want the respect that we demand for the LGBTI community to be given to all people, to all opinions. We want dialogue and we demand democracy.

Once more this year, our warmest congratulations to the entire FIRE!! team and, especially, our thanks to all the support we receive from Casal Lambda, which plays such a key, essential role in organising the festival.

We must never stop celebrating life. We stand with pride. Let's celebrate life, enjoy life and be ourselves; let's be what we want to be, authentic, and remember the words of Antonia San Juan in All About My Mother: ''It cost me a lot to be authentic. But we must not be cheap in regard to the way we look. Because a woman is more authentic the more she looks like what she has dreamed for herself.'' 

Emilio Ruiz, President of Casal Lambda