London’s Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2008

The 22nd London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival kicked off last night with a screening of Alek Keshishian's romantic comedy Love and Other Disasters (which will screen again on Sat., March 29), starring Brittany Murphy, Matthew Rhys, Catherine Tate, Stephanie Beacham, Dawn French, and Richard Wilson.

Among the highlights of London's L&G film festival on Friday and Saturday are:

Marco Simon Puccioni's Riparo – Anis tra di noi / Shelter, starring Maria de Medeiros and Antonia Liskova as two women who, following a trip to North Africa, find a young Moroccan stowaway (Mounir Ouadi) in the trunk of their car. Social and personal issues come to the surface as the trio attempt to find a balance in their relationship.

Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park follows a teenager whose life is turned upside down after he gets himself involved in an accidental death. Van Sant's psychological drama won the Special 60th Anniversary Award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In Sam Zalutsky's You Belong to Me, "a new tenant realizes his new landlady is not quite the harmless eccentric she first appeared to be." Daniel Sauli and Patti D'Arbanbville star.

Nia Dinata's Love for Share is described as a "timely political drama exploring the lives of three Jakartan women in polygamist households, including that of a country girl who falls in love with another of her husband's wives."

"Days Like These" comprises "a series of shorts chronicling a life growing up gay, and all the heartbreaks that can come with it." Among the shorts are Jamie Travis' The Saddest Boy in the World, Randy Caspersen's Dolls, and Ronny Hirschmann's Shotgun (above).

Juan Flahn's Chuecatown / Boystown is a dark comedy about a series of murders in a gay neighborhood in Madrid. Variety's Dennis Harvey enjoyed the comedy, but didn't care for the grizzly depiction of the murders. In the cast: Rosa Maria Sarda, Carlos Fuentes, Pepon Nieto, and Eduard Soto.

François Ozon's Angel is "a sumptuous feast of period camp in his tale of the rise and fall of an impetuous romantic novelist in the early 20th century." The film stars Romola Garai, Sam Neill, and Ozon's frequent collaborator Charlotte Rampling.

"Triple X Selects – The Best of Lezploitation." The title and the above photo say it all.