LGTBI cinema is missing eighty years of history. Film productions prior to the 1970s capable of reflecting the reality of our collective are very sporadic and furtive and there are even fewer if we talk about non-cryptic, positive representations aimed at the general public. The eighties and nineties mark the rise of a declared and realistic LGTBI cinema, years extremely marked, on the other hand, by the drama of the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Our cinema, our film memory and our positive references are still very recent and the LGTBI film festivals – since the creation of the first of them in 1977, the famous Frameline in San Francisco – play in this sense a decisive role in anchoring the productions of quality in our film archive and our collective memory.

Today LGBTI representations seem to abound in cinema and television series, but we must not ignore the ultra-concentration of these productions in the United States, leaving other countries such as Spain far behind, with a low rate of films produced each year with relevant LGTBI characters. The statistics of the excellent Observatory of Diversity in Audiovisual Media, which has been providing us with brilliant reports for four years after analyzing dozens of film or television films, leave no room for doubt: the relevant visibility of LGTBI characters in the cinema and television, although it increases year after year, today in Spain it barely reaches six percent of the total, very far from what it should be if we consider that people who declare that they are not strictly cisheterosexual are around 20 percent of the population.

“Sowing stories, harvesting memories”: with this motto and this flowery image we want to underline the importance of film festivals when it comes to disseminating more and better global LGBTI cinema, because they plant in us stories capable of growing our collective memory, making us more visible and offering better models for the LGBTI community, in particular the youngest. A year before its 30th anniversary, we want to thank the place that has allowed us to continue spreading these seeds for 15 years, the French Institute of Barcelona! And also thank you, our audience, who help us every year to plant them and make them grow. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for continuing by our side since the beginning of the festival. To all, very good Mostra FIRE!! 2024!