The Universitat de València joins on Thursday 26 of April the commemoration of the Lesbian Visibility Day that reminds us the importance of normalising lesbian women to come out in public. The University will propose for May a series of films to show lesbian relationships in the history of cinema. The series is promoted by the programme diversitats and will take place every Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Prinicpal Peset Hall of Residence.

Since its origins, films addressing lesbianism have had more difficulties than filmography dealing with male homosexuality. Very few films of this theme have been made. Homosexuality was thoroughly addressed in cinema in the 1990s, but lesbian films were still overshadowed. It was not as early as the first decade of the 21st century that they proliferated. If we consider that it was a taboo topic for so many years, the stories of great lesbian women, who defy their environment by coming out as what they are, have been normalised in recent years in Europe.

Series: Forgotten lesbian romances

This series have begun on Tuesday, 8th May at Rector Peset Hall of Residence with the film Walk on the Wild Side (‘La gata negra’, Edward Dmytryk, 1962). In spite of the Motion Picture Production Code, a love relationship is noticeable between Bárbara Stanwick and Capucine. It is also remarkable the role of a young Jane Fonda. The following session shall take place on Tuesday, 15th May, with Fire (‘Fuego’, Deepa Mehta, 1996), the first Indian film which showed an explicit relationship between women. After the premiere, there were violent protests related to topics such as freedom of speech and homosexuality.

On Tuesday, 22nd May it shall be screened Fucking Åmål (Lukas Moodysson, 1998). It is a cult film which depicts a relationship between two teenagers in a Swedish rural area, portraying the discovery of first love and sexual relations in adolescence.  Finally, on Tuesday, 29th May, the film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (‘Mujer contra mujer’, Martha Coolidge, Anne Heche, Jane Anderson, 2000). It shows three stories of lesbian romances in the same house but in different periods and generations.

All films shall be screened in original version with Spanish subtitles, preceded by a presentation. They shall also be followed by a brief discussion.